Author's Note: I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura or any of the characters in this story except for Pete and Ken. All of the rest belong to CLAMP and I'm not making any money out of this. Sakura, Syaoran, Eriol and Tomoyo are all 18 in this story and are in their final year of high school.

The Bottom Of A Crystal Heart

Chapter 12

Syaoran and Sakura were facing the insane Pete, knowing that he could do anything, even it if would kill himself, to keep Syaoran and Sakura apart.

"He's just trying to take you away from the one you truly love Sakura! You know that he has magic, are you sure that he isn't just trying to put you under his magic so he can use you?" Pete sneered, his voice teetering on the edge of sanity, and he circled Syaoran and Sakura as if they were his prey.

"No Pete, Syaoran and I love each other, and I know that it is true love. I know that your love for me is no more than an infatuation and someone is trying to use that against you! Please, I know that you were never like this before, you've got to try and get a hold of yourself!" Sakura desperately pleaded with him, her eyes warily watching for any sign of his attack. She unconsciously huddled closer to Syaoran and she almost felt like she was safe as long as she was near him.

"I know perfectly well what I am doing, and NEVER question my feelings for you! I love you with all of my heart and NO ONE is making ME do anything!" Pete almost snarled at her and Syaoran seriously thought that Pete was going to attack them, so he grabbed Sakura and held her so that if Pete attacked, she would be safe. Sakura was a little surprised, but she felt really safe in Syaoran's arms, so she didn't protest. She would, of course, use her Sakura cards if there was going to be any danger. She even had one hand on the cards to make sure that she could pull them out quickly.

"We can sense Miss Mizuki's aura on you-"Syaoran cut off abruptly as the aura on Pete changed to match Eriol's one, "What is going on? Eriol wouldn't have cast the spell on both Pete and Ken. He wouldn't do a thing like this. He might have done it if it didn't involve Tomoyo, but as it did I can't imagine why Eriol would attack us." Syaoran didn't know what to make of this situation. A minute ago the aura that they had sensed on Pete had undeniably been that of Sakura's brother's wife Kaho Mizuki, but now it was of their friend and ally in this bizarre plot, Eriol Hiiragizawa.

"Eriol? Who's Eriol? As I told you before, I am here on my own accord. I don't obey anybody but myself, and I only love Sakura. She loves me but she doesn't believe her feelings are true because you have put a spell on her! Take that spell off her now otherwise I will have to kill you!" Pete threatened, going completely insane with the look in his eyes growing scarier and scarier.

"I can't take a spell off that I haven't even put on," Syaoran said slowly, drawing Sakura even closer as if to protect her from Pete, and at the same time he was reaching for his magical sword with his other hand. Sakura looked away from Pete's eyes, not being able to stand the look of those insane staring eyes. She wished that everything was already over, but she had a feeling that everything had only just begun.

"Fine then, you're going to die then!" Pete's eyes turned sane for a moment as he got into a battle stance before they turned back to being totally insane again. Just as he was about to attack though, a figure shimmered into view between Pete and Syaoran and Sakura.

"Miss Mizuki?" Sakura asked, having never have gotten used to calling Kaho by her first name, even though she was her brother's wife, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Australia with Touya and Melissa?" Sakura wriggled herself from out of Syaoran's grip and walked to her sister-in- law. She didn't seem to see the little glint in Kaho's eyes, but Syaoran did and he wanted to know why she seemed so. weird.

"Sakura, I don't think that that is." he was cut off as Kaho changed into Nakuru, Eriol's ex-moon guardian. Nakuru and Ruby Moon had been split up by Sakura after the final battle with Eriol. The only difference was that this Nakuru seemed to have a strange coloured triangle in her eye. It was if her left eye had a little purple triangle in it, and that struck Syaoran as odd. Sakura recoiled visibly at the appearance of the former moon guardian and her close friend.

"Hoe? What is going on?" Sakura asked, leaping back as the now-Nakuru made a grab at her. Syaoran noticed that now the aura that surrounded Pete was that of Nakuru, the usually hyper-active girl who had an aura of a non- magical person, a strange, unmistakable aura.

