Author's Note: Can you tell I want to get this story finally done and over with? One more chapter after this, then maybe a prologue. That's it. And I'm quite aware that I got this chapter posted within 24 hours of the first. I worked very hard to be able to do that.

So, only three reviews made it to my inbox before I got this up. Darn. ~giggles~ Really? I wasn't expecting that many. Wow. Imagine if I had decided to hang onto this a while! Aren't you glad I didn't? So, for the lucky few, thank you. Kira, Tela, and Silvermoon Maru, you guys are either lucky or obsessed. ~grins~ I got two reviews of wows and telling me how original this story is! ~happy dance~ Come back soon! We've still got unresolved thingys here, though this chapter *is* the climax. Yay!

Silent Eyes

Zetti Daijobu

The tears were like crystal beads falling from empty eyes. All these people Sakura had loved were standing surrounding her as enemies. All hope, every dream of success and survival, all vanished with the flickering of the lights and what the new glow revealed. Sakura trembled under the weight of the implications.

She had two weeks to live, and she couldn't think of a way to stop it.

So, why had she been so sure there was a way through this last night? She had even dreamed of everything falling apart like this, but there was a way...there was a way to get through it.

There was a way, she realized. It was right there where she could almost feel it forming. So close, so close, but the stares of everyone upon her kept driving the thought away from her.

And then softly, barely audible, a voice began to sing. Tomoyo was looking directly in Sakura's eyes, beginning a song she had never heard before but sounded so familiar. It was echoed, harmonized with as the Song card invoked itself, and the song gained more strength. Someone else started humming along with the melody, supporting it and the two singers.

Sakura understood what she could do.

It would take strength and determination, but it was her only hope. She smiled, turning to look at the kittenish man standing in the doorway. She had extended her trust to him and he had abused that trust. She had to take her power back. "You have not won."

His eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, but Sakura met his glare with a determined gaze of her own. "What did you say?"

"I said you have not won. You will not win. I won't let you win. I am the Mistress of the Cards. I am the most powerful sorceress in the world, and I will not let you win!"

He stepped closer, the others moving to circle the group and let them know that Yaku breaking the perimeter did not weaken their guard. "You're just a little girl. You're weak. I've been feeding off of your loved ones, gaining their magic and adding it to my own while your energy is ripped in two over the last two weeks. I've been more clever than you can imagine, and now I'm more powerful than you."

"No, you only want me to think you are. I can feel it. You cast a spell on me when you took the magic pain from my hand. I can see it glowing now, leading right to you. Then, last night while I dreamed, I knew I was getting closer to death. You know what that did to me? It let me see ghosts. I've always felt them, and just feeling them around me terrified me because the ghosts were an unknown, but seeing them took my fear away. But, it won't take your fear away. The ghosts are looking for you. They want you. They want to make you pay for what you've done before you can do it again. They're getting closer...in fact I can see them now. They're angry at you, and angry ghosts can scare you to death."

His eyes widened as she talked and his gaze darted around the room with obvious paranoia. Sakura smiled knowingly while he backed up, fear beginning to crack his confident facade. "I am more powerful than those ghosts! They can't touch me! They can't get near me! You're bluffing, little girl."

"No, I'm not. I will not let you rob me of my power any longer, and that includes my guardian. Yue is mine." Yaku's spell weakened, causing ripples through the entire "net" of the spell.

Eriol blinked, regaining himself and slipping out of the spell the instant it was weakened. "In my last life I gave my guardians free will. I will not permit you to interfere with that." The spell was further weakened.

Yue's aim subtly shifted from covering the group of people in the center of the room, to cover Yakusoku. "Yukito is the other half of my self, my soul. As long as I am free, he will be as well."

With that, Yukito found the strength to shrug off the spell as well. "With all my heart and all the strength I have, I will not watch you enslave my love."

Touya was freed, the spell slipping aside like cobwebs under the united power of so much magic. He then added his own power of will to breaking the spell once and for all. "And I'll die before I let you enslave my dad any further, you son of a bitch."

