Syaoran gaped in horror at Sakura's body lying limp on a nearby cloud. "You killed her!!" he screamed.
The Possession Card smiled scathingly. "Hardly, little boy. I need this one alive to keep the Star power intact. I can't present my prize to the Creator if it's dead. Afterwards, however, is a completely different story." She ran a hand down the Star Wand's length with a crazed look in her eyes. "I can't believe my luck. An entire inexhaustible well of power, and it's all right here lying in my hands. As long as that little twerp is alive, the magic is inexhaustible... I suppose it wouldn't be bad if I had a little fun with the Creator's key to ruling the universe."
She held up the Wand and began to fire flaming pink orbs at Syaoran and Keroberos, who had to fly around in sharp circles to avoid them. Yue stepped between the two and shot jagged shards of ice at the Possession Card. The ice's aim was true, hitting the Card in the arm and causing her to drop the Wand as she shrieked in pain.
"Way to go, Yue!!" Syaoran cheered.
The Card's eyes were blazing now, furious as drops of white blood trickled from the cuts on her long, thin arm. Quick as lightning the chain wrapped itself around Yue and pulled him to the ground. Soon Yue had become like Sakura; limp and motionless with hollow, expressionless eyes wide-open in shock.
Syaoran cried out again in anguish. "Why do you keep doing this?" Keroberos asked. "You have what you want; why do you insist on stealing the powers of everyone else as well?"
"The Star power is for my master, the Creator. But do you expect me to walk away from conquering the most powerful sorceress in the modern world without spoils of victory?" The woman closed the lock to the left of Sakura's, and the chain radiated white-hot with power. "Run for your life, little boy," she crowed. "You and your pretty little kitten are next."
Fujitaka stopped reading the paper for a moment and looked at his watch. It was already 8:00 at night, and there was still no sign of Sakura, Kari, or Touya. He thought that they may have been out late with their friends. But what if they weren't? Surely their friends would have come looking for them if they hadn't been with them, but neither Tomoyo, Yukito, or Syaoran had come asking for them. Where were they? he thought anxiously.
He walked over to the window, opened it, and stared up at the inky black sky. Fujitaka had always felt some strange, unexplainable affinity with the darkness of night, and especially with the moon. The moon was out tonight, round and white as a giant snowball. The stars were out, and every so often a single star would flash brightly, outshining even the massive moon. A chilly breeze blew past, ruffling Fujitaka's light brown hair, rustling in the trees, strangely ominous. Fujitaka played with the silver wedding ring on his finger, the ring that his late wife Nadeshiko had somehow produced from somewhere, he was almost sure it was definitely not from any earthly source.
"Sakura, Kari, Touya," he whispered into the portentous breeze blowing past. "Please, wherever you are, please come home."
It was all Syaoran and Keroberos could do to evade the fiery spheres that the Possession Card continually hurled at them. "We can't run like this forever!!" Syaoran yelled over the wind rushing past his ears. "We have to do something!!"
"Do you have any ideas?" Keroberos asked sharply. He swerved harshly to the right, narrowly missing a ball of flame. The scent of singed feathers filled the air. Keroberos growled. "She burned my wing!! That's it, heads are gonna roll for this!!"
Syaoran leapt up into the air, drawing his sword. "Cover me!" he yelled down to Keroberos as he drew a slip of paper out of the pocket of his robes. "Hey!!" he yelled to the Possession Card. "Over here!!" Syaoran held the paper up to his sword and cried, "Force know my plight; Release the light!! Fire!!"
A stream of fire headed from Syaoran's sword to the veil on the Possession Card's head. Shrieking, she tore it from her and tried hard to put the flames out. It hadn't worked, and soon the silvery-white cloth lay blackened and charred at the Possession Card's white feet. She screamed with agony. "You foolish child!!" she cried, unfastening the chain from about her waist. "You will pay for this!!"
"That's exactly what I was waiting for," Syaoran muttered to himself with a strange grin on his face.