"Nothing Sakura, Kaho just needed to leave for a while, so she sent me," Nakuru smiled just a bit too sweetly, as if she was trying to coat everyone around her with sugar. Naïve as she is, even Sakura didn't believe that speech Nakuru made. Nakuru would have hugged first and squealed, before explaining, if she ever did. Plus Kaho wouldn't have just disappeared like that without warning. The fact that the aura on Pete changed to suit the person in front of them didn't help to convince her that Nakuru's story was true, that's if it really was Nakuru.

"I don't believe you, whoever you are. The only thing that I know is that you are not Nakuru, or Kaho. You are something else," Sakura backed away as far as she could until she almost ran into Syaoran. He put his arms around her again, and it calmed her down a bit as she stared strangely at the being in front of her.

"What do you mean, whoever I am? I am your old friend Nakuru, don't you remember me?" she pouted and she almost looked like she was the real Nakuru, except for the small purple triangle in her left eye. Sakura hadn't seen it though, so she cautiously made her way towards Nakuru, once again wiggling out of Syaoran's protective grasp. Pete was now forgotten to Sakura, but Syaoran was watching both Pete and Nakuru out of the corner of his eye. He didn't trust them and he found it strange that neither Eriol nor Tomoyo had shown up to help both him and Sakura. He had a bad feeling about that, and he knew that it wasn't just that he thought that the other two were fighting Ken; it was a feeling like something had gone terribly wrong.

"I'm sorry Nakuru, I guess that I'm just a bit suspicious of everybody that I meet unexpectedly like that," Sakura apologized, as she was less than a meter away from her, "I'm truly sorry for doubting you."

"That's alright Sakura. I would have done the same thing," Nakuru replied sweetly, holding out her arms for Sakura to hug her, but Syaoran saw the little purple triangle spin for a second and he was certain that this whole setup was a trap.

"Sakura, I wouldn't go near her if I were you," he warned and he took another step forward, only to find himself up against an invisible wall, "Sakura! Look out, she's not Nakuru!" He pounded his fist on the wall in front of him and watched as the love of his life walked straight into the arms of the woman pretending to be Nakuru.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Tomoyo had closed her eyes when she had seen that Kaho was going to pull the trigger, but after the gun went off, she felt nothing, no pain or anything. She heard someone collapse to the ground and felt her heart sink in her chest. Before she even opened her eyes she knew who the person who had saved her was. It was Eriol, the person who she truly loved, the person who didn't need to put a spell on her to make her love him. Now he was lying in the street, his face pale and a hole in his chest where the bullet had hit and exploded. He was dying. She looked up at the woman who had shot the gun and glared at her before she managed to get herself free from Ken's grip and rushed to Eriol's side.

"Perfect, everything happened as I planned," Kaho muttered insanely and she let out a high pitched laugh that was definitely not Kaho's.

"Eriol, why did you do that?" Tomoyo asked him, gently putting his head on her knee. She knew that there was no point in phoning for an ambulance; he would die before it got there, "Why did you do that?" He opened his eyes and stared at her seriously.

"I did that because I love you, and I always have. I couldn't stand by and watch you die," he managed to tell her before he closed his eyes and let out his last breath. Tomoyo felt his body go limp and silent tears ran down her cheeks as she silently told him that she loved him too, and that she would always love him forever.

"Aw, isn't that sweet? He died because of you," the woman with the gun said sarcastically, cleaning the end of the gun with the sleeve of her long coat, "Now you'll never be able to see him again. What a shame!"

"Who are you? I know that you are not Kaho Mizuki, and I should have realised that before. Kaho never loved Eriol more than a mother would love her son and she's married now, so why would she want to hurt me? You put a spell on me so that I wouldn't remember, didn't you?" Tomoyo didn't move her gaze from Eriol's pale face, but her voice was full of strong anger and grief, "Tell me now who you are or I'll find out somehow. You need to pay for what you did to Eriol."

