Disclaimer: I do not down CCS or
any of its characters much to my dismay! They belong to CLAMP.
" Speech
* Thinking
~ Sound affects
() Translation
Unwinding Destiny
By ~Xiaoling~
Chapter 15:
Forgiveness
Tomoyo's eyes were wide with worry as she looked at her mother's tired and frustrated face. Tomoyo was standing beside her mother, in her private study room, and she was looking at the map of China and Japan. Once again, the Li Kingdom was winning.
"Mother...what will we do...?"
"Don't you dare give up Tomoyo! We will win this, for our friends..." Sonomi said softly.
Tomoyo felt the tears come to her eyes again. She knew what her mother meant by friends. It was the Kinomoto Kingdom, and she missed Sakura the most, and Kero too.
"I'm so worried mother! If we loose, we might die...Sakura and everyone will not want that neh?" Tomoyo asked quietly, with little hope in her voice.
Sonomi was silent as she was thinking of what her daugther had just said. "...Well...we won't loose."
Tomoyo frowned softly and left the room. She went to find Eriol, who was probably in the library somewhere.
"Eriol-kun?" She called.
He appeared from behind a book shelf. "Yes?" He took her hand and kissed it gently, causing Tomoyo to blush a bright shade of pink.
"I...I'm very worried about this war..." Tomoyo whispered, nuzzing into him. "I...I want to go to Hong Kong."
"Why?" Eriol said calmly, he had suspected Tomoyo would say this.
"I want to talk to Syaoran in person. We use to talk...I use to give him advice...we were actually kind of like friends." Tomoyo mumbled. "Will you go with me?"
"...I guess..." Eriol answered.
Tomoyo smiled, her amethyst eyes
sparkling. "Thank you Eriol..."
"Sakura dear...have hope, open your heart again, and you will see new light..."
Sakura opened her eyes, and met the soft eyes of her mother, Queen Nadesiko. "...Mother!? Is that really you?"
Nadesiko shook her head gently. "No Sakura...well, yes..."
"Mother...I miss you..." Sakura reached out to her mother, but her hand went right through her, causing her eyes to fill up with tears.
"Remember Sakura, have hope and open you heart again." And her image disappeared.
Sakura blinked in astonishment, but when she opened her eyes again, she was standing in the court yard of the Kinomoto Palace.
"Hey squirt!"
Sakura whirled around, her eyes widening. "ONI-CHAN!!" She screamed in pure delight, tears springing from her eyes. She starting running towards him, but he held a hand up to stop her. "Why?"
"You can't touch me Sakura."
"..Oh..."
"As much as I hate to say this Sakura, but you're strong. Stronger than I ever could have imagined. And, being your oni-chan, I am proud of you."
Sakura smiled weakly.
"But the only thing with you, is that you are weak when it comes to forgiveness." Touya said sternly, placing his transparent hand on Sakura's shoulder.
Sakura's eyes widened. "Forgiveness?"
"Just forgive and forget Sakura...revenge isn't what mother and father wants, neither what I want too. Yes, we do hate the Li Kingdom, but mother and father what you to be happy. If your love happens to be the king of the Li Kingdom now, don't let that stop your love. Don't think that it's shameful to love someone that killed your family."
"...Oni-chan..." Sakura whispered.
"Forgive and forget." And he disappeared.
Sakura reached out to him, but she felt nothing but thin air, but then someone reached back to her. "...Dad?!"
King Fujitaka smiled at his daughter. "Sakura, I, just like Touya, am very proud of you. You must have hope, love, and forgive...don't let that sword of betrayal lie in your heart. It will not help, and you will not go on in life that way. Mother and I do not want that, we want you to live your life the fullest Sakura."
"...I know..."
"Then go. Stop the war, go to your love, out of the shadows." Fujitaka gently pushed Sakura backwards.
Sakura turned around and saw a bright door.
"Go! Make your family proud...fly out of the shadows Sakura! Go..." He said softly now.
Sakura nodded, "I will dad!" She smiled brightly at him and turned around.
Sakura sat up in her bed. "That...was all a dream..." She looked out the window beside her, at the star filled sky. "Yet, it felt real...I know it was...Mother, father, oni-chan...they came and talked to me."
She glanced down at the sleeping
Kero. She giggled softly under her breath, and got out of bed. "Stop the
war, forgive, get out of the shadows, and go to my love..." Sakura's lips
curled into a half smile. "That's exactly what I will do then."
Syaoran looked at the map laying in front of him. He was winning this war easily as squishing an ant. He sighed, he felt bad for doing this, yet the Daidouji Kingdom wanted the fight in the first place anyways.
"Xiaolang?"
"Yes Meiling?" He regonized the voice, so he didn't need to turn around.
Meiling entered the room, her red chinese robes trailing behind her. "I just haven't spent any time with you for a long time...since you've been busy with the war any everything. I was hoping we could at least take a walk.."
"...I guess.." He said reluctanly and turned to face the smiling Meiling.
They went by the gardens that decorated the castle, and up to Syaoran's favorite bridge. They stopped there and Meiling smiled while watching the lotuses sway back and forth.
