AN: So yeah, Crona's here! Let's go find Syaoran. More ploooootttt….


"You know me?" Sakura asked.

"I brought your soul over to this world, as well as your friends," Crona told her, "I know each one of you. I've watched each one of you. M-more as a guide! Not, like…in a creepy way."

"I getcha'. So…why did you bring here…how did you bring me here?"

"I promised the original Sakura I would help grant her wish. I can't bring people in here unless there's a purpose. I can't really bring people here whenever I want to."

"Like if you wanted to bring Ms. Maka here, right?"

Crona's eyes looked sad despite the small smile on their face.

"I promise," Sakura nodded, "You'll see her somehow. I just need to figure out how."

"I wanted to talk about that," Crona spoke again, "In order to bring anyone here, the frequency of madness that's here must be equal to the person breaking the barrier. At least, that's how it's supposed to be. I fed on the frequency of black blood in your body."

Crona pointed to Sakura's left leg. The starburst black blood vessels were still visible.

"You got that when those travelers visited," Crona noted.

"This is…black blood?" Sakura gasped, "I thought it was just the madness that everyone else was experiencing. I thought this black blood didn't exist anymore!"

"It's not supposed to. There are only two people that've broken into this moon's barrier. One of them was the original Sakura in her state of limbo. The other…"

"Clow Reed…right?"

Crona nodded.

"Should've guessed."

"You should find your partner and destroy the hold Clow Reed has on him. If his actions continue, your friend, Meiling, could die, your souls will unite, and the result would be…"

"Be what?"

"Meiling's soul, by becoming more like yours, makes it powerful enough to turn you into a kishin yourself. All you would have to do, after being fed Meiling's soul, is swallow your weapon. Since you've had four weapon partners in total, you would have to swallow all of them."

"Does that mean that…Clow plans to kill them?"

"He intends on using Syaoran to kill them. The guilt will be enough to drive him deeper into madness. If need be, Clow may have him kill you. All of you will merge and become a kishin…powerful enough to…to destroy this universe."

"If that happens, Sakura won't have her wish granted."

"It'll be a never-ending battle to see if Clow or the original Sakura will have their wish granted."

"Sakura wants to have a life free from Clow's involvement, one where she's no longer tied to fate. But Clow can't bring Yuuko back unless he has that small connection to Sakura and the time paradox of those travelers."

Crona nodded.

"So I need to stop Syaoran before he can gather any more innocent souls or try to kill any of my friends…but I don't know where he is. No one does."

Crona smiled gently.

"I do," they said warmly, "That's the other reason I brought you here. I can send you straight to him from this place."

Sakura's face lit up.

"In order to stop him, however, you will have to use the black blood in your veins. Since you have an Anti-Demon wavelength like Maka, you should be able to use the black blood to your advantage rather than have it control you. It'll also help in…bringing Maka here. You've used your wavelength to control the madness in you and your partner, right?"

Sakura nodded.

"Good, then I won't have to keep you here for too long. Listen carefully."

Sakura did so as Crona told her about the powers and dangers of the black blood.


Tomoyo found Meiling on the roof of the DWMA near one of the main balconies. Despite the large skirt of her dress, as was typical of the many outfits she wore for school and other things, she was able to join Meiling and sat next to her meister. Meiling sat with her face in her knees.

"I'm glad I was able to find you," Tomoyo said with relief.

Meiling stayed silent. Tomoyo continued talking.

"It's weird hearing that you used to be someone else, isn't it? I can relate. I mean, I used to be Ms. Sakura's best friend, and now…now I'm a demon weapon and I'm Sakura's best friend and I'm…I'm happier here. I don't…have to shut my feelings in anymore to make my friends happy. We're…in this new universe to make our lives better."

"Please don't assume why I'm upset, Tomoyo…" Meiling finally spoke.

"Very well," Tomoyo responded, "How are you feeling right now?"

"Like…I shouldn't even be here. I mean…I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that other Sakura or whatever. I mean…am I really me? Or am I just…another Sakura?"

