CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"You can't scare me, Matsumoto." Sonomi spoke into her phone. "Whatever you make, I'll come up with something better."

"Ooh, sounds like someone's scared of me…" Maki goaded through the phone. "Face it, Daidouji. I've got the real goods now. You're yesterday's korokke!"

"We'll see about that! Starting tomorrow, the DJ Run 'N' Play Sakura doll will sell for 20!"

"Ha! The Glamour Glitz Sakura with assorted glasses is already at 15! Beat that, homemaker!"

"You--! Fine! The 3 piece Sakura, Syaoran and Tomoyo plush set will sell for 10! How's them apples!?"

Maki just yawned. "Oh, please. My five pack with Sakura, Syaoran, Tomoyo, Kero and Suppi will go for 7!"

"What!? Seven!? Are you out of your mind!?"

"Them's the breaks."

"WarHawk play set with miniature Touya and Yukito! 13!"

"Really? Thirteen?"

"Yes!" Sonomi laughed, realizing she had the better deal. "Ha ha! I got you!"

"No, no." Maki chuckled. "I meant that it seemed a little too high. I've got it for 11."

"Son of a--!" And with that, an angry Sonomi hung up the phone as Fujitaka sat in his living room, reading the paper.

"So how'd it go?" He asked her.

"I cannot believe that woman!" She ran her hands through her hair like a crazy person. "Selling all those items for such a low price? And some of her original ideas are better than mine! I can't believe it!"

"Well, didn't it ever occur to you to include Suppi and Kero in the plush collection?"

"They're already plushies! Why the hell do I need to make more!?"

"Actually, I think Suppi's a cat."

"Whatever! Oh, that woman is going down!"

"Right, I'll call the press." Fujitaka sarcastically said.

Sonomi then let off a frustrated sigh from the sound of her phone. Hesitantly, she answered it. "Yeah, what is it!?"

"Hello, Ms. Daidouji." The eerie voice on the other end started. "It's good to hear from you again."

"Who is this?"

"An old business partner you may recall."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, I think you do. I seem to remember a certain deal we worked out six years ago concerning a means of transportation for your daughter and her friends."

The horrified look on Sonomi's face managed to grab Fujitaka's attention. "Sonomi? What is it? Who are you talking to?"

"…Kanaye."

"What?"

"Very good, Ms. Daidouji." Kanaye continued. "You remember. And don't try to track this number, you'll never find it."

"What do you want, Hiroshi?" Her tone suddenly changed.

"Oh, nothing. Just to tell you that I'll be going back on my end of the bargain."

"What end?"

"I promised you no one could get hurt flying around in that plane. Well it just so happens, I found a way. And I intend on using it."

"Don't you dare! Sakura and--"

"Sakura will be left helpless. As will her friends, once they see what I've equipped the jet with."

"You son of a b--"

"Good night."

The phone instantly hung up, leaving Sonomi confused and upset. "No… Oh, dear God…"

"Sonomi, I don't get it. What did he want?" Fujitaka was now concerned. "What did he say?"

"They're in trouble, Fujitaka. Our kids are in trouble."

Inside the WarHawk, Aries looked out the window and sat down with his head in a daze. Sakura noticed this and sat beside him.

"Are you okay, Aries?" She asked.

"I'll be fine." He answered groggily. "I'm not used to using my telekinetic energies in this atmosphere. The frequency standards are much higher and thus take a lot more energy from me."

"Sorry."

"Sakura, I'm sorry we couldn't accomplish this mission."

"So am I."

"But we must focus on Exitir. According to the timer probe, we have less than a day and a half before he arrives."

"Okay…" Sakura sighed hesitantly. "…What exactly do we have to do?"

Before Aries could explain, Touya noticed his controls starting to malfunction and called out to Sakura. "Hey, kaiju! Get over here!"

"What do you want, ass-face?"

"Our controls are starting to give out! Fix it!"

"What do you mean fix it!? Do I look like a mechanic to you!?"

"Yeah but don't you have a card or something that can, y'know, do stuff?"

"Touya, stop playing around! Yuki, you tell him!"

"No, he's right!" Yukito started flipping the switches on his board. "We're flying but nothing's responding!"

Just then, a flat screen lowered itself from the top control panel of the cockpit and switched on. Much to everyone's horror, Hiroshi Kanaye greeted them from the monitor.

"Hello, Tokyo Knights." He said with a grin.

"What else is on?" Meiling asked, searching for a remote.

