Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Chaos Card Captor Sakura ❯ The Stage is Set ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 7: The Stage is Set…

(Sakura’s room, shortly later)

The curtains are drawn, the door is shut, and the only light source in the entire room seems to come from an open book, sitting on the floor and glowing like a bright lamp.

A short girl with pale green hair and a white kimono sits on Sakura’s bed. Her heart weighs heavy with anxiety and worry, as the distressed expression on her face clearly indicates, as if a kind of speech all its own. However, the girl doesn’t even make as much as a peep of noise, remaining perfectly silent. She lifts her head, her eyes meeting with those of Kero who floats opposite her, and she makes a subtle frown.

Kero floats over to the girl and pats her on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, Mirror, but I can’t say for sure. We’ll just have to wait for her to get back,” Kero explains somberly.

Mirror curls up into a ball and looks away from Kero, at the small crack of morning sunlight coming through the curtains, as she begins to sulk pessimistically.

“Hey, it’s all we can do just to wait for her,” Kero explains defensively.

Mirror shoots back a teary-eyed glare that communicates its message very strongly despite her deafening speechlessness.

“I know that you care about her a lot,” Kero responds.

Mirror responds by refocusing her stare straight forward, seeming to ignore Kero altogether.

Suddenly, the doorknob begins fidgeting and turning audibly right before Sakura bursts into the room and quickly shuts the door behind her, leaning back against the door in exhaustion before interrupting further with a loud sigh. She wears an oversized white T-shirt that appears to fit her like a tent, which stretches down to the knees of her muddy, soiled jeans. She holds up her wadded-up, soiled blue sweater before pitching it across the room, right into the midst of her assorted stuffed animal collection. Looking around the room, she sees Mirror sitting on the edge of the bed, with Kero hovering over her.

Kero notices Sakura’s abrupt entry and then turns back towards Mirror. “See? Didn’t I tell you she’d come back okay?”

Mirror slowly stands up and turns towards Sakura, and her eyes meet with her master’s. Her body dematerializes into a green wind which reforms into a large circular mirror, with her true form on the other side of the reflection. As she walks through the mirror like a fluid portal, her body takes on Sakura’s appearance, oversized T-shirt, soiled jeans and all, but her sad expression remains.

“Mirror-san? Are you okay?” Sakura asks uncertainly.

Mirror looks down, away from Sakura’s gaze. “I… I heard,” she says softly before lifting her head up and looking back at Sakura eye-to-eye. “I heard her cries. Please, Master. Tell me that she’s still alright. Please, let me see her just this once,” she begs, grabbing meekly yet desperately at her master’s arm.

“Hoee? Who are you talking about?” Sakura peeps out, turning her head curiously.

Mirror looks down to Sakura’s right hand, and Sakura’s eyes soon follow, to where Sakura holds the Elixir of Fire’s bottle and her latest Kaos Card in her hand.

“Is that her?” Mirror asks somberly.

Sakura holds up the Kaos Card, looking at its picture with its back facing towards Mirror. With its jagged, curved fangs and wings of fire, Sakura can hardly believe that some even remotely human personality remains in the card. “Mirage is a ‘she’?” Sakura asks.

Mirror quickly backs away and clasps her hands over her mouth in horror, her eyes focusing on the dark, seven-pointed star in the center of the Kaos Card. She shakes her head back with a nerve-racked doubt. “No… that can’t be her…”

Sakura curiously scrutinizes looks at the portrait on the Kaos Card that faces her and opposes Mirror. “Is something wrong with how Mirage looks?” she asks, turning the card over for Mirror to see.

Mirror’s eyes land on the card for just an instant before she turns away sharply, hoping that she didn’t really see what she thought she saw. “I changed my mind! I don’t want to see her!” she insists, trembling. “Not like this. Set her down. I don’t want to see her this way.”

Sakura blinks, clearly not getting the point. Nonetheless, she goes over to her desk, past Mirror, and sets Mirage’s card with the portrait side down. She also pulls out and sets down the Industry and Nightmare cards overlapping each other, their portrait sides facing down just like Mirage. “I’m sorry, Mirror-san. I really don’t understand. Do you want to see Mirage or not?”

Mirror remains speechless and motionless, not even turning to face Sakura, but Kero zips over Sakura’s shoulder. “The Kaos Cards are fallen,” he explains. “For Mirror, looking at a Kaos Card that she’s familiar with would be like a person looking at the dead body of someone they knew. You want to see them out of respect, but you’re sad that you’ll never really see them ever again.”

“What?!” Sakura replies, realizing the reason behind Mirror’s skittishness, and even understanding it in some personal way herself. She turns back, seeing Mirror still turned away from her. “Er… Mirror-san? I’m sorry that I didn’t understand at first. Are you going to be okay?” Sakura asks with concern.

Mirror remains motionless. “We’re coming with you,” Mirror replies monotonously, finally looking back over her shoulder at Sakura. “If and until this dark time is ever passed, wherever you go, we will stay faithfully by your side, Sakura-sama. You can count on your Clow Cards to protect you!” she vows solemnly.

“Well, that is a noble sentiment and all, Mirror…” Kero interjects reluctantly. “…but only Kaos magic can stand up to Kaos Cards.”

“I don’t care!” Mirror insists. “We don’t care.” she corrects herself. “Kero-sama, you felt it too. And Yue-sama felt it harder than any of us. Nothing in this world pains our kind more than the loss of a master. We’ll find a way to fight Kaos with all that we have, even at the risk of our own lives.”

“Mirror-san…” Sakura whispers back, having overheard Mirror’s rant. She smiles brightly.

Mirror turns reluctantly to face her master. “Sakura-sama…” she begins. “If there’s anything we can do for you to protect you, anything at all, just say the word and we’ll be there. We know our place. You’re our master, and we’re just your tools.”

“Nonsense!” Sakura intervenes, shaking her head. “I may be your master, but you and the other Clow Cards shouldn’t think of yourselves as just tools. You’re my friend, Mirror-san. All of the Clow Cards are my friends. And as your master and friend, it’s my responsibility to protect you all, not yours to protect me.” Sakura turns away and heads for her closet. “I’m going out today. You and the other Clow Cards should stay home. Stay hidden, so that Lycan won’t find you.” She shuffles through her hangers until she finds a strange outfit: a leather cow-skinned jacket with a golden star-like badge on a hanger, and also on the hanger, a pair of feminine blue jeans with a wide leather belt. The belt buckle itself is the same gold color as the badge, and on the oval-shaped buckle is an embossed image resembling the state of Texas. Sakura also kneels down to retrieve a pair of spurred leather cowboy boots and a light pink ten-gallon hat. Sakura takes all these items over to her bed and lays them out.

Mirror notices the odd assortment of clothes that Sakura had pulled from her closet. “Er, Sakura-sama, if I may ask, where are you going with those strange clothes?” she asks quizzically.

Sakura returns to her closet and goes hunting around some more. She emerges from the closet with a white duffel bag with a yellow wing-shaped emblem embroidered to the side. She opens the bag up and pulls out a bunch of papers stapled together. Flipping through the pages, she nods. “I’m going to help Naoko-chan with her summer project. She’s doing a Wild West skit, and I’m playing the role of the Sherriff.”

Unbeknownst to Sakura, or even Kero, Mirror holds up a pair of Clow Cards. With a determined stare from Mirror, one of the cards begins to glow, as a deafening silence invisibly envelops the entire room. Mirror clenches her eyes tightly shut as she sorrowfully motions the words ‘I’m sorry’ with her lips. The second card in her hands begins to glow.

‘Mirror-san, I-’ Sakura begins to speak, but she can’t hear her own words. She holds her hand close to her mouth as she begins to speak again, feeling the movement of her lips, but not hearing as much as a peep. She tenses up as she feels a weak magical power flickering behind her. ‘A Clow Card’s presence!’ she thinks to herself, her last thought before suddenly blacking out. She falls to her knees, and then off to the side, knocked out cold as Mirror stands right behind her, her right hand flat and tensed up. Mirror stares away shamefully as Kero zips right into her face.

Kero attempts to yell and shout, but his voice is completely overtaken by the quiet hum of magic in the air, which only Mirror can hear.

Mirror hangs her head somberly. She holds up her left hand as two Clow Cards materialize in her hand: Silent and Fight. Her hands quake and tremble nervously as she holds the two cards up and gives them both an otherwise stoic nod.

Kero huffs and puffs, short of breath after his supposed muted yelling. “Okay, so that explains Silent. But why did you use Fight?” Kero asks inquisitively.

Mirror turns her head away, instead looking out the window. “Because she’s too powerful to use Sleep on.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Kero insists, flying around and getting right in Mirror’s face. “You just knocked your own master unconscious. Who’s going to protect you and the other cards from the Kaos Cards? What were you thinking anyway?”

Mirror shakes her head and turns back in the opposite direction and paces away, continuing to dodge Kero’s accusations and glare. “Sakura-sama was going to fight Lycan again. I know it’s something she would’ve done, putting her own safety and well-being aside to help others.” She stands over her master’s fallen and unconscious body, lifting her up and laying her face up over her bed. “I couldn’t let her though. I had to stop her. Even if it meant defying her.”

“You idiot!” Kero retorts. “Lycan isn’t the only one looking for Sakura. She has to be places today, and people will notice she’s missing. And when she’s not where she needs to be, people will be coming here, asking questions, and attracting unnecessary attention. Did you think about that?”

Mirror scrutinizes the outfit that Sakura laid out over her bed, remaining silent for a long moment. She cringes, gulps down deeply, and reaches for the garments.

*-*-*

(outside Sakura’s room)

Sakura opens the door and walks out. Clad in her Tomoeda Elementary school uniform and carrying a pink ten-gallon hat and a duffel bag, she leaves her room and moves to shut the door behind her, trying not to make a loud sound. Creaking softly, the door closes. Tiptoeing quietly towards the stairs, she darts quick glances around. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she begins to head down the stairs.

“Sakura?” Touya’s voice calls from behind, freezing her in place.

Touya pulls open the door to his room and glances out. Heavy bags hang under his eyes, and he wears the same T-shirt and jeans that he wore when he found Sakura in the forest, indicating that, if he had slept at all it was hardly sufficient. Seeing Sakura pace down the stairs, he closes his door again, but peeks back out. The girl he saw remained frozen, but there appeared to be something else wrong. He opens his door again and walks out of his room, following ‘Sakura’.

Mirror freezes in place. “G-go-good morning,” she stutters, keeping her back turned to Touya as she heads down the stairs.

Touya looks down at the girl and sighs. “What are you doing out here?” he calls back calmly, freezing Mirror in place again.

Mirror turns back and smiles a corny smile up at Touya, though not a smile that seems to faze him. “I, uh, have to head out today to help, uh, a classmate out with-”

“You’re not Sakura,” Touya cuts her off. “You only seem to appear when she’s in real trouble. So that nobody gets worried about her when she’s not where she’s supposed to be. That’s why you always look like her. Isn’t it?” he asks inquisitively.

Mirror shrugs, her disguise having failed her against Touya for what seemed like the umpteenth time. “Well, that’s part of it…” she trails off, heading down the stairs.

Touya follows Mirror down the stairs, acting as if nothing was wrong otherwise. “You can’t tell me what’s wrong, can you?” he asks.

Mirror comes to the bottom of the stairs and stops. “Well… it’s complicated. I’m sorry that I can’t tell you these things. I really am.”

Touya only shakes his head and smiles. “No, don’t worry. I’ve got a pretty good idea of-”

Mirror glares back sharply at Touya. “No, you don’t! You have no idea of what could happen to her!”

Touya’s gentle expression goes sour. He comes to the base of the stairs and crouches down. Grabbing Mirror by the collar, he pulls her close with a stern coldness. “What’s that supposed to mean? Is my sister in trouble? Are you behind any of this? If she’s in peril and you’re not telling me, I’ll-”

“You’ll what?” Mirror shouts back, with tears congregating in her eyes. Touya lightens his grip on her shirt, catching himself before he does something he’d regret later, as she trembles at the lips and shakes her head. “I’m doing my best to protect her. I don’t want to see her get hurt any more than you do. And yet, even if I told you, you couldn’t imagine the risk I’m going through by even being here.”

“Why’s that?” Touya asks bluntly. “Because I’m just some ‘mere mortal’ who can’t understand anything?” he adds sarcastically.

Mirror shakes her head. “Hey, it’s not like that! I told you, it’s complicated… And besides, just because we’re not human doesn’t make us immortal.”

“Us?” Touya repeats, causing Mirror to stiffen up after having dropped at least some of the beans. “…So there really are more of you,” Touya observes aloud, getting a quiet, somber nod back from Mirror before she pulls away.

“So you really did know it all along…” Mirror responds solemnly. With her back turned to Touya, she frowns sadly. “Y’know, I wish we were immortal though… I wish that death didn’t matter to us…” she mutters in aloof contemplation as she heads for the door, to clear her mind of the thought.

Stopping at the door, Mirror sees a few sets of shoes lined up near the door. One of these sets of shoes is a set of tan loafers, very formal-like, though clearly not for wearing outdoors, more like slippers. The other set is a pair of worn tennis shoes, clearly broken in, with mud and dirt crusted to the soles. These seemed to be Touya’s, Mirror surmises. The third and final pair of footwear, the one that Mirror focuses on, is a pair of white rollerblades with bright pink and golden yellow braces. Near the rollerblades are a set of similarly color-coordinated kneepads, shoulder pads, and wrist guards, all of which are engraved with Sakura’s name in large capital Romanji, right on the plastic itself.

Mirror raises an uncertain eyebrow before reaching for the rollerblades. Slipping out of her shoes, she takes a seat on the stoop and grabs the rollerblades. At first, she fiddles around with the clamps, trying to figure out how to open them. After getting the first lock open, she toggles it back and forth between locked and unlocked before nodding in a modicum of comprehension. Slipping her feet into the rigid devices, she finds that her feet fit with a surprising Cinderella-esque comfort in spite of their lack of fabric-like give, as she locks them on.

