Hi! Hi! I am in such a good mood right now! I just drew a doodle of Lost and he turned out really cute! I hope that you enjoy reading this chapter, I sort of had a big brain blank on how this chapter should be but I think I worked it out… it just ends up that this chapter will be super long…
Note: The songs that Sorrow and Illness sing are not the actual way the songs go. The versions that are used in this story are the versions I wrote for my Halloween play, "Disturbing Scenes".
Links in a Chain
Chapter 21
I Know Who They Are
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Tomoeda Hospital
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The night air shimmered in the gentle light of the stars that stood alone in the moonless night of the new moon. Three humans stood before the large glass doors of the hospital, a small boy spirit floated beside them on his large lantern.
"This is the place! Right here!" Lost pointed up the building.
"Are you sure this is the place where Illness and Sorrow are?" Syaoran questioned.
Lost puffed up indignantly. "Mr Syaoran, my lantern has never been wrong in finding things before and I don't think it's wrong now!"
Sakura giggled. "Don't take it personally, Lost, Syaoran just wants to get this over with."
Lost blushed and nodded. "So do I, Miss Sakura." He glowed a little brighter and promptly returned to his card form since his purpose for being summoned had been completed.
"You know, I really don't see why you're here, Hiiragisawa. Sakura and I can take care of this ourselves." Syaoran growled. The warrior glanced behind him where the reincarnated sorcerer stood seriously, clad in his formal black robes and his sun staff held in his grip.
"Oh, my cute little descendant, why would I stay home when I could be here right in the middle of you and Sakura's most humorous sexual tension." Eriol laughed. "It is most entertaining."
"S-s-sexual tension?" Sakura squeaked.
"Quite right, Sakura, I would guess there would be some between the two of you after that sweet, heartfelt kiss you shared outside the school…"
"You were spying on us?" Syaoran accused angrily.
Eriol held his hands up in front of him to keep Syaoran at a distance. "I wouldn't sink as low as to spy on you two, it wasn't like I was the only one who saw. You were standing outside of the school remember, practically everyone saw."
"…"
"E- everyone?" Sakura squeaked, her cheeks painted a bright, rosy red; the same color blush that painted Syaoran's speechless face. They hadn't thought anyone had seen them. Maybe it was because they were so flustered when they stepped away from each other that they never noticed that nearly the entire population of the school was hanging out the windows and scrambling up trees to better look at the star 'unofficial' couple of the school.
"Pretty much," Eriol replied. "All except Tomoyo…"
Sakura bit her lip. "That's right, you said Tomoyo was brought here at lunch. She got sick too."
Eriol nodded solemnly and looked up at the glass windows that dotted the many floors of the hospital; any one of those windows could hold his precious Tomoyo behind them.
"That's the real reason you're here isn't it. You wouldn't have bothered to come here before, but now that Tomoyo has come down with Illness's sickness you just want to make sure she's alright." Syaoran said.
Eriol never answered but the look on his face said it for him. He was definitely worried for Tomoyo.
Sakura set her face determinedly. "Let's go, then. We can't waste any time in capturing Illness and Sorrow!" she began to march towards the hospital's entrance.
"Hold up, before we all go in I want all of us to put these on." Eriol held out three stones, each held up by a length of fine, black string. "These are charms that I made earlier so that we can go in there without being seen by non-magical people." He slipped one of the necklaces over his head. "This will make it so that we don't have to explain our presence in the hospital."
Sakura cautiously took the pink tinted stone and slipped the string over her head so that the necklace rested comfortably around her neck. An odd feeling of having silk wrapped around her flesh came over Sakura. "Wow, Eriol, this was a really good idea! I never even thought of what to say to all the doctors about chasing after two dangerous spirits that were loose in their hospital."
Syaoran reluctantly took his charm and muttered his own thanks.
"So, are we ready?" Eriol asked.
"Yep! We're definitely ready!" Sakura cheered and began to skip ahead of the boys to get into the hospital first, her striped pink battle costume fluttering around her. She had worn it just for Tomoyo. 'Don't worry, Tomoyo, you won't be sick for muck longer.'
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Hidden in the Trees around the Hospital
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Two lone figures stood hidden in the darkness of the bushes, their eyes trained on the three humans walking into the hospital.
"I want to help them," Life whispered to Death desperately.
"We can't, you know that." Death replied sadly. "You just regained some of the magic that you lost today. You're still very weak and far from being a hundred percent, the same goes for me; as the situation is, we would only get in the way."
Life grabbed Death's sleeve pleadingly and looked to him with her anxious black eyes. "I know we're really weak, Death, but isn't their something we can do? Don't you remember when we had all our power and we could do anything we wanted! Don't we still have a fragment of that power? Isn't it our duty to do what we can to help?"
