Chapter 3

Flashes of light.

            Pain. Suffering.

            Magic.

            Li was distant. He couldn't make out any details, but those were clear. There was a battle going on, a magical one. Spells flew back and forth, annihilating life on both sides. Such a waste, Li thought. In the hazy mists of insubstantiality, he tried to make out more detail. But none more became clear. And as suddenly as he had appeared on that battlefield, he was yanked out. His eyes shot open, expecting to see a demonic face stretching out towards him, engulfing him.

            Destroying him.

            Instead, he perceived two crystal-green eyes, pity and sorrow reflected into them. Li shot up, looking around, and was rewarded by a debilitating flash of pain, which sent him lying back down.

            "Li-kun!" A sweet voice called out, carrying the same properties as her eyes. Syaoran struggled to identify the voice, the eyes, so familiar to him. So dear.

            "Sakura?" he whispered, than suddenly realized what he had called her. "Ah!" He came up once again, shocked, and ignoring the pain. "Gomen!"

            Sakura giggled in spite of herself. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're OK." Li, however, was still a deep shade of red, humiliated by his slip. "You got the card, didn't you?"  She nodded.

"What was it?" he asked.

Sakura shrugged. "I don't know. It's definitely not a Clow Card, Kero assured me of that. Here, maybe you can figure something out." She took something off of the counter next to his bed, and handed it to him, a card. Li tried to focus his eyes enough to read the small text written underneath, identifying it. "The Blood." He read. "That's not a card!" Slamming his fist on the counter in anger, he turned the card over. While Clow Cards had a backing representing the Magic Circle that appeared whenever one used them, this card had a red pentagram on a black background. "This is… this is really wrong." He said, shocked. "It's an evil mockery of a Clow card! There's no such thing as The Blood!"

            "I know," Sakura said softly, as upset as Li. "But that's not a Clow card. We still don't know what it is. As soon as you get better, we need to call your mom in Hong Kong. She might know what's going on."

            If Syaoran was going to answer that, he didn't have the chance, as Meiling burst through the door, a concerned look on her face, ran over to the other side of the bed, and wrapped Li in a hug. By the shaking of her back, he could tell she was crying. "Damn you, Syaoran," she said amidst her tears. "This is what you get for not bringing me along."

            Li afforded one of his rare smiles at the girl. She withdrew herself, and he could see her smiling in relief despite the redness of her face. "Arigatou, Meiling-chan." He said softly.

            "When Sakura told me what happened…" Meilin continued, voice trembling, "I thought… I… you… never mind. What's important is that you're OK." She used her sleeve to wipe her eyes, leaving a dark, wet blot on her school uniform. "And that next time, you make sure I'm there with you!"

            He grinned. "I'll make sure of that."

            Another visitor charged through the door, holding a camera. As soon as she saw Syaoran upright, her smile faded. "Oh no!" She said, disappointed. "You're awake."

            He was taken aback. "Sorry for staying alive, I guess" he muttered. Tomoyo saw that she had been misunderstood, smiled and waved her hand. "No, it's just that I wanted to tape the revival of Tomoeda's hero!" She put her camcorder onto the counter, still turned on. "I'm glad you're alright, Li-kun."

            Syaoran was unused to such large amounts of pity and affection, and it did not much suit him. Instead, he turned to Sakura. "I think I've figured out how the Blood card works."

            Sakura smiled. "So did we. Actually, it was more Kero's idea. It steals life energy from the target, with its bite, probably, and uses it to strengthen itself. What we haven't figured out is who would make such a thing. It definitely wasn't Clow Reed. That feeling… that sickness that came over me, Kero-chan says its because I can sense the creator's power, and that its evilness defiles me."

            "What worries me," Li said, "is the chance that there might be more of these." He took another look at the back of the card. "We don't know if this is the only one. There might be five. Or ten. Or a whole deck of them!"

            "That's OK!" Tomoyo interrupted their conversation, not being able to contain her excitement at what she was hearing. "You two can capture them all! You seem to be handling the Clow Cards just fine."

            "It's not the same!" Li said angrily. "You didn't see that thing. It was vicious. Clow Cards are mischievous, but they don't really want to destroy anything. One of these things wouldn't think twice about killing us!"

            "He's right, Tomoyo-chan," Sakura said sadly. "And this feeling came over