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 20.5: The Sunrise)

As though she were walking in her own shadow, Sakura watched the days pass as though she weren't herself. It was like someone had taken a movie reel of what had happened the first time... and then pasted over it with what was happening this time. The only marked differences were that her cards weren't disappearing from her in conjunction with how her heart had begun to waver... but she supposed that was because this wasn't really exactly the same. She'd not been in love with Eriol the first time, for one thing...

She had somehow found herself sitting in an unused corner of the school. She had remembered seeing it during her flashback... this was where she had gone to cry after she'd had been arguing with Syaoran for about a week over the most stupid of things. It seemed like the best place to hide from Tomoyo's questioning glances and Syaoran's incessant apologies. There was nothing she could say to Tomoyo, short of telling her the whole story (about how she was from the future), and she'd decided that telling Syaoran that he had nothing to be sorry about (because she'd been intending to break up with him anyways) would be the wrong way to solve her problem. (He would then have to assume she had forgiven him, which would definitely give him the wrong idea...)

As she realized this, she remembered what else had happened during that afternoon. How Eriol had come over to comfort her and tell her everything was going to be alright...

Curious, she lifted her head to see if she could spot him. Sure enough she saw him approaching her from a distance and she had to bite her lip to force down what would have been an embarrassing show of affection for the guy who hardly knew she existed. (At least, that was how Sakura was treating the situation at the moment.)

He looked troubled as he approached her, and she was glad she'd resisted smiling... obviously this was going to be a serious conversation.

"May I join you?" He asked quietly, not meeting her curious gaze.

"Absolutely." She replied, scooting over on the grass.

Eriol sighed heavily, then lifted his eyes to meet hers. Sakura was undone... she could see it in his eyes. She didn't know how he'd figured it out... but...

"I thought for a long time about the cards you drew. At first I didn't understand them because their message wasn't directed at me and I didn't know the question you'd asked. But, as time has passed I've realized that there is definately something different about you, and it has been different since before we read them..." Eriol paused, his grey eyes reflected his astonishment and disbelief, "Sakura... this fight you are having with Syaoran right now is entirely contrived, isn't it?" It wasn't a question.

"That's..." Sakura really didn't know what to say to that.

Eriol's eyes focused on hers, as though looking for something. "What I cannot fathom, however, is when you had the time to... " he paused again, looking slightly uncomfortable, "fall in love... with me."

Sakura blushed a deep red, but met his questioning gaze without faltering. "You recall that The Return card was not within it's bindings..."

Eriol nodded.

"I... I am from the future." Sakura stammered. "All of this... I've already lived it once."

Eriol looked thoughtful, "So then, in this future... we..." Sakura was pretty sure she'd never seen Eriol this uncomfortable before. She almost laughed when a faint blushed graced his cheeks as he considered what she'd said.

"what about... Syaoran?" Eriol managed.

Sakura sighed and shook her head, "It may look to you like I can save our relationship with things as they are now... but I can't change what happened Eriol, not even with The Return card... and I can't afford to believe that there might be some way to rewrite destiny. For better or for worse, things are as they are... I am not looking back anymore."

Eriol frowned, "It sounds like you gave up before you even tried..."

Sakura blinked at him in disbelief. How could he say such a thing? Then she thought about it and realized that this Eriol still believed with all of his heart that she and Syaoran had been meant for each other. This Eriol still believed that he was the odd one out and always would be. This Eriol was the one that had no faith in himself and no intention of forcing himself on the woman who was already taken by another.

"It wouldn't be any different than what you did." She fired back smartly, catching him off guard.

"I don't know what you mean..." He trailed in surprise as she got to her feet. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes and raised her eyebrows. A shiver rippled down his spine at her glance... she motioned for him to stand and he did so swiftly, as though he were just a marionette on her strings.

"You've loved me your whole life... but you never once said anything to me." Sakura grinned foxily, walking around him slowly in a semi circle.

Eriol backed up as she closed in on him, shock written clearly on his features. How could she know that? "What?"