Death sighed and grasped Life's shoulders in hopes that he could get through her thickheaded, stubborn attitude. "Don't you get it, Life, I want to help them just as badly as you do, but we're dieing! We have to conserve as much magic as we possibly can!"
Life sputtered and pointed up the random windows of the hospital. "What if I were to just give Sakura temporary immunity to all sicknesses or- or stop time to make it easier for them to catch Illness and Sorrow! Oh! Oh! Or I could shift everyone in the hospital into an alternate dimension so it would be just the demons and the card captors in there!"
Death bent his head so his forehead pressed against Life's. "Stop trying to find different ways to use up the last remaining portion of your magic!" Death used his chains to grab Life's silver chains and lifted them so Life could stare at her own broken, cracked, and tarnished binds. "What you're doing is basically suicide and I won't allow you to through with it."
"But- but-." Life could find no words to respond to Death with so she leaned in and let herself be embraced by the spirit of death.
"If you're so desperate to do something, Life, I know there is a person in that hospital who might want some company right about now… company other than her bodyguards." Death whispered in his companion's ear. "Going to visit her won't use up too much of our magic reserves."
Life nodded happily and let Death take her to their destination.
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In the Hospital
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"Jack be nimble,"
"Jack be quick,"
"Jack got burned by the candlestick,"
"Jack ran all night,"
"Jack jumped all day,"
"Jack caught fire and burned away."
The horribly twisted nursery rhyme repeated again and again over the speakers of the hospital. The voices definitely belonged to Illness and Sorrow; it was easy to recognize their voices since the nursery rhyme was slurred and drawn out as if the speakers were drunk.
Sakura shivered as another round of Jack Be Nimble played over the speakers. She glanced around at the few people who sat in the waiting room, they didn't seem bothered by the voices, they all acted as if they couldn't hear the nursery rhyme. It was another disturbing thing to walk by all those waiting people and doctors and not one of them looked at the passing three teenagers, all dressed quite strangely.
"Doesn't anyone hear them?" Sakura asked nervously.
"No, it doesn't appear that anyone else besides us can hear our dear spirit's rendition of Jack Be Nimble" Eriol answered as he stepped around a pair of chatting nurses.
"Don't be too sure of that, Hiiragisawa." Syaoran warned as he watched a doctor turn his head in their direction, as if he saw them.
Eriol nodded as he glanced over at the suspicious doctor. "Just keep moving, Syaoran, we have to find where in the building the spirits are hiding."
"Pediatrics."
"Hoe?" Sakura turned in surprise as she heard an older man's voice speak up from across the room, as if he was actually talking to them. To their surprise, the doctor was walking towards them and keeping eye contact with them. Syaoran got into a defensive stance as the doctor approached. The man didn't appear threatening; he seemed a little more stressed than anything. He was older, maybe late forties, with graying brown hair and intelligent brown eyes.
"Can you- can you see us?" Sakura squeaked.
The doctor nodded. "Yes, I can. Don't worry; your charms aren't malfunctioning. I'm a sorcerer like you three." He looked over the teenagers and his eyes remained on their unusual clothing a little longer than they should have. "It been a while since I've seen any real young ones with magic, it's good to know that they're still out there."
Syaoran crossed his arms and gave the man a cool stare. "You said something about pediatrics?"
"Oh, right you are!" the doctor nodded. "I know you're here for the pair of spirits who've been tormenting all the children and newborns in pediatrics and the maternity ward; they've been here since very early Saturday morning. I've been at my wits end trying to exorcize them from the place but they just won't go, they've been driving me crazy with they're non-stop rhymes and songs."
"Will you be as kind as to show us where pediatrics is?" Eriol asked. "The sooner you show us the sooner the horrible singing will stop."
"Sounds good." The doctor nodded and turned in the direction of the elevator. "By the way, I'm doctor Hinomori Ari."
"It's a pleasure, Dr Hinomori, I am Hiiragisawa Eriol and this lovely couple here is Li Syaoran and Kinomoto Sakura." Eriol said kindly. Syaoran glared nastily at Eriol's back but never said anything.
Dr Hinomori smiled. The good doctor led the group of teenagers to the pediatrics ward; on the way he informed them of the happenings in the hospital. Adults, kids, babies were all getting sick. Kids under seven wouldn't stop crying, they told everyone that the songs were scaring them but most of the adults are non-magical so they could hear it. None of the antibiotics or any other medication given was helping any of the patients and it was causing a panic amongst the patients and staff.
"So, you see, you three really must capture these spirits and get them away from here as soon as possible." Dr Hinomori concluded as they entered the pediatrics ward. "You'll find the spirits somewhere around here." He said quickly before leaving to complete his rounds and apologize to all the nurses and doctors who caught him talking to thin air- he really liked his job and didn't want to be put into the psyche ward.