“Okay, okay, relax. How hard could this be, anyway?” Mirror thinks aloud. Pushing herself off the ground and to a standing position, she wobbles around unsteadily at first. As she begins to roll slowly forward, in panic she begins to move her feet to walk, but this only worsens her unsteady wobbling as she slips backwards and lands squarely on her posterior.

Touya watches all this with a stoic amusement at first, but his lighter side prevails when he sees Mirror grimace in discomfort. He kneels down next to Mirror and looks down at her with condescending concern. “You… don’t know how to skate, do you?”

Mirror looks back up with a cheery innocent grin, but even this fails to conceal the pain of involuntarily planting her derriere on the firm stoop. “Ehehehe… Somehow, I thought this would be less painful than it looked…”

Touya droops his hand over his face as he sighs audibly. “I’ll get my bike,” he responds, quickly changing out of his slippers and into his tennis shoes before proceeding out the door. “Something tells me that if you don’t know how to rollerblade, you probably don’t even know where Sakura’s school is,” he calls back.

“Hey, wait up! I’ll come, too!” Mirror calls back. She loses sight of Touya as he turns the corner outside the door, possibly not hearing her, and she also takes pause to consider that she is still wearing rollerblades that she doesn’t know how to use. She frantically unclips the restraints and slips her feet out of them, swapping them back out for the shoes corresponding to the school uniform she wears. She then quickly follows after Touya, turning the corner, but she stops abruptly and suddenly. She stares straight ahead, her eyes wide open to observe the sight before her.

A heavily tanned, bare-chested adult male lifts himself off of the ground, grumbling to himself as his red-scaled tail begins to stir. After seeing the creature’s tail, Mirror also notices how the figure’s forearms and every part below the waist are covered in red reptilian scales, like a hybrid of man and dragon.

The figure slams his forearm against the concrete sidewalk in frustration, sending minute cracks through the very rock with his immensely muscular arm. “That’s all the magic this human can offer? Pathetic… but I’ll take it anyway. It’ll have to do,” the man-creature vents amidst muttered, unrepeatable grumbling. He reaches for his crimson red hair with his three-fingered reptilian hand, running the digits of his hand-like appendage through his hair. Looking back at his hand, he finds clumps of his hair having fallen out, as his pattern baldness becomes more and more prominent. He snarls angrily as the wind blows the ripped-out red hair from his palm, causing the hair clumps to disintegrate into rust-colored ash and dust. “This is all that Reed-lover’s fault!” he shouts, punching more cracks in the sidewalk with a slam of his mighty mutant fist.

Mirror hops back with a frightened squeak as the sidewalk takes the brunt of Damien’s potent jab. She tries to run away, but her feet don’t cooperate with her head as she stands right in front of Damien who, to her relief, didn’t seem to have noticed her yet. Hoping to keep it that way, Mirror begins to step back quietly, but Damien freezes her with the gaze of his bestial, utterly inhuman eyes.

Damien’s fang-toothed snarl fades away as he notices Mirror’s attempted escape from his presence. He struggles to lift himself to his feet, managing amidst a mysterious soreness to take a knee. He then focuses his attention onto Mirror. “Typical…” he spits out spitefully. “Everybody runs from the big, scary old Guardian Beast of Destruction. It’s like I’m some sort of demon. Of course though, considering that I’m reduced to sapping life from other human beings… draining their magic for my own momentary sustenance… Well maybe everybody might just be onto something.”

Mirror ceases her attempted getaway. She focuses in on the individual’s face, scrutinizing his features, but all of a sudden an attack of déjà vu nearly knocks her off her feet. “Touya-nii-sama!” she exclaims, comparing the shockingly-similar facial features of the creature with Touya. She rushes to the being’s side and attempts to place her hands on his muscular shoulders, but she immediately pulls her hands back as the touch of Damien’s burning skin is like a hot plate against the tender flesh of the hands that she imitates. “…What… what happened to you? Who turned you into this… this hideous monster?” she asks horrifically, recognizing Touya from Damien’s facial features, but horrified at the being’s reptilian stature.

“That ‘hideous monster’, as you so nicely call it,” Damien replies, clearly irked at Mirror’s choice of tone. “…that thing is… no… I am someone that you used to know. You were probably too young to remember me. But I know all about you. Mirror Card,” Damien replies, glancing up at Mirror.

Mirror recoils away in shock. She feels for the length of her now short hair, for fear that her disguise had dissipated, but is briefly relieved that she still maintains her master’s form. “You… you can see me, too?” she asks uncertainly. However, at hearing this from Damien, she begins to feel a safer comfort around him than at first. She pauses for a long moment, excavating her memory for a clue as to the demon’s identity. “…Wait a second, you’re… you’re …are you Mirage-chan’s Guardian?”

“Hmm…” Damien responds deeply. “Well, Mirror Card, you’re sharper than I thought you’d be. Maybe the rest of your fellow Clow Cards aren’t the complete dunces that I take them for either.” He sighs heavily as he climbs to his feet. “Then again, it would be wrong of me to put the blame for my condition on you. Reed made you the way you were, just like he made Yue, and Reed is the one who’s really at fault here, not his creations.”

Damien stares off to the side, where Touya’s bike rests against the house. “But enough about Reed. You’ve got places to be, no? And with your Master away and Lycan about, face it, I’m your best shot at staying hidden from him.” Damien walks over to the bike and takes hold of it, finding the aluminum device to be quite light to his superhuman strength. Trying to lift it up, he notices a chain wrapped around the bike that fastens it to a pole that in turn comes in and out of a slab of concrete imbedded in the ground. With a quick reach and pluck, he crushes the padlock between his fingers like a tin grape, allowing the chain wrapped securely around the bike to suddenly fall slack and release the bike from its bindings.

Mirror stands back as Damien goes about basically absconding with Touya’s bike. She also takes note of Damien’s peculiarly-shaped feet, with three digits pointing forward and two pointing backwards, like the talons of a bird of prey. “Uh… um, Mister, uh, Guardian-of-Destruction-san? Do you plan to ride the bike there? Wouldn’t you be seen by a lot of people if you did?”

Damien effortlessly takes the bike under his left arm as he turns to face Mirror. A pair of crimson dragon wings sprout magically from his back, which catches Mirror off-guard at first. “No, even as old and burnt out as I am, flight is still much faster. The problem is that I only have the magic left to fly one way, and the human I possess would be basically stuck walking back. Or worse, he might figure out that I’m using his body and his magic for my own, and possessing him later would be much harder. I can’t risk that, especially now with Lycan being so close to his goal. So I’m taking this human’s bike so he can return on it. Or at least so he’ll be less suspicious.”

Mirror nods in acknowledgment. “You sure take a lot of precautions,” she notes.

Damien turns his head away. “…I was taught well,” he explains grimly, getting a confused hoee from Mirror in reply. Damien scoops up Mirror’s small form with his right arm alone, and Mirror clings to him tightly, throwing her arms around his neck. Mirror then takes special notice of the radiation pouring from Damien’s body. The heat that once burnt her at the touch had not disappeared, but merely changed. Now, instead of a searing heat, Damien exudes a warm, comforting heat.

Mirror takes one last good look at the ground before gulping down. “So… about how high and fast do you normally fly?” she inquires.

Damien crouches low. “Just hang on. You’ll be down before you know it,” he responds, though to little comfort of his passenger. And with that, Damien bounds up high and fast, exploding into the sky like a bullet. Mirror screams loudly in terror as she clutches even tighter hold of Damien, but either through steely resolve, sound-barrier-breaking speeds, or a combination of the two, Damien doesn’t notice.

*-*-*

(outside Tomoeda Elementary)

A black limousine pulls up to the iron gates of the school and stops. Exiting the front passenger door, a long-haired woman with black sunglasses and a business suit heads for the back door of the limousine and opens it up, letting Tomoyo out the door. With a brief and mutual bow to her young boss, Tomoyo’s bodyguard shuts the back door and returns to the front passenger seat, as the limousine drives off.

Tomoyo heads for the iron gates, cracked slightly opened up to allow students into the school in order to use its facilities for their project. Provided they proved their attendance by wearing a Tomoeda Elementary uniform, a qualification which Tomoyo met. With a beige duffel bag in her hand and her backpack over her shoulder, she slips through the opening and enters the schoolyard. Looking around, other students were around the outdoor premises of the schoolyard, some running about, others reading under the shade, and others performing skits of their own. Tomoyo heads past them all, heading for the auditorium. Her friend and classmate Naoko wasn’t the only one to do a skit for her summer project, but she was exuberantly the first to place dibs on use of the school’s actual stage.

As Tomoyo passes by her fellow classmates, she can’t help but sigh at the mundane simplicity. After the horrors which she had witnessed as of late, she finds herself relieved that there are indeed places which seemed to be free of Kaos. Of course, according to the bestial Lycan, no soul and no place was truly free of Kaos, though Tomoyo would look around the peaceful school yard and beg to differ. ‘Everybody has their sob story,’ or so the saying goes. Though the Kaos of her classmates, Tomoyo reasoned, was none of her business. She passes by the race track, heading for the auditorium’s outdoor entrance, but a familiar voice off to her side stops her in her tracks.

“Look at them…” Syaoran comments, staring at his classmates who use the track and field area to train up for the pending fall trimester. Syaoran shakes his head at their ignorance of the true threat to them all. “They’re all so blissfully ignorant of the fact that, among their number, there are the agents of one of the most ancient of evils to plague man and nature alike.” Syaoran stands in place, with his left arm hanging to his side, but with his right forearm wrapped in white bandages and hung in a sling, though with Syaoran on Tomoyo’s left, she doesn’t immediately notice the sling.

Tomoyo sighs. “Li-kun, let it go. You and Sakura-chan are on your way to beating this thing, I’m sure of it. Don’t let it ruin your life in the meantime,” she encourages Syaoran.

Syaoran stares onward in esoteric contemplation. “How can you say that? How can you just so casually tell me that I should let it go? Haven’t you been paying attention?”

Tomoyo nods. “I have. And that’s why I say you should let it go. The more you hold things in… the more Kaos has to use against you,” she replies with uncharacterful morbidity. She hangs her head somberly.

Syaoran glances at Tomoyo out the corner of his eye. “Your father,” he begins sympathetically. “In the forest, Lycan said something about your father having left you. Is that what Kaos holds against you?”

Tomoyo turns away. “I was… I was too young to remember a lot of the details. My parents were the joint owners of the family company, before my father disappeared. The last time I saw my parents together… they didn’t see me, but I saw them. They were fighting and arguing. My mom told me later on that it was just grown-up business stuff, but I couldn’t shake the fact that she was just humoring me. But the worst part of all…” Tomoyo pauses to subtly wipe a tear from the corner of her eye. “The worst part is that the last words that my parents spoke to each other were arguments. I wished that my father’s last words to my mother were that he loved her. Not petty fighting over balancing the budget of a multi-billion yen company.” She shakes her head at the pettiness of the argument playing back in her memory. “To this day, I hate seeing people who love each other get into fights. They might not get the chance to take their words back, either.”

Syaoran’s jaw hangs open. Looking back on all Tomoyo’s bantering and pestering about him and Sakura, an answer that eluded Syaoran to this point finally hits him. “So that’s why. That’s why you’re always intervening between us.” He then turns a perplexed expression towards her. “I still don’t get it. What do you have to gain from helping me? From helping us? It doesn’t make any sense.” Syaoran shakes his head, now becoming more confused than before.

Tomoyo silently turns to face Syaoran, now taking notice of Syaoran’s bandaged right arm. She notices how Syaoran’s bandages wrap all the way up his wrist, around his thumb and covering his palm. “So it’s your arm now, is it?” she asks drearily.

Syaoran takes Tomoyo’s change of topic and refusal to answer his question with frustration. “Hey, don’t change the subject!” he insists.

Tomoyo shakes her head. Her worry-heavy voice answers Syaoran back. “Did you harm yourself over Sakura-chan again? I’m not dumb. You didn’t get beaten up in the forest that badly. You didn’t break your arm there. So let’s see it… What did you do to yourself this time?” she asks.

Syaoran looks forward again, seeing the futility in grilling the real answer he was looking for out of Tomoyo. “It’s not your problem. You’ve got no reason to be worried about me, other than for Sakura’s sake.”

“Of course I do…” Tomoyo answers back nervously. “…Riteru Wurufu,” she tags on at the end, eliciting Syaoran’s attention once again. Tomoyo looks Syaoran straight in the eye with an unnerving seriousness. “I love you,” she answers.

Instead of responding back with compassion and flattery, Syaoran puts on a vicious snarl. “That’s not funny, Daidouji-san. Don’t even kid about it. You said it yourself. You love Sakura.” Syaoran shakes his head indignantly. “Not me.”

Tomoyo sighs as she turns her back to Syaoran, so as not to look him in the eye. “I wasn’t trying to be funny. Or mean. Or sarcastic. I really do love you. The person I love most is someone that I know will never reciprocate feelings for me. It would be nice, but the person I love also loves someone else. The most important thing to me is that my ‘Number One’ would be happy. So, I’ll never want my true love to love me back. I know that my true love would be much happier with their own true love than with me.” She motions to wipe the corner of her eye with the back of her hand before looking over her shoulder at Syaoran. “You’re half-right. I love Sakura-chan too, but she isn’t the only one that description fits. I’ve been watching the both of you for a long time now. You’re both perfect for each other, even if you don’t realize it all the time. I just… I just didn’t want to trouble you two. So I decided not to say anything to either of you about it. Because you’d just look at me like, well… like that.”

Syaoran’s mouth hangs slightly open, but he remains speechless nonetheless, his furious expression nowhere on his features, replaced with utter shock and confusion. “Daidouji-san… I don’t know what to say…” he blurts out, if just to acknowledge.

Tomoyo turns away and shamefully puts her hands over her mouth, momentarily muffling a sob. She lifts her hand away from her mouth. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should’ve kept that to myself. I don’t know why I said it. I can’t really help you. I’m not magical. I don’t know any martial arts. I don’t know that much about Kaos. I’m just a big bother to you, aren’t I?” she asks hopelessly.

