Epilogue Pt.1

How did come to this?

It was not an easy question to ask if one is perfectly fair. Perhaps it was when she had cast that spell, or when the lovers had been cursed. No, those moments were certainly pivotal, but the root of the problem laid deeper into the past. The root predated the day that they had gotten mixed up in this mess and the day Sakura received her letter. The moment she came to her full power and she discovered her own star. It was ingrained into the days prior to the one in which she battled the one he had assigned the Judge and before she sealed the cards. Before she even opened the Book, she was born damned.

Eriol knew the answer to his own question, and he loathed himself for it.

Clow had been selfish, he knew. Selfish and burdened with a foresight he was damned to live through. He could not die. Not really, not completely. His magic would not let him. Even if he died he would be reborn by the will of his mischievous power.

So he devised a plan. A plan in which his innermost wish would be granted by an unsuspecting by product of his greatest creations. Eriol and Fujitaka would be created with their own duties. One to raise the heir and the other to force her into her proper power, granting his wish in the process.

Not for the first time Eriol envied his brother. Surrounded by a loving family that he would never truly know, father of two wonderful children, and husband to a lovely wife.

He had Kaho now. She would live alongside him as she tried to chip at his hardened heart. But still he envied his other half for the past that could have been his.

And now he cursed his former self for what he had done to his own heir.

He must have known, he thought, he must have had some inkling of an idea of what these events would result in.

But try as he might, Eriol's inherited memories revealed nothing.

"Why did it come to this?" he muttered to himself as he gazed at the mirror across his desk, sipping his bourbon lightly.

He had changed. His lower level of power had not been enough to fuel the anti-aging spells that had kept him at an age that he could approach his heir with. The years had caught up to him with the subtlety of a flash flood and he now looked every bit like the forty year old gentleman he was.

He frowned as a glint of steel caught his attention, and he stood to examine the object in his study.

A rifle Clow had used in the civil war. Factory fresh, he had claimed five lives with it.

A new glint led his eyes to an amulet, and Eriol remembered the three souls trapped inside. To its right was a blade that had taken the head of the ten year old son of an emperor. To its left was a canon that Clow had destroyed in a single strike, taking three surrounding soldiers with it. Behind was a dagger, a gift from Napoleon Bonaparte.

Eriol mindlessly grabbed the blade and skulked back to his desk, back to his drink.

It wasn't fair, he decided.

But life never is, he concluded.

Clow's collection was undoubtedly vast, but there were few pieces that truly mattered to either of them. One of these was beckoned by a wave of Eriol's hand, tugged from its perch and suspended by invisible strings.

A sword. Simple and practical, it was fitting of the soldier that once wielded it. The most beautiful and courageous warrior Clow would ever know.

Eriol unsheathed the sword to reveal the name of the warrior. Written only with the character for 'wild orchid', she had been a truly courageous person.

Clow had loved her, he knew. The two had married, raised children, and grown old together.

Or at least she had.

Clow's power forbade him from aging, and he was forced to watch as the person he loved most was torn away from him with agonizing slowness.

That was the first time he truly felt loss. He felt grief when his own mother and father left him. He felt sorrow when his children followed their mother. He felt sadness over and over again as his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren asked him why he did not wrinkle before they collapsed into their own graves in what felt to be the blink of an eye.

Clow was hardened by loss and battle. He had seen many things that would drive greater men insane. A shell was forged around his heart by his sorrow and loneliness, ignoring even the fortune teller that declared her undying love to him.

That very heart beat on in Eriol's chest, choked by the chipped armor.

Chipped by Kaho, he pondered with a smile. The 'older' woman was also an indirect and unintentional product of Clow's meddling, created in hope that she would save Eriol from despair.

It worked, and neither had felt such joy before.

There was nothing to save Clow, though. Driven by grief, he sought to create beings that would not leave him, to anchor some permanence in the shifting world that surrounded him.

He created the Clow Cards, and later the Guardians. A pre-made spell was simple enough. There was no real need to give the spirits lives of their own. They saved him for some time.

But his own insight into the days that would come to pass, combined by the knowledge that he would be forced to see them through doomed their work.

And so, Clow sought death. All living things must die, he had concluded.

He started this horrible series of events to fulfill his own, selfish wish. And Eriol loathed him for it.

He could not stand to see his own reflection, so similar to that of his creator.

He was nothing more than a creation of Clow's regret, he concluded.

Regret for his own longevity, for his loss, for his grief, for the loss of all that he was.

But among all of Clow's regrets, there was one that Eriol now shared.

"I wish," said he to himself as the cool metal of the dagger chilled his forehead, "that we had never known power."

That was the root of all this evil. Of what their unsuspecting heir would live through alongside her lover. Eventually, his cute little descendants would know suffering, even more than Clow ever had.

He had to save them.

That is why he called them.

It's not fair, he decided.

Life never is, he concluded.

In a burst of rage, he downed his glass and sank the dagger into its center. The glass shattered as the blade pierced through it to sink an inch into the mahogany table.

Hot tears poured down his face as he waited for the girl he loved like a daughter to come.

"Eriol-kun," called Kaho from behind the door, "Sakura-chan and the others are here. Potter-san is here too. He brought that charm you wanted from the Department of Mysteries."

"Y-yes, I'll be right down Kaho," he called back.

He stood, leaving the dagger in the table. He looked into the mirror again to make himself presentable before heading down the stairs.

"Eriol-kun!" called the sweet voice of his young heiress.

"Good morning Sakura-chan," he said, "would you mind accompanying me to my study? There is something I would like to speak to you about. Alone, if you don't mind."

"Sure, could you wait here?" she asked her friends and loved ones.

Naoko, Rika, Yoshiyuki, Chiharu, Takashi, Tomoyo, and Syaoran all nodded while Touya and Tsukishiro went off to the kitchen, partially to escape from Yukito's 'sister'. Li had even smiled at Eriol, whose trust he had finally earned after so many years.

It only made what he had to do that much harder.

She followed him up the stairs, unaware of what awaited her.

Clow had lived a life of regrets.

Eriol would now live through his own.

Author's Notes: I know I'm crazy for starting a new story when I haven't even finished with the others but I can't help it. This is a U1 story, which means its loosely linked to the other U1 stories Otherself, and Transformers: Prejudice. Before anyone asks, this doesn't mean that the stories will crossover, it only means that they're in the same universe, you'll see what I mean later but I can guarantee you that the Autobots WON'T be joining in the battle.

Anyways, this came out of the fact that Sakura Kinomoto is in the unusual situation that she is both an overpowered character and a largely underestimated one. Seriously, she could take on Goku, Superman, and the Hulk at the same time and still come out on top (never thought I'd use that sentence).

To clarify, I decided to write this now because chronologically speaking this story should have been one of the first I wrote, followed by Family (maybe, didn't like the later MaxRide books so it might be deleted), TF:Prejudice (and it's sequels), and other stories that are storming aroung in my head.

The next few chapters of Prejudice and Otherself are near completion, so you can look forward to those.

READ THIS! You should know that this is a mixture of the CCS anime and manga, but is based purely on the Harry Potter book. This means that the Patronus charm won't be sending out massive magical shockwaves (yet) and that Rika will be with Prof. Terada and Eriol with Kaho. I'm pointing these two out since they seem to be somewhat unknown. You have been warned. If you don't like these pairings, there's the close button.

EDIT: I had to repost this chapter after making a minor boo boo with Sakura's age. Namely, she's not supposed to be eighteen. Granted, this isn't actually the beginning of the story but I'm not planning on making the story that long.