"So, they're here." Sakura said seriously and looked around the corridor for anything that seemed out of place- there was one thing, a floating woman dressed in lavender robes going into the room at the end of the corridor. "SORROW!" Sakura took off without warning, leaving the boys to follow after her as best they could.
When they swung into the room it was pack with children gathered in the center of the room, they were all sitting in an odd circle, Illness was spotted sitting amongst them on the far side and Sorrow was floated around them bopping their heads as she passed.
"Duck, duck, partridge, penguin, robin, GOOSE!" Sorrow cried happily and bopped little boy on the head. The boy got up slowly and swayed where he stood, Sorrow took off tripping and stumbling around the circle with the boy at her heels. Sorrow squealed loudly as her foot caught in her robes and she face planted in the tile floor, the little boy didn't seem to notice since he walked right over the spirit and sat back in his spot.
All the kids were like him. All puppet-like and dead-eyed; their skin was pale and their clothes dirty from what ever they had been doing with the two spirits.
"I wanna play now! I wanna play now!" Illness slurred and wobbled as she got up. Once she straightened herself her yellow eyes met Sakura's fearful emerald eyes. "Hello, wanna play?" she asked.
"No. And I bet those kids don't want to play either!" Syaoran growled and brandished his sword. His amber eyes flickered over each of the poor faces of the sick children, his heart felt so torn that they were suffering like that. All thanks to the two female spirits who were making light of the situation.
"They want to play!"
"They said so!"
"These are very sick children you're messing with, you're hurting them!" Sakura cried.
"Blah!" Illness stuck her tongue out at the sorceress; she then grabbed the nearest child and hugged it. The instant that Illness embraced the child it turned green and began to heave out its stomach contents.
"That's it! Stop it now!" Sakura yelled and summoned the Sleep Card. The little fairy-like spirit flew quickly over the heads of the children and her sleep dust fell upon them letting their tired eyes droop closed and their bodies flop back into relaxed sleeping positions.
"NO! NOT FAIR!" Sorrow yelled.
"Take this!" Illness held out her hands and blew across her palms; her breath seemed to pick up a dirty yellow powder that swirled towards Sakura. Syaoran moved quickly to shoved Sakura away from the sickening powder but e wasn't lucky enough to not catch some himself. The instant it entered his lungs an over-powering nausea rose up within in him and he clutched at his stomach in hopes to keep the bile down.
"Syaoran! What's wrong?" Sakura kneeled at Syaoran's side but the warrior pushed her away with one of his hands.
"Don't! I'm going to be sick!" Syaoran warned, gagging a little as he spoke.
"You shouldn't hog all the dust! Here's some for everyone!" Illness cried and blew upon both her palms, bringing up a dust storm of yellow powder.
"Not this time!" Sakura yelled and brought out one of her most trusted cards. "Windy!" The wind spirit blew back the dust and encased the two demons in a storm of yellow swirling dust.
"Eww! This is yucky, let's get out of here!" Sorrow's voice could be heard through the haze of dust. The storm died down just in time to see the yellow and lavender spirits making a break for it out the second exit door, they missed the exit by a foot and crashed into the wall instead.
"OW! Who decided to put a wall there?" Illness yelled as she picked herself.
"Stupid people!" Sorrow answered. As soon as both of them were off the ground they ran out the door; this time without hitting the wall.
"Damn, now we're going to have to look for them again!" Eriol cursed.
"This hospital isn't that big, we'll find them again." Syaoran mumbled as he stood up unsteadily. Sakura was at his side helping to support him so that he didn't fall forward on his face. "In the mean time, maybe we should put these poor kids back in their beds."
"Too late…" Eriol said.
"Hoe? What do you mean- OH!" Sakura gasped as she glanced up at the children and saw that all of them had been placed back in their beds with their sheets tucked around them. Out of the corner of her eye Sakura spotted a length of something gold sneaking out the exit door that Sorrow and Illness ran out of.
Suddenly Jack Be Nimble stopped repeated over the speakers and all became deathly silent for a short while. A nurse came into the room and walked right by Eriol without noticing him and gasped when she saw all the children in bed and peacefully asleep, it must have been the work of angels! She ran out of the room and went to tell at the medical staff of the wonderful thing she had discovered. When she left and new song came over the speakers, this one more haunting than the last. It was a song that very baby new from when their mother sang to them but now it was different, this song would not help a baby sleep, it would give the baby nightmares.
"Hush little baby, don't you cry"
"'Cause if you do, you're gonna die"
"But if you don't, here's your prize"
"A one way ticket to the sky"
"So either way, poor baby's dead."
"Just close your eyes and I'll chop off your head"
Once again Sakura shuddered from the disturbing song that Illness and Sorrow chose to sing. "Come on, I have a guess where they are."
"Where?" Syaoran asked.
