Feimei flipped through a magazine, early in the morning. She wished that something exciting would happen. Or at the very least, wished that that scrumptious Toya would walk into the room. As she reached the end of the magazine she set it down, blowing air out of her lips. She decided to go and find Tomoyo. The two of them had strung up a rather good friendship during the time the younger woman had stayed here.
The door was flung open before she could even stand up. Feimei looked up with surprise to find her mother standing there in the doorway. Her mother usually acted with grace and decorum at all times. She did not go around flinging doors open. But then Feimei noticed her mother's face was paler than normal and she was breathing in and out heavily. It was as if she had run a great distance which was something else that her mother did not do. Yet, there was a sense of wonder in her eyes that Feimei had not seen there in a long time.
"Mother, are you alright," Feimei asked as she scrambled to her feet.
Yelan took a few steps into the room before she gracefully and slowly fell to the floor on her knees. She whispered what Feimei thought sounded like "Syaoran". Alarmed, Feimei raced over to her mother and crouched down in front of her. "Are you alright," Feimei asked again. "Should I go get Wei?"
Her mother grasped her arm in a vice-grip—Feimei was shocked by the strength of it. "Syaoran is alive," Yelan murmured.
Many emotions flashed through Feimei at that: disbelief, worry, and hope to name a few. But there was such a certainty and a happiness in that tone that Feimei had not heard in her mother in so long. "Alive?" she repeated, unable to think of anything else to say.
"Yes," Yelan said. "They took him…used Twin to make a copy…but my baby, my son..." She trailed off and she looked into Feimei's eyes. To her great surprise, Yelan's lips were formed into a smile. Not a small smile or a smirk or anything else, but an actual true and happy smile. "Syaoran is alive, Feimei," she repeated breathless.
Feimei's mind whirled as she took that in. He would be a man now, twenty-one years old, probably as serious as ever though. So many things they had missed out on and Father... Neither one would know about the other. "But why didn't he ever come home?" she asked. "He has two of the strongest Clows in existence. He should have been able to come back to us by now!"
Yelan stiffened at those words and her back straightened. This was much more like her normal self, Feimei noted with some relief. "I'm not sure," she said but she said it in such a tone that gave Feimei the feeling that she might have an idea. "But we have to find him."
Eriol stepped up to the window of his study, making sure to stay far enough back that he would not be visible to those outside. Wolf and Sakura were outside in the garden. After the incident with Wolf, he'd given her free reign on the provision that Wolf was with her. He did this because he was curious at what she would do. To his surprise, she looked pleased with not only her new boundaries but also his choice of escort.
It baffled him to no end that she was actually keeping her word and remaining here. If their positions were reversed, he would have used all the powers at his disposal to escape at the first opportunity.
Yet, here she was a month later and showing no signs of wanting to leave anytime soon.
With a frown on his face, he crossed his arms in front of his chest as he watched them. He had noticed the change in Wolf in the past few weeks—it was almost unnoticeable, but Eriol could tell. Before Sakura arrived, Wolf had been completely emotionless. There was no happiness, no fear, no anger. Nothing that could be called an emotion was within him at all. But now, there were the smallest traces of emotions appearing here and there. It was nothing big, nothing anyone else might even notice. Yet, Eriol could see it in the slight downturn of Wolf's lips when Eriol ordered him out on a mission. He could see it in the flash of something in his eyes when Eriol came to speak with Sakura.
But this, what he observed outside his window now, was something else entirely. Sakura was speaking to him; Eriol couldn't hear what she was saying. But the expression on Wolf's face was something he could not ignore. It wasn't that the boy was smiling or anything so different, but there was a sort of relaxed expression on his face. He wondered if it was possible that something within Sakura was reaching something in Wolf. If she was awakening the long-buried emotions that had disappeared from the boy.
For he hadn't always been that way—not even when he had first arrived here. Eriol slipped back into the memories of that day as he watched them.
Eriol stared at the small boy, whom they had kept unconscious the entire trip home. "What are you going to do now?" Kaho asked him.
"He's too old to completely forget on his own and we can't risk him using his Clows against us," Eriol replied. "So, I will have to make him forget." His third Clow appeared next to him. It was a small woman with short hair, wearing a checkered jester-like outfit with a large two-pointed hat. A large white ruffle was around her neck and below it on her chest was a red oval jewel. She held a white cloth between her hands. "Erase," Eriol said.
