Dragonia: Wow such a long time… I can't believe this I am actually going to try to finish this story. Yay.
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"Sakura, Mist never told me of this... she never thought to tell me for she thought she would be able to tell you. Yet from what you have told me it appears that you are preparing for the battle at hand. I cannot tell you what you might change to, how much you will turn or if you will ever be the same. All I know is that the change will be over a long period of time a few weeks maybe a month. I'm not sure but maybe there are some answers in your very memory, since you and Mist are one in the same the answers are there in your head Sakura all you have to do is look." The line started to go and crackling Meiling said something but the line went dead. Sakura handed the phone back to Syaoran.
"I believe that your family is going to be in for a surprise." Syaoran looked at her and shook his head.
"What do you mean?" Sakura stood and looked at him.
"I mean there will be a change a battle and a very big ending. That is the surprise."
Chapter 12
Ying Hwa
Somewhere in Japan
"So you are telling me that she is now Mist?" the tall woman with long brown hair smiled. "That would explain the new tattoos." The woman looked down at the man that she had beaten for information. Her brother she had and continued to use him maliciously. First it was for his money, he had married into her family young. Her family had been poor but she had been powerful. She had easily stolen him from her cousin and had him housed here. He tried to escape many times. Even tried to kill himself a few times but her hold on him was too strong.
"Please leave her alone." Touya spit a tooth out and tried to get to his feet only to be slapped across the room again and slam into the wall. He held in the cry not wanting to give her the pleasure of hearing him call out.
"I would not have had to go this far if you could have gotten me the company. But now this has set me back much further with the return of Mist I need to find the weakness." The woman sighed. "Now since I turned you against her a long time ago the only one that might be able to turn her towards us is her friend Tomoyo… But I will have to be careful." The woman sat in a chair that more related a throne. Her thoughts were interrupted by a man in black entering his choice of entrance allowed no one to know that he was there but those that were in the room.
"Mistress." He knelt at her feet and stayed there till she acknowledged him.
"Yes, what did you learn?" His smile was clear as he stood and looked at the one woman he respected.
"Many things milady, first of all it would be a good idea to get one named Meiling. She knows many things about this Mist character. Second the wedding is planning on being held in china at the Li compound. I also found that in the top of the Ragged Blossom Corporation Miss Kinomoto has an apartment. I was unable to infiltrate the facility to that point but I did find that this is where Miss Daidouji spends most of her time; apparently she is Kinomoto's right hand assistant." The man nodded and looked at his mistress carefully fully aware that he was being interrogated for all the information that he held any detail that would be helpful to the situation and upcoming battle. "From my understanding Kinomoto really cares for her company and the employees." The woman smiled devilishly and nodded pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
"You have exceeded my expectations." She stepped down from the makeshift throne and stepped forward placing her long fingers on his cheek. "What do you wish as a reward?" He did not stiffen at her touch as many others had, his eyes seemed to sparkle.
"I only wish to serve you milady. Anything I can do to make the lady smile I will do without hesitation." She laid her lips to her forward and whispered orders into his ear sending shivers down his back.
"Bring me Tomoyo and place a bomb in the company. Place it on an upper floor so that it takes out her apartment. Place one down on the lower floors and make it remote for later. I want her to suffer so that she will learn not to face a war without a great plan that is if she survives." The woman removed her hand and he bowed speaking clearly.
"If my lady were to wish it they would all die swiftly or slowly. All I would need is a word." Her smile twisted and she stepped forward.
"Do this for me and I will give you a reward greater then you have yet to receive." His eyes seemed to light up with a fire behind them so great that his eyes seemed to turn the color of blood.
"Milady?" She smiled and circled him looking him up and down.
"Don't think that I haven't noticed the way that you look at me." His heart pounded louder in his chest and her demon abilities drank in the partial fear. "Do not think me stupid, you would do anything for me because you love me. It's endearing in a twisted way. Spinel I saved you from a fate that you could not imagine and you have served me loyally ever since." Still she circled him like a cat circling a mouse. "You want to be with me, but as I have not been human for a long time. I will give you a true life." She turned and waved her hand across to the wall. There opened a door and a chamber came forward. In it was a woman much younger. The woman's red hair not as dark as it should have been but she was frozen so he could not begin to imagine what she was like or what color eyes could be hidden behind her lids. His mistress stood behind him and whispered.
"I found her not far from where you were. I figured that she was close to death and worth saving if you didn't serve me as I wish." She ran a hand over his cheek. "If you bring back Tomoyo and plant the bomb
as I have directed you will have her back. Your true love and I will release you from your bonds that have held you to your so called 'love' of me." Spinel turned to his mistress and nodded.
"Why don't I remember?" His mistress walked to her throne and sat twirling a glass of wine.