"Dr Hinomori said that Illness and Sorrow were torturing all the children in pediatrics and the maternity ward, so they must have ran to the maternity ward to pick on the- the babies… We have to go! Now! Before they do something awful to one of the babies!" Sakura cried and tried to run forward while still supporting Syaoran, but she was dragged down by his weight.
Syaoran's face turned green from the jerking movement and he quickly pushed himself in the direction of the garbage can; the contents of his stomach were quickly emptied there. "Go on with out me- as soon as Illness's damn dust wears off I'll catch up." He croaked.
"That wouldn't be advisable." Eriol stated. "People here can see you but they can still walk into you, I don't want to run the risk of starting an even bigger panic than there already is."
"You're right Eriol, so there is only one thing to do!" Sakura withdrew a Sakura Card. "Small Card!"
Syaoran paled. "No! Don't! It's alright, I don't need to be-!" It was too late; he was already shrinking down to a pocket-sized version of himself.
Sakura blushed and couldn't help but giggled as she gently reached down and plucked the mini Syaoran off the ground. Where could she hold him? The costume that Tomoyo made didn't have any pockets that Sakura could see and she couldn't hold Syaoran in her hand the whole time incase she crushed him… Oh wait; there was one pocket on the costume where she could put him…
"Hey, what are you doing Sakura?" Syaoran yelped as he felt Sakura's hand lift up to chest height. It was disturbing enough to be shrunk down to a size where you're only a couple inches tall but the small movements that Sakura was doing was starting to make him sick again and to top that off, he was now faced with the sight of Sakura's chest close up.
"I don't want to accidentally crush you Syaoran you I'm going to put you in a pocket that Tomoyo had sewn into this costume." Sakura answered, an embarrassed blush suddenly painting Sakura's cheeks dark red.
"Where exactly is this pocket?" Syaoran asked suspiciously, trying his best not to stare at Sakura's close up breasts.
"Um- right here…" Sakura said and used the hand that wasn't holding Syaoran to press the space between her breasts. The reason Tomoyo sewed a pocket there was a complete mystery to Sakura but the sorceress was thankful that her friend took so much detail into sewing together her costumes.
Syaoran gulped as e was slipped into the small, dark and very warm pocket that had been sewn in between Sakura's breasts. The lining was made of generously layered silk that flowed around Syaoran and created a soft cushion for him to sit down. For the mini-warrior to see what was going on outside of his hiding place he had to stand up, but when he did the dizzying height that he was at made his stomach churn and he ducked back inside the pocket.
"Is it okay in there, Syaoran?" Sakura asked.
"It's fine, Sakura, but I think I still need that trash pale in the hallway incase I get sick, again." Syaoran answered weakly from within the pocket. The Small was more than obliging to shrink the trash pale for Syaoran.
Eriol covered the smirk that plastered his lips with his hand. "He growls, he glares, he has anger issues; it's the travel sized Syaoran. Don't leave home without him."
"I heard that, Hiiragisawa!" Syaoran yelled.
"Come on, boys, we have demons to capture. This is no time to be getting after each other." Sakura chided and lightly tapped the pocket between her breasts. "We have to go to the maternity ward now!"
Eriol nodded, his face went back to the mask of seriousness that it had been before. "I believe that the maternity ward it this way." He took off around the nearest corner and headed through several other corridors, heading for a certain elevator; the one in which you had to pass Tomoyo's room to get there.
The door came up quickly and Eriol paused slightly before gently pushing the door open and peeking inside. The bodyguards that stood protectively at the door never once glance down at Eriol. Tomoyo lay asleep on the sterile white bed with some wires and tubes hooked up to her; the magical sickness seemed to have progressed quicker with her. Her usually smooth, pale skin had a sheen of sickly sweat slicked across it and her dark tresses were spread haphazardly over her thin pillow.
In one corner of the room a table sat over loaded with baskets and bouquets of get well flowers. In the other corner of the room sat three people, one of them being Tomoyo's mother, Daidouji Sonomi. The businesswoman had abandoned her work for her daughter and was now lightly snoozing with her head resting on her daughter's bed. The other two people sat silently in the extra chairs watching Tomoyo with unblinking, worried eyes.
When Eriol peeked into the room they turned their heads in unison to meet Eriol's eyes. The sorcerer nodded to Life and Death, not even wanting to question why the two spirits were there in the room. He nodded to them in a cross between a greeting and a message. Life and Death easily took the message.
"Eriol, why did you stop here?" Sakura asked as she came up behind the sorcerer. She peeked inside the room and spotted only her best friend and her best friend's mother in the room, no one else. "Tomoyo… you came this way so you could see her, didn't you?"
Eriol averted his midnight eyes to the floor and quietly stepped into the room, Sakura following on his heels, Syaoran even poked his head out to see his sick friend. Eriol reached out and gently brushed away the loose hair that laid across Tomoyo's forehead, careful not to disturb her in any way.