They were silent for a while, not because Tomoyo was at a loss of what to say, but because she wanted her friend to know she was listening. She put an arm around Meiling's shoulder and rubbed it comfortingly.

"You are you, Meiling," Tomoyo said, "You can't be another Sakura. You have the…original Sakura's blood or whatever it was, but…your soul is your own. You are you like I am myself. I…may have been a different Tomoyo…or at least the original Tomoyo, I guess, but…I'm not her. I can only be the me that exists here, in this universe. Even I've told myself that I'm not supposed to be in this universe. I don't think any of us are supposed to be here, but we are, and I suppose we should make the most of what we're given."

Meiling started crying again, and she let her head fall on Tomoyo's shoulder. Soon, she was in Tomoyo's arms, hair stroked by warm, gentle hands. Something about this felt right, but Meiling couldn't pinpoint what it was.

Then they heard something like a canon going off, and they looked up. Something black shot out of the black orb around the moon like a shooting star. It seemed to land somewhere in the distance, but not close enough to see where it landed.

Meiling and Tomoyo looked at each other, baffled, before getting off the roof to go see what it was.


Sakura left Crona's domain shooting out like a rocket towards where Syaoran would be. She felt like she was flying in a black veil that glittered like a starry night before she started plummeting to the ground. Despite knowing several forms of magic at this point, she wasn't sure how to stop herself from falling. At the speed she was going, all she could do was brace for impact.

She crashed like a meteor into the ground, leaving a small crater in the surface she landed in. She looked to see that it was marble. Amazingly, she wasn't in pain. No broken bones. No cuts or bruises. All that was on her was dust from the impact, which she brushed off her clothes and shook out of her hair.

She looked below where she crashed to see that the blackness that shrouded her was liquid now, melting into the crushed marble. It was the black blood from the moon.

She remembered Crona saying that the blood could harden like a protective shield or a weapon. If she could give in to the madness for a short while, she could resonate with Syaoran's current state.

After looking around her, she recognized that she was inside a church. She looked above her to see that she had burst through the ceiling. Behind her were the doors to the church. She walked up to them and gave them a push. They didn't open.

"The doors only open inwards," a familiar voice said behind her.

She turned around to see the church cover in bright blue crystal. They looked like ice, but the room was strangely warm. Souls were encased inside, and near the alter, Syaoran was also encased in a human-shaped crystal, attached to the other crystals around them.

Sakura went from being shocked to being serious. She walked towards him, summoning her Star Wand and gripping it in her hands.

Huh…nice decorations, Syaoran," Sakura started jokingly, "The souls make the crystals all…glowy."

"Why are you here?" he interjected.

"You need to come back home…well…back to the DWMA."

"And what exactly will happen when we get there?"

"I dunno yet…but we'll figure something out."

"I'm on Lord Death's list now, aren't I?"

"NO! No…not yet…I don't think. There's still time to fix this."

"I'm already absorbing them. Every time I've tried to eat one, I get sick. I can absorb more power this way. Soon, it'll happen. I need to get stronger."

"No, you don't, Syaoran!"

"I need to be stronger. As strong as you. I'm not strong enough to be your weapon partner."

"That's not true!"

"You have Cerberus and Yue now. You have your own power. You don't need me."

He seemed to be saying these things like a chant. The crystal around him cracked and shifted into a new shape. The crystal fogged inside, obscuring Syaoran from her view. All she could see was a crystallized monster in front of her. It stood on four limbs like a gorilla but it's face was more like a wolf's.

It was time to use the black blood.

Sakura ran over to the crystals off to the side, as her opponent struck the place where she previously stood.

She found the sharpest looking crystal in the cluster and sliced the palm of her left hand against it.

There was sting in her hand, and she soon saw herself in a familiar dark room with checkerboard tile.


"Hello," a voice called.

It sounded too familiar. She turned around to see herself. Her left eye was red and crying black blood. Her smile was broad and her clothes rather risqué.

"You need my help, right?" she cooed.

"Only for a short while," Sakura said firmly, "When I need out, you let me out."

"I make no such promises. C'mon…you don't need to think right now. Give in to me."

"Just for a little while."

"Yes…just for a little while."