She backed him against the school wall and her grin widened, "Don't be modest now, Eriol. I understand of course why you never told me. You met me after I'd already sealed the cards. You saw how much Syaoran cared for me and you decided to give him enough time to tell me how he felt. And back in elementary school I was pretty clueless. It would have been unsporting of you to tell me you loved me the minute you came into my life when your competition was so obviously not as capable."

"My purpose at that time was to get you to seal the cards under your own name. I must confess that if that hadn't taken up all of my spare time, I might have used some of it to woo you." Eriol replied sheepishly, slowly beginning to realize that Sakura really did know everything and that denying what she said was the truth would be pretty much pointless.

"But then you let your competition win, didn't you? You gave up." Sakura taunted.

"That's not entirely true... I waited too long, yes... but then you were happy with him. Are you telling me I should have troubled you with the fact I loved you right after you'd already decided you loved him?" Eriol asked incredulously.

"Hmm... doesn't sound like you tried very hard to me. Sounds like you just let things be as they were and walked away."

"But, Sakura!" He argued.

"And that's exactly what I am doing." Sakura interrupted.

"It's not the same as giving up. You chose to leave me alone because you knew chasing me would have you going in circles and you wanted to walk forward. I cannot patch things up with Syaoran because it would be like going in circles and I want to walk forward too."

Eriol shivered as his logic was broken. He stared at Sakura in a new light. "Then... you really do love me."

She smiled and leaned closer to him. "You have no idea."

Eriol's pulse quickened and his heart pounded. Could this be real? "Show me."

She kissed him.

(The present)

Reality shattered and time flew forward. Sakura reeled as it passed through her, like a powerful wind that was trying to tear her clear off the sidewalk...

When things had settled again, she found herself floating in Christine's outfit above a strange scene. The two baddies were standing on one side, Toro with The Return in his left hand. The picture-side facing a horror-striken looking Eriol, an angry looking Syaoran, and an unconcious version of herself.

She blinked as she realized time was still frozen.

"So what now?" Sakura blinked at Eriol's spirit as he spoke her thoughts. He grinned at her as she stared at him dumbfounded. He floated before her in his Raoul outfit, carrying himself with the manner of a person who was more than ready for whatever was about to happen.

Slowly, she realized she must have passed The Return's test... since she was back in the present. She went through the things Clow Reed had said to her at the beginning of this dream journey. 1) Collect Eriol's Spirit... check. [This she'd done inside of the dream world] 2) Collect all the cards... hmm, not quite, the Return still wasn't under her command. 3) Find a way back to the real world... check. [This she'd accomplished in the world of the past]

So then, it seemed she still needed to find a way to capture The Return and get time to start moving again. She pulled The Hope out of her pocket and showed it to him. "Think this will work the way it did on the others?"

Eriol studied the card a moment then slowly shook his head. "I think we're going to need more than hope to prove to The Return we're ready for the future."

Sakura thought about what she'd learned throughout this mess. Well... what did she know had come from this? Her love of Eriol was an obvious answer. 'And of course I love Eriol now because those two destroyed my love for Syaoran.' And her cards had run from her because she had begun to fall into despair. Seemingly friendless and loveless there had been nowhere for her to run to get away from the darkness. Nowhere but into Eriol's arms.

Suddenly she realized something. 'But when Eriol was turned against me... it didn't crush me completely. Somehow I believed that it wasn't real. I... believed that Eriol's love was real. That my love was real.'

"Faith..." Sakura said quietly as she came to the answer. Eriol nodded beside her as though he had already figured it out himself. She smiled at him and he smiled back. Sakura reached out her left hand and he took it in his right. Together they faced towards the frozen card. Sakura's sealing circle appeared beneath her feet, followed shortly by Eriol's new sealing circle.

"Return, I understand the lesson I was meant to learn here... and I am ready to walk forward with the knowledge that as long as I believe in myself and Eriol that anything is possible and that no one can ever take this power away from me again." Sakura said as the words came to her mind. A soft pink light swirled outward from her circle and flowed upwards in the air between herself and the card.

"I too am ready to walk forward, I am ready to embrace my heart and understand that its power is unstoppable when combined with Sakura's. I am done pretending... and I am done being uncertain. I have faith that as long as I am with Sakura, there is no need to worry about anything else." Eriol added in the same tone of voice, squeezing Sakura's hand slightly as he finished. A soft blue light swirled upward from his circle and met Sakura's.