"She looks so weak." Sakura whispered sadly.
"She'll be better so, Sakura, as soon as we capture Illness and Sorrow." Syaoran whispered back.
"I know, but I wish there was something we could do right now to help with the pain or anything else she might be feeling." Sakura said.
Eriol sighed, his eyes never left Tomoyo's beautiful face. She almost looked peaceful… In a last minute decision Eriol held out his hand and formed a single, beautiful lily within his palm. The petals were the most vibrant, dark violet and gave the flower an elegant magic appearance and the smell of sweet fields of flowers drifted from it. Eriol looked at his creation before setting it within Tomoyo's hand and backing away from her.
'A token of my promise to you, Tomoyo; I promise that this will all be over soon and as soon as you are well again I will take you on another date, better than the last one.' Eriol silently vowed. Without looking back the sorcerer walked from the room determinedly and let his two magic friends follow after him. As the door closed Tomoyo's hand enclosed over the lily in her palm, a sweet smile playing at her lips.
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Maternity Ward
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"Watch me! Watch me! I can juggle!" Sorrow laughed drunkenly as she juggled two babies in the air. The poor things were crying miserably for help but there were no adults on the floor to help them. The instant that the babies had lifted out of their cribs, appearing to float without anything to hold them up, the nurses had fled from the room in pure horror.
"That's nothing! I can do three!" Illness boasted haughtily, stumbling forwards toward a grouping of cribs with squirming little babies bawling in them. The closer she stumbled the louder they cried until she was at their sides and they finally had enough of her black magic and passed out.
"You broke them! You broke them!" Sorrow accused. She stopped juggling her babies and let them float in mid-air on their own as she skipped over to look at the fainted babies. "You know what they say; you break them, you buy them!"
"I wonder how much a baby costs…?" Illness wondered.
"Too much for you!" Sakura shouted defiantly as the doors to the ward burst open and the sorceress leapt through. She brandished her staff before her and summoned Wood to grab the babies and place them a safe distance away from the demons.
"You're back?" Sorrow whined, "Go away! You ruin all our fun, weakling human!" The spirit picked up her robe shirts flung them into the air; they took on a life of their own and became a cocoon around Sakura's body. She was suddenly thrown into her own mind and Sorrow's power to make create sadness and depression seeped into her. All the misery that had been locked away in Sakura's mind was slowly starting to over come her mind and throw her into a speedy spiral of depression.
Insecurity'I'm just one person; I can't save the world- not even if Syaoran helps. I can't even wake up for school on time. What makes everyone think that I'm so special?"
Fear'What happens if Life and Death fade away before I capture all the demon Cards? Will it all be over for the entire world?'
Sadness'I've failed so many times before. I'm failing again, right now. I'm nothing but a failure at everything…'
Darkness'It would be so much easier if I could just give up, how bad could it be if I just let Evil win. I bet nobody would blame me, they would all say I tried my best. I could just let it all go away right now…
Sakura couldn't feel it but her mind was slowly sinking further and further into the trap that Sorrow had dragged her into. The secret fears that Sakura had harbored inside the most private and far away parts of her mind made her susceptible to Sorrow's gently prodding into the sorceress's mind.
"Don't fall for it Sakura! You can over come this!" Eriol shouted and dived for Sakura's falling body.
"Sakura, you can't fall! You'll crush me!" Syaoran yelled. "Whatever garbage Sorrow is making you think, it isn't true!"
Sakura's eyes flickered open briefly before they closed completely and she sunk into her mind completely. Thankfully, Eriol dived in and grabbed the sorceress's body before she hit the ground hard. Syaoran quickly crawled from his pocket/hiding place and shook himself off. The warrior spun to face the pair of demons, both of them were laughing like hyenas as if attacking Sakura was the world's greatest joke.
"Stop laughing this instant!" Syaoran demanded, the sickness dust that he had inhaled earlier had finally worn off. He brandished his inch and a half long sword at the pair. They took one look at the mini-warrior and fell to the backs laughing harder than before.
"Mini-tiny-itsy-bitsy-puny-little-warrior!" Illness choked.
"Teeny-weeny!" Sorrow laughed.
Eriol sighed and set Sakura gently on the ground. "Syaoran, you're not helping anything with you being that size. I'll deal with Illness and Sorrow, you stay back and help Sakura- maybe return yourself to regular height as well."
Syaoran growled and stepped back. Eriol straightened up and took great pleasure in stepping over Syaoran. The laughed pair of retards noticed the change in opponent and stopped their laughing- sort of… Illness couldn't stop her ridiculous nasally snorting.
Eriol narrowed his eyes dangerously and put his sun staff out before him. "You are now dealing with the reincarnation of your creator, Clow Reed, do you two really think you stand a chance against me?"