The chain made its familiar snapping sound in the air, wrapping itself around Syaoran's body and pulling him to his knees. The Possession Card looked absolutely livid when she approached him, holding Sakura's Star Wand in one clenched hand, holding one end of her silver chain in the other hand. "I would have possessed your power too, descendant of Clow Reed," she said sadistically, biting the words 'Clow Reed' off her tongue with a bitter edge. "You have prevented that. You made a mistake crossing horns with the most powerful magical entity in the universe -"
"The most powerful magical entities in the universe are Clow Reed and Sakura," Syaoran cut in angrily. No matter how much I don't want to admit it, he added to himself.
"The new most powerful magical entity," the Card interrupted. "You're such a fool. All humans are. I'm going to torture you until you cry out for mercy. And then I'm going to destroy you."
Her pallid blue eyes flashed, and a flash of lightning came from the wand and hit Syaoran squarely in the chest. Syaoran squeezed his eyes shut, pain shooting through every cell in his body. So this is what Sakura felt all those times she'd been attacked, he thought. He could see another flash of light though his tightly closed eyelids.
Please, if this is going to end, let it not end this way!
Syaoran felt a tingle run up his spine, and then nothing. Was this it? Was he dead? He opened his eyes slowly and looked around. No, he wasn't dead. Someway, somehow, he'd survived the lightning blast. The Possession Card looked down on him with pure shock on her face, her hands hanging weakly at her sides, the chain hanging limp from her hand... the perfect opportunity...
Syaoran kicked himself upright, pulling the chain out of the Possession Card's hand as she screamed in protest. The chain flew high in the air, shining like a fluid ray of light, and Syaoran cut the chain in two as it fell to the floor. The locks disintegrated and the links of the chain fell like burning stars to Earth.
And to Syaoran's utter relief, Sakura's eyes fluttered open again.
Fujitaka looked up at the sky again, still anxiously awaiting the return of his children. He saw a group of stars shoot across the sky, burning pinpoints of light in the inky blackness. Where were they? With every aching minute Fujitaka became more and more worried. They had been gone since eight that morning. Where on earth could they be? He had lost all hope when suddenly there was a knock at the door. Fujitaka ran to the door and opened it quickly.
Touya was standing at the doorstep, dirty, haggard, and ready to faint. "Oto-san," he whispered weakly.
"Touya!" Fujitaka half-dragged, half-carried Touya into the house and lay him on the sofa. "What happened to you? Where are Kari and Sakura?"
Touya's eyes fluttered half-open. "Sakura... fighting... Clow Cards... Kari... magic..." With that, his eyes closed again and he fell fast asleep.
"Sakura!!" Keroberos and Syaoran ran over to Sakura's side and helped her up. "Are you alright?"
Sakura blinked. "Am I?" She smiled up at the two. "Thank you. Thank you both so much." Then she shot up. "Yue! Where is he -"
"I'm okay," Yue answered from behind her. "Quickly, reclaim your Wand and capture her while she's still weakened!"
The Possession Card lay weeping a few feet away, still clutching the Star Wand to her chest. "So close," she sobbed. "I was so close..." Her eyes blazed with fury all of a sudden, and she stood upright. "Syaoran Li, you are going to pay for this disgrace!!"
"Possession Card!!" Sakura yelled. "I want my Wand back." A pink glow began to surround Sakura and her Wand, and she floated off the could she was standing on. Her green eyes shone eerily. "Now."
The Possession Card screamed in pain and a sizzling sound filled the air. She dropped the Star Wand on the ground and clutched the star-shaped burn on her white hand. The Wand floated into the air and landed perfectly in Sakura's hand. "Possession Card!!" she cried. "Return to your power confined!!"
The entire sky filled with a bright pink glow, and a shriek of pure pain could be heard throughout the whole city. Everyone had their hands over their ears, and Sakura had her eyes screwed shut.
"POSSESSION CARD!!!!" she yelled over the howling screams of the Card. The pink glow brightened, then died down immediately.
Sakura woke up in the cold, dew-spangled grass, Syaoran on one side, Yukito on the other, Kari a few feet away, and little Kero sleeping in her lap.
"Sakura." Kero nudged Sakura again to keep her from falling asleep.
"Kero?"
Kero grinned. "On behalf of Tomoyo-san, great capture."
Sakura smiled back. "Thanks so much."
"It is over?" Syaoran asked.
Sakura opened her clenched fist and found a Clow Card face-up in her palm. It had the picture of a woman in pure white with a shining veil on her head and chain with locks in her left hand. On the bottom read "The Possession". The back of the Card looked like a Sakura Card, but the background was black with a white border, a silver reverse moon and a silver pentagram. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief. "It's over."