They were all freed and their adversary was surrounded.

~~~~~@~~~~~

Eriol felt dirty. Used. His memories of the last two days were crystal clear and made his skin crawl.

Underlying that revulsion though was anger. He had never been so angry in his life. And the object of his anger was tantalizingly close, standing right in front of him. Every ounce of self control bestowed upon him by living Clow's extensive memories for so long was needed to hold him back. He had never been one to lash out blindly.

His limits were tested though as he stood, watching the creature that had held his will captive, and held the others who would be able to help Sakura. Sakura was essentially Clow's heir, and she held a special place in Eriol's heart for that. Turning him against her was unforgivable.

Yaku spun, taking in the suddenly changed odds with sheer panic in his eyes. "I haven't done anything wrong!" His proclamation of innocence fell on stunned ears.

"Oh, I need to hear how your delusional mind can try to explain that," Touya countered, closing in dangerously. He wasn't the only one.

He moved erratically, like a rat cornered by an excitable kitten. Eriol rather liked the irony of that particular image. "I haven't actually hurt anyone. In fact, as I remember, I made a few people very happy. Extremely happy from what I could tell."

"That wasn't happiness," Eriol said through gritted teeth, feeling ill.

"Pleasure, happiness, I've learned to take what I can get over the years." His movement was still erratic, though he seemed to be intent on one direction--toward freedom. Eriol shifted slightly toward the door, unwilling to give him a chance to escape.

"How do you justify what you've done to Sakura," Yue asked with steel backing the softness of his voice.

"I haven't done a thing to her. I just prevented her from saving herself. Everyone dies eventually. I was just going to gain something in the process." He grinned as if he was congratulating himself for being as noble as he claimed to be, and while everyone was distracted with their feelings of revulsion he pounced. He didn't bound for the door the way everyone suspected he would, but he jumped toward the middle of the group where Tomoyo was standing. He had his hand at her throat with cat's claws extended, pressing uncomfortably into the skin. He looked cheerful as he looked around at everyone gathered. "Okay, I lied. I was pulling some evil shit, and I know it. Hell, I'm proud of it. Now though, it doesn't matter. If any of you move, this innocent will die. Slowly. Painfully. And by my hand."

~~~~~@~~~~~

On wings of midnight she gently glided closer, stopping short at the door. Two larger feline guardians flanked her, listening intently to the commotion within. The trio masked their magical signature, even from their masters, hoping to have a complete element of surprise in their attack.

When she heard that someone had been taken hostage though, she knew that they had gotten there just in time. A small smile settled on her face and her eyes gleamed in a way that Yukito would recognize all too well. She was a predator lurking in the shadows and this time no one would stop her.

A commotion erupted in the other room. "Tomoyo!" Her mother's voice, full of emotion.

"Let her go," came from the voice of Ruby Moon's master. "You won't get away with this."

"I'm getting away with it right now. I can kill her faster than any of you can cast a spell to stop me, and every threat in the world is huddled in fear before me. Clear a path! Now! Before someone dies."

That was the silent trio's cue.

Shuffling movement could be heard, then a figure backed out of the doorway.

Shadows still concealed them, but they moved silently into position.

Yakusoku grinned maniacally, showing triumph and relief by his posture and the cocky sneer on his face. He wasn't cute anymore, Ruby Moon noted as an afterthought, right before she sprang. With one motion she flew at Tomoyo, snatching the girl from his hands before he even noticed he wasn't alone in the hall. His hand had relaxed slightly because of the assumption that he was safe at last.

It was the last mistake he ever made.

As soon as Tomoyo was clear he was the target of three magical attacks. Ruby crystals of energy pierced his heart and other vital organs, a beam of energy shot through his head, boiling his brains immediately, and fire engulfed the rest of him, killing him three times over. The three guardians would fight for the rest of eternity on who could claim that kill.

As Tomoyo began sobbing her reaction, Ruby Moon deposited the girl in Eriol's arms for comfort, the nearest person to them. Then she spun around and looked in distaste at the smoldering corpse in the hall. "I'll get rid of the body, if that is okay?"

No one argued.

Ruby Moon used her magic to pull the body outside where nothing would be further damaged, then pumped the corpse full of her signature ruby crystals. The intensity she poured into them caused them to explode and disintegrated the body immediately. She narrowed her eyes and said only, "No one hurts my master."

It wasn't enough to erase the pain from her heart, but it was a step in the direction of feeling better for her failure. Two days of being unaware of what was happening until Kero came tonight and explained all. She would never forgive herself for not killing the parasite in his sleep while he had curled up at her master's side.

~~~~~@~~~~~

Tomoyo was sobbing into Eriol's shoulder, unashamed of her reaction to being so close to death. There would be a bruise on her neck tomorrow and the skin had been scratched pretty deeply, but that didn't matter now. What mattered was that she had survived. The ordeal was over.

That brought a smile to her face and a halt to her tears. They could all start healing now. She smiled up at Eriol and her heart skipped a beat as she saw him smiling back at her. They hastily pulled apart, aware of the inappropriateness of their proximity now that she was no longer crying, since they didn't know each other that well really. It was a situation Tomoyo suddenly realized she hoped she could remedy.

Around them the rest of the room shuffled in reaction. Relieved sighs were expelled and some giddy laughter. From the floor Syaoran and Yelan were reviving, weak but unharmed. Syaoran's sisters all started to fill the pair in, filling the room with overlapping chatter that the pair seemed somehow to decipher.

In the whole room there were only two people not smiling. Tomoyo saw the glance that Yukito and Yue exchanged, but in all the chaos she couldn't understand why they were so serious. Then Yukito walked over to Syaoran with tears in his eyes and kneeled before him.

"I'm sorry. We felt your spell, but there was nothing we could do. Our will was bound, and we failed you."

That's when the hush descended upon the room again.

The night was not over.

Sakura was still in danger.