Their circles flashed brightly beneath their feet and the energies swirled together faster than they could see until the powers they had sent out formed into a solid being. She was a small sprite, about the size of The Sleep. Her eyes were pink and blue and her outfit was made of pink and blue cloud-like swirls that moved as she did. Her hair was pure white and hung from her head in two ponytails. She held a small wand that had wings sprouting outwards at the top.

She grinned at them as they stared at her, then waved her wand. The Hope floated upward from Sakura's right hand on it's own, the silver-haired maiden appearing next to the new card spirit. The Hope grinned at the young spirit and winked back at the two of them before both of the cards turned to face the immobile Return card. The card's spirit appeared immediately, smiling at the four of them in approval. The effects of time began to recede, the cards returning to their bindings, including The Faith, and Sakura and Eriol's spirits entered their bodies.

"RETURN!" Toro shouted, holding the card towards the unsuspecting trio.

Syaoran braced for the inevitable... and then nothing happened. He blinked in confusion for a moment, then realized that The Time had escaped from his pocket and had been floating beside him.

'It... it acted without my guidance...' He realized. He looked around to see if he could figure out what must have happened while time had been stopped... to see The Return card flash pink and tear itself out of his enemy's hand. He followed its path to the girl near his feet... and realized she was slowly stirring.

'She must have completed her mission...' Syaoran thought with relief. Toro yelled in frustration and conjured a heavy sword, dashing forward with the intent to kill written clearly on his features. Syaoran blasted an elemental attack at him, but it veered off course... something he attributed to the redheaded Rika who was lurking nearby and smirking at him.

He didn't have to worry about protecting Sakura, however; since as soon as Toro was in striking distance someone else had blocked his path.

Syaoran watched in astonishment as Eriol stood confidently in front of Sakura's waking body, wielding his usual long bladed katana.

Toro glared at him. "Move puppet, I command you!"

"Not anymore you don't. My heart has returned to me." Eriol replied coldly, lifting his sword slightly. Syaoran noticed the new winged hilt... what did it mean?

"Hmph! Then I shall tear it out of you again!" Toro grinned wildly, lifting his free hand. A strange colorless energy shot out from his palm towards Eriol, forming into the red bolt that had turned Eriol against Sakura during the play.

Eriol didn't bother to move, and as it entered his airspace it dissipated, seeming to meet an invisible barrier.

"What? How could you have deflected my emotion bolt?" Toro asked, surprised.

"He is not alone anymore." Sakura replied, finally getting to her feet. Syaoran glanced over at her and she smiled tiredly at him. He was relieved that she was alright... but his feelings of friendliness turned to dust when she moved to stand beside Eriol, staring down the enemy with a calm demeanor that he had never seen her display before.

Toro didn't miss the look of distaste on the brunet's face and smiled darkly to himself. "I see... well, it seems I have been defeated."

"You have. Now, if you wish to keep your life, you will leave this place and never return." Eriol warned gripping his katana just in case.

"Fine... I'll go... but I leave you with this to ponder. You may have saved your new boyfriend little girl... but what will you do with your old one?" Toro tilted his head, feigning curiosity.

Sakura summoned her star staff and The Shield just in time to stop a second emotion bolt from hitting Syaoran. Toro laughed at her efforts, "It doesn't matter either way, stupid girl... I can see it in his heart, he has already decided to betray you."

Furious, she swung her staff forward and her magical energy surged forward trapping Toro in a vortex. "I won't allow you to play with people's emotions any more!" she shouted.

After a few moments of Toro's cries, he vanished, sealed into card-form. Sakura then turned her staff on Rika, who held her hands up in surrender.

"And what about you?" Sakura demanded. "What was your part in all of this?"

Rika shrugged, "Mostly I just pretended to be the people you knew and made you think they'd turned against you."

Sakura studied the redhead. "If you promise to behave from now on, you don't have to end up like your friend."

Rika stared at the pink card floating in the air. Toro was sealed within by a great amount of magic... and in the art of the card itself he was surrounded in chains.

"Nah, if it hadn't been for him I wouldn't have even gotten this far." Rika admitted.