"Kanaye." Sakura faced the screen. "How are you doing this? Let us go right now."

"Don't be frightened, Sakura." The man chuckled. "Your plane will make it to the ground. But you won't."

"What do you mean?"

"I intend to crash this plane and kill each and every one of you before you even get to the air hangar. If you look out your windows now, you can see you're still above the water. For now, anyway…"

"Okay, I've heard enough." Sakura said as she took out a card.

But before anything could happen, a spark of light caused an invisible ray of energy to shoot out from the jet's computers and knock Sakura, Eriol, Yukito, Nakuru and Aries unconscious.

"Sakura!" Li cried as he unbuckled his safety belt and hurried over to her.

"Eriol?" Tomoyo leaned over the boy. "Oh, no… Yukito? Nakuru?"

"You killed them." Touya growled.

"No, not yet." Kanaye said. "I simply knocked them out with an ionic pulse. Their mental states are in a sort of limbo right now, preventing them from using their magical abilities."

"Then why didn't it take us out?" Kero demanded to know.

"Your magic isn't as strong as the others. Therefore, I seen no need to worry about you stopping my plans."

"You should! We could stop the plane from crashing ourselves!"

"I highly doubt that."

"Well, he called our bluff." Spinel backed away. "We're dead, Kero."

"And now, old friends…" Kanaye continued. "I bid you farewell."

The entire side of Yukito's control board exploded, sending several shards of metal wiring, debris and fire across the chambers of the plane. Luckily, nobody was hurt but the plane's elevation started to decline. Touya remained seated as he waved the smoke away and watched as they headed for the ocean.

"Oh, shit!" He cried. "Everybody hang onto something! We're gonna crash into the water!"

"What!?" Kero started to panic. "This isn't good! This isn't good! Spinel! Do something!"

"I am!" The cat hid under his seat. "I'm kissing my ass goodbye!"

"Wait a minute." Touya noticed a body of land coming into view. "We're almost home… okay, new plan! I'm gonna try to land this baby somewhere in the woods! But I'm gonna need help!"

"You got it…" Li said as he unleashed his sword and activated a wind spell.

The wind surrounded the plane and helped level it above the ocean, giving Touya more time to take evasive action. Li held his sword firmly against the magic ofuda as the plane started to shake and rattle.

"Touya…" He strained. "I can't hold on much longer!"

"Okay, okay, okay…" Touya breathed heavily as pulled down the controls with all his might.

Just then, a mountain came clear into view and startled everyone. Touya attempted to dodge the mound of rock but it was already to late. With a massive hit to the hull, everyone in the passenger area flew to the back of the plane and hit themselves against the wall.

"Oh, great. The power's out!" Meiling whined as she noticed the blackout inside the jet.

The WarHawk flung across the air, its engines now dead, and eventually hit the ground with a heavy thud. The impact led all of the passengers to fly and hit the ceiling, knocking a few more unconscious. The plane didn't stop there, however, as it started to slide through the wilderness, knocking down several trees and ripping out chunks of earth. Inside the cockpit, Touya continued to steer the plane with whatever power he had left but still couldn't avoid running through the tall trees. Kaho, with all her might, held out her arms and tried to bring the jet to a stop using her kinetic energy. Meanwhile, Li held onto an injured Tomoyo and rocked intensely to the motion of the plane, hearing nothing but the sparks from the interior, the squeaking of the loose metal and the rumbling from the outside.

"Almost there!" Kaho strained.

Touya screamed out in pain as he pulled on the controls with all his might, hoping to end this nightmare. Once the amount of trees and solid rock caught up to the damaged WarHawk, the plane finally managed to stop but not before leaving behind one last jolt that sent everybody forward. In the silence that followed, Touya cleared the debris from himself and looked around for his friends. The lights were all out, emergency power was now one hundred percent gone and the interior of the plane was a huge mess. Kaho fell to her knees, exhausted and slightly inured. Kero and Suppi eventually came around and woke up to the mess that surrounded them.

"Oh, man…" Suppi gasped. "He got us good."

Li, his arms protectively around Tomoyo, looked around the plane and removed himself from her slowly. "Tomoyo?"

"I'm okay." She nodded. "…I'm fine."

"Right." Li slowly got up and hurried over to Sakura, who was covered under a stack of debris. "Sakura… hold on…"

Touya looked up at the gaping hole above the cockpit and could see the moon shining down on them. The heavily damaged plane was now in the middle of the forest with a path of destruction leading behind them. Inside they waited until the ambulances arrived.