Sakura in Paris 2
Part Twenty-One: Shawn's Heartbreak

Raye (sighing): Oh well. We're in the back of the Border Patrol truck now, and hope looks lost.
Everyone (sighing as well): Yeah.
Ameoba Boy (sniffing): I love ya guys-
(He gulps as he sees the venomous glares he's getting.)
Ameoba Boy: Not in that way, of course.....
Max: Oh well. It was fun knowing y'all. (looks over at Ameoba Boy) Well, at least some of you....
Psycho (nodding depressedly): At least I have the comfort of knowing I'll come back to haunt Lizzie for the rest of her living days.
(Lizzie gulps nervously in the front seat.)
Raye: Can I come back and help ya, Chris? We'd make a great team!
Psycho (nodding eagerly): Great idea! That way, we'll never be apart! Hey Max, Ms. Sinic, Christopher, ya want to join us?
Max: Why not? Sounds good to me.
Ms. Sinic: Yeah, sounds like fun!
Christopher (sweatdropping): Guys, we're not sentenced to die just yet-
Ameoba Boy: What about me? Don't any of you want me to come back, too?
(Everyone shakes their heads.)
Raye: Nope.
Max: Natta.
Ms. Sinic: Not really.
Psycho: I don't even like you, Ameoba.
(Ameoba Boy bursts into tears, and Christopher, Li, and Sakura glare at the others as they comfort him, muttering about horrible, non-supportive, cruel friends. Lizzie turns in her seat to look at the others.)
Lizzie: Don't come back and haunt me!
Psycho: What? Why not? Do you want to steal from us our final piece of happiness, owe b*tchy one?
Lizzie (gulping): I don't want ghosts following me around!
Raye (grinning evilly): I suppose that you'll have to let us go then. Otherwise, we'll be sure to come back and make your life a living hell.
(Lizzie gulps.)

{Disclaimer}
(Pulls out a gun.)
I don't own CCS, and you better not argue.
Else-
(Cocks gun loudly.)
I'll make today your last!
(Laughs maniacally.)