Erase turned into a cloud of grayish fog and floated over to the small boy. The cloud blanketed him for less than a minute before she returned to her humanoid form. She gave a small bow to Eriol before she disappeared again. Eriol looked at Kaho, who frowned down at the boy. "What are you thinking, Kaho?" he asked as he stood up to leave the room. They could do nothing more until he woke up.
Kaho shook her head. "It is nothing, Eriol," she said. "I will send for you when he wakes up."
It was hours later that he was informed the boy had woken up at last. When he walked into the room, he found the boy sitting up with a very solemn look on his face. At the time, he had resisted the urge to chuckle. He was so very much a Li. He had noted that the moment the boy had used that tone with him back at the Li home. Kaho sat in a chair, observing the situation in silence. Eriol walked over and sat down next to the boy. It was then that he told the boy his name was Wolf—never again would the name Syaoran be mentioned in the boy's presence. He told him of the Clows. Told him that he was part of the Reed Clan. Told him that the Li Dynasty were their enemies. Told him—lied to him—about how he had lost his memories. He told Wolf that there had been an accident.
In the days that followed, Eriol had tried everything to get Wolf to bring out Light and Dark but each failed. It got to the point of near torturing the boy into it. He was so desperate to have the power under his control. And what answered him was a power that he had not expected—the Void—one that he was never sure was ever under control.
However, on that day that Void answered the boy, Wolf had completely shut down. It had surprised them all to watch him shut down and blank out. He could deliver fatal blows with his Clows with no change of expression at all. But now, there was that definite change in him, and Eriol did not like not knowing what that meant.
But as long as he had the boy, he knew that his family, at least, was safe.
Yelan was impatient. It was a rather unfamiliar emotion for her—growing up she had learned how to remain calm and composed at all times. But now, here she was standing in her tea room, barely managing to restrain herself from drumming her fingers on the chair she was resting her hand on or tapping her foot against the floor as she waited for Wei to bring the Kinomotos to her and Feimei. Meilin was also in the room, having been summoned first. When she came in she gave a brief questioning look at Feimei, who had only answered with a smile. Since then, the young woman gave no other sign that she wondered or cared why she was there at all.
Yelan allowed herself a small smile because she knew that would soon change.
At long last, the door opened and they walked in. The young lady, Tomoyo, led the way in behind Wei, looking almost completely composed. A small shade of apprehension and worry that had been on her looks since she arrived betrayed her graceful expression. She gave Feimei a happy smile of greeting as she saw the older woman, which Feimei exchanged in kind. Yelan was aware of the friendship the two had formed during the Kinomotos' stay in her home.
Close at Tomoyo's heels, Toya entered with his jaw locked into a frown and his arms folded across his chest. Unlike Tomoyo, he displayed his worry at the situation with his sister with force. He looked as if he was always ready to take on some enemy in his sister's defense. After his son and niece, Fujitaka came in with Nadeshiko's arm wrapped around his own. The two parents looked as Tomoyo did rather than Toya. There was only a faint worry around their very edges. There was no missing the love between the two, even as they smiled their greeting at her.
Yelan wanted to wait for everyone to settle themselves around the room before she spoke. Yet, it turned out that she was not the one to break in the conversation at all. "What's this about?" Toya demanded with his eyebrows furrowed before she could even say anything.
Yelan frowned in annoyance. The boy had been nothing but ungracious his entire stay here. She supposed it was understandable as he had to be worried about his sister. And she did get the impression that he was actually a nice man, except when it involved Sakura being in danger.
Still, she did not take kindly to being spoken to like that. She raised her chin to say something to him, but she was interrupted in her attempt once again.
His mother placed a gentle hand on his arm. "Please, Toya," was all Nadeshiko had to say before her son looked away awkwardly. Now there was a small amount of shame mixed in his expression, but he said nothing more. Yelan suspected he was a little too stubborn to actually apologize.
"Please tell us what you have discovered," Fujitaka said kindly, as he did everything else.
Yelan looked down at the floor as she tapped her finger on the back of the chair as she gathered her thoughts. She looked at Meilin, moved her gaze to Feimei before turning finally settling on the Kinomotos. "Three weeks ago, the vision I received from Dream caused me to think that something I had thought to be true for a long time may have been in actuality a farce to mislead me."