"Ooh, I'm *so* scared! Fine, since you are going to die anyway, I will tell you. I am an assassin, sent by a powerful magician who lives in Australia, a very powerful magician. He made it so that I could change into anybody I wished, and nobody would be able to tell the difference. I could probably have turned into you and have made Eriol think that *I* was you, and he wouldn't notice the difference. My name is Hitomi, or the silent silhouette. I was sent on a mission to make sure that you and Eriol didn't find each other, and that Sakura and Syaoran didn't either. Since I've failed, I just have to destroy all of you and then my mission will be complete," Hitomi changed into her true form as she said this, and Tomoyo was amazed when she recognised a student from Tomoeda High.

"You're that girl who came about two years ago, aren't you? That's why Sakura and I never saw Syaoran and Eriol before Tak's party, isn't it?" Tomoyo demanded, stalling for time and hoping that Ken, who seemed to be in some sort of trance, would be able to help her destroy Hitomi, who seemed to be having the time of her life.

"Yes, actually it was quite funny. You have been in basically all of Eriol's classes ever since he came to Tomoeda High, and you haven't even noticed. It was the same with Sakura and Syaoran. You really are the easiest people to trick! I could have made them sit right net to you guys and all you would have seen was a strange guy that you didn't know and you'd have seen that he had a strange, fake name. I could hardly believe my luck when you didn't even notice!" Hitomi smiled with glee as she said that, obviously remembering her triumph over the four.

"Why would you want to assassinate us? We've done nothing for you and you don't seem to be the type of person who enjoys pain, so why are you doing it? There must be something in it for you for you to have done this," it was then that Tomoyo noticed that Hitomi had a small purple triangle in her left eye. It seemed strange that she had never noticed it before, but she never had.

"I get my fiancé back after I complete this assignment," for the first time Hitomi looked really sad, but then her face flickered back to a determined expression, "My twin sister Umi is dealing with Syaoran and Sakura at the minute. She gets to have Syaoran after the assignment, but I am only doing this to get David back. That magician took him to use me!" Hitomi's slim body was trembling and Tomoyo thought that Hitomi was going to cry. Hitomi's black hair was flowing out into the wind and tears were forming in her gray eyes. The hand that was holing the gun towards Tomoyo shook so hard that the gun almost fell from it.

"I'm sorry Hitomi," Tomoyo sympathized and was surprised to find that she actually felt sorry for the young girl who had killed her Eriol, "But now that you've kept Eriol and I apart, maybe your part in this mission is over. You don't have to kill anymore and if you go back I'm sure that the magician will give you your fiancé back. After all, if you kill me you will only be hurting yourself and Eriol and I will be together." Tomoyo actually wanted Hitomi to shoot her after she had lost the only person whom she loved, but Tomoyo knew that she had to warn Sakura and Syaoran first, even if it meant that she had to live.

"You're right. I have finished my part in this. If I go back now, he'll give David back to me. Thank you for understanding and I'm really sorry that I killed him. I really didn't want to, but if I didn't, something would have happened to David and I wouldn't be able to live with that. I'm so sorry," Hitomi dropped the gun to the floor and disappeared, probably back to Australia so she could find her fiancé. Tomoyo knelt down and kissed Eriol on the forehead before she slowly climbed to her feet. She had to go and look for Sakura and Syaoran and help them before it was too late.

"Goodbye Eriol. Maybe I'll see you soon, my love," she told the sky before she raced off to find her other two friends, with silent tears streaking down her face.

End Of Chapter 12.

I'm really sorry that this is so late, but I've been really busy with school lately. Year 10 has too much homework straight after year 9! Anyway, as you can see, the plot is very complicated. I'm sorry if it's confusing. Oh, and Hitomi and Umi are my own characters that I made up, I used the name of a classmate of mine, Hitomi. Anyway, as you can see, the person pointing the gun at Tomoyo was not really Kaho. If anybody is confused, just ask me anything in a review or e-mail me @ bob_in_a_box@hotmail.com. Please review and I promise that I'll update again next weekend, as it's the long weekend and I'll have no homework as I'm on camp this week from Monday to Friday. Anyway, enjoy your week and review!!!!!