Madison looked around in shock. "Wh-what am I doing here? Where are we?" Looking up, Madison suddenly saw Nicolus Otion and the apprentice Antien. Gasping in surprise, the girl scrambled backwards. "Gh-gh-ghosts!!"
"Antien! But, how can it be?!" Garlin sputtered in shock. "You're dead!!"
The crimson-robe clad ghost nodded solemnly. "That I am, Garlin. For if I wasn't, young Shawn would have never come into existence. For the moment, I think it was good that I died when I did."
"But, but, but what are you doing here?!?" Garlin asked, taking a large step backwards.
Antien sighed. "I shouldn't be here, Garlin. But I am. Because of you."
"Me?" Garlin asked incredulously.
Antien nodded. "You have endangered the lives of innocents, Garlin, not to mention mine."
"Yours?" Garlin was clearly confused. "But you're dead!"
"In a way." Antien agreed confusingly. "But I live on in Shawn."
Shawn was struggling to take all of this in. It wasn't every day that someone got to meet their reincarnated predacessors.
Sakura knelt speechlessly as Madison crawled over. "Sakura, what's the hell's going on?!?!"
Sakura just shook her head wordlessly, stunned silent.
"Garlin, you must stop this," Nicolus's ghost suddenly spoke up. "No good can come of this."
Garlin shook his head as if to clear it. "No, no! You're trying to confuse me, to trick me!! Nicolus belongs here with me!!"
Nicolus's ghost shook his head firmly. "No, Garlin! I never belonged here with you! This place has no life to it, it's no place for a person to live!"
Antien sighed sadly, green eyes sorrowful. "I made a grave mistake the day I tried to make you, Garlin."
Garlin stared at the shimmering ghost in disbelief. "You cannot mean that, Antien!"
Antien sighed again. "But I do, Garlin. I wanted to create you to do good, as all of my Master Clow's other Cards could. You were to be a Card of Friendship, to help the sad and lonely around you." Antien paused sadly. "I was so sad and lonely myself, I so wished I could have a friend in you. Apprentices live hard, lonely lives. But you got out of hand, Garlin. You allowed yourself to be warped by the hatred and fear around you, and I lost control of you. And when you escaped. . ." Antien shivered in remembered pain. "It hurt so much, and the last thought I ever had as Antien was "Dear God, what have I unleashed?"."
Garlin was silent in horrified shock. "No! I am a good creature! There's nothing wrong with me!! It's the rest of the world that's twisted, not me!!!"
A large wave of magic suddenly blasted everyone. The ghosts of Nicolus and Antien shivered fitfully, flicking in and out of sight. Madison whimpered and clutched her bandaged neck. Small dots of red blood appeared on the white linen.
Shawn struggled to protect his face with his raised arms as Kero growled, his tiny wings beating furiously. Li's arms circled Sakura's waist protectively.
The magic finally died away, Garlin sobbing quietly in a tiny, dejected clump. "It's not true! I'm a good creature! I've never done anything wrong! I've merely punished those that stole from me!!"
The ghost of Nicolus seemed to quiver wrathfully. "Is that why you killed Kanthel!?!? Because you thought she had stolen me from you?!?!"
Garlin looked up from his sorrow. "She did!! You never wanted to be with me once you met her!" Garlin pointed accusingly at the gasping-for-air Madison.
"Are you alright?" Shawn called in a concerned way.
Madison coughed feebly, then managed to nod. "I'll be okay," she gasped out croakily, massaging her once-again bleeding neck.
"Garlin, I admit that I started to find less and less time to be with you, but I still wanted to be friends. We were, until you began hurting anybody who got close to me. And then, when I met Kanthel and gave her the magic-locket to Shield her from you, you became so enraged and furious that you went on a rampage! Do you not remember?"
A look of realization suddenly dawned over Garlin's strange face. "Yes. . ."
Nicolus nodded with grim satisfaction. "You went on a rampage, killed or hurt anyone you found. Garlin, you killed so many, there was nothing else I could do but send you back here. Afterwards, I so regretted finding Frainria again. And then, you took her from me," Silvery tears glistened in Nicolus's eyes. "You destroyed the one person that meant more than life itself to me. You killed my dear wife, Kanthel."
Garlin sobbed silently.
"And you remember now, don't you? You must have made yourself forget anything bad that you did in the past," Nicolus said accusingly. "You destroyed my wife, and afterwards, I lost interest in everything, and died a month later, of a broken heart. Do you want that to happen again, Garlin?!? Because it will if you let this continue, this horrible, pointless cycle. Let Shawn and Madison free, or you'll be trapped in this torment till the end of time!"
Garlin abruptly stopped his heart-wrenching sobbing, looking at the ground for a long steadying moment, the tears drying from his eyes. "No," the demon-creature whispered. "You're all lying. You're doing this for her," Garlin glared up at Madison. "You're doing all this to save her! You care nothing about me, about my hapiness and sorrow! You're torturing me, tricking me into letting her escape!"
And before anyone could move or react, Garlin had sprung, landing roughly beside Madison.
A scream of pain filled the air as Garlin's claws pierced Madison's heart.
"NO!!!!!!" Shawn screamed, forgetting everything as his heart shattered.


AHHHH!!!!! HELP!!!!! I'M BEING CHASED BY ANGRY READERS WITH FLAMING PITCHFORKS!!!! DON'T KILL ME!!! THE FIC ISN'T OVER YET!!! HELP!!!!!!!
(Lizzie stops the truck with a suffering sigh.)
Lizzie: I hope you all know that I'm going to be in major trouble if anyone finds out I did this.
Raye: Oh, don't worry. We'll be sure to tell everyone we can.
Lizzie (looking relieved): Oh, that's good. (Realization dawns on her.) Hey! Wait a minute!
Ms. Sinic: Oooh, I'm sorry! Your time's up!! Thanks for playing. Stop in again next time.
(The others vamoose, leaving Lizzie staring after them dejectedly. But, moments later, Lizzie isn't so lonely. A giant beam of green light falls on the Border Patroller as an alien hovercraft hovers over her.)
Lizzie: AHHHHHH!!!!! ALIENS!!!
1st Alien: LET US BRING THE EARTH CREATURE TO THE SUPREME COUNCIL!
2nd Alien: I COMPLETELY AGREE, VORPLAV!! THE COUNCIL SHALL BE PLEASED WITH SUCH A FINE SPECIMEN!!
Lizzie: AHHHHHHHHHH!! HELP!!!
(The others are conviently oblivious to her pleas for assisstance.)
Raye: Dum de dum dum dum. Do you hear anything, Max?
Max: Nope, I believe not, Ange.
Lizzie (distantly as she's carted off): I'LL GET YOU GUYS IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!!!
Christopher (sighing and sweatdropping): Which, with you guys, may very well be the case....