"Alright then." Sakura said, recalling her staff. Toro's card flew over to her and she pocketed it. Rika disappeared, and the three of them were left alone.

Relieved that it was over, Sakura turned around, a brilliant smile lighting up her face. "We did it you guys...!" her happiness was cut short when she saw that Syaoran had Eriol at sword-point.

Blinking in confusion, Sakura walked over to them. "Syaoran... what's going on?"

"Stay out of this Sakura... I don't want you to get hurt." he replied coldly. Eriol held his hands up in surrender.

"Draw your weapon." Syaoran ordered.

"Syaoran... really, have you learned nothing at all?" Eriol asked quietly.

Syaoran looked irritated a moment, then angry. "Draw your weapon." he repeated darkly.

Sakura walked forward in a flash of irritation, "Syaoran..." she was interrupted again, this time by his sword slicing through the air to point at her.

"Stay out of this." He said again, his brown eyes hard and unrelenting.

Growling, Eriol summoned his new staff into it's katana form. "How dare you threaten Sakura!"

Syaoran glanced back at his prey then dashed forward slashing outwards with his sword, Eriol defended himself from the attack and got ready to match blades with the chinese man.

Sakura folded her hands and drew her power to her. Her sealing circle appeared beneath her feet as the two of them fought. Maybe before she might have let them fight. She might have shivered in her own little corner while she waited breathlessly to find out who would win. But not now... not anymore. She was done being the weak one. She was done being afraid and clueless... she was done being the one having to watch while her two most favorite people in the world did everything in their power to kill each other.

Pulling out her star staff, she let the energy of her emotions swirl around her. 'Please stop this... I can't stand any more fighting.' she thought to herself. She twirled her staff and pointed it towards the two engaged in battle. Her power flowed forward obediently, and before either one of them knew it, Syaoran was enclosed in The Shield's protective bubble.

Eriol withdrew his weapon immediately, glancing over at Sakura curiously as she approached them. Syaoran crashed his sword into the protective bubble a few times, adding a bit of elemental flair to no avail.

"Let me out!" Syaoran demanded. Sakura stared at him sadly, placing a hand on the barrier. Saying nothing, she closed her eyes and let the tears she'd been holding back slide down her cheeks. Syaoran's anger subsided at the sight of them.

"Sakura..."

"Why does it have to be this way?" She demanded, opening her eyes and staring at him from outside of the bubble.

Syaoran shrunk away from her... suddenly he felt like he was in elementary school all over again. Tears were streaming down the face of the woman that he loved... and he wanted nothing more than to comfort her and tell her it was going to be alright.

Eriol just stood back... Sakura didn't need his help for this.

"Tell me why!" Sakura shouted.

Syaoran stared at his feet. "If none of this had happened..."

"But it DID Syaoran!" Sakura interrupted.

He glanced up at her, looking hurt. "But... if I had known that it hadn't been you fighting me..."

"But it was me, Syaoran! At least a part of the time." Sakura reminded him.

"I can't just stand idly by and let this happen!" Syaoran shouted in frustration.

Sakura sighed, "It's too late to change it Syaoran. This is the way things are now."

"No! That isn't good enough!" Syaoran said, crossing his arms. "I wasn't lying when I told you I loved you all those years ago. I can't let this happen! Not without a fight!"

Sakura stepped away from the bubble and held her hands palms-up in a sign of surrender. "Syaoran... there is nothing you can do to change this. It isn't up to you to decide who I will and will not love. Fighting Eriol will accomplish nothing for you. Even if you won... I would only hate you for it. Is that what you want? For me to hate you?"

Syaoran stared at her, finally seeming to realize the rashness of his actions. "No, of course not... but I deserve a second chance. I loved you first!" he argued.

"And you broke my heart first." Sakura argued back, nonplussed.

"But that was an accident!" Syaoran insisted.

"And instead of facing it like a man you ran away from it." Eriol added at last, joining Sakura next to the bubble.

Syaoran glared at him.

"Eriol is right Syaoran. Maybe if you hadn't run away you would have been able to salvage the situation. I still loved you, you know, but you didn't really try to save us." Sakura pointed out.

Syaoran walked up to the barrier and sheathed his sword. "I never wanted this to happen."

