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"The Master of the Cards? That's not possible!!"
"You saw my set of cards, right?"
"Those are my cards" she growled.
"Oh, don't get mad at me! I'm really the Master of those cards!" he shrugged helplessly.
Sakura called her wand forth. She wasn't going to take any more crap.
"Tell me what you want right now!" she mouthed angrily
"Calm down, dear Sakura. Remember I've got something you want!"
"Blackmail" she hissed with a sarcastic grin "Why doesn't it surprise me?"
"It's not blackmail, my dear. I couldn't blackmail you with him"
"What?"
He heaved a sigh through a sly grin, and beckoned a servant that was behind him. Sakura felt as if a fist was squeezing her heart when she saw he carried the dreadful tray. Please, don't tell me this is true. Please, let me be dreaming.
"Do you want to see what's under the lid, darling?"
"You didn't" she said, through her horrified tears.
"Come and see for yourself" he said, laying the tray on the floor, and dismissing the servant with a nod.
Sakura shook her head in abject horror. Now she really felt like sanity was finally leaving her. She didn't want to verify her suspicions with her own eyes, because she knew that the minute she saw that would be her last. She just didn't want to carry on without him.
"You love him that much, huh? It's a shame"
"What are you talking about?" she said in a low, emotionless voice.
"You are a very powerful sorceress, beautiful Sakura. You deserve the very best in your life, and the Little Wolf...well, he could hardly fulfill that description" he said, smiling politely "On the other hand, there's...me"
Sakura's eyes went wide in disbelief. That's what he wanted her for?
"You thought I wanted you dead. That beauty would be wasted in the depths of hell" he smiled, getting up from the throne and walking down the stairs. She tried to back down but he forcefully grabbed her arm.
"Let go" she growled.
"Oh, darling. You don't get to boss me around here!" he answered sweetly.
Even though the expression on his face was serene, he was squeezing her arm so hard she thought her bones would shatter any minute.
As if he could read her thoughts, he leaned close to her "And this is not even a figment of the pain you're going to go through if we don't reach an agreement, dear Sakura" he whispered. She had to bite her lip to refrain herself from screaming.
Suddenly, he let go of her, violently dropping her to the floor.
"I need your powers, little Cherry Blossom. Like you, I have ambitions. Clow Reed confined me to this lost dimension hundreds of hears ago. It's really awful in here, you know? I don't grow older, I'm always cold...I can't even remember what the sunshine is supposed to feel like! Everything because I mastered his art...because I became his equal. In all those years as his apprentice I had to learn something right?"
"His...apprentice?"
"Yes, exactly. I helped him through every step of his creation. Every Clow Card" he laughed bitterly "I secretly created my own set of cards. I so wanted to be like him, dear Sakura. To have his knowledge and his power...his prestige! I would be respected if I defeated the great Clow Reed. I would even be the master of both sets of Cards! The most powerful sorcerer in the world!"
Sakura was astonished. He was three hundred years old? He owned a set of cards of his own? How was she ever going to beat this guy?
"But I have to admit he was a very clever man. Witty. He found out what I had done and what my plans were way before I could figure out the best way of beating him. And he threw me in here. After that, I suppose he got lonely and created the stuffed animal and that other creature. I knew another person had been designed the new Card Captor, and my first thought was to destroy him. But then I found out it was you...and how could I destroy such a precious thing? This is the reason why I still have respect for Clow Reed. He was careful enough to pick you as the Card Captor so that I wouldn't kill you"
"What are you saying to me?" she asked, wide eyed.
"Clow Reed knew that you were going to release those cards at the moment you did. He knew you were the one long before you were born. He knew you would meet Li Syaoran. He knew you would fall in love with him...he knew that once those cards were released I would be a step closer to going back to where I belong. I don't know if he set this as a test for you...but does that matter?"
"My power is what's going to send you back to the world?"
"Exactly"
"So what is it that you want me to do?"
"Well, dearest Sakura" he said with the sweetest of smiles on his lovely face "I want you to be my wife"
*****
Sakura would have fallen down if she hadn't already been on the floor. Kero and Tomoyo couldn't believe their ears either. He had just proposed to her! After everything he had done to her, he was expecting her to just marry him? Now they knew he was completely crazy.
"Are you serious?" she chuckled sarcastically, getting up.
"Deadly" Sakura could feel the evil in him. He was the devil himself. This was going to be the hardest thing she'd ever have to do.
"I can't believe you" she said defiantly "You're crazy!"
"Don't push your luck, little Cherry Blossom" Goran answered, anger slightly rising in his voice.
"What do I have to lose?" she shouted, bitterly "You've destroyed my life. So you're going to have to kill me to get my power, you...bastard!"
"Okay, dear Sakura. If that's the way you want it. Don't say later I didn't give you a choice. Shadows, come forth!"
Kero and Tomoyo were imprisoned by shadows that came from out of nowhere behind them. Sakura turned around to them, then back to Goran.