She grabbed her doppelganger's hand, and her mind sunk into inky darkness.


The pink in the Star Wand was replaced with white silver. The star changed to black. Sakura's hand healed immediately.

And then, she just started giggling.

Her speed increased, and she bounced around the walls like the church was a pinball machine. Soon, she struck the crystal monster. Her hand was on fire. She looked down for a short moment to see her knuckles bleeding.

"Hehehe…oh look, m'blood's black," she said, a grin smacked onto her face. The color in her eyes was gone. All that was left was darkness, her sight blind to reason. She struck with her magic against the glistening rock repeatedly. It started to break away, and she got closer to getting to Syaoran.

Inside her mind, she hunted for his soul wavelength. It had been so long, she realized, since she resonated with him. She felt it faintly. It was definitely different from what she could tell, and not in the best of ways. It felt scorching hot, but it was encased in an icy crystal. It was not different from his physical situation.

As soon as she grabbed it, she forced a resonance on it.

She heard him scream.

The crystal monster around him shattered, and she propelled backwards into the church door. She needed to pull herself out of the madness now. She forced her hand to grab the small deck of Star Cards she had left. She slowly pulled one out as Syaoran shook his confused head.

"VOID!"

An inky blackness left her throat and out her mouth into the air. It swirled around into an orb that soon encased her, then Syaoran, the crystallized souls, and finally the church.

It wasn't long until the DWMA detected a strong wave of madness at the St. Maria Novella Basilica in Florence, Italy.


She had panicked. Now, The VOID's black orb surrounded her and a large space around her. It felt like she was somewhere else, no longer inside the church.

She looked down at her Star Wand. The black color on the star was dripping away and changing back to gold.

She was somehow out of the madness. She felt a familiar soul wavelength. Syaoran stood in front of her, but his eye was still bright blue. Scratches on his faces showed his blood was currently black. It clotted and started being absorbed in the bits of crystal on his face. She saw the small black dots vanish into the crystals, as he got closer.

Then, he turned his attention to the void around them. Sakura looked around as well, seeing that pulsing lights began the glow. Looking closer, the lights were actually souls. Sakura guessed they were the ones Syaoran was trying to absorb beforehand. Her hypothesis seemed to be an appropriate guess as Syaoran walked towards the blinking souls. He thrust a fist into the black void and tried to grab one of the souls. However, the blackness around him only drained him of his magic, and he felt his soul almost leave his body. He pulled out his arm immediately and turned back to Sakura.

"What did you do?" he asked her angrily.

Sakura was startled but immediately grew stern.

"I only did what I had to," she spoke, "You can't get power like this, Syaoran! It's not right! It's…it's not something I think you'd ever do."

"I suppose things change in a year."

He had a point, to an extent. It had been a year. Changes happened, and she had been asleep. She looked at her Star Wand again and grimaced.

"Get rid of this…thing," he commanded, "Give these souls back."

"They were never yours to begin with," she gritted through her teeth.

"Give them back, Sakura. I need them."

"No, you don't."

"Give them back."

"NO!"

They stared at each other. While Sakura looked sad and pleading, Syaoran showed no emotion on his face.

"Very well," he said, "I will find a new way out of here. I will have to gather new souls."

He turned around and walked away. Sakura reached out but then hesitated. She didn't know what to do at this point. They were stuck in here, and she needed to stop him somehow before he could find a way out.

"He won't be able to escape," a voice in her head told her.

It sounded like one of the spirits of Clow. She looked down at the surface she was standing on, and she saw a reflection that wasn't her own. It was The VOID.

"Don't speak with your lips right now," VOID instructed, "Use only your thoughts."

Sakura nodded.

"How would I leave here?" Sakura asked the young spirit telepathically, "And what is this place?"

"If you wish to escape here, you will have to use the Nameless Card in your pouch. It will transfigure my spirit, and anything in this space will be released. However, my previous master, the one you called Ms. Sakura, instructed me to not let this happen until the appointed day when you fight against Clow Reed for the last time."

"But why?"