Syaoran takes a moment to reassert his composure. Something around had caused him to sharpen his resolve, like a pungent smell, or some other hidden presence. He places his left hand on Tomoyo’s shoulder. “Follow me,” Syaoran mutters in a low tone.

Tomoyo turns around slowly to face Syaoran again. This time, she shakes her head. “I can’t. I’m through with magic. I’m through with hiding and lying. I’m through with all this doubt and helplessness. I’m just through.”

Syaoran tempers his frustration. He grabs Tomoyo’s hand with his own and starts leading her away. As he quickly paces, Tomoyo struggles to keep up with him. Syaoran meanwhile looks all around the schoolyard, seeing his fellow classmates in every nook and cranny, such that no place on the entire premise seems hidden. He paces about with frustration, looking and listening with razor-sharp focus until suddenly his sixth sense is jarred by an overwhelming increase in magical presence. Syaoran stops running, as does Tomoyo beside him. The two find themselves standing near one of the tall, imposing perimeter walls around Tomoeda Elementary, with only sparing others around, while those few who are around seem more focused on something else.

Syaoran scans the walls with a focused glare, as if trying to see the invisible. His eyes narrow in on a patch of the wall that would seem otherwise mundane to anyone else, but Syaoran hones in on it nonetheless. Syaoran takes off into a run, still hanging onto and practically dragging Tomoyo behind him, as he runs headlong for the spot in the wall that he focused on.

Tomoyo notices Syaoran speeding straight towards the wall with no signs of slowing. “Li-kun, look out! You’re about to run right into the wall!” Tomoyo warns. She tries to weasel out of Syaoran’s grip, but she can’t both run along with Syaoran and free her wrist at the same time. When it seemed to her like collision was imminent, she closes her eyes tightly, but she and Syaoran run straight on through, passing completely through the wall.

Syaoran is the first to come to a stop, and Tomoyo also opens her eyes and stops as well, finding herself on the other side of the thick stone barrier. However, this isn’t all that Tomoyo notices.

“Sakura-chan!” Tomoyo calls out gleefully.

*-*-*

(Sakura’s room)

Kero sits on Sakura’s windowsill, standing a vigilant watch as Sakura lays unconscious on the floor behind him, right where Mirror had left her, though it seemed that Kero had been making progressive effort to drag Sakura over to her bed. However, amidst staring earnestly out the window for some sign of danger from outside, his eyebrow twitches as he feels a magical fluxuation behind him.

Sakura’s hand begins to twitch slightly, regaining strength at an increasing rate. Amidst long groans, Sakura balls up her hands into tight fists before moving any other muscles. Then, all of a sudden, Sakura shoots her right hand straight up, opening her palm as the Elixir of Fire flies out from the tangled, stained mess that was once Sakura’s blue sweater. Sakura catches the Elixir of Fire right out of the air with a cold smack. Her hand quickly wraps tightly around the bottle, showing no deterrence by the searing heat of the infernal energy within. Sakura then peels herself off the floor of her room, having received a mysterious new strength.

“That runty little wimp blind sighted me…” Sakura grumbles lowly. She stands to her feet as she places the lanyard around her neck. “It won’t happen again. Never again…” she vows vindictively. She heads for the closet, fishing through her outfits until she finds her Tomoeda Elementary uniform for the spring and summer trimesters.

Kero notices as the remnants of his master stands to her feet. He doesn’t even need to turn his eyes directly towards her to notice a burning aura all about her, though this aura is surprisingly-distinct from the Elixir of Fire in its undertones. A lesser Guardian Beast may not have noticed the difference at all, but the legendary Kerberus could. Kero looks back out the window, noticing a dark and ominous storm congregating and coming over the horizon.

As Kero stares out the window, Sakura quickly changes out of her jeans and oversized t-shirt and into her uniform. Without as much as a word, Sakura leaves her room and slams the door shut behind her.

Kero ignores Sakura entirely, keeping his eyes fixed on the coming storm cloud, and he gets the strange feeling that the cloud was doing the same.

“So, you sure came back quick…” Kero thinks aloud.

“Meheheheheh… Of course. Would you expect any less from me?”

“Sounds like you’re already bored. Don’t you have better things to be doing? Like preparing yourself for the crushing defeat of a lifetime?”

“Says the survivor, Keroberos. The one helplessly forced to lay the legacy of his former master in the hands of a child.”

“Correction: a child who already beat you once.”

“A child is a child. Ultimately, you are powerless to save Kinomoto Sakura. Or even Yue, for that matter.”

“Just what do you mean by that?”

“Come now, you forget so quickly? You’re the ‘new breed’ of Guardian Beast. The Guardian Beast who is capable of generating his own magic, should he require it. Unfortunately though, Yue is still… shall we say, a traditional model. It makes you wonder: what would happen to Yue if his magic suddenly gave out?”

“Is that a threat?”

“Consider it a warning . Or a premonition, even. Heheheheheheh…”

Kero smirks. “Run your mouth while you can, Lycan. Sakura is already on her way. She’ll shut you up once and for all.”

“Oh, I know. In fact… I’m counting on it!”

*-*-*

(just outside Tomoeda Elementary)

Tomoyo throws her arms around the auburn-haired girl, who responds back with a completely blank and dumbfounded stare. However, Syaoran exchanges glances with ‘Sakura’, scowling at her as he feels something direly amiss.

“What are you doing out here?” Syaoran asks coldly.

Tomoyo releases her friend from her crushing hug, but only to look peculiarly back at Syaoran. “Li-kun, what’re you talking about? Aren’t you happy to see Sakura-chan?”

Syaoran maintains his stare’s direction and intensity. “I do. There’s just one problem with that… This girl isn’t Sakura.”

Mirror retains her steady composure before Syaoran’s straightforward glare bores through her façade. She looks away and falls to her knees. Covering her face with her hands, she begins to sob loudly. “Oh, why do I even bother? How come I try so hard just to fail anyway? What’s the point when my powers are always useless when it really matters?” she cries.

“Your powers?” Tomoyo asks, finally catching on.

Mirror raises her head up out of her hands, looking up to Tomoyo, though she weakens her disguise minimally to allow Tomoyo to see past Sakura’s reflection. Mirror looks up into Tomoyo’s eyes, and as Mirror lets a minute level of her disguise fall away, Tomoyo can see a strange blue tattoo on Mirror’s forehead, like a diamond interposed over a triangle.

Mirror stands to her feet and heads for the invisible opening in the wall. She places her hand just barely off the surface of the barricade and she smiles. “Thank you for your help, Through. You can rest again now.” Mirror speaks as a glowing orb leaves the wall. The wall’s passageway disappears and Mirror places her hand on the now solid wall. The orb of light reforms into a Clow Card that floats majestically through the air before slipping back into the duffel bag which Mirror carries over her shoulder.

“Daidouji-san, this is one of Sakura’s Clow Cards. The Mirror Card,” Syaoran introduces. “Its power lets it take on the form of anyone it sees. Sakura must’ve called on the Mirror Card because she doesn’t want anyone to worry about her or to get suspicious while, for whatever reason, she can’t come out. If she’s smart, it’s because she’s hiding from Lycan.”

Mirror turns back towards Syaoran and Tomoyo and shakes her head. “No, that’s not it. Sakura-sama didn’t call on us. We came out on our own. We want to protect Sakura-sama at any cost.” She glances down subtly. “Even if it means ending up like Mirage-chan,” she mutters softly.

Syaoran shakes his head in disapproval. “That was a poor judgment call. You and the other Clow Cards are all powerless against Kaos Cards. If Lycan gets his claws on you all, Sakura will be just as powerless as you feel now if Kaos comes after her.”

Mirror nods her head sorrowfully. “I know. I know. It was stupid of us to think we could do anything. We’re out of our league.” She bows towards Syaoran. “But please, we really want to help. We’re begging you. Isn’t there anything we can do? Anything at all?”

Syaoran takes Mirror’s offer skeptically at first, but he lowers his aggression towards the timid doppelganger. “Where is Sakura? The real Sakura? Have you seen her?”

Mirror glances up at Syaoran out the top corners of her eyes. She leans upright and begins nervously tapping her pointer fingers against each other. “Well, y’know, uh… about that…” she begins nervously, becoming only more nervous at seeing a growing sour look on Syaoran’s face. “Don’t worry though. She’s fine and all. No need to worry. She’s just, er, resting. Kinda’.”

“Kinda’?” Syaoran responds suspiciously.

Mirror returns to nervously pressing her pointer fingers together. “Erm… she was so determined to come out today, but we decided that it would be better for her to stay home. We wanted her to rest, so we… So we…”

Syaoran sighs nervously, though can’t help feeling a little relieved. “What card did you use? Sleep?”

Mirror mumbles nervously, but Syaoran can’t decipher what she said at first. “Well… eh…” She closes her eyes tightly. “Fight.”

“You used WHAT CARD?!” Syaoran flips out, restrained only by Tomoyo holding him off with a haphazard full nelson to keep him from giving Mirror the decking of a lifetime.

Mirror backs out of range of Syaoran’s wild swings as she defensively puts her hands up. “Wait! Wait! I-I-I can explain! I used Fight on her kinda’ like why you hit her that one time,” she pleads her case desperately.

Syaoran’s furious swings die down as he shoots a raging stare at Mirror, but his rage subsides as he comes to the realization that Mirror had made a very good point. Tomoyo reluctantly releases Syaoran, only to back away quickly, expecting Syaoran to return the favor to Mirror on Sakura’s behalf. However, Syaoran calms his breathing and relaxes his muscles, as he lets his arms hang to his side. Tomoyo pays particular attention to the fact that Syaoran’s bandaged arm now hangs down normally, no longer supported by the sling.

Syaoran gulps down, swallowing his pride and a mouthful of oxygen. “I wish I never raised a hand to her.” He unflinchingly grips his right fist tightly.

Mirror tilts her head quizzically. “Li-san? Are you alright?”

“Li-kun, your arm!” Tomoyo observes, as Syaoran’s right arm shows no signs of pain or discomfort to him as he makes seemingly normal use of it, clearly atypical of someone with a broken arm.

Syaoran notices that he had his right arm at his side, out of the sling he wore over his shoulder. He blushes as he quickly slips his right arm back into the sling, trying to maintain his own façade.

Tomoyo sighs with relief. “I’m glad your arm isn’t actually hurt, Li-kun. I was worried about you when I saw your arm like that. But why are you wearing a sling and bandages if your arm isn’t hurt?”

Syaoran remains silent to Tomoyo’s question.

“Do you have something to hide?” Mirror asks all of a sudden. She innocently folds her arms behind her back. “Nobody without magical powers ever sees me for who I really am: one of Clow Reed’s magical creations. And even then, few people with magic can tell what I actually look like unless I let them. But as much as it feels like a curse sometimes, it’s also comforting, knowing that no one is troubled when they see me. Li-san, I know what you’re feeling. You want to hide something because you don’t want anyone else to worry about someone that you love very much. Is that it?”

Syaoran nods. “Yeah, sort of. It’s the Inferno Crossbow. I can’t just walk around with that thing strapped to my arm all the time. But I can’t just stay at home forever. Not when Sakura needs my help most of all. Wei suggested I wrap it up and make it look like an injury. Which is convenient because it works for my own personal purposes, too.”

“Personal purposes?” Mirror and Tomoyo ask in unison.

Syaoran turns his head, looking up at the high buildings sticking up, visible over the high walls around Tomoeda Elementary. “Yanagizawa-san. She wanted me to be in a play that she was making. Said something about wanting me to be the bad guy in a Wild-West-like skit. At the time, when Yamazaki-kun brought it up to me… I was feeling a little bitter about the Final Judgment going sour, especially when he mentioned that Sakura was also going to be in the play. And as the sheriff, no less. So I bluffed it and told him that I couldn’t do it because I had an injury.”

Mirror nods. “I see, Li-san. You lie to your friends to protect them from being troubled. It seems that you and I aren’t too different. I guess that’s why Sakura-sama loves you so.”

Syaoran freezes in place. Despite having not blushed before at Sakura’s likeness, his cheeks reveal a deep red tint, despite desperately attempting to conceal his tinted cheeks, which in turn causes Tomoyo to giggle softly under her breath.

Syaoran sighs. “Let’s just go, already. Yanagizawa-san and the others must’ve started practice half an hour ago.” He walks off, only for Tomoyo and Mirror to follow him.

They pass by a patch of thick trees and a concrete wall as they head for the front gate to the school, all the while not noticing that another had been eavesdropping on them. On the other side of a large stone wall, Damien stands with his arms folded, with Touya’s bike at his side. Damien leans off the wall as his wings swell out a great length before they wrap around his entire body like a bat trying to hide from the sun. The Circle of Kaos appears below him as he levitates briefly in the air, but after peeling his wings away, a stunned Touya remains, levitating gently towards the ground.

Touya opens his eyes wearily to look around. Noticing his bike to his side and Tomoeda Elementary to his back, he reorients himself with his location, though confused as to how he got there. He reaches for the handles of his bike as he gets on.

“I know you’re there, whoever, or whatever you are,” Touya whispers, confident of his invisible listener’s attention. “If you need something, anything… just ask. But leave my sister out of it.”

“I would if I could,” the voice replies, though it sounds to Touya like a mere breeze of wind.

*-*-*

Only a few minutes later, Touya finds himself drearily peddling away from Tomoeda Elementary on his bike. While clearly incredibly tired, the chilly, humid air against his sleeveless arms keeps him somewhat alert, or at least keeping him from falling asleep. He can barely keep his eyes open, but he sends a brief glance to the sky. While it was once clear, a dark and muggy cloud covering had overtaken the once placid, blue sky. Hearing a faint, rumbling thunder, he increases his peddling speed to get home before the rain started. However, he begins to feel slight touches of rain falling from the sky against his arms and hair. He grumbles at the dampening, chilly weather, but suddenly he remembers why he came out, so he surpress his muttering to think to himself.