A few feet away from them, Kari stirred. There were tears flowing down her pale cheeks, and her white-blonde hair was in disarray. Sakura turned. "Kari! Are you alright?"
"So she wasn't a Clow Card, she was just under the spell of one," Syaoran noted to Kero.
Kari sobbed uncontrollably. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, it wasn't your fault."
"No, you don't understand." Kari shied away from Sakura's comforting hand. "I knew what was going on. I knew the Possession Card and the Creator were trying to take me over. I didn't do anything to stop them, though. I helped them."
Syaoran and Kero gathered around Kari as she began to talk. "I found the Possession Card when I was reading a book in my backyard. It just floated in on the wind. I was just looking at it when all of a sudden there was this bright light and I was in a dark room with a lady all in white and another person who was kind of hiding in the shadows. They wanted to borrow my body for a small 'favor' and in return they promised to give me magical powers. I'd always known that Sakura had some form of magic, I just didn't know how powerful. But I was always jealous. So I accepted. Which was a horrible mistake. The Possession Card made me do some really terrible things... while I was sleeping, she left my body for a moment and got my parents in that car accident so that I would end up going here, to Tomoeda... to you. I tried to fight it, but the shadowy figure made me promise not to fight or say anything. I didn't think, all I wanted was that power that they promised me. So I kept my mouth shut. And look what it's done.
" Kari began to cry again. "I should leave. I'm dangerous."
"It's not you," Sakura said comfortingly. "Everything was out of your control. It's not your fault. And we forgive you."
"There's something else I have to warn you about, Sakura. The Possession Card was only the first Card that you have to face. There are three of them, called the Lost Cards. Clow Reed imprisoned them and their Creator a long time ago, but the Creator broke free and now they want revenge. They're not half powerful enough though, so they need an inexhaustible magic source - you. You have to be careful. There are two more of them out there, and they could come after you at any time."
"Thanks a lot." Sakura turned around and saw a few tired, haggard shapes coming out of the cave. "Come on, it's time to get everyone home."
"I'm so sorry you have to leave so soon," Fujitaka said. They were standing at the train station, waiting for Kari's train back to Kyoto to arrive.
Kari bowed politely. "The agency was able to find me an orphanage to stay at. Perhaps with some convincing I may be able to return to you sometime."
"It was really great having you," Touya said with a genuine smile.
Kari smiled back, stood on her toes, and gave Touya a little kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for your hospitality." She then turned to Sakura and gave her a hug. "I'm sorry things turned out the way they did," she said softly.
"It's okay. I told you, it wasn't your fault. And I've got everything under control."
"Thanks, Sakura-san. For everything."
"Hey, what are cousins for?"
As the train pulled up and Kari walked away with a beautiful, genuine smile on her face, Sakura figured that other than the fact that she'd been possessed for the past two weeks by an evil Clow Card and had tried making moves on Yukito, Kari was actually a very nice person.
The three crystal figurines sparkled in the single eerie light of the shadowy room. The one on the far left seemed as if it was trembling - perhaps with fear.
"You have failed me," a strange voice said, echoing from all around, talking, it seemed, to the crystal figurines.
"Forgive me, oh Creator," an airy, silvery voice replied, shaking with fright. "I promise you, it won't happen again."
A hand appeared from the shadows, and the voice echoed from around the room. "You are right. No one fails me more than once."
The figurine on the far left of the three glowed white and shattered into a million shining fragments. "Humans are such weak creatures," the voice continued, uncaring of what had just happened. "So willing to trust, so eager to help others. It's quite sad, really. The Star sorceress is proving to be more troublesome than I thought. She and those meddlesome friends of hers took out the Possession so easily... perhaps it is time we got rid of those friends."
The hand appeared again, and it pointed at a second crystal figurine. The figure began to give off a strange reddish glow. "I summon you, second of the Lost Cards. Bring me the Star power - unharmed."
The red glow filled the room, and the figurine gave off a single ray of red light that pierced the ceiling. When the glow subsided, the second figurine had vanished.
"Make sure you do not fail me," the voice said darkly. "Or suffer the consequences."