"I know." Sakura replied, letting the barrier disappear.

Syaoran walked up to her slowly, his eyes locked on hers as they searched for something he had hoped was still there. "If I had been less... rash... I might have been able to stop this. Then again..." he leaned in to kiss her, but she placed her hands firmly against his chest to keep him from getting any closer.

He looked at her hands, wounded. So she was refusing him... he searched her eyes again but found nothing except her firm resolve.

"I'm sorry, I really am... but there is nothing any of us can do to change it, and like I said to Eriol before, there is no point in trying. I love him now, and you're just going to have to accept that. I don't expect you to like it, and I don't expect you to walk away from this without feeling as hurt and betrayed as I felt when you left for home." Sakura trailed quietly.

Syaoran flinched as she laid the facts out for him and realized at last that what she said was the truth.

"It... it will be a while before you hear from me again." Syaoran managed.

Sakura smiled sadly, "Things like this take time to heal... please take all the time you need."

Syaoran nodded slowly, then glanced at Eriol. It took all of his will power to keep his desire to rip the other man limb from limb in check. "You better be good to Sakura four-eyes." he snarled

Eriol nodded his agreement. "Of course..."

"Hmph." Syaoran snorted then stomped off in the direction of the airport.

They watched him go until he was out of sight, then Sakura turned to Eriol, taking in his regal appearance with a snicker. He glanced over at her curious, then followed her gaze. "You think the play kept going without us? Or is the audience still sitting in their seats waiting breathlessly for us to get back on stage?" Eriol grinned.

Sakura held her arm up in an invitation for him to link his own through it. "Why don't we find out?"

"God give me courage to show you, you are not alone!" Christine sang, Raoul watched, helpless as the woman he loved kissed the phantom. Their unspoken plan worked, however; when the phantom released the two of them and gave Christine one last longing glance before he disappeared from their lives forever.

The audience, as it turned out, had been frozen in time since not long after Sakura had run off stage and they had simply assumed the whole thing that had passed before was a part of the play. In spite of the fact that it didn't really make any sense for Raoul to spurn Christine the way Eriol had done, they ate it up anyways and gave the actors a standing ovation.

Sakura and Eriol stood at the front of the cast and took their bows, silently laughing in unison. There was some kind of strange irony in the fact that the play was about a woman that had to choose between two men that she loved... and that Sakura had basically just had to do the same thing.

Later on, Sakura had hugged every single one of her friends with relief when she discovered they were all talking to her again, and almost suffocated her brother when he asked her point-blank what the HELL was going on when she came home with Eriol in tow.

Everything was back to normal, mostly... and the only person who seemed to be upset about any of it was Tomoyo. (Who cried for about a week that she didn't get to film any part of Sakura/Eriol's whirlwind romance or Sakura's battle in the Christine costume, or - for that matter - get to make the costume in the first place.)

Years passed without a word from the Chinese brunet or any of his family members, which made Sakura sad... but they'd written hundreds of unanswered letters asking him about his welfare before they'd finally given up on ever seeing him again.

Finally, they stood before the altar and said their wedding vows, pledging the same undying devotion that they had promised each other that day when Sakura had decided to walk forward...

As they were opening the gifts, a young woman dressed in black approached them with a bouquet of roses and a greeting card.

There was no indication of who it was from, and the young woman didn't seem to know anything about them either.

Eriol opened the card and read it aloud to Sakura.

"Congratulations. I hope this gift finds you well. You don't need to worry about me anymore... I've got plenty of things to take my mind off of what happened before. You won't be seeing me again, and I am sorry about that, but that's the way it has to be. Farewell."

Sakura smiled then excused herself from the guests. Eriol watched her go for a moment, then glanced to the forest that surrounded his backyard. He saw a flash of brown for a moment and sighed. Shaking his head, he went to go comfort his new bride.

Syaoran watched them leave from his hiding place and smiled sadly. 'I'm sorry Sakura... I really am.' he thought to himself before he vanished completely into the trees without a whisper to suggest he was ever there.

The End

Well, this was really fun. Thank you all for your reviews! ^_^ I love you all! *hands out hugs and cookies* :)

~Rozu