“I wonder if that girl is okay now...” he ponders.

He raises his eyes to the rainy, cloudy sky again, but something smashes into the back wheel of his bike, sending him for a vicious tumble. Recovering from his split second out-of-mindedness, he finds himself thrown shoulder-first into the cherry blossom trees on the right side of the road. He looks back, to see what he had hit, only to see a familiar-looking figure on roller skates speeding off in the opposite direction. He squints hard to try to focus, but the figure evades his sight range before he can focus on her. Suffering from exhaustion and quite likely a vicious concussion, Touya blacks out as the speed of the rain begins to pick up from scattered, humid dripping to the beginnings of a heavy downpour.

Meanwhile, Sakura speeds along on her rollerblades and in her summer Tomoeda Elementary uniform, undeterred by the slowly-pouring rain and the frigid air, but solidly determined to getting somewhere very quickly. Sakura turns a malicious gaze to the darkened sky above her.

“What? He had it coming to him for a long time. He’s the real kaiju here, not me.”

*-*-*

(inside the auditorium)

The rain had poured mightily on Syaoran, Tomoyo, and the Sakura-disguised Mirror, so when the three fly through the door, they bask in the climate-controlled warmth of the auditorium. Syaoran shakes his head like a dog, trying to dry his damp chocolate hair, but only succeeds in getting his hair stuck out in all directions. Tomoyo wrings out the white cap on her head, as the water drips off it like a rag.

Mirror is particularly bothered by the cold weather outside as she shivers from head to toe and tiptoes rapidly in place to keep moving. “Brrrrrrr! Honestly, how is anyone supposed to keep warm wearing one of these ridiculously short skirts?!” she blurts out. But as soon as she had made her scene-

CRACK! CRACK!

Loud thunder claps ferociously outside as the entire lighting apparatus for the gymnasium / auditorium goes completely black. When the lights come back on, Syaoran finds Mirror with her arms thrown over his shoulders, hugging him for dear life as she rapidly pleads “Lightcard, Lightcard, Lightcard, Lightcard, Lightcard…” to herself over and over. With the lights back on, Syaoran leers down at the sad excuse for a Card Captor replica clinging to him. Feeling his eyes on the back of her head, Mirror looks up at Syaoran and giggles innocently. Syaoran sighs in response, fortunate that Mirror’s little freak-out wasn’t the main attention grab of his classmates up on the stage.

The group of students atop the stage all sigh in loud unison as the lights come back on.

A boy with perpetually-closed eyes, and in fact the only boy on the stage, wears a long black cape, a tall top hat, and a faux mustache. Two of the girls, one with light brown and curled hair, and another with dark brown and elegantly-combed hair, and both dressed exquisitely in the detailed attire of western saloon showgirls, lean up from their sitting position over some ‘railroad tracks’ made of construction paper. The two girls appear tied up in several thick ropes, but under closer inspection the ropes are actually quite loose, yet enough to give off a convincing appearance of binding them. The last one of the girls with short brown hair and large round glasses, most likely the director of the whole skit, carries a rolled-up notebook in her hand, and unlike her classmates, she isn’t in any sort of costume.

“That’s the second time the power cut in the last few minutes,” Rika, one of the ‘tied up’ girls observes. “If the lights go again, I think we should meet some other time, because this storm might get too bad for us to walk back home safely.”

Naoko, the director, hunches over in disappointment. “And I really wanted to get some practice in, too… But, I guess you’re right.”

“Hey!” Syaoran calls out, waving his ‘good’ hand. “Hey, we just got in!” he calls, drawing the attention of his four classmates.

Naoko turns towards the outside exit near the stage, seeing Tomoyo, Syaoran, and Mirror, believing her to be Sakura, just inside the door. “This is great! The star has finally arrived!” Naoko announces joyfully with energy practically beaming out her eyes. “Or, should I say, the Lone Star has arrived. The Lone Star Sherriff Sakura-chan!” she annunciates, pointing straight at a perplexed Mirror.

Mirror begins to perspire heavily, completely dumbfounded for being put on the spot, but having no idea what was going on, much less who was picking her out.

“Psst…” Syaoran whispers subtly to Mirror. “That’s Yanagizawa Naoko-san. Sakura calls her ‘Naoko-chan’.”

Mirror’s nervousness subsides at Syaoran’s hint. She looks out the corner of her eye at Syaoran. “Thanks, Li-san,” she whispers softly.

“Just don’t blow it,” Syaoran threatens, sending Mirror into another spiral of nervous perspiration.

“Uh…” she waves back at Naoko nervously while putting on the cheesiest smile she can possibly muster. “Good morning, Naoko-chan. Sorry I’m late.”

Naoko waves back nervously. “Something’s not quite right here… I hope it’s just me,” Naoko imagines skeptically.

*-*-*

(a short while later)

Naoko, Chiharu, Rika, and Yamazaki are over on one end of the stage. Naoko flips through the notebook in her hands and rolls it up tightly to use it like a pointer, indicating her stage directions. Meanwhile, on the other side of the stage, Syaoran, Tomoyo, and Mirror have some other things to discuss.

Mirror puts on the cowboy hat, completing her change of outfit into her skit persona of the ‘Lone Star Sherriff’, with added details of color-coordinated pink cowboy boots and a flashier badge to swap for the one already on her jacket.

Mirror stretches out, getting a feel for her costume, as she smiles widely at the costume’s immaculate fit. “Wow, these fit incredibly! Daidouji-san, you’re really good at making all of Sakura-sama’s costumes!” she compliments.

“What can I say? It’s a labor of love,” Tomoyo replies modestly. She reaches into her duffel bag for one last prop, one that gets a peculiar, confused, and frightened look from Mirror. Tomoyo pulls out a belt with a pair of holsters on each side. In the holsters are two likenesses of a western-style revolver pistols.
Mirror’s wide eyes lock onto the gun props. “Uh… those, those guns aren’t… they’re not real, are they?” she asks with cautious fear.

Tomoyo smiles at Mirror as she pulls one of the guns out of the holsters to reveal that not only were the bullet chambers not filled, but they were completely locked into place, unable to move, so the gun clearly couldn’t function and was most likely a toy. “Don’t worry; they’re just scale resin models. I bought them in kits off eBay and I assembled them just last week because Naoko-chan said she wanted some decent-looking props.” Tomoyo grabs the gun by the barrel, offering the handle to Mirror to let her hold.

Mirror grabs hold of the model. Feeling the plastic texture of the prop, she knew that Tomoyo was telling the truth. She shakes it in her hand to find that it doesn’t even make any noises. Nodding, she takes the holster belt from Tomoyo and puts it on over her other belt.

Syaoran meanwhile meets with Yamazaki in the center of the stage.

“Thanks for covering for my part, Yamazaki-kun,” Syaoran says to his classmate.

“Don’t mention it, Li-kun,” Yamazaki replies. “Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be in a play, break my arm, and then you can take my place.”

Syaoran rolls his eyes inwardly. “Oh, come on, what are the odds of…” he thinks to himself. “Sure, whatever,” he responds.

“Yeah, because y’know,” Yamazaki begins matter-of-factly. “Paying back debts is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years, to the times of knights and chivalry. Some knights held their oaths to their fellow knights for as long as fifty years. In fact, one of the longest-kept oaths ever recorded was made by a knight who lived until age 85 when he-aaaa!” he rants before finding his ear grabbed and dragged off by the right hand of one of his fellow classmates.

“Yeah, yeah, that’ll be enough of that,” Chiharu interrupts. “Naoko-chan has some new ideas to put out.”

Syaoran meanwhile stands in the middle of the stage, staring on completely shocked at how Chiharu had so calmly laid down the law for the umpteenth time. However, Syaoran’s racing mind wouldn’t let him balk in the sheer amazement that he usually has towards Chiharu cutting off one of Yamazaki’s tall tales. “One thing at a time. I already have a promise to keep…” he reminds himself somberly.

“Okay everyone, huddle up!” Naoko calls out, signaling for Syaoran, Tomoyo and Mirror to rejoin the group. She rolls up her script and puts it under her arm as she puts her hands together in excitement. “First off, I’d like to thank everyone for their help. Over these last few weeks, we’ve gotten all our scenes down except this next one… and this will be the last scene of the play!” she announces joyfully, with cheerfully relieved responses from all there, including Mirror who subtly feigns along.

Naoko turns to Chiharu, Rika, and Yamazaki. “Now you two,” she explains, pointing at Chiharu and Rika. “…have been captured by the Yella-Bellied Varmint,” she now points at Yamazaki. “…and he tied the damsels of distress to the railroad tracks. And the only one who can save the day…” Naoko then points her script right at Mirror, putting her on the spot as all eyes fall on her. “…is the Lone-Star Sherriff.”

Mirror nods nervously. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds okay. I- I can handle this… I can handle this…” she replies, though more as if speaking to herself.

“Sakura-chan, you’re all flustered…” Naoko observes. “Are you sure you’re alright with this?”

Mirror smiles back at Naoko, as best as she reckons that Sakura would in such a situation. “Oh it’s alright, it’s nothing, Chiha- uh, Ri- Naoko… chan,” she replies, struggling to put both names and keigo to faces that she had learned but a few minutes ago.

Unsatisfied by Mirror’s claims, Naoko leans in towards Mirror, scrutinizing the conjured disguise for any non-Sakura-like traits. Mirror stands still like a statue, even though she realizes that there is no cognitive hole in her disguise to one without magical powers. What bothered her particularly about Naoko was that, according to Create, Naoko was obsessed with the dealings of the paranormal. Could Naoko actually find a crack in the mirror?

“Hoee…” Mirror squeaks nervously in her most Sakura-like impression as possible.

Naoko quickly pulls back. “Well you look okay to me, Sakura-chan. Just calm down and relax. It’s only a rehearsal.” She pats Mirror enthusiastically on the shoulder. “Now break a leg out there!” she encourages, but gets a stiff, frightened look back from Mirror.

Naoko hurries down the stairs on the side of the stage and stands in the empty auditorium where she envisions that the front-row seats of the play would be placed. Up on stage, Yamazaki takes front and center, whipping forward his cape in a sinister looking way. Rika and Chiharu lay down on the ‘railroad tracks’, lying over the slack of the ropes to make them look tighter. Finally, Tomoyo and Syaoran drag a still-stunned Mirror by her arms to a part of the stage covered by the curtains.

Mirror whimpers pathetically off in a corner. “She just told me to break my leg! That kind of thing is usually painful! You heard her, didn’t you?”

“Calm down,” Tomoyo urges. “It’s a theatre thing. Naoko-chan is just wishing you good luck,” she clarifies.

Mirror glances at Tomoyo skeptically. “That’s horrible! How lucky is a broken bone?” she asks, still not quite comprehending the thespian idiom.

Syaoran grips his fists in frustration at Mirror’s thickness. “Look, it’s just an expression, you idiot! Just play along! Shouldn’t be too awfully hard for you. It’s not like this is the first time you’ve pretended to be someone you’re not,” he shouts softly, instilling a paralyzing fear in Mirror’s wide green eyes.

Mirror looks back at Syaoran, even more frightened than before, and she soundlessly nods her head.

*-*-*

Naoko quickly surveys the stage, comparing the arrangement with the vision in her mind and finding everything in order. “Alright, places everybody. Now Yamazaki-kun, you’re going to announce that no one can stop you, and then Chiharu-chan, you’ll reply that the Lone Star Sherriff will come to the rescue, at which point Sakura-chan comes onto the stage and announces: ‘Reach for the sky, ya’ yella-bellied varmint!’,” she directs. “Places everybody, places, and…” She points forward with her rolled-up script. “ACTION!” she shouts.

Taking his cue, Yamazaki whips his cape forward in a sinister-looking way. “Mwahahahahaha! No one can stop me now!” he insists, pulling off his role admirably.

Naoko stares forward with big, excited eyes as she watches her masterpiece unfold. “This is even better than I imagined it…” she mutters pridefully, but after a few moments’ pause, she notices something amiss. Chiharu’s line was next, to denounce the Yella-Bellied Varmint, but she remained completely silent.

Yamazaki notices Chiharu and Rika lying perfectly still on the railroad tracks, as if sleeping. “Psst! Chiharu-chan!” he whispers. “You’re supposed to say ‘You’re wrong, the Lone-Star Sherriff will surely defeat you’. There’s not a sleeping part…” he continues, but he turns his head in peculiarity when he also notices that Rika was also lying back unresponsively. Yamazaki breaks character as worry sweeps over him. “Chiharu-chan…? Rika-chan…?” he calls, though not as if to expect a reply.

Naoko shakes her head, first in disagreement, and later in horror. “Something’s wrong here…”

Syaoran darts out from behind the curtains, with Tomoyo right behind him. “Hey, wake up!” Syaoran calls at the girls urgently, sensing more than just a little amiss.

Yamazaki leans over a motionless Chiharu. He reaches towards her face and gently lifts open one of her eyes, but he finds a strange black fog covering her eyes. Yamazaki shakes his head. “What?” he asks, having never seen anything like it before. Before Syaoran can get to his side, Yamazaki feels his body getting heavier. His sight dims as he loses sight of Chiharu and finally keels over.

Syaoran kneels down at Yamazaki’s side. He shakes his head as he feels a burning sensation deep in his gut, but then this burning sensation is matched by a potent tingling on his right arm.

Tomoyo approaches cautiously and steadily behind Syaoran, but she stops dead in her tracks as Mirror calls out to her.

“Get back, everyone!” Mirror yells out, attempting to pull some of the curtains in front of her, as if to hide from something. She trembles violently. “We’ve all got to get out of here, or it’ll get us all!” she whimpers ominously.

Naoko turns all around, searching vainly for some reason as to why Yamazaki and the other girls fell unconscious. “This is nothing like the stories… I-i-it’s … strange. Is this what it’s like… what it’s really like… to be in the presence of a-a-a… a ghost…?” she asks herself nervously.

