Re-Broken

Disclaimer: I love CCS... but I don't own it. :( Oh, and I don't own Phantom of the Opera either.

- A change in writing style/time/place/whatever (will notate in () which one if necessary)

Rating: T

Summary: A new enemy is trying to break Sakura's spirit in order to weaken her enough to steal her cards from her. Everyone around her seems to be turning cruel... and the only solace she can find is in the arms of the man she never expected.

Pairings: Syaoran/Sakura, Sakura/Eriol

(Chapter 19.5: Echoes of the future)

"So you think that The Time is making us repeat this day?" Syaoran clarified, the four of them walked together in companionable silence.

"Hai... but that's impossible, right?" Sakura asked curiously.

Syaoran shrugged, "Well the last time that happened even I knew what was going on... I don't get that feeling this time."

Eriol looked thoughtful, "And anyways Sakura... The Time is under your power now, it shouldn't be giving you any more trouble."

"Could it be another card? Like The Nothing... that you forgot about Eriol-kun?" Tomoyo asked, stars in her eyes. She obviously wanted nothing more than to video tape Sakura capturing the cards again.

Eriol shook his head, and Tomoyo's face fell a moment... then something caught her eye and she turned away from them with renewed enthusiasm.

"Hey everyone... come and look here!" Tomoyo called over to Sakura and the others. She was standing in front of the bulletin board just outside of the lunchroom and was pointing at a large black poster with the familiar picture of a white mask and red rose beneath it.

"It says here on this poster that the drama club is presenting Phantom of the Opera this year. Why don't we try out?" She bubbled enthusiastically as Sakura and the two boys perused the poster.

'Phantom of the Opera? Again...?' Sakura was almost positive they'd done it in the past...

"I dunno Tomoyo... I'm not much of an actor." Syaoran muttered.

"Sure you are Syaoran! Don't you remember the wonderful job you did as the princess in Sleeping Beauty? Or the prince in that play that Naoko wrote?" Tomoyo prodded, her eyes shining like stars as she stared at him.

"Uh... well, I guess I could try out." He said compromisingly, never being one to say no to that, sometimes evil, smile of hers, which she beamed at him graciously at his acceptance.

"Sakura?"

Sakura frowned and stared at the poster. "Didn't... didn't the drama club already do The Phantom of the Opera?"

Tomoyo shook her head, "Of course not! They don't repeat plays for at least 5 years! Come on Sakura, say that you'll audition!"

Sakura nodded, but her heart wasn't in it.

"Déjà vu?" Eriol whispered to Sakura as Tomoyo grabbed Syaoran and started commenting on what a fine Raoul he would make.
"Hai..." Sakura confirmed. This was starting to freak her out.

"Hmm... maybe you should come over later on." Eriol suggested.

"Eh?" Sakura blushed.

Eriol laughed at her reaction, "I only want to help you figure this out Sakura... if you come over I can show you how to use the cards to read the future. Maybe they know what's going on."

"Oh... o-okay." She stammered, thought she didn't feel particularly relieved. In fact, she felt very strangely indeed about the prospect of going over to his house.

Later on, the four of them agreed to meet in the auditorium the next day.

Syaoran offered to walk her home, but Sakura declined his offer.

"Sorry... I'm kind of going over to Eriol's first." She said quietly.

Syaoran blinked, but resisted the automatic surge of jealousy that attempted to cloud his mind. "Should I come along?"

"Nah... he's going to show me how to divine with the cards... see if they know anything. It probably won't take very long, and I wouldn't want you to be bored." Sakura explained.

Syaoran stared at her a moment. 'Is she... making excuses? No, I must be reading too much into this.' "Alright... but I'll be at your house first thing tomorrow to walk with you to school." He teased.

Sakura sweat dropped but didn't argue. "Ok, see you tomorrow!"

Syaoran waved as she left to meet with Eriol who was standing not far from the two of them. He let them walk out of sight before he decided he wanted to follow them.

He might believe Eriol wasn't up to anything like he was the last time he'd been in town, but there was just something in Sakura's manner that told him to spy on her and make sure that nothing else happened while she was alone with the Englishman.

Eriol unlocked the door and motioned for her to go inside, following her soon after. His new mansion had been built in a different section of town this time. (The place where the last mansion had stood was now overrun by a theme park.)