"Ummmmm…"
"No?""Good guess." Eriol smirked. He waved his staff in a grand arc, unleashing a spell that threw the two demons back against the wall. The floating babies suddenly lost their floating abilities and began to drop to the floor; Eriol saw this and summoned a small burst of magic to carry the infants safely to their cribs.
"Flying!""Floating!"
"Magic!""Babies!"
Illness and Sorrow gibbered dizzily from their hanging place on the wall.
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"Sakura! Sakura answer me!" Syaoran yelled into the girl's ear uselessly but she did not awaken from her depression. He tried to nudge her cheek but his size proved to be too counter-productive; only thing he could do at the moment was change himself back to his regular size. The warrior summoned over The Big Card, it proved to be several times bigger than his own body but if it were really true that he was partially their master it wouldn't matter what his size was.
'Please work…' "Big Card, return me to my former size!" Syaoran stabbed the Sakura Card after his order and he immediately felt the effects of the magic wash over him. Slowly his body returned to its original height until he was completely back. The moment he was, Syaoran spun around to face Sakura and took her limp body into his arms.
"Sakura! Dammit, Sakura, you're stronger than this!" Syaoran reached out with his aura and wrapped himself around Sakura, desperately reaching out to draw her closer but her aura drew away from him painfully. Syaoran laid his forehead against his precious cherry blossom's forehead.
"Syaoran- Syaoran please don't leave m-me!" Sakura cried out. Her magically induced depression was beginning to bring up every pain thought Sakura had ever thought of. "W-what ever I did, tell me- I-I won't do it again!"
Syaoran pressed his forehead firmly to Sakura's. "You didn't do anything; you could never do anything to ever make me leave you Sakura!"
Sakura's emerald eyes flickered open briefly but they closed quickly. "Don't… leave…"
Syaoran hugged Sakura closer to his body. "No, no, I'm not going anywhere."
"You'll never leave me…" Sakura sighed. In the swirling vortex that she seemed to be trapped in a strange green rope dropped down before her. The vortex on negative thoughts and emotions slowly came to trudging halt. 'Am I supposed to take the rope?'
Apparently the rope wasn't going to wait for her decision, it shot out like a viper and coiled around her in an intimate embrace. With as much gentle force as it could the green rope pulled Sakura upwards, to somewhere- to someone… who?
"Sakura!""Syaoran?" Sakura peeked open her eyes and was met by a close up of Syaoran's amber eyes.
"I knew you could beat the spell!" Syaoran grinned gladly and brought his lips down to gratefully kiss Sakura on her forehead.
Sakura giggled and tired to sit up. "I'm glad you never lost faith in me."
"That's all nice and fine and I am very glad that you over came Sorrow but the actual spirits are proving to be more of a handful than I thought they would be." Eriol called over the din of crying babies and cackling laugher of two drunken demons.
"Kiss good morning!""Smooch her harder!"
Illness and Sorrow cried crazily from their haphazard pile on the floor. They looked to one another with their crazed expressions and dived into each other, kissing each other as if they were lovers. (Which they certainly were not!) From this a wave of magic rose up from them and shot out like a shock wave, the babies that it came in contact with burst into tears and wailed at the top of their lungs.
Sakura's eyes flared to emerald fires and with help from Syaoran she raised to her feet. "I have had enough of your messing around, you two! You have hurt way too many people, a lot of them innocent people, and I won't stand for it any longer!" Her hand grasped Syaoran automatically and together they created a magical blast that shot Sorrow and Illness straight through the room and ricocheted the off several different walls. From each impact they left behind a little more of their demon shells. In the end they were forced apart to separate sides of the room where their insanity faded.
"Bitch! You little whorish bitch! How dare you strike us!" Illness cursed and spat in Sakura's direction.
"You have no idea who you're messing with!" Sorrow hissed.
"I have a pretty good idea." Sakura replied venomously. Syaoran stared at this new side of Sakura; this was a part of her he had never seen. A strong, icy side that made him feel in awe of her but at the same time also made him miss the real Sakura he new.
"No!""We don't think you do."
A glance was barely shared between the pair before they ran for the separate exits in the room. The split run confused the sorcerers long enough for the spirits to get away.
"Dammit! It's easier to catch a cold than those two!" Syaoran cursed and punched the nearest wall.
"There's no time to growl about it, we have to go after them now!" Eriol said. "I sense that their powers are starting o overwhelm all the humans that they've infected- I can feel them fading." It was partially true; Eriol did feel the lives around him fading but the big tip off was seeing Death pass by the doorway with a very solemn expression on his face.
"Then there's no room for guess work." Sakura drew out The Lost Card and threw into the air. "Lost Card, come forth and guide us to spirits Illness and Sorrow!" Lost appeared with a serious look on his face and dived into his lantern without hesitation. The bright ball of blue light took off out the doors and down the hallway.