"Well you didn't want to… And Sonomi was, is a very important person. I do not wish to reveal this tactical card not yet. Not until I have that little wench in my claws and can show her the truth." Spinel only nodded but he didn't understand and slipped from the room as quickly as he appeared.
Touya stared at the woman he knew the woman well. Remembered her from when his parents were still alive. Remembered the last time he actually saw her was the last time his mother was alive. Sonomi was his mother's sister she was much younger than their mother was. It was his fault that she was here just like it was everything else that happened to his family. Sadly he hung his head.
"She has served me well you know that, so had her mate." The mistress turned with the glass in her hand and came over to him still lying on the floor. "She's pregnant, or might still be when she wakes and if she is I will take the child it will be the only heir to the company by then." The mistress leaned down and cupped his chin. "Because your sister will be dead and you will be the tool in which I use to kill her. The papers will read tragic death of the corporate leader killed by her brother. The only heir to the corporation is her cousin barely even a month old."
"And how will you get into that position." The woman smiled evilly.
"I told you I am a demon. I can take her body as I took this one." Touya shrank back.
"Then if you can take over their bodies why didn't you take over Sakura's?" The mistress turned so fast and threw the glass that Touya didn't realize it left her hand till he felt the liquid near his hand.
"I had tried once to steal her soul and body, a long time ago when the corporation was still young and she was just a posing cop. Oh yes I remember it will I was too weak then even now I won't make it. She has Mist. Mist is not just a part of her mind, oh no it's a very strong spirit that merged with her back when," the mistress sighed. "I have only felt it once before long time ago, when there was still ancient magic. There was a woman who ruled peacefully, it was disgusting. She had two strong warriors, they had all seen horrors and yet chose to rule this way." She sat down and knocked over a table. "Your sister is the reincarnation of that bitch. I Killed her then and I WILL KILL her now. A century has passed and she knows nothing! She is not even at full strength and when her warriors appear she will not be strong enough to embody them and even if she is you will kill her and then they will kill you." Her smile was vicious.
"And how do you propose to make me do this?" She looked at him and she saw the defiance she saw the other day when he ran out of here and somehow got passed her guards.
"Because when you really think about it… You have wanted to kill her all these years." The mistress stood and walked over to him and made him stand laying her hand on his cheek. "I can either thrall you
into doing it or you can willingly go and somehow hope that you can kill yourself… even if you do though know I will find another way to kill her."
"May I know the name of the woman or demon that will kill my whole family?" It wasn't really a question more of a request and she granted it to him for his strength and endurance lately.
"My name is known as Kaho."
China
Sakura stood at the window patiently waiting for Syaoran to return from his shower to go to the elders. They had made their decision it was a little later then they had expected but all the same it was a decision. Sakura did not fear this as much as she feared what came next. The battle would be long and she felt it on the horizon, according to Meiling she wouldn't be ready for a couple more months. She needed to be ready now no matter what it would cost her. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realize the arms were around her until she felt the chest against her back.
"Ready?" She nodded silently in answer and they headed down the hall to the room where the elders resided. This time it was a smaller room and brighter, when they entered the room there was no announcement and it looked more like a conference room then a place of judgment.
"Please sit." The youngest woman spoke to them her attire similar to what she wore yesterday. They all wore the same colors a color of rank which marked who was who. Together the couple sat at the one end of the conference room. The eldest man spoke his livid red clothes a compliment today.
"We have spoken long over the information provided to us and have question for the young lady." The word was light and barely spoken. Sakura nodded and waited patiently.
"You stated that it was a magical… way about the tattoos." The oldest woman spoke not with hate but with great interest. Sakura took a deep breath and decided that the best thing was to explain all that she knew or rather all that she could remember.
"I must first state that my memories are not what they should be of my past. I have been through much and they are distorted but I can tell you what I do know. Mist, as I am sure you have all heard of her, is a part of me. Now we are one person, before I believe that she was my friend not another side of me. She did not get the chance to tell me the whole story, but you must know so I will try to recall it the best that I can." Sakura closed her eyes and stretched out her hands, when she spoke it was not her voice but the voice Mist liked to use vibrating tones of water.