Sakura was doing everything in her power to act normal... but she was having a hard time, especially when he did things like open the door for her, remove her coat and place it on the coat hanger. The lightest touch, the most neutral of glances... her senses overwhelmed her. Like she was seeing him for the very first time. And found him incredibly attractive...

"Alright, why don't you sit down and take out the cards." Eriol said, gesturing to the couch.

Sakura sat where he pointed and did as instructed. He reached forward and took the cards, showing her how to shuffle them. Sakura's heart was pounding so loud she could hardly hear his instructions.

Every time his fingers swept against hers...

"Sakura... are you listening?" Eriol asked patiently.

"H-hai... you shuffle them like this right?" Sakura repeated.

"Yes... now think of the question you want them to answer. Picture it in your mind."

'What's going on here... why am I feeling this way?' Eriol's face flickered before her eyes, and she drew the cards, placing them face down on the table as Eriol instructed her.

"Now turn them over like this..."

She stared at the cards that sat on the table... then turned over the last ones as instructed. When they were all facing upwards they glowed in unison, and they showed her the answer to her questions.

She saw everything. All of the days that had led up to this one, how she'd been deceived, how she had relied upon Eriol to give her the strength she could not find in herself.

"What I'm trying to say is... that even though I have no way of knowing whether or not any of this would have changed if they hadn't interfered... well, the thing is... I don't care what would have happened or not. What matters is what has happened, and that I wouldn't change any of it, even if I had the choice."

She wouldn't change... she couldn't change...

"Sakura?"

Sakura blinked as Eriol shook her back to reality. "What did you see?"

She stared at him in shock... was this... was this a part of the test somehow?

"Eriol-kun..." She trailed. It couldn't be the truth... could it? Perhaps everything before had only been a dream. A horrible dream of things to come... that would happen again the same way if she didn't stop it.

There was only one way to find out... without answering his questions, she looked through her deck.

'But how can this be a dream if I feel this way around Eriol...? How can this be real if no one else knows it but me?'

She found the card she was looking for and stared in shock.

Eriol hovered over her shoulder, also at a loss for words.

The Return card was blank. The spirit's picture was not within the magical bindings...

'Then this... all of this is just like when I visited Clow...'

The villains had made a mistake... a huge mistake. The Return would not keep them in this era forever... only until Sakura completed her quest. This rewinding of time was temporary, but everything would move forward in exactly the same way until she figured out what The Return wanted her to do.

Sakura also knew why she was the only one that knew what was going on. The Return had only returned her. The real Eriol and Syaoran were still in the future... frozen in time until she sealed the card. The Syaoran and Eriol of this time had no idea what was about to happen...
Syaoran still loved her... and as far as he knew, she still loved him. How could she break this to him?

"The Return... Sakura... what does this mean?" Eriol asked quietly behind her startling her.

She stared up at him, unable to answer him. How could she profess her love to him right now? It was impossible. He'd never believe her... and more than that, Syaoran would never recover...

"You know what, I think I'm too tired from school to figure this out right now." Sakura invented quickly, putting away her cards as fast as she could. Eriol stared at her in confusion as she flashed him a brilliantly fake smile. "I'm going to go home and rest... then maybe while I'm sleeping an answer will come to me."

"Are... you certain?" Eriol asked her slowly, his grey eyes searching hers.

"Hai, sorry for wasting your time." Sakura said brightly then whisked herself out of his house, thanking him for everything.

"You're... welcome... I guess." Eriol muttered to himself as she disappeared.

Syaoran was sitting on a bench as Sakura walked home. She was so deep in thought she didn't see him as she passed.

"Sakura!" He called out to her with a bright smile, hopping up to join her.

She came out of her trance and blinked at him, smiling nervously. "Hey..." she responded, then she realized they were nowhere near his apartment complex. "Did you... wait for me?" She asked him incredulously.

"Kind of." He admitted sheepishly, falling into step beside her. "I guess my day just isn't complete unless I walk you home."

Sakura managed a strained smile, "Heh... is that so?" 'What am I going to tell him?'

"Well... no not really." Syaoran confessed with a smile. "I was spying on you while you were over at Eriol's."

Sakura stopped walking, frozen in place, a look of pure disbelief on her features.