The three humans ran after the speeding ball of light, once or twice they passed a nurse or a doctor and several patients but none of them looked in their direction. Thankfully, some of the stronger willed nurses had gathered up the will to check on the wailing babies so the infants were going to be fine after their traumatizing ordeal with two demons.
Lost stopped dead that the doors of the cafeteria on the ground floor of the hospital. The boy spirit leapt out of his lantern and hopped along on the floor. "In there! In there!" He pointed emphatically. He seemed overjoyed that he had been summoned once again by his beloved Miss Sakura.
Before they could push the doors open they slammed open from the stampeding crowd from within. People of all ages ran out of the cafeteria with screams ripping from their throats, some punctuated by sneezes or coughs.
"Well, at least we definitely know they're in there." Eriol said as he watched the crowd disappear around the corner.
"Just be ready, it looks like they're different people when they're separate so we don't know what to expect." Syaoran stated. The group steeled themselves for what they would face inside the room. Syaoran raised his foot and kicked the door open.
Inside they were met by the sight of Illness and Sorrow perched on top of a table in the middle of the room. They were sway drunkenly next to each other to at least they weren't separate ad sane. They took one look at the intruders and withdrew their deadly weapons that they had stolen from within the drawers of the kitchen.
"CHINESE FIGHTING FORKS!" They cried and leapt forward with their plastic white forks.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Syaoran rolled his eyes and easily batted the pair away with his sword.
"That's not all!""We have nunchakus!"
The pair leapt up and pulled out moldy, black bananas tied together with shoelaces. Like fighters in the old kung fu movies the two demons swung the bananas about in a crazed fashion to demonstrate their skill, or lack there of… The bananas came untied and flew towards the humans standing at the door. Syaoran lifted his sword to slash that the fly fruits but the projectiles were so old that they exploded on contact… leaving Syaoran covered in banana guts. Eriol had to look away from Syaoran's facial expression before the sorcerer broke out into laughter. Sorrow and Illness may be the enemy but they sure as hell knew how to do stupid stuff.
"That is the last straw, you two! I'M NOT TAKING THIS ANY MORE!" Syaoran roared fiercely.
"But we only hit you with banana once." Illness pointed out.
"NO MORE MERCY!" Syaoran ran forward and attacked the pair that same time. Since his opponents were devoid of weapons themselves they had to run, duck and scream a lot. Syaoran's slashes at their bodies were deadly accurate and soon the demon shells were falling away. Illness was thrown one way and Sorrow was thrown the other way.
"I don't feel so good." Sorrow whined and tried to get up but she flopped back down on her stomach.
"I'm gonna be sick." Illness shuddered and dry heaved.
"Do you give up?" Sakura asked hopefully.
"Hell!"
"No!"
"Fine, have it the hard way!" Sakura declared. "Sword!" She summoned The Sword to cut away at Illness; Syaoran dove forward to cut away the shell that surrounded Sorrow. Eriol used magical restraints to hold the spirits in place. As the last piece fell away Sakura gasped and looked back and forth between the two spirits.
"No way." She breathed.
"Twins?" Syaoran questioned as he toed Sorrow so she fell to her side limply.
It was true. Now that Evil's control over them had been hacked away and they were free from their demon shells Sorrow and Illness were revealed to be to be exact mirror images of the other, aside from one being yellow and the other being lavender. Their hair had been done up into little ponytails on the sides on their heads, topped off with flowers decorating their hair. They wore matching outfits that consisted of a corseted top that flowed out to long bell sleeves ending in rows of frills. Their skirts puffed out into several short layers of frills and folds and tied in the back with big, happy bows. They pair even had matching striped tights and buckle shoes. They would have been cute if it wasn't for their pained, tear-streaked faces.
Syaoran suddenly had an idea. The strange staff that had been created when he had captured Lost, maybe it could be summoned again…
"Sakura, come here." Syaoran motioned for her to come to his side. "I want to try and combine your staff with my sword- it happened once and I bet it can happen again."
Sakura looked at Syaoran with inquisitive eyes and then glanced back at the two spirits who were so out of it they could barely get up. "O-okay, we can try."
Syaoran smiled and stepped behind Sakura. He brought his arms around her body and clasped his sword over her staff and held their hands together. "Just relax Sakura. Let your aura flow to me and I'll let my aura flow to you." He whispered into her ear. Sakura felt a shiver run down her spine as the warrior's breath brushed her ear.
She closed her eyes and relaxed, letting her aura flow out like a river and seek out Syaoran like a moth to a flame and became one with him. Syaoran's strong aura wrapped itself protectively around Sakura and seeped into her being until his aura was fully molded to her. The feeling of being so amazingly close to each other was something else! Everything that the other was feeling was flowing between the pair like open water. It wasn't until Eriol started clapping that they opened their eyes.