"Long ago before this life the soul was gathered and created a woman that her name is now lost somewhere in time and my forgotten memories. This is the last time that I will be able to speak…" there was a pause as if she was collecting her thoughts. "This is the last thing I can do for her, for us as one. Know that Sakura is a reincarnation of one of the most powerful woman in Japan. If you search history you will find the remnants of the tri power. Very soon her guardians will embrace their destiny." Slowly Sakura's eyes opened and revealed their complete black depths. "Let me show you why Sakura looks like
this." A bubble appeared in her hands like water and in it appeared; it showed a warehouse that Syoaron had only heard of once. "You see Sakura at the time had taken on a position at a police station to help out her best friend's boyfriend. It was also because she wanted to help people. She temped as a cop to help out. Well she got a tip that there was going to be a shootout at the Warf in the one warehouse. To make a long story short, there wasn't a shootout just a trap. There was a woman that her name at the moment I do not know because she is a demon. She recognized that Sakura, that I am the recantation of this powerful woman. She tried to possesses us but she could not come close she was not powerful enough to break the links that connected the soul and the body to this life. So instead she decided that it would be better to kill her. Her choice of death was a vat of chemical that to this day I do not understand the properties. It changed her to this the tattoos are part of the formation of the past formed by the chemical. But because of the pain that her body was put through Sakura lost consciousness and in that I was created. To protect her and in my birth I had the memories or at least most of them from the past life." She paused and closed her eyes and the picture changed to a storm and the night that the change overcame Sakura. "When we merged," she looked down, "I lost most of those memories. This is all I can do I will shortly fade completely into Sakura and what help I could have been will no longer be there. But with me gone she will come to her powers completely she will be scared and scare many others." She looked up the eyes almost clear blue. "And I ask of this clan since she has no other family to turn to, to please protect her and assist her in her journey. I cannot tell you if she will live but if she does her abilities will make this family…" Sakura paused and the bubble broke and her last word was whispered as Mist completely faded. "Unified."
The woman who up to this point had not moved in her purple garb looked at Syoaron. "Well young Xiao Lang we never imagined that you would bring home the reincarnation of Ying Hwa Li." They all looked at the woman.
"You really think that that's who she speaks of?" The old man in red asked unbelieving of what they just saw.
"There are few that know the true history. I hold the history of this clan and I can tell you right now that Ying Hwa could control water with a thought. Though obviously Sakura isn't as powerful, who are we to turn her away she has been on this path to us again. We did not help her then, she made a name for our family and it is because of her that we are the clan we are today. It's time that we returned the favor." She paused and stood with more grace then her body foretold. Walked over to where Sakura sat and laid her hand on her face, Sakura matched eye with the woman. "I know I can see it in your eyes, Ying Hwa was my great great grandmother, and her only daughter was left at five years old without her mother. My great grandmother was alive when I was young and I loved hearing stories about Ying Hwa. It wasn't until many years later that I was told that the stories weren't stories at all. The one that killed her lived and disappeared." The woman looked away and stood. "There is a gift that I can give you. It held all of her power and only the one with the true soul of the original Ying Hwa can hold it. But if you do…" She sighed. "Every power comes with a cost." Sakura shook her head and stood.
"There is nothing that they can ask of me, I have given up everything for this and more. If they ask anything beyond the pain I will go thru to gain this full power then I will not help the destiny meet the
end of this accursed demon." Sakura relaxed and looked at her hand the teardrop had faded slightly. The next change she could feel it would be upon her soon.
"In light of this new information I want her in the family before someone else comes along to take her from us again." The rest of the group was so stunned that no one knew what to say for a while.
"Very well if you have her permission then you must have the rest of ours." The woman in green spoke and looked at the other elder woman. "Of course as we are cousins I remember the words spoken and she speaks the truth and as historian of our clan it must be so." She stood and so did the rest of the elders all of them still nameless to Sakura.
"Yelen will deal with the plans for the wedding when we are needed you will see us again." The four elders left leaving only the last elder in purple and the couple.
"Sakura there is something you should see. If you are who Mist said you are then you will recognize all of this." Sakura and Syoaron left the room and the elder turned to Syoaron before they went very far. "Xiao Lang please go to your mother and inform her of our decision so that she may begin the wedding preparations that she has so desired to do since you both arrived. " Syoaron looked at Sakura and when she nodded he walked away back the way they had come from originally. "Sakura, this is the moment I do not want you to fear because I do believe you are who you say you are. The tattoos speak for themselves," The woman lifted her sleeve and showed a small tattoo that was more a birthmark and it was a vine that wrapped around her wrist and faded into her skin. "Our family has this mark the more the generations go down the less there is until there will be none. The magic was never again allowed to run in our veins my hope is that with you the new generation might get back what we have all but needlessly thrown away." Sakura smiled softly and nodded.
They headed down a hall to set of stairs and down further into the mansion they went. The elder stopped in front of a door that was no different from the rest but Sakura could feel the power behind it and knew they had arrived at their destination. The historian opened the door and they both stepped through the door. There were three things that stuck out to her the first was a large figure of a cat with wings the statue stood calm and was sitting before her. The creature was no different from a domestic cat except that it was the size of a lion. The second was behind it on the wall rested a wand it was slim and had a star at the end the power was steady from it. Behind it was a picture that scaled one end of the room to the other and the moment she saw it she understood everything.
Dragonia: So what do you think??
Sakura: you love to do that to the readers.
Dragonia: what stop right where they would be the most enthralled? YES!
Syoaron: So is it close to the end
Dragonia: No idea… the stories write themselves.