"Don't you think lotuses are beautiful Xiaolang? They are so calm, serene, and so innocent. They just float there, no weight on them to make them sink into the depths of the water..."
"That you are wrong."
Meiling looked at Syaoran quizacally. "What do you mean?"
"...Lotuses do not stay afloat forever...they sink eventually..." He replied, his eyes watching the water ripple as a leave dropped onto it, breaking the water's calm surface.
"I guess so then..everything has to go down someday neh?" Meiling chuckled softly. "Remember something I made you promise me when we were young?"
"...No, you made me promise many things to you." Syaoran said with a half smirk on his face.
Meiling smiled sheepishly. "Well, I mean the one where if you found someone you really loved, you would tell me."
Syaoran's face fell at that question, and his eyes went downcast. "Uh huh...so what about it?"
"...I don't think you kept the promise Xiaolang..."
"Promises...are meant to be broken..."
Meiling tilted her head in amusement. "How poetic for someone like you Xiaolang." She giggled a bit. "Not all promises are meant to be broken Xiaolang, and this one is one of those ones."
Syaoran sighed deeply. Meiling was being annoying, and he was getting frustrated. "Fine, I will tell you now. I have found someone I loved..."
"Yet they ran away from you?"
"...How.."
"How did I know?" Meiling chuckled. "Who wouldn't?"
Syaoran frowned at that comment. "You didn't."
"...I guess I didn't eh? Well, when you have a whole kingdom to rule with your husband, I don't think I can just run off." Meiling said sheepishly. "So, who is she?"
Syaoran turned to look at the water below them again. "She..she is Sakura.."
"Now I see why you love cherry blossoms so much..." Meiling commented. "You don't have to say anything more if you don't want to." Meiling said curtly and left him alone on the bridge, but soon after one of his personal guards came running to him.
"Your highness! Two guesses say that they have important news for you! Something about the Clow Book and a girl named Sakura," The guard reported.
Syaoran's head perked up at the mention of Sakura. "Where are they?!"
"In the entrance room your majesty."
Syaoran hurried his way to the front of the castle. *Who can they be?* His thoughts were running as fast as his feet were moving him. He pushed aside the doors, and saw two people sitting in chairs, one sipping a cup of tea.
A girl around his age looked up. She had long waving dark hair with sparkling amethyst eyes, and oddly she seemed almost familiar. And to the girl sat a boy with dark hair and dark eyes with glasses, and he had a mischevious smile that he could never forget.
"...Hiiragizawa-kun?!" Syaoran said in complete shock.
Eriol nodded curtly with that smile still on his face. "Nice to see you again after all these years...your majesty." He added with a smirk.
"Then you must be...Daidouji-chan!" Syaoran exclaimed.
Tomoyo smiled and nodded, "Konnichiwa Li-kun, long time no see!"
"What...what brings you hear?! Espeically you Daidouji-chan...you.."
"Yeah, yeah! We're enemies right now, so what? I don't consider you as my enemy..." Tomoyo gave him a reassuring smile.
Syaoran felt a bit of relief fill him. "But why are you hear?"
"I don't want this war to go Li-kun...I know you can do something about this. For god's sake you are the king!" Tomoyo said, rolling her eyes.
"...Well, go talk to your mother then!" Syaoran snapped.
"I've tried..she just keeps on saying that we will win. I know we won't..." Tomoyo said sadly.
Eriol decided to join the conversation. "It is better is the war stops. The Clow Book isn't even in your hands, and revenge for the Kinomoto Kingdom...they wouldn't be happy..they hate voilence I've heard."
"How do you know the Clow Book is not in my hands?!" Syaoran asked, complete shock written on his face.
Eriol had a triumphant smile on his face. "I think a certain cherry blossom came and took it away."
Syaoran's face seemed more shocked. "How do you know all this?!"
"Well, he is Clow Reed after all," Tomoyo pointed out.
"Half of Clow Reed," Eriol corrected.
This caused Syaoran's jaw to drop open. "What the heck is going on?! What do you mean you are half of Clow Reed?"
"..Er..my other half is dead..." Eriol said with a blank face.
"Who is your other half?"
"King Fujitaka.." Eriol replied.
Tomoyo and Syaoran both gasped. "What?!"
Eriol nodded simply. "So I'm not as powerful anymore...but then, I don't need power anyways."
"But how would you know about Sakura?!" Syaoran asked.
"Sakura?!" Tomoyo perked up. "What Sakura?!"
"One simple thing Tomoyo dear." Eriol said. "Sakura is still alive."
"WHAT?!" Tomoyo jumped off her chair. "AND YOU HAVE KEPT THIS SECRET AWAY FROM ME?! HOW COULD YOU!!!" She pounced on Eriol.
"I wanted it to be a surprise!"
"Nice surprise this is...where is she anyways?!" Tomoyo said, leeping off Eriol again.
Syaoran sighed, "I don't know...I lost her again..."
"Right now, we can't worry about
that now, much to my dismay..." Tomoyo pointed out. "What we have to deal
with is my mother and you and the war."