“Well, in a sense…” a thunderously deep voice answers.

With a mighty clap of thunder, the overhead lights all go dead. With that, the only remaining lights are from the exit signs, powered by a backup generator somewhere. However, even to a bewildered Naoko, and particularly to a petrified Mirror, it was obvious that the lightning storm outside had nothing to do with the power outage.

Naoko begins to panic as the few lights from the exit signs begin to fade away. She paces around, feeling at her surroundings to get some bearings of her surroundings, but even the tapping of her shoes on the floor begin to fade away as well. “What’s going on? Who’s out there? Why are you doing this? …Why are- wait! My- my voice… I can’t hear. I… I can’t hear! I CAN’T HEAR!” she screams out in a loud panic.

“Nothing personal, Yanagizawa Naoko, but for someone so obsessed with ghosts, I simply couldn’t pass this opportunity up…” the voice speaks to Naoko, and only Naoko, despite her inability to hear.

The voice drives Naoko into a flailing delirium. “Who-who’s there? Who said that? Who… where… why… somebody… help… me…” she panics, before her fading voice finally falls silent. Due to the blinding darkness, Syaoran, Tomoyo, and Mirror can only listen in as the mysterious force attacks Naoko. However, to these three, there’s nothing mysterious about who, or what Naoko’s assailant is.

“Naoko-chan? Naoko-chan? Are you alright? Naoko-chan?!” Tomoyo screams out, calling out to her friend, though in no way confident of an answer.

“We’re all gonna’ die…” Mirror whimpers meekly. “We’re all gonna’ die, we’re all gonna’ die, we’re all gonna’ die, we’re all gonna’-”
“Shut up!” Syaoran yells at Mirror. “Alright Lycan, the jig is up. Show yourself, you big coward!” Syaoran screams out into the darkness.

“Well, well, Xiaolang. You’re really taking this Card Captor of Kaos thing seriously. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it’s almost as if you want to capture the Fade Card and be the rightful Card Captor of Kaos,” the monstrous voice, undoubtedly Lycan’s, answers.

“The Fade Card?” Tomoyo asks. “Is that why it’s so dark in here?” she calls out.

“Yeah, that would be it,” Syaoran responds. “Fade is the last of the seven Kaos Cards left, and once I seal it away… well… zettai daijobu.”

“Why doesn’t that sound like a comforting assurance?” Tomoyo criticizes.

“Hey, back off!” Syaoran shoots back. “This is neither the time nor the place!”

“Precisely, Xiaolang. The stage is no place for truth. In fact, it is a perfect place to act. To mislead. To deceive. To lie. Be it a pathetic charade of the triumphs of good over evil… or be it the mask that you’ve put on, Xiaolaong. Or, should I say, the mask you never took off?”

“Li-kun, what does Lycan mean by that?” Tomoyo asks. “…What have you been hiding?” she adds grimly, having deduced something amiss about Syaoran’s complete honesty as of late.

Syaoran remains perfectly still and quiet, and in the dead black, it would seem as if he had vanished into thin air.

“Meheheheheheh… Xiaolang, you know in your heart that you don’t have what it takes to be the Card Captor of Kaos. And for that reason, you know in your mind that you will not be able to defeat Fade.”

“Says you. I’ll cut right through your shadows,” Syaoran replies stoically.

All of a sudden, a brightly glowing rendition of the Circle of Kaos appears below Syaoran’s feet. The flaming glow casts long shadows across the auditorium, allowing Syaoran to see around him. He and Tomoyo stand next to each other on the stage, while Mirror curls up in a ball like a frightened infant, trying to use the curtains as a cloak, but peeking out through a miniscule crack.

Lycan floats over the auditorium floor, his massive body like an imposing war machine or dinosaur in the wake of his victims. However, despite the bright flash of the Circle of Kaos, his body seems to absorb all the light that comes his way, in no way illuminated by the flash, save his ubiquitous bone mask. He stares onward with his typical, maddeningly-stoic expression.

At Lycan’s feet, a decrepit, man-sized vulture flies in place over a fainted Naoko, who seemed to have miraculously waddled over to the stage steps before collapsing at Lycan’s literally deafening insanity. What draws Syaoran’s particular attention is how the bird seems to feast off a dark aura surrounding Naoko’s body, but what is even more shocking and disturbing is that when the bird absorbs this energy into its mouth, its feathers fall out as its body seems to rot away. As it continues to ingest the energy, the decrepit state of the vulture grows even sicklier, to the point where it would seem like its morbid carrion body would dissipate into dust. In the midst of its feasting, Fade turns its empty, dry eye sockets right in Syaoran’s direction. Despite a clear lack of eyeballs, Syaoran could tell that the vulture was staring him down as it gulped in the last of the dark aura surrounding Naoko. It lets out an ear-splitting, demonic wail, monstrously intimidating, but also filled with an overwhelming agony. Were it not such a ferocious scream of battle, it would sound as if Fade is crying out in pain.

Despite Fade’s sickening display of power and personal debilitation alike, Syaoran remains unfazed as he begins the incantation to call forth his key. “Key hiding the Powers of the Inferno, show your true form before me.” Syaoran removes his arm from his sling as he tosses the needless garment aside. “I, Xiaolang, command you under our contract…” he continues. Raising his arm, a glowing silhouette emits an orange light, piercing right through his unnecessary bandages. “Release!” Syaoran commands. In a spectacular flash of orange light, the bandages on his right arm shred away into countless pieces of fabric, all of which burn to thin ashes before blowing away in the magically induced wind. As the Circle of Kaos dissipates at Syaoran’s feet, it is replaced by an even brighter-burning shine from the arrowhead loaded into the one-shot magazine along the spine of the Inferno Crossbow.

“Take a look at this Kaos, Lycan!” Syaoran taunts. “Isn’t this the kind of Kaos of the one that you want as the one true Card Captor of Kaos for all time?”

“Hah!” Lycan scoffs. “Just because you have a strong Kaos doesn’t mean that you’re the one I want as my Card Captor. As Yue doubtlessly already showed you before, it is not mere power that decides succession, but ability to complete the tasks further along the road. I’ve only ever seen one person qualified for the task in my two hundred years of searching. And you aren’t that person. Fade Card, continue your feast!”

Fade takes a gliding bound up to the stage, where Yamazaki, Chiharu, and Rika lay unconscious. They all, like Naoko, have black auras around them, and as Fade had done to Naoko, it begins to inhale these auras. Fade howls in horrific agony as its body withers away, the paradox of feasting making it ever the weaker quite literally rotting it to the core. It arches over its victims, its strength failing it second after second, but the creature’s insatiable thirst for the seemingly toxic aura continues to be its own gradual undoing.

Syaoran, in no mood to allow the Kaos Card to finish its feast, points his Inferno Crossbow at the frail target and lets fly with the ferociously-powerful shot. However, with the glare of the arrowhead obscuring his view, the bolt doesn’t even connect with the beast. Instead, it sails straight overhead, ripping into the cloth curtain and quickly setting the fabric ablaze. The flames softly illuminate the auditorium, but as bright and hot as the flames burn, they fail to match the Kaos power which Syaoran had summoned to his aid. Seemingly oblivious to Syaoran’s attempts to seal it, Fade continues to gorge on the shady energy.

Tomoyo backs away from Fade, taking cover behind Syaoran. “What… what is it eating?” Tomoyo asks.

“Their hope,” a meek voice answers back, turning Syaoran’s and Tomoyo’s heads towards Mirror. Mirror doesn’t cower in terror any further, but her eyes are glued onto Fade as she chokes down empathetic sobs for the pain of a fellow Card, even a Kaos Card. “Gin Clow created a card called The Swallow. It had the power to eat sadness, depression, suffering, and anything that would dull one’s senses. It was an incredible creation, capable of doing so much good for so many people. But this Fade Card… Fade’s victims lose their clarity, the hope with which they see, hear, and sense the world around them. Without their hope, they believe themselves to be… dead.” Mirror explains morbidly.

“Yes…” Lycan confirms. “To forever suffer the despair of an impending death, but never being granted it, never knowing when the cold hand shall come to claim their souls. That is the most powerful Despair in the world. It is a Kaos whose power shall make my presence feared forever. A Kaos amongst Kaos. A true piece of my almighty essence. A taste of the greatest Kaos the world has ever known!” Lycan brags. He turns his stare at Syaoran. “That, Li Xiaolang, is what you would have to look forward to as my Card Captor of Kaos. To be the one to wield the darkest powers known to mankind. To plunge the world into fear and worship of an eternal Despair. And that is to be Kinomoto Sakura’s destiny. The one to cement my infamous legacy as the greatest Kaos to walk this earth. The one to win me the power of my true master, the mighty Kaos Encarnate!”

“What do you mean by your true master?” Syaoran asks with overwhelming perplexity, but as Lycan continues his stare back at Syaoran, he has an epiphany. His eyes widen. “Wait a second… You’re Kaos Gin!”

“Surprise!” Lycan bellows with pride. “Gin Clow was the name I went by in my life, before Reed banished me to this bodiless form. However, he failed to ultimately extinguish the Kaos that burned within the old me, and it was this Kaos from which I arose. It was the Kaos of having so much power, yet wasting it all on the fleeting comforts of mortals. The mortals whose memories dull, whose minds wither, and whose bodies rot away in the end, all of which lead to the futility and worthlessness of my sacrifices. But no… I would have none of that. Never would I bow to the whims of those who would not remember the name of Gin Clow. But that was when I realized the other path. The true path. Tyranny, Despair, and Kaos were to be my new power, and a life of submission as Gin Clow was behind me forever. Kaos Encarnate chose me to bring Kaos to the world, and upon my conquest, he promised me the world itself as my empire. It was Kaos Encarnate who gave me the power to conquer at the cost of my fallible, mortal soul. I was given a new identity that day. I was to be called ‘Kaos Gin’, though the mortals had their own name for me: Lycan. A name with which to brand me a demon, but one I took on with pride over the years, for it is a name that many feared. But now, at the glorious apex of my power, the pieces are almost in place, and I have paid my dues to Kaos Encarnate. Kinomoto Sakura, the possessor of a hidden Kaos, is to be my Card Captor, as an eternal reminder that even the brightest light harbors the darkness of all Kaos within. Kaos will be the new rule, and Hope itself will pass away, forgotten as a myth. None will oppose me in my empire. And none of you will stand in the way of my glory!”

“Your glory?” Mirror responds boldly to Lycan, turning the wolf-demon’s attention in her direction. She reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a large handful of Clow Cards. “We Clow Cards love our Master very much, and we won’t let you take her away.” She pulls out a Clow Card from an arbitrary middle of the deck and holds it up. “And if you think we’re gonna’ stand by helplessly and let you steal our Master and turn her into some icon of despair for your empire, then you’ve got another thing coming!” she insists. She tosses the Clow Card in her hand out before her. “Light Card, my friend, smite this demon!” she orders.

Acting on its own, the Light Card releases itself from the magical bindings of the Clow Card. Like the glare of a bright star, the Light Card casts a pure white gaze across the entire auditorium as the card itself takes the true form of the Light Card. Light hovers high above the stage, as her white robes exude a soothing white light that stretches to all corners of the auditorium. Light opens her eyes to gaze upon Lycan, and at that instant the light that she had once spread across the auditorium focuses itself like a laser beam and fires at Lycan. However, despite the bright light of the beam, it passes directly into Lycan’s shadowy body, absorbed fully and diverted into some netherworld, failing to even illuminate Lycan, much less harm him.

Lycan snickers at Light’s attempt to blast him. “Clow Reed himself tried and failed to expunge me at my weakest. Surely, his creations are no match for me now.”

Mirror grits her teeth as she hurls two more Clow Cards into the air. “Let’s see you escape this! Windy! Fiery!” she calls out.

Both the Windy and Fiery Cards assume their true forms, the former a long-haired woman with fly-like wings, and the latter an androgynous angel with a flaming crown atop its head. Fiery and Windy levitate at either side of Mirror.

Windy is the first to make a move. Rushing straight at Lycan, she collides with Lycan’s mask and her true form dissipates. Windy then becomes an invisible cyclone of wind that traps Lycan in place, though to no apparent discomfort for Lycan.

Fiery turns its gaze to the burning curtain at its right. With a waving motion to the flaming curtain, the flames leap off the curtains and condenses itself into a fireball in Fiery’s hands. Now staring down the ‘trapped’ Lycan, Fiery forcefully launches this fireball straight at Lycan. As the fireball connects with the cyclone, the air explodes in bright combustion as Lycan is caught in a flaming tornado. Embers are thrown all across the auditorium, but only to flow magically back into the cyclone as the radius of the cyclone widens, eventually consuming Lycan’s entire body, as well as the seemingly dormant Fade, which continued to levitate at Lycan’s side before getting drawn into the searing heat. The flames continue to burn on, with Lycan showing no signs of escaping the cyclone, though outside the loud cracklings of the flame, nothing else can be heard.

Syaoran and Tomoyo both smile triumphantly as the flames suck in Lycan and his ethereal protégé, possibly defeating them, but their glee and relief proves premature when…

“RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHH!!!!!R 21;

A primal, ear-splitting roar rips apart the flaming hurricane from the inside-out and nearly strikes Syaoran, Tomoyo, and Mirror deaf. As the flames are tossed aside, Lycan holds one of his fore claws to the ground, pinning down the now-revealed true form of Windy. However, Windy’s true form melts away as she retakes the form of a Clow Card. The card lies frozen still on the ash-blasted floor, but doesn’t remain there for long. With a snap of his claw-like fingers, Lycan forcefully levitates the card in the air and tosses it straight back at Mirror, who catches the racing card despite nearly being knocked over by the force of the telekinetic throw.