Gripped tight in their hands was the long, golden staff tipped with the sharp spear.
"Oh wow, it's beautiful." Sakura breathed, she could have sworn she hear Syaoran say something like 'not as beautiful as you' but she couldn't be sure. "So we can use this to capture them?"
"Yep." Syaoran answered. He used his arms to guide Sakura's so that they moved as one to face Sorrow and Illness. They brought the new staff over they heads of the spirits and brought it down in a great sweeping motion. A great wind swept through the cafeteria and lifted the pair off the ground and started to shrink them into their card forms, changing them from normal Clow Cards to Sakura Cards at the same time.
"Extraordinary." Eriol breathed as he watched in fascination as the scene played out.
Sorrow and Illness floated down and landed before Sakura and Syaoran obediently.
"Wow, they seem so harmless now…" Sakura said as she stared down at the pink cards, the spirit images showed the pair standing mock seriously saluting whomever was in front of them.
"But they've proved to be anything but harmless, haven't they." Eriol said as he walked up to Sakura and Syaoran. He smirked at the banana covered warrior ad unceremoniously wiped the rotting goop off of Syaoran's shoulder. "Now that you have them under you control everyone should start to recover from their illnesses."
Sakura's face brightened. "That's right! Tomoyo should be getting better too!"
"If you want to, we can go make a late night visit to see if she is getting better now." Syaoran offered.
"Sounds great!" Sakura cheered and skipped off to see her friend.
As they approached the door to Tomoyo's a bizarre feeling of the room not being empty came over them. Some thing that wasn't human was in the room but the sense of it was too weak to tell what it was. Syaoran swung the door open without warning and before they could see anything in the room it erupted in a flurry of movement; only a certain flashof silver or gold could be seen before the room went completely silent. Too silent. Like a grave...
Sakura poked her head in cautiously; to her surprise she saw Miaka and Dren sitting at Tomoyo's bedside, Sonomi seemed to have left for home. They glanced up innocently as Sakura stepped into the room. "Miaka, Dren, what are you doing here? It's way past visiting hours."
Miaka cocked her head to the side and grabbed Dren's wrist, she yanked back his sleeve and looked t his watch. She examined it more closely then brought it to her ear. A look of realization crossed her face. "Oh, so that's why it's been saying four o'clock for the past few hours, it stopped. Our bad." She laughed guiltily.
"We'll leave right away." Dren arose from his seat and took Miaka by her wrist. As they passed each person Dren nodded respectively and Miaka waved kindly. For some reason this set Syaoran on edge. Aside from the reason that they were in Tomoyo's hospital room at night, there was something else bothering him about the little meeting. He had no time to ponder though because Dr Hinomori burst in to the room and grasped Sakura and Syaoran by their shoulders. He didn't notice Syaoran being covered in banana.
"The singing stopped!" He sighed happily. "All the patients are getting better! You did it! You got those pesky spirits!" The man grinned happily and guided Sakura and Syaoran from the room so he could show them how the babies and children were coming out of it; that left Eriol alone with Tomoyo.
He could already see the improvement in her color and face. He saw that in her hand she was still clutching the magical flower he had given her. Eriol slipped the enchanted stone from around his neck and set in down on the bed.
"My fair maiden, what I would give to see your eyes right now." Eriol sighed.
A smile spread on Tomoyo's lips and her eyes opened to meet Eriol's. "You have given me this flower, that was enough for me to open my eyes." Tomoyo said.
"It's good to see that you are alright, Illness and Sorrow have been captured." Eriol said.
"Yes, I know. They told me that as soon as I woke up."
Eriol's face darkened. "Who told you?"
Tomoyo looked up into the sorcerer's dark midnight eyes with all the seriousness she could muster. "Eriol, they told me. Life and Death were here to keep me company- I saw them- then when Sakura opened the door I saw them change…"
"So, you know now?"
Tomoyo nodded. "Yes. I know who they are now…"
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On the way to Sakura's House
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Syaoran walked steadily beside Sakura as her escort home so he knew she got home safely. The cool spring night made him shiver slightly since his outfit had been doused in water to get the banana off of him. There was hardly any conversation between the two. Syaoran was still bothered by that little missing detail about Miaka and Dren… why was it so hard to figure out why seeing them in that room bothered him.
"Oh, we forgot to give these charms back to Eriol!" Sakura gasped. She picked at hers an lifted it up to the street light so she could examine the silhouette, "we're really lucky that Eriol brought these with him so non-magical people wouldn't see us."
Syaoran stopped dead and looked down at the stone as realization hit him. "Sakura, you haven't sensed any magic from Miaka or Dren have you?"
Sakura looked at Syaoran confusedly. "No, I haven't. They don't seem to have a speck of magic in them."
Syaoran held up his charm. "Then how were they able to see us with these on?"
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