She pressed her lips together as she paused there, berating herself again for allowing it to be so. It had been her fault. If only…she mentally shook her head. There was no more time for regrets or what might have been. She continued to speak, "I asked for your patience because I could not find out the truth until last night. My second Clow, Return, allows me to be witness to any past even that I so choose, but it can only be used on a night when the moon is full. And I confirmed that I had indeed been tricked. My son, Syaoran, was not in fact killed that night seventeen years ago."
A loud (but expected) gasp accompanied by the sound of a crashing chair reverberated through the room. "What?" Meilin said in an incredulous tone of voice. Her eyes were shining and her expression was part disbelief, part anger, and part hopeful. "It can't…really?" Her voice was so small and quiet at that last word, as if she couldn't allow herself to believe Yelan's words.
"Yes," Yelan responded, leaving no room for argument. "I used my Clow to see the events that happened the night we thought he was killed. Two people, a man and a girl, entered his room. They knocked Syaoran unconscious, and then the girl used Twin to make a lifeless copy of my son. It was a clever trick, as otherwise an organic being made by Twin would fade." She stopped speaking as she remembered the horrible reality she had thought of while waiting for everyone to arrive. A tightness squeezed her expression as she looked at her daughter and niece. "I cannot say for certain that he remains alive today, but I am certain that he was alive when the man took him away. However, it is hard to believe that they would go to all that trouble only to take his life at a later time." Both Meilin and Feimei nodded, showing their understanding of Yelan's words with their expressions.
Fujitaka spoke up, drawing everyone's attention with his words. "Describe the man to me," he said. His tone was quiet but urgent. Yelan did as he asked, watching as a sad frown grew ever more present on his face as she did so. He nodded when she finished. "I can't be completely positive because I did not see him myself, but I believe it was my brother, Eriol Reed."
Yelan nodded her head in acceptance as her shoulders slumped in resignation. "Then, as I suspected, it was the Reed Clan that did this," she whispered. A fire rose within her—she felt as if she could kill the man that had done this to her son, to her family.
"Yes," Fujitaka agreed also looking resigned. Yelan remembered that now her family was not the only one that had been hurt by the Reed Clan. It had taken her son from her and now it had taken the Kinomotos' daughter from them as well.
Yelan took about one second to make her decision on what she should do now. "Wei," she said to the man, who had remained in the room, ever ready to serve her. She noted that the man's smiled was a little bit wider than it might have normally been. Having served the Li Dynasty for so long, he had been the one placed in charge of Syaoran (and by extension, Meilin) when the boy had been born. Clearly, her family members were not the only ones to be happy about his possible return. "Contact the airport," she ordered. "I want my plane prepared as soon as possible."
"Yes, my Lady," Wei replied as he bowed himself out the door.
Knowing that she only knew three of the Clows currently in possession by the Reed Clan, she was going to have to have all the Clows at her disposal as she could. She looked at her daughter. "Feimei, contact your sisters and have them meet us either at the airport or London." She knew that Shiefa was currently at the Hong Kong building, running the operations of their company here. Both of the twins were already in Europe at their two offices there. And while Shiefa did not have a Clow herself, Yelan did not even think of leaving her oldest daughter out of going to get Syaoran. "Quickly, I plan to leave within the hour if possible," she added.
Feimei came to her feet and left the room with Meilin close on her heels. "What are you doing?" Toya asked. He startled Yelan as she had allowed her mind to wander, wondering if there was anything else she needed to do. And, now that she had come to a decision, she had almost forgotten that the Kinomotos were there.
She allowed the fire of rage within her burn in her eyes at them. "If England is where my son is, then that is where I will go," she said. "I will bring him back, even if I have to lay waste to the entire city. So, I suggest you hurry," she finished as she pierced them with her gaze.
They all looked taken aback by this abrupt order. "Why?" Tomoyo asked.
Yelan arched her eyebrow at them as she asked, "You want Sakura back, correct?" She waited for their almost nod before she said, "You may come if you choose, but be warned that I will not wait for you."
The Kinomotos exchanged glances for only half a second. Toya, with an actual grin on his face (though the happiness of the grin was almost overcome by the complete fierceness his expression showed), assured her, "We'll come."
"You have ten minutes."