Another fic that I wrote a loooooong time ago, around the very first couple of mangas when I knew nothing of what was to happen in later volumes or in the anime. This was the kind of ending my brain cooked up when it first assimilated the idea of the journey.

An AU ending and it's not a happy one; so be warned! I don't have a clue where CLAMP are going with all this, after all I'm only up to manga 12 in the UK, so this is pure fantasy on my part.

Reviews and comments would be most welcome. :o) But please no spoilers!!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or Tsubasa in any way. I just play with them. CLAMP however do, so give them props!

Pay Day

By Just Akiko

"Syaoran wake up."

She shook his shoulders roughly, her words an urgent whisper. But instead of grabbing her playfully by the arms, or flashing her a careful smile, his body hung limp; a crumpled rag doll in her tight grasp.

"Syaoran please… wake up!"

She was pleading now, her voice taking on that harsh edge of panic. Emerald eyes glittered with tears as reality threatened to overtake her thoughts. She fought it fiercely, struggling back to the brink of sanity one last time.

"Please Syaoran… please. It's me Sakura. I-I need you to wake up, I-I have to tell you something."

I love you.

And she did. Had done for so long now; body and soul. They had been the best of friends throughout the quest for her feather and he'd been the one to keep her standing when no one else could. She'd often thought of telling him what her heart felt, had even dared to think he may reciprocate the feelings a few times. But then, when they were close, his eyes would cloud, his expression would toughen and he'd move away, bowing respectfully and calling her Princess.

She'd lost count of the times she'd said that she was Sakura to him.

Now not even Princess would slip past those elusive lips, which to her despair were rapidly turning an odd shade of blue. She tried again to shake the life back into him but it seemed that the strength had suddenly fled her body. All she could do was hold him in her lap, hand on his heart, and stare.

He was still. Silent. Nothing moved beneath her freezing palm. His chest wasn't rising and falling any more.

Tears cut through the dirt covering Sakura's pale cheeks.

She felt the burn of a silent scream press against her throat as the misery threatened to crush her. She couldn't breath, she couldn't see. It took her a while to realise the scream was less silent than she imagined. Clasping a hand over her mouth she forced the ugly sound to stop, but the tears wouldn't cease no matter how much she swiped at them. Crimson stains, from fresh scratches, spread painfully across her cheeks.

It had been hard, their journey, difficult, painful, violent. They'd all come away with their fair share of injuries, scars that would last them each a lifetime. But it had all been worth it as each one of them had returned alive and with her memory complete and intact; every feather collected and replaced.

Then why am I left emptier than before?

As the sobs continued to wrack Sakura's delicate frame she didn't notice the firm hand that came to rest heavily on her trembling shoulder. Eventually she turned a tear-stained face towards its owner and felt her heart burn with anger as she looked the murderer of her truest friend straight in the eye.

"Why?" she choked.

A deep ruby gaze held hers and Sakura felt it invade every part of her being. She clung to her grief with all the strength she could muster, desperately denying them any share in her pain but the odd sadness in that heavy gaze was almost too much to bear.

"I had their payment." Yuuko replied, her voice cool and even when her eyes flashed with unexpressed emotion. "But I was owed yours. Now our transaction is complete. Congratulations on your new memory, Princess."

Without another word the infamous Dimension Witch turned her back on the broken girl and swept towards her home, leaving the party in her garden, in the pouring rain, cradling their fallen.

Fate it seems has a cruel sense of irony.

Sakura's mind was reeling. Payment? Owing? Debt? Nothing here made sense; they'd had no warning about extra payment. Why was all this feeling like some awful dream?

But the dead weight in her arms, growing colder by the second, was enough to confirm the reality of it all. She wanted to scream, to cry, to lash out and break something. And yet in contrast he looked so peaceful, so serene, simply sleeping in her arms. He didn't seem aware that he would never awaken to her again, his lips even held the faintest ghost of a smile. Perhaps, Sakura theorized, that burning bolt of light that had wiped the life from his eyes, had sent his freed spirit homeward. Maybe, in leaving her, Syaoran had found his home.

Still that didn't make the pain any less bearable and Sakura felt her insides lurch as she realised that she was alone. For the first time in so very long she would travel, to another world no less, totally alone.

I was going to ask you to come with me.

It was Fai's shocked gasp, echoing in the huge garden, which woke her abruptly from her morbid daze. Still-falling tears were quickly forgotten as Sakura's eyes were filled with a blinding white light. Instinctively she drew away from its glaring source, shading her aching eyes, only to feel Syaoran slip from his place on her lap.

Blindly she reached out to find him, but her fingers met nothing but sodden grass. It was then that she saw, in the gradually receding light, his prone form floating effortlessly at the centre of the glaring whiteness. Her heart stopped as she stared in disbelief at the familiar ball of energy forming above his chest. Inside, a delicate white feather, streaked with black, hung in readiness.

A memory.

Her memory.

But they had…

There was no time to ponder the truth of the situation as a familiar light-headedness overtook her senses. Sakura watched the feather drawing closer as her eyes fought to fall closed, but she battled the unconsciousness that threatened to take her and forced all her thoughts into the simple action of keeping Syaoran in her sights. His body was sinking steadily towards the floor, his light fading as quickly as his life had done. She reached out to him as far as she could, but her fingers found the feather first.

Contact.

Her ethereal body shook violently as some powerful wind roared in her ears and drowned her senses. Memory forced its way into her mind in blocks of colour and stark light, a violent rush that would surely crush her under its enormous pressure. In the midst of the myriad of image and sound she realised, this was no ordinary memory. This information had infused her entire life. This was the stolen piece that they'd told her she'd never find.

The pressure rose to unbearable levels.

She thought she heard herself scream.

It was too much, too fast, she was going to…

Silence.

Emerald eyes opened slowly, as the body sensed raindrops still beating at her shivering skin. She stood erect in the centre of a stranger's garden surrounded, by friends, a dead body at her feet.

And she remembered.

"No…"

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think with a review. x x x