"Despite Ms. Sakura's wish to have a life free from Clow Reed, this does not mean she herself will live that life. The price for getting rid of Clow Reed was to create life in a new universe. In order to create life, you must give life. I am a chamber to hold souls such as these, and when Clow disappears, I will release them. They will be the given price for your existence."

"Ms. Sakura…knew these souls would be in here?"

"She didn't say there would be these. She referred only to the four you would capture as well as herself."

"Four?"

"The Syaorans and Sakuras from another universe."

Sakura soon realized that was why Sakura needed her to capture their souls that day. She would need to ask about some of these later with Ms. Sakura.

"What you need to know now is that the Nameless Card is Ms. Sakura's feelings for Syaoran. If you want to escape from here and place me back in the card again, you must display a sign of affection that emulates Sakura's feelings for her most precious person."

"A…sign of affection? That's it? But how can I do that if he won't even…"

"You must get rid of the crystal infecting this world's Syaoran. Your Syaoran."

"He's not m…Anyways, I get it. I just wish I knew how Clow made that crystal…"

Before she finished her thought, she saw blue sparks of magic off a ways. When she squinted, she saw streams of magic in the shape of some sort of Sanskrit. She recognized it. It was Fye D. Flourite's power.

"The crystal…it must've been the blue of Fye's eye," Sakura thought, "That person from Acid Tokyo should've had it. Clow must've gotten it from him somehow."

She saw a burst of flame in the distance and then it stopped. Syaoran appeared before her again instantaneously, his expression still stoic but showing more anger.

"I've done everything I could do," he said, "There is no way out. You did this. Fix it."

"I can't let you out of here," Sakura snapped, "You're not getting any more souls."

"Then give the ones here to me."

"Not happening."

"I need to become stronger…. I must get rid of people that get in my way."

Using his newfound magic, he summoned his golden katana, adorned in flame etchings and bound at the hilt inside the scabbard with a purple tassel. He drew the sword and flames danced with the movement of the blade. Sakura was shocked, if not impressed.

"You…have your own weapon now," she commented. With her soul wavelength, she saw it was like her Star Wand. It had no soul of it's own, but it had magic that could amplify one's soul wavelength.

"I must warn you again," he commanded, pointing his sword at her, "Give these souls back to me."

Sakura instantly got an idea. She didn't know if it would work, but she didn't have much time to think it through.

"Wait!" she began, "If you're going to try and kill me, shouldn't I…get a chance to fight for my survival? Maybe?"

Syaoran raised an eyebrow.

"I…I want to get out of here as much as you do. So…why don't be duel to see who will get out of here?"

He lowered his sword a little.

"We'll have a sword fight, and whoever wins will get something in return."

"What could you possibly give me?"

"If you win…you get this."

She held up the Nameless Card.

"This is the key to getting out of here. If you use it, it'll release you from this place and the souls trapped inside."

The VOID's reflection looked concerned, but Sakura gave her a look of reassurance. Syaoran didn't seem to notice. His eyes were transfixed on the card in her hand.

"And what if you win?" he asked.

"I get the crystal infecting your soul," she said, pointing to his chest. He put his hand to it.

"You see it?"

Sakura nodded.

"What good would this crystal do for you?"

"Well, it certainly makes things harder for you later, like taking away this card would be for me. It seems like a fair trade, don'cha think?"

Syaoran seemed to think for a moment, and then sheathed his sword.

"Very well. Your sword then?"

Sakura lifted her Star Wand up into the air. She closed her eyes, summoning her magic circle. The wand turned into a sword, an image from a Clow Card long released into the afterlife a while back. It was a thin blade, the hilt adorned with white wings and a gold star, much like the Star Wand. The handle was pink and textured so as to not slip out of her hand, and a red jewel graced the end.

She pointed the sword at him.

"I'm sure this will do?" she said.

"Yes," he answered, drawing his sword once again.

"Magic is allowed," she added.

"The loser is the one that lets go of their weapon first."

"Just like when we practiced."

Her mind flashed to when he was teaching her how to wield a sword. They would duel to test each other's skills. It would be just like that.

She tried to use that to calm herself before having to fight her weapon for real this time.