Mirror looks at the art on the card and, to her horror, a translucent shadow covers Windy’s picture. The twisting winds of shadow flicker up the Windy Card’s portrait like a black fire. “Oh no, Windy-san! Are you alright? Windy-san? Windy-san?! What did Lycan do to you?!” she calls at the card, trying desperately to stir her fellow card to some kind of card-to-card response, but Windy remains motionless and silent in Mirror’s hands, not even exuding as much as a magical presence. Mirror shakes her head as she tries and fails to hold back the tears. She falls to her knees. “No! Windy-san!” she cries, slamming her fists repeatedly against the stage floor to release her distraught anguish.

Lycan snickers in pride at his accomplishment. “You Clow Cards are as powerless as the day Reed created you. You all transcend pathetic.”

“You killed Windy-san, you monster!” Mirror shouts up at Lycan, as buckets of tears pour down her cheeks.

“A technicality,” Lycan assures, though to no comfort to Mirror. “The Windy Card is dying, not dead. Not yet. With the powers of the Fade Card, the Windy Card’s spirit can no longer draw magic from its master. And without an external source of magic, it is only a matter of time before the Windy Card’s essence is eradicated. It is a painful death. Absolutely agonizing.” Lycan pauses, savoring Mirror’s terror with his eyes. “It is… a thing of beauty…” Lycan adds paradoxically.

“No…” Mirror replies. She stands to her feet as she fans out the remaining handful of Clow Cards still in her hand. “There’s nothing beautiful about death and murder. But if you’re going to kill the rest of us, then there’s no point in holding back and being afraid. I’m not a crybaby anymore, Lycan. We love our Master, and won’t abandon her while we still have a speck of magic left in our souls. We’ll make you rue the day you crawled out of Gin Clow’s nightmares… or we’ll die trying!” she vows. The Circle of Clow appears below her feet, lighting the auditorium once again.

Syaoran begins to shake his head. “No… no, this is wrong…” he mutters.

Mirror forcefully picks two Clow Cards out of the handful and tosses them out before her. “Arrow Card! Shot Card!” she calls out, transforming the cards into a red blast of energy and a glowing white arrow respectively.

The two projectile attacks race towards Lycan, but at the very last possible second, Lycan opens his mouth and exhales a dark, shady tornado of wind, stopping the projectiles in their tracks and sending them flying backwards. A short moment later, two shade-sealed Clow Cards float to the ground at Mirror’s feet like dead leaves.

With no time for remorse, Mirror grabs another handful of cards and throws them out. “Sword! Watery! Mist! Jump!” The cards all assume their true forms at Mirror’s beckoning, but before Lycan can strike them down, Mirror frantically calls out cluster upon cluster of her kin. “Shadow! Thunder! Glow! Fight! Silent! Lock! Power! Wood!” Mirror continues to indiscriminately call upon her fellow Clow Cards as her handful of cards empties and her brethren appear about her. Shortly, all the Clow Cards assume their true forms as they rally around Mirror. Those with eyes lock their gazes at Lycan, and those without merely turn in Lycan’s direction. “Everyone…” Mirror calls conclusively, as she is surrounded by the warm and familiar presence of her fellow cards.

Despite the overwhelming magical energies around Mirror, Syaoran can only shake his head. “This isn’t right…” he repeats to himself.

Mirror rallies her Clow Cards around her, despite Lycan’s clear apathy to Mirror’s army of cards. “Get ready. We’re gonna’ show Lycan how much Sakura-sama means to us… A- hey, get off!” she declares, but before she can send her fellow cards into the fray, Syaoran holds her arm back.

“Stop this!” Syaoran yells at the warmongering Mirror. “You may be their friend, but you’re not their tyrant. Don’t send them off to their deaths! You don’t have the right!”

“The right?!” Mirror responds in disgust. She shakes her head. “For an ancestor of Clow-sama’s, you don’t know the first thing about us. And you never did! It’s no surprise that Yue-sama defeated you. You don’t even love Sakura-sama enough to lay down your life for her, even though she thinks the world of you!” She turns her attention to her sloppy ranks of fellow cards, and Syaoran loosens his grip on Mirror’s arm, having felt a powerful and shocking blow from Mirror’s words.

Amongst the Clow Cards, so few of them are battle-capable, or even have the fighting temperament. However, from the capable to the feeble, from the young and exuberant to the old and withering, from the hot-tempered to the pacifists, the Clow Cards maintain their focus, courage, and hope, despite their clear demise being ahead of each and every one of them. It was no secret. They weren’t designed for combat or war, and while some could, many, many more were virtually defenseless. Not one of them would survive combat against Lycan, yet not one of them seemed to care.

“Everyone!” Mirror calls out with a bravery and persistence otherwise alien to her. “CHARGE!” Mirror calls out, sending the perching cards into a frenzy of charging and lunging at the monstrous Lycan.

Lycan meanwhile stands his ground, cracking his mouth open slightly, allowing a cold, morbid fog to flow from his open jaws like a fountain. He whips back his neck before spitting a wave of cold, shady energy at his attackers. With this mighty yet seemingly effortless blast, Lycan’s fog-breath knocks back every last one of the Clow Cards. Not one was spared from the black cyclone of death. The cards’ shocked, pain-filled expressions are the last emotions they show before turning back into cards. Mirror can only stare on as the heartbreaking rain of her fallen friends flutter to the ground like snowflakes. Lost, dead snowflakes.

The blasts of dark wind envelop Syaoran and Tomoyo as well, but these blasts are far depleted from their original magical strength, the Clow Cards having taken the brunt of Lycan’s attack. Syaoran feels a creeping darkness begin to crawl over him, but he holds onto his grip on reality with the strength of his magic and the Kaos-based nature of the Inferno Crossbow. He couldn’t stand much more, and there wouldn’t be much left of him, he would survive this attack. Unfortunately for Syaoran’s companion though, Tomoyo had no such artefacts or magic power to fall back on, and as a look of horror overcomes her, a black fog covers her eyes.

As the deathly hurricane falls dead, Syaoran catches a fainted Tomoyo, her senses completely overtaken by Fade. “Daidouji-san!” Syaoran screams out, trying hopelessly to recussitate Tomoyo, but he knew full well that his mere efforts wouldn’t be enough to beat a Kaos Card’s magic. What was worse yet was that, despite surviving, he could still feel the effects of Fade’s magic as his senses begin to blur. In mere moments, Fade would claim him, too. Laying Tomoyo down gently on the stage, Syaoran then squints hard to focus on his open hand, and he grits his fist to reassert his confidence to himself.

Lycan doesn’t pay heed to Tomoyo’s collapse, or even Syaoran’s impending surrender to Fade’s power, choosing instead to bask in a much more gratifying act of desolation. He basks in the rain of the fallen, martyred Clow Cards like a spring rain. “Ah, the nuisances have been silenced…” he begins before turning his attention to Mirror, and the fading Syaoran, the last two survivors of his last attack. “Well, almost all of the nuisances. Last card standing, Mirror. How does it feel? To have thrown away the lives of your fellow Clow Cards, condemning your own brothers and sisters to the misery of the remainder of their existence? Knowing that you still stand?” Lycan cackles maliciously, but Syaoran interrupts him.

“Leave her alone!” Syaoran shouts, intervening for Mirror. “Lycan, that was uncalled for, and you know it. The Clow Cards didn’t have the power, nor ever would they, to defeat you. Why did you make them suffer? Is that your Kaos? The fact that you’re no longer human and can no longer take pleasure from giving back to your fellow man? The Kaos of now being forced to derive your twisted pleasures from the misery of others? Is that what you traded your humanity for? I’m not going to let Sakura fall down the same path you fell down. I’m the Card Captor of Kaos. I’m the threat to your empire. And I’m the one who will defeat you!” Syaoran vows confidently, undeterred by Fade’s noticeably increasing effects.

“Your threats are groundless, Xiaolang,” Lycan replies, snickering at Syaoran’s empty boasts. “Why, you can’t even stand up straight…” As the last remnants of illumination from the defeated Clow Cards fades away, so too does Lycan’s body. In the dark and dreary shadows, only Lycan’s glowing red eyes appear.

“You may be a Card Captor of Kaos…” Lycan begins. “... but you’re in my element now. Despair. I am ripe with power at the desperation of the fallen Cards of Clow who try to hang onto the physical world. As they struggle for their very breath, as they are magically suffocated, I grow stronger still. You cannot match strength with me here. And so, you will never be my Card Captor!”

Lycan’s red eyes flicker out of sight from Syaoran’s vision, which to Syaoran can only mean one thing. But all of a sudden, in the blinding darkness, he feels a petite form throw her arms over him. With his magic, he can feel Mirror desperately cling to him.

“Please…” Mirror whispers in Syaoran’s ear, but for once throwing off the old voice of her disguise and using instead her true voice. “You’re the last one who can help Sakura-sama. Promise that you’ll save her. Promise us that you won’t let anything bad happen to her. Promise us that you’ll protect her with your very life,” Mirror begs. She sniffles and trembles, her previous fortitude completely decimated.

With his eyes worthless in the pitch black darkness, and even worsening due to Fade’s continual debilitation, Syaoran focuses his magical concentration in order to see with the eyes of his magical powers. What he sees shocks him. Lycan was preparing to fire another blast of Fade magic at him, but in addition to throwing herself over him, Mirror had interposed her true form, a large, full-body mirror, in between him and Lycan. However, Lycan seemed not to care that he would miss his likely intended target. To Lycan, it seemed not so much about winning the war as inflicting as much agony as possible. Syaoran sees what Mirror was trying to do, and it fills him with tension as he is now burdened with not only protecting Sakura, but avenging the Clow Cards and the sacrifice they all made on Sakura’s behalf.

“I promise,” Syaoran responds somberly to Mirror.

A mighty gust blasts at Syaoran and Mirror. Syaoran feels Mirror’s grip loosen around him. Syaoran hopes to himself that this is because Mirror had heard his promise and was relieved, not because of Fade’s sufocating powers. It would’ve been the least he could have done for her, as well as all the other Clow Cards, to give her some glimmer of hope before she disappeared. Not only for the sake of sewing a kink in Lycan’s magical armor and arrogance, but for the Clow Cards’ own sake. They had sacrificed themselves to help Syaoran finish a fight that they weren’t even involved in. Suddenly, Mirror vanishes, leaving behind only the costume which she had donned while in disguise, and the last trace of her powers, the card that she was, enveloped forever by a black shadow of death.

“Fifty-two cards. Fifty-two bodies,” Lycan mocks. “Even after Fade is sealed away, while the spirits of the humans may return freely, the essences of the Clow Cards are injured beyond healing, and shall never return. Ask yourself then, Li Xiaolang, how can you protect Kinomoto Sakura from me when you yourself must be protected by the vain sacrifice of the Clow Cards?”

Syaoran stares down. Although it isn’t much different than staring off anyplace else in the room, without any lights to speak of, he simply tries to avoid giving Lycan the satisfaction of eye contact. He holds up his right arm, still bearing the fully-armed Inferno Crossbow, and he calls to the device another bright orange arrow, both with which to fight and with which to see, overcoming some, but not all, of Fade’s magical effects.

The first thing Syaoran sees is, at his side, Tomoyo laying at his feet, with a black aura surrounding her. This black aura slowly flows away from her, like a river, straight into a pool below Lycan. Similar auras also spill away from the fallen Clow Cards on the ground before Lycan, as well as from the fallen Mirror Card at Syaoran’s feet. This pool of shade then evaporates upwards, flowing right into Lycan’s very body, either because Fade is hiding in Lycan, or because Lycan has absorbed Fade’s powers, Syaoran deduces. No matter, though. Despite Syaoran’s burning outrage at the atrocities, he remains deathly silent as he pulls a slip of rolled up yellow paper from his pocket. Unrolling the paper reveals stretched out Mandarin characters running down the length of the ofuda.

“You’ve been left unchecked for far too long. It’s about time I put a stop to your conquest,” Syaoran boasts. He holds up his ofuda and lets go of it, but by pointing his palm at the paper, it levitates rigidly in the air. Syaoran then aims his Inferno Crossbow straight through the ofuda, right at Lycan’s bone mask, his apparent ‘weak spot’. “Summon: Lance of Zeus!” Syaoran commands, invoking the Rites of Kaos.

The orange bolt launches straight into the ofuda, but the ofuda reacts by glowing a bold red before unleashing a massively-potent bolt of lightning straight at Lycan’s mask, which incurs a violent explosion. However, after the smoke clears, despite the incredible strength and true aim of the lightning, Lycan remains steady, having suffered no ill effects from the attack. In fact, Lycan even remains speechless, a confusing rarity to a bewildered Syaoran, considering the enjoyment Lycan seems to derive from deriding his prey. Syaoran grits his teeth, quickly running out of ideas. Simply to maintain the light, he loads another bolt into the Inferno Crossbow, but as he points the bolt at Lycan, he holds his fire, trying to concoct a Plan B on the spot.

“What’s the matter, Lycan? Cat got your tongue?” Syaoran asks.
Lycan would not answer so quickly though, as unbeknownst to Syaoran, Lycan meditates in place, his very body in a trance as his mind communes.

“Be still, Lycan. I am coming to you.”

“Lord Kaos… It is time for your awakening, already?”

“Of course not. In this world, there is no such thing as coincidence. I will arrive when Hitzusen itself dictates that I shall, and until that moment, you will wait and obey, if you truly wish to see your empire.”

“Yes, but Lord Kaos… your time draws nearer and nearer. When shall you arise?”

“You question me?”

“No my lord, but… I humbly await my promised glory. I await the dominion which you swore to me in your great power would be mine. I have been a faithful servant, have I not?”

“Your servitude and hidden aspirations are a secret to no one, Lycan. I know you seek your empire, and that is why you serve me. Your glory shall come, Lycan, I assure you. There is but one last order of business to attend to. You must destroy Li Syaoran. When he has left this world, then you shall see me.”

“It will be an honor to do your bidding.”

