Syaoran walked carefully towards the door of the auditorium, avoiding both the janitor and his irritating cat. Come to think of it, that cat* seems drawn to magic…He bent down to come face to face with the doorknob, pulling out an ofuda and opening the lock. Slipping in, he readied a complicated spell, for the moment—

He sprung forward with his sword as the blackness enveloped the whole of the auditorium, erasing what little light was left. His sword, however, shone in the dark, as would he unless he let go. Dark knew, and he knew that Dark knew, and Dark knew that he knew that Dark knew. It wasn't absolutely certain, but by the way he tightened his grasp, one would assume that he knew that Dark knew that he knew that Dark knew.

In any case, he had to keep a good firm grasp on his sword.

Dark was squirming, he knew, and he was pleasantly surprised by the amount of power it was throwing to extinguish the light that was threatening her complete domain. It only meant that her guardian was getting stronger, which would mean a tougher opponent.

All the better for when he had to bring the cards back to the Elders. He twisted his sword, and Dark gave in with a final cry of anguish.

"I can't access Light right now, so tell her when you do meet her," he looked into the half-dead eyes of Dark, "to go easy on the other one, Sakura." Dark nodded, miserable without her other half. Syaoran rolled his eyes. Turning and bringing his sword down, he put Dark to sleep.

Walking out into a small patch of trees, he pulled out the rest of the week's takings. Snow, Cloud, and Sand. Slicing them in half, he glared at each one in turn.

"Behave yourselves. Go easy on her. Etcetera." Syaoran turned and walked back to his house. Most of the cards were sealed. He couldn't wait…for the Final Judgement.

~*~

Do you know what Time really is?

It is not simply stopping time in the area that you are glancing upon.

Time is stopping the flow of time. The entire flow. It is like stopping the greatest of greatest of rivers from flowing dead, while all the while it wants to continue flowing.

Wei-san once told me that no matter how hard your try, you cannot stop the water from the faucet.

And just to prove him wrong, I stopped the water.

"Hoe, Li-kun, daijoubu?"

"Hai," I sit up and remove the towel, "that's nothing for me." Of course, it could have been even less of nothing, but that stupid stuffed animal of yours was taking forever to expose the dream. And someone was holding me back, telling me to wait until you finished with that Tokyo Tower dream of yours.

Someone was holding the water back so I couldn't let it go.

Someone is stopping me. And I must find out who.

~*~

AN: okay, here we find out some crucialistic plot junkie stuff…and we know that Syaoran has caught this and this…*throws the rest of the index cards in the trash somewhere* Forget that.

*The cat that seems to always be around when cards are being caught…it chases Sakura, becomes big, etc. For a really great story on The Cat, read Ciircee's Morals, Mange and Misadventures in Male Bonding. I like that story. Wow, a selfless plug. Amazing!

And don't forget to review!

wicherwill o_o (too much computer time…)