Syaoran sweatdropped. 'Why did I tell her that?' "I mean... I trust you and all, but you know I'm not comfortable with you... and him... alone..." he stammered. Well, that wasn't true at all...

Sakura didn't seem to notice the lie though. Still in her state of shock she stammered, "You... you spied on us?"

Syaoran moved immediately to take hold of her, reaching his arms out to comfort her. "I'm really sorry... I couldn't help it."

Suddenly Sakura's face flashed from stoic to angry. She stepped out of the reach of his arms, her emerald eyes glinting with fury. "You SPIED on us?" She demanded.

Syaoran threw up his hands in surrender, "Hey, at least I told you the truth..."

"Yeah, but you lied to me first. And I can't believe you spied on me! How could you do that Syaoran? Don't you trust me at all?" Sakura shouted. It was an ironic conversation... that she'd been contemplating only moments before how to best break his heart, but now she was demanding from him that he trust her...

Syaoran took a step back. His face reflected his surprise at this outcome. "I... I'm sorry." He managed.

Sakura's eyes teared and she shook her head, "After all of these years... you have no excuse. I might have accepted this from you once, but how can you expect me to now? I'm sorry isn't good enough Syaoran. I'm very disappointed in you." She said, then she stormed off past him.

"Sakura!" He called after her in alarm.

"Don't follow me." She snapped. He obediently froze in mid-step, watching her stomp off in horror. 'What have I done?'

Sakura stomped through the front door of her house without a comment, removing her shoes as she went.

"Welcome home monster." Her brother cajoled from the kitchen. When she didn't answer, he came out from behind the stove, ready with yet another witty remark when he saw the dour look on her face. He nearly dropped the pan he was holding. His little sister was... angry? She was never angry! There was only one explanation.

"That kid..." Touya muttered under his breath as Sakura passed by without a word of greeting. And suddenly Touya wanted nothing more in that moment that to hunt down the brunet and beat him to a pulp. No one could do whatever the kid had done to his sister and get away with it!

He paced around the kitchen for the next few hours contemplating all the most painful ways of killing someone he'd ever watched on TV. Sometime after dinner someone knocked at the door, and Touya found himself face to face with the person he'd been fantasizing about murdering all afternoon.

"Go away." Touya growled at the somber looking brunet.

Syaoran held a bouquet of roses loosely in one hand, giving Touya his best exasperated glance. "Please, let me talk to her." he requested firmly, seemingly undeterred by the menace in the older man's voice.

Touya, in spite of all the murderous imaginings he'd been doing earlier, saw the deep sorrow reflecting in Syaoran's brown eyes and just couldn't bring himself to kick the boy off their property.

"Look kid, I can see that you feel bad about this... and I can appreciate that. But you need to leave, now, before I do something Sakura might not like..." Touya replied, unmoving.

Syaoran's eyes flashed with annoyance, "This is not your problem... can't you keep your nose out of Sakura's business for five seconds?" he demanded. He immediately regretted his rash words when Touya's facial features hardened, and he caught a glimse of the fury that the older man was just barely holding in check.

"This is OUR home, kid. That means its MY territory. As long as you've got your feet on that ground, you agree to MY rules, or bad things are going to happen. All I know right now is, my sister came home angry. Angry! Now, I never liked you, kid, but I held my tongue before because whenever I saw Sakura with you she was always happy. I have an obligation as her older brother to make sure that things like... whatever this is... don't happen to my baby sister! Therefore, since it seems you are no longer making my sister happy, you are no longer welcome on my turf. You want to talk to her that badly? Do it at school, do it after school... if Sakura is kind enough to forgive you for whatever it is that you did, then great, but until Sakura's smile returns, you are not welcome here." Touya said furiously, pointing a single finger towards the gate.

And though he knew he could easily defeat Sakura's brother in a fight if it had to come to one... Syaoran realized that Touya would rather die to keep him out of his house than let him hurt Sakura further right under their roof. Syaoran's pride was pierced by the realization that he had to respect Touya for that much at least, if nothing else...

"Hai..." Syaoran replied, defeated. He turned and left without another argument. Touya steamed over the argument for a while after the brunet had left, but ultimately calmed down when he patted himself on the back for not killing the foreign pipsqueak outright.

'Yuki would be proud.' He mused.

~Rozu