“Oh no, Lycan… the honor… is mine…”

Lycan emerges from his trance to feel the pattering of lightning bolts exploding harmlessly off the surface of his mask. While within his trance, Syaoran had taken to using the Rites of Kaos to fire continual barrages of lightning Rites at him, supposedly to dislodge and seal the Fade Card. However, Lycan knew that Syaoran was incapable of this, and Fade's growing powers over him made this not only a difficult prospect, but a dangerous one, as his Kaos magic depletes further and further, leaving less and less to hold back Fade's magic.

As Lycan begins to twitch and stir, Syaoran loads one last bolt before grabbing his ofuda and ceasing his attacks, finding himself winded after the expenditure of such large bursts of his magic in such great succession. “All… hail… Kaos… Encarnate!” Lycan declares, his first words out of his trance. With a mighty roar, he prepares to unleash one last blast of Fade magic. “Yes, it is true! With your elimination, Li Xiaolang, I will finally achieve my glory! Kaos Encarnate will appear, and the Earth itself will be the throne of my great new Empire of Kaos!”

CRASH!

A sudden loud noise draw both Syaoran’s and Lycan’s attention, forcing Lycan to call off his blast of black hurricane energy. Lycan grumbles at the interruption to his rant, but his grumbles cease as he sees one of the auditorium doors to the outside literally smashed off its hinges and thrown several feet into the auditorium. The still rumbling thunderstorm outside lets loose with a mighty flash of lightning, casting the shadow of the newcomer across the long floor.

Syaoran lowers his Inferno Crossbow, and despite the deterioration of his sight, he recognizes the girl at the door as none other than Kinomoto Sakura, which causes him to blush slightly at her sight. However, in all seriousness, even though it was indeed Sakura and not just another look-alike clone this time, something was still amiss about her.

Sakura wears her springtime Tomoeda Elementary uniform, despite the cold winds and rain of the outside storm, though she seemed not to mind any aspect of the storm at all. Also, around Sakura’s neck, she wears the Elixir of Fire's bottle, still full with the glowing fluid. Syaoran takes this as a mixed blessing. On one hand, Sakura had apparently not broken her seeming addiction to the Elixir’s Kaos power, but on the other hand, she wasn’t using the Elixir’s power at the moment. But then the question arose in Syaoran’s mind: if Sakura isn’t using the Elixir of Fire, how did she just blast the door in like that? The most likely answer in Syaoran’s mind troubled him greatly…

“Ah,” Lycan announces invitingly. “My hand-picked Card Captor of Kaos, and my ticket to glory, has finally arrived.”

“Can it, Lycie-chan!” Sakura remarks sharply. “I’m here for your Kaos Card of Despair, and I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.” Skating into the auditorium, she takes a superhuman bounding leap, launching her straight up onto the stage, right next to Syaoran, where she screeches her skates to a sudden stop. Yet as she moves, the faded air around her glows brightly, as if the darkness was but a veil and Sakura’s very presence lifted it away.

“Oh hi, Shounen. You still happy to see me?” Sakura asks innocently, as if absolutely nothing was amiss.

Syaoran squints away from the sudden blast of seemingly blinding light and turns a cold shoulder to Sakura. “You shouldn’t have come here. I had everything under control.”

Sakura looks around the entire auditorium, hindered in no way by Fade’s powers at all, seeing the entire auditorium in the light. She observes the dark burns below Lycan, as well as the fallen Clow Cards and unconscious bodies strewn around. “Yeah, sure Shounen. You’ve clearly got Lycie-chan right where you want him. I must just be imagining this place looking like you’re getting your puppy-dog tail handed to you,” she responds sarcastically.

Syaoran, having had enough of this corrupted Sakura, moves to shove Sakura over, which he reasoned would be monumentally easy with her on rollerblades. But as soon as he attempts it, the force with which he pushes against Sakura multiplies and rebounds against him, knocking him clear across the stage.

Lycan’s stare follows Syaoran as he sails across the stage. “Now you see the power of the true Card Captor of Kaos, Li Xiaolang. You now comprehend, do you not? You cannot hold me from my empire any further!”

Sakura meanwhile begins giggling to herself, right in the middle of Lycan’s rant. “Aww, isn’t that cute? Lycie-chan thinks he’s getting an empire all to himself…” she muses. “For such an old and self-proclaimed powerful being, you sure are easy to dupe. In fact, when I put you down for good, I might almost miss that about you…” she boasts.

Lycan quickly turns in Sakura’s direction, focusing his bright red gaze on the one true thorn in his side. “You think you can usurp my rule of Kaos, Kinomoto Sakura?” Lycan challenges. “I have been selected by Kaos Encarnate itself to bring Kaos to this world and rule it over. You are but a child, recently awakened to your own Kaos, whereas I have practiced the art for over two centuries! How could you possibly stop me?”

Sakura only smirks back before replying in a voice many, many octaves lower. “By Kaos Encarnate… you mean me?” she replies deeply, perfectly in the tone with which Kaos Encarnate speaks to Lycan. “You really think I’m going to let you rule over this world?” she answers back in her normal voice. “You really think I would bow before you and let you take what is rightfully mine? No, Kaos Gin, the rewards of Kaos are not for the weak, like you. I’ve been the one whispering in your ear, silently speaking your orders to you from the shadows. I’ve been the one using you as my puppet. And all for my power. For my glory. For my empire… and my freedom from this wretched existence!”

Lycan is struck in shock by this. “You were the one speaking to me?! This whole time?! Th-that’s impossible! Impossible! The glory! It shall be mine! You hear me, you snot-nosed brat?!?! Miiiiiiiiiine!!!” Lycan snarls angrily at Sakura.

Sakura goes through the motions of pulling out the star key from around her neck. “Forget it, Lycie-chan. You’re living in the past. I’m the future now! Key hiding the Powers of the Inferno, show your true form before me. I, …Kaos Sakura… command you under our contract: Release!” she orders. As a pale, burning white energy spills out of Sakura’s eyes and mouth, it envelops the Star Key, transforming it instead into the bird-skull-tipped Key of Kaos which Sakura had been using this whole time.

To Syaoran’s mortification, Sakura had summoned her Key of Kaos not with the Elixir of Fire, but with her own Kaos, and with the name Kaos Sakura. Syaoran stumbles slowly to his feet, seeing his defeat imminent. The last of his Kaos magic wears out, and the last of his senses disappear, though Lycan and Sakura are too preoccupied with one another to pay Syaoran any attention.

“I’m sorry…” Syaoran mutters, unbeknownst to Sakura. “I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to protect you…” he finishes, collapsing weakly on the stage.
Sakura twirls her wand around a few times, contemplating to herself. “Kaos Sakura… Something about that doesn’t sound quite fitting. How am I supposed to rule the world with a name like ‘Sakura’? Perhaps a new, more fitting title for this self is in order. Not the light and weak springtime cherry blossoms of hope… but a white flower of the most pale death. Hmm… ‘Orchid’ will do.”

Lycan literally foams at the mouth like a rabid animal, summoning forth the mightiest Fade powers he can muster. “You may call yourself Chrysanthemum for all I care, you even more so than all the others shall learn to fear me come my empire! Before, you were to just be my Card Captor, but no… that is clearly not deserved anymore. No… you will be my slave!”

Lycan unleashes the mighty blast of wind at Sakura, but as the wind smashes into her, it fails to cause any debilitating effect to her. Instead, Sakura closes her eyes and seems to bask in the ‘gentle’ wind as it blows softly through her hair. She sighs blissfully, getting more enjoyment than despair from Lycan’s most ferocious attack yet.

“That feels soooo good…” Sakura mutters softly, basking comfortably in the hurricane-strong gale, but one that, to her, feels like a cool breeze. “Hey Lycie-chan, you think you could come back this summer and try to establish your Empire of Kaos then? Because that’d just be heavenly…” she teases playfully.

Lycan snarls even louder. “While Fade may not be able to harm you, I’d like to see you try and capture it. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… you shall not live long enough to do…” Lycan threatens. “I will exhaust your Kaos magic, and when you are once more a weak, pathetic little girl, I shall begin my new empire by establishing the fear of Kaos firmly in your heart! You shall never again make a mockery of me…”

The shadows around Lycan shrink away, revealing more and more of the auditorium. Even Lycan’s imposing presence shrinks down and, though clearly still larger than the tallest grown man, Lycan is hardly any longer the imposing giant that he appeared as to Syaoran and the others. Lycan’s bony wings extend magically out his spine, allowing Lycan to retain an actual flight, rather than merely hovering in the shade.

“If you want the Fade Card,” Lycan tells Sakura. “…you’ll have to catch me!” Lycan begins soaring about rapidly, almost too fast for Sakura’s eyes to keep up.

However, despite Lycan’s quick moves, Sakura remains undeterred. Throwing out a Kaos Card, she taps the Key of Kaos against the end of it. “Bid me ride upon the wings of the darkest dreams! Nightmare Card!” Sakura’s staff reforms into the winged scythe form of the Nightmare. Sitting atop the handle, Sakura and Nightmare take to the air, in hot pursuit of Lycan. Finding the shady beast, Sakura, locks her eyes onto it and leans forward, as Nightmare speeds up its flight.

Unbeknownst to Sakura, Lycan cracks a wicked smirk. ‘I’ve got plenty of tricks up my sleeve for adversaries like you, usurper…’ Lycan thinks to himself as he races back towards the stage. He disappears back behind the curtains, with Sakura in hot pursuit.

Sakura passes behind the curtains and jumps off the Nightmare Card. Landing hard right on her skates, she zips around backstage, chasing right after Lycan, but when she arrives behind the stage and skids to a stop, she finds nothing out of the ordinary. Skating slowly through the dressing area and clutching Nightmare tightly, she scans every shadow in the backstage areas. Meanwhile, Lycan’s cacophonous laughter echoes out.

“Who’s more powerful now, Sakura-chan?” Lycan mocks from the shadows, savoring the sweet vengeance as he turns the tables on Sakura.

“The name …is Orchid,” Sakura responds. Turning around quickly to swing the Nightmare, her blade cleaves through nothing but thin air and shadow. Sakura stares around nervously before she skates out the other end of the backstage area, but before she can emerge, a shady crocodile-like tail quickly approaches from behind and knocks her off her feet. Sakura barely avoids a painful rear-end collision with the hard wood floor by leaning back on the Nightmare like a cane, but her landing proves inevitable as the swinging shadowy tail knocks the Nightmare off balance, allowing Sakura to fall backwards with a thud and a startled shriek.

“None can defeat me from the shadows!” Lycan insists, swinging his tail down right into Sakura’s stomach, causing her to flinch, but the shady tail vanishes away as quickly as it had appeared.

Sakura grabs sorely at her stomach and sides, curling her knees in towards her chest as she still reels from the quick, surprise impacts.

Lycan materializes, leaning over Sakura and places his heavy right paw over her body to hold her down. “Do you yet see your place? Your young Kaos is weak and pathetic. You were once untouchable to me. Not like when you used the Elixir of Fire to supplement your own Kaos. It looks like your power has run out already. What’s worse though is that you are no longer on my good side. I’ll rip your tiny body limb from limb, and your tortured soul shall be like a toy to me, something which I may use and abuse forevermore for my own amusement. And even if my promised empire will not come to me as easily as I had hoped, I’ll simply shed the blood of all those who oppose me until my rulership of this entire plane of mortality is absolute.”

Sakura ignores Lycan’s continued rantings as she turns her head towards the Nightmare, which lay but arm’s reach at her side. But before she can grab the Nightmare, Lycan’s telekinetic gaze sends it flying clear across the backstage area, well out of Sakura’s reach.

“No more flying around and slashing for you, Kinomoto Sakura,” Lycan tells Sakura diminutively. He leans his face in further and further towards her, breathing down over her with the heavy, putrid stench of death. “Join the shadows…” Lycan beckons, opening his giant maw wide to swallow Sakura whole.

Sakura grabs hold of Lycan’s jaws, much to Lycan’s shock, and she holds Lycan’s mouth away from her, her feeble frame somehow putting up an even match of strength against Lycan’s clearly superior stature. She finally forces herself to her feet, all the while holding open the jaws of the struggling Guardian of Despair. Even standing on her wheeled skates, Lycan finds budging Sakura impossible. He then notices a white, glowing aura covering Sakrua's entire body, and the reason for Sakura's superhuman strength without the Elixir of Fire becomes evident.

“Bad dog…” Sakura scolds playfully as she seems to exert no physical effort to hold Lycan’s jaws open, but her eyes snap wide open as she notices a twinkling glimmer in the deep darkness of Lycan’s maw.

With a surprising force to Sakura, Lycan lets loose a burst of Fade wind and, while not having its intended sense-blocking effect, it does knock her grip loose and sends her rolling away involuntarily on her rollerblades, all the way across the backstage area. Sakura trips as her rollerblades run backwards over the Nightmare that lay in her backwards path and she lands hard on her back like a ton of bricks. With the aid of the white aura of energy surrounding her, she just barely gets off the ground and rolls over as Lycan’s imposing form lunges over to her and slams his feet down hard on the stage where she had tripped, missing Sakura by mere inches. Not skipping a beat, Sakura scoops the Nightmare off the ground and, with a feroucious spinning swing, she smashes the Nightmare right into Lycan’s mask like a baseball bat, sending the Kaos Guardian flying all the way across the backstage area. Lycan crashes into the opposite wall like a meteorite, roaring in loud agony upon impact, leaving a sizable impact crater before falling limply to the ground.

As Lycan takes his time to struggle to stand up on all four feet, Sakura leans on the Nightmare for support as she falls to her knees in exhaustion. She breathes in long, deep breaths as the aura around her body seems to have passed, to even a sore Lycan’s amusement.

Lycan cackles while struggling to reclaim his vertical base. “Well, well, Orchid, your Kaos is quite powerful… for a time. You have learned much from the Elixir of Fire. You have learned the energy and the hatred it takes to gain true power. To send me reeling. And in pain, no less! I am almost… proud of you…” Lycan responds, still flinching from Sakura’s flurry, but his morale remains undeterred as he even seems to even enjoy the pain. “Unfortunately for you, however, you are still far too inexperienced to call on your own Kaos consistently. Look at you!” Lycan belittles.