"You're disgusting. This is between you and me! Leave them out of this!"
"I don't have to play by your rules, beautiful Sakura. Get ready!"
Sakura clutched her wand tight in her hands. As much as she got ready for this, something told her it was going to be much more than a test. Much harder than anything she'd ever fathomed. It was so simple, and she hadn't gotten it. The Mirror Card had meant that, like her, he was the Master of the Cards!
*****
Everything went suddenly dark. She used the Glow Card again to find herself back at the same maze of corridors she had been in before she'd met Goran, but this time...
"He's got Tomoyo and Kero" she said, as if someone could hear her.
"That's right! Let's play a little game!" Goran's voice seemed to echo all around her, even though he was nowhere to be seen "You find me in twenty four hours, and you'll have the girl and the toy back! Oh, and about the Li kid...well, you can have his remains. If you don't...then you marry me...and we live happily ever after!" he laughed.
"I don't accept! Come out and fight me you coward!"
"You don't have a choice, little Cherry Blossom!"
And with that the voice vanished. She had only twenty four hours to find Goran's throne room again...she could be sure he would pull every kind of nasty trick to keep her from accomplishing her goal and rescuing her friends. And she didn't even know whether Syaoran was alive or...dead. She never lifted the lid. She knew she would need some kind of hope for the battle, something to keep her going, and if she found out his head was actually on that tray, she knew she would just flip out. She had to beat Goran anyway. But if he had killed Syaoran she would go join him. Nothing would matter anymore, she wouldn't be able to live with the pain and the guilt. But for now, she had to stop thinking about it, and start making the best of the time he had given her. As long as a flame of hope still burned in her heart, there was a slim chance of her succeeding. Whether Syaoran was alive or not, as gut wrenching as the thought might have been, she still owed it to Kero and Tomoyo. She would definitely give it a try, and think positively. She could win if she made an effort.
She easily killed a couple shadows on the corridors as she walked. They
were no longer a threat for her, and Goran probably knew about this. He
was just distracting her, for he probably was preparing a nasty little
surprise for her. Everything was eerily quiet after she'd destroyed the
last shadow she'd encountered. She smiled at the irony. She would rather
be surrounded by shadows than by this silence. Something was up, she had
no doubt.
Kinomoto Sakura thought she was ready for anything he could throw against her, but she never believed he would do this to her. This was by far the most horrible vision she could ever imagined existed. Her worst fear.
"By Kami...what am I going to do?" she wondered out loud, trying to control her in growing fear. A ghost was something she wasn't ready to deal with, no matter how many years of training she had had as a Card Captor. And least of all a huge one who was lunging at her as she thought about all this. She quickly called Syaoran's sword forth and with one clean stroke of it she cut it in half. She sighed relieved, thinking that it had been too easy...too easy! She re established her guard just in time to block the attack from what she noted to be two ghosts instead of one. She had only divided it, and made the problem worse. She hung Syaoran's pendant back on her throat. What would she do now?
Come on, Sakura, think. Which one of your cards could beat this? Shadow? No, it wouldn't quite work. She needed to gain some time. Mist?
As she released the Mist Card the ghosts were momentarily taken aback. It confused them, as she thought it would. What would she do? She needed to think fast. She scrolled through every card in her mind, but none of them seemed to hold the answer to her predicament. Would she be beaten at the first attack? She couldn't allow herself that luxury. Not when three lives depended on her. The Dark Card, Sakura. She blinked.
"What..." she asked out loud. She could have sworn she'd heard someone say that to her. Was someone there to help her? Kero? No, it hadn't been him. But she didn't have the time to stop and think about it. It was true though. The Dark Card. Alongside Light, it held the strongest power of them all. And...dark was where the ghosts lurked. Dark would swallow the ghosts whole. That was it!!
"Dark Card!!" she called, closing her eyes as the Dark spread her wings in front of her. Even though those were ghosts, she didn't want to see them die. She squeezed her eyes as she heard the ghosts desperately howl as the Dark engulfed them. The noise was soon over, and she opened her eyes to find out she had won this assault. She was stunned when a card flew over to her.
"The Ghost Card? He's sending his cards after me?"
Before she could do or think anything else, the card disintegrated into black dust and then just disappeared. They couldn't stand defeat? That's what differentiated the Clow Cards from his. Goran wasn't Clow's equal at all.
She called back Dark and Mist, wondering who that was that had helped her. She couldn't quite place the voice she'd heard, though it was a warm, gentle one.
"Thank you" she muttered, and she walked on.
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Well, this chapter was hard to write because, as I think I said before,
I suck at fight sequences. Which means either I improve them, or I will
never be able to write my own movie (imagine a movie without a fight scene.
Bridges over Madison County or whatever it's name is. Tell me please if
you've even been more bored). Anyway.
Whose voice was it that Sakura heard? It's obviously a friend...will
she get to Goran's throne room in time to rescue her friends? And will
the Wizard keep his word and set them free if she was the winner? I'll
make sure to write answers for all of those questions.