Sakura can only stare Lycan right in his red, glowing eyes as she perspires heavily and struggles to breathe, completely unable to answer Lycan.

Lycan leers diminutively at Sakura. “You can call upon your Kaos for bursts of strength every now and again, but every time you suffer for it. You can’t keep it up…” Lycan criticizes. “…And were you not such an insolent witch out to steal my glory, I might have let you live… to train you further in the ways of Kaos...”

Sakura shakes her head at Lycan’s accusation. “Bite me,” she spits back with toxic spite. The white aura begins to build up again as Sakura’s fading strength begins returning to her.

Lycan unfurls his mighty shade-membraned wings again and he lifts himself off the ground. Sakura stands fully to her feet and prepares to swing at Lycan again. The two competitors throw themselves quickly at one another, exchanging earth-shaking clashes of steel, bone, and auras as they race past one another, taking the occasional swing as they pass.

After several passes, Sakura finds herself racing towards the wall, right immediately after a pass, but the aura around her begins to give way again. Were she to try another pass, Lycan would most likely score a fatal blow, Sakura reasoned. She leans in towards the wall as she tries to catch her breath, but Lycan races straight towards Sakura like a torpedo, undeterred and seemingly inexhaustible. Just barely noticing Lycan barreling her direction, she soumersaults right out of the way at the last minute, sending Lycan diving right into the shadow-covered wall like a diver into a pool, submerging himself fully in the shadow.

Sakura quickly struggles to her feet, but she only winds up slipping and falling on her knees, her rollerblades now beginning to impair her mobility instead of augmenting it. Relegated to crawling on her hands and knees, dragging Nightmare along beside her, she frantically scurries out from behind backstage until she meets with the bright lights of the auditorium. Safe in the illumination without any notably large or dark patches of shadow around, she quickly and masterfully unclasps the bindings on her rollerblades and slips her feet out of the now cumbersome footwear. With her feet now only covered by her socks, she stands up easily and continues to catch her breath. She continues to lean against Nightmare for support.

Lycan’s maniacal snickers return to Sakura’s ears.

“Well…? What’re you waiting for, Lycie-chan? Come and get me!” Sakura taunts.

“I move according to my own will. I don’t take orders from the likes of you!”

“And you never will, with that attitude…” Sakura teases sarcastically, but while pacing about in nervous anticipation.

“You think you’re sooooo smart, don’t you? Hiding in the light, as if I am deterred by it… No, Kinomoto Sakura, the light doesn’t kill me. Its absence merely gives me more hiding places…”

“The name’s Orchid, Lycie-chan. And it sounds to me like you’re nothing but a big chicken for hiding from a little girl,” Sakura concludes snidely.

“The wolf merely waits for its prey to make a mistake, or to get too exhausted to run. For, you see, even death itself is a way of life.” Lycan pauses for a brief snicker. “Though I’d bet this isn’t the first time you’ve been stalked by a wolf. Though the wolf I’m thinking of is… quite little, meheheheheheheh…”

Sakura’s aura spikes, the white glow growing back in strength and enveloping her body once again. “If you’re referring to the Shounen, he…" she pauses, struggling to continue her rebouttal. "...he means… he means nothing to me!” she shouts aloud defiantly. “The only reason I tolerate that little boy around is because he’s proven quite effective at taking your Kaos Cards from you. So that when I take the last card, it’ll be easy to defeat him and take away his three, and then I'll have all seven to myself. That is what that pathetic Shounen means to me. He’s a stepping stone, and nothing more!”

“Convince yourself otherwise as you may, you cannot run from your true feelings. You cannot let harm come to Li Xiaolang because you will it not. In fact, were it not for your love for him, you never would’ve made it this far. It was your love for him that drove you to confront the Industry Card in the museum, all because you refused to let him fight the Kaos Cards on his own. It was your love for Xiaolang that called him to your aid to defeat the Nightmare Card, because what other force could break through the Nightmare? And it was your love for Xiaolang that led you to track down the Mirage Card in the forest that night... because you didn’t want him to be confused and distressed by Mirage. Your love for him shapes you, Kinomoto Sakura...”

Unbeknonwst to Sakura, a pair of glowing red eyes appear in her shadow across the stage, and these shadows lift up behind Sakura and blow past her with a mighty blast of wind. The dark energies exploding from the shadows reunite in the middle of the auditorium, eventually flowing back and reforming into Lycan’s shape.

“Ah, yes, ‘Orchid’. I see through the conundrum of your heart. And right when I think I had you figured out, your real Kaos turned out to be your war against your own feelings,” Lycan derides paradoxically, speaking to Sakura as if some ‘real’ part of her was at a great distance. “Yet, nevertheless, love is incompatable with the powers that Kaos bestows. And just as a speck of cancer can destroy the body, so too will you, Orchid, be destroyed by the feelings of love within Kinomoto Sakura. No matter what happens here today, even if I am destroyed here, you will never achieve the heights of anarchy and nihilism that I am capable of, and your reign as the greatest of all Kaos will always be set apart from you because of Kinomoto Sakura.”

Sakura smirks wickedly, her inner Kaos reaching an epiphany with dire consequences. “Just hold onto that thought, Lycan. The war in my heart isn’t over yet,” she boasts, reaching towards the lanyard with the Elixir of Fire’s bottle on it. Holding it up and clutching it tightly, paying no heed to the once-searing heat that the Elixir had on her at very first, she reachesto place her thumb on the beaked valve that will release the Elixir of Fire when depressed. “Only a true Kaos can destroy these feelings inside of me for good. When I use the Elixir of Fire, Kinomoto Sakura will be purged from my very soul by these flames. Never again will these feelings of love plague me, and I will take away your empire for myself, Lycan. I’ve come this far already, and I’m not going to let anyone, you, the Shounen, or even Kinomoto Sakura stop me!”

Acting through Sakura, Orchid depresses the valve, allowing the mighty Elixir of Fire to pour out, flowing like fresh blood on the winds, and howling out with the tortured screams of a thousand lost souls. Orchid grins in confidence at the thought of her liberation from Sakura's love, but something strange and unexpected happens with the Elixir of Fire. As opposed to how the Elixir of Fire normally takes residence inside Sakura, this time the Elixir of Fire flows straight towards Lycan. The very bottle and lanyard themselves are mystically drawn up and out of Sakura’s grasp, heading straight for Lycan as well. With an open maw, the energy from the Elixir of Fire flows straight into Lycan’s mouth, causing the already-fearsome beast to increase in size by the very second. The Elixir of Fire’s bottle and lanyard fall into Lycan’s mouth, dissipating into the nether-dimension of Lycan’s body, and causing Lycan to swell up to the size of a house taking up most of the available space left in the ever-cramping auditorium. Orchid stares on in shock as not only is Lycan growing in power, but as she is losing grasp of the only force she knows of that can rid her of her accursed love.

“No, Orchid, I will have none of that!” Lycan insists. “You forget whose Kaos the Elixir of Fire is. I am Kaos Gin, and the Elixir of Fire is my Kaos! It shall never desert me in my time of need, nor shall it abandon me for another, for I have truly become one with it. And yet, had you the same two centuries to prepare for this moment that I had, your own Kaos might have been sufficient to put us on equal footing. But as it stands, your Kaos is but a flickering candle. But my Kaos... has just been rejuvenated!” Lycan boasts.

Letting out a ferocious roar, Lycan lets loose a blast of Fade wind upwards to the lights above the auditorium, and these blasts darken the very ceiling with a thick, black fog that plunges the auditorium into a heavy cloud of darkness. Occasional cracks of illumination dart around amongst these clouds, accompanied by the tempo of a deep rumbling thunder, revealing Lycan's vastly increased stature, but Orchid’s power aura allows her to see Lycan fully well without the aid of the lightning. Unfortunately for her, this is all that she can seem to do.

Orchid stands strong nonetheless, despite the odds of facing down an even more powerful Lycan seeming like far too much for her to bear. Thinking quickly, she comes up with a solution. “I don’t have to beat your Kaos, Lycan! All I have to do is capture the Fade Card that hides inside of you, and then you’ll be completely disarmed.

“While yes, it is true to some extent my powers will dissipate, it’s not entirely accurate," Lycan thinks to himself. "There are... other sources…”

“You know that Fade hides within me… but the question remains whether or not you can seize it,” Lycan challenges.

Taking the challenge, Orchid dispels the Nightmare from the Key and pulls out a different Kaos Card, which she quickly taps her wand against. “Go, and retrieve the Fade Card from inside Lycan! Industry Card!” Orchid commands.

After she taps her wand against the Industry Card, three metal cables shoot out of it, heading straight for Lycan’s mask like possessed spears. With his newfound size increase, Lycan finds the auditorium too cramped to dodge the Industry effectively, but it matters not as the cables hit his bone mask and ricochet right off, like the waters of a river against a hard rock.

Orchid scoffs at the uselessness of the Industry against Lycan’s enhanced fortitude. “Weaklings…” she derides, hanging her head and staring down, but something near to her feet catches her eye.

Where the Mirror Card once was, the outfit that she left behind still has the added holsters attached to the belt, where two model pistols rest within their holsters at either of the wearer’s sides. Orchid stares curiously at the model pistols and she reaches down to pick one up and scan it over. Unfortunately, the pistols were indeed just toys, but she gets another idea. Staring down Lycan again, with her staff in one hand and the pistol in another, she smirks. Without even a word, she raises her hand in the air to call back the three coils of the Industry that had bounced harmlessly off Lycan, restoring Industry to its card form.

“Now let’s try this again,” Orchid announces confidently, getting the essence of a worried expression from the otherwise stoic former Kaos Captor. “Now, breathe life into this instrument of destruction, Industry Card!” Orchid commands. Tapping her wand against the Industry Card again, the coils now arc out from the card and enter the model pistol. With their transmogrifying touch, the Industry’s magic turns the pale, resin plastic of the models into a gleaming cobalt, shining brightly as the metal of a real gun. Furthermore, within the six-chaimbered barrel of the revolver, Orchid notices three brightly-glowing bullets are cued up to fire upon the twitch of the trigger. She points the revolver straight at Lycan, poised to fire.

Lycan opens his mouth, revealing a slight twinkling light amidst the otherwise unforgiving darkness in his mouth. The fog of another Fade blast gathers, as Lycan prepares to cut off the cocky Orchid in her tracks. “You won’t capture the Fade Card if it can take away your senses first! With the Elixir of Fire reinforcing my powers, your weak Kaos cannot protect you this time!” Lycan threatens, preparing a mighty counterattack.

Orchid aims carefully for the speck of light gleaming from inside Lycan’s mouth and she squeezes off a single round with the revolver, the gun’s discharge like the clap of thunder. In midair, the racing bullet turns into one of the three cables that make up the Industry’s true form. Quick as a flash, Lycan seems to involuntarily swallow one of the three cables of the Industry, also dissipating Lycan’s potentially fatal fog blast and seemingly causing Lycan to choke violently, his roars of pain like the wails of a wounded dragon.

Orchid then fires off a second round with the revolver. This round arcs slightly and wraps one of its ends securely around Lycan’s mask. The other end races into Lycan’s still hanging open mouth, grabbing its counterpart cable and dragging it out. The cable pulled from Lycan’s mouth has tied up and bound the sickly vulture that is the Fade Card’s true form, forcefully and literally ripped right out of Lycan’s throat. Lycan attempts to shake his head from side to side to shake the cables from clinging to his mask, but the Industry hangs on tight, binding the Fade to his mask by its skinny, decayed wings. Splayed out over Lycan’s mask, Fade is perfectly-positioned and helpless for a third shot.
"Reach for the sky, ya' yella-bellied varmint..." Orchid teases. With a carefully-aimed and devastating final shot, the last cable leaves the revolver, causing the device to degenerate back into a plastic resin model. This is, unfortunately for Lycan, all moot as this third shot from the Industry smashes into Fade and causes the decrepit vulture to explode into a puff of dust and black, scrawny feathers. The bullet seems to even shoot straight through Fade and cause a critical crack in Lycan's mask, nearly blowing it clean in half. As Fade disappears, so too does Lycan, disappearing in his entirety into the weakening shadows, leaving nothing behind.

With Lycan gone and Fade dispelled, the black fog covering the lights cracks like glass and shatters away, leaving the lights to shine down. Then, taking up her Kaos Key once again, Orchid turns her attention to the falling black feathers that were once the Fade Card. With a proud smile all over her face, she raises up her staff to seal away the remnants of the seventh and final Kaos Card.
“Return to your original form: KAOS CARD!” she declares pridefully. Bringing down her staff before the cluster of black feathers floating through the air, an orange card takes form at the tip of her staff. With a mystical cyclone around the card, the feathers are sucked into the card and condensed until at last the feathers are all absorbed and the card’s ethereal glow dissipates. An elated Orchid even trembles slightly in anticipation, knowing that she had once and for all proved the naysayers wrong.

As the finally-sealed Fade Card flutters into her hand, contact with the card and seeing her name seared below the text seems to jar her into a deep trance. She seems to freeze still, but her mind races about out of control, struggling to comprehend the situation around her, and how she had finally come to the end of the road, but it was no use for her. Nothing seemed to matter. In fact, part of her seemed to cringe in the victory that she had sought for what seemed like an eternity.

Feeling the cold wind on her arms, she begins to shiver, and then proceeds to shiver violently, with some artificial cold about her making her feel clammy. She exhales into her palms, rubs her arms, and curls up into a ball, doing all that she can to withstand this strange, cold sensation, but to no avail, as she seems to freeze from the inside-out.

"...wh-wh-wh-what's ... what's going on...?" Sakura asks meekly. "...W-w-w-why am I-I-I-I- ...s-s-s-s-so ...so c-c-c-c-c-c... -c-cold?" As the moments pass on and she continues to shiver, her eyelids get progressively heavier and heavier, and her exhaustion seeming to increase with the cold. Despite her best efforts, her energy finally gives out and she falls into a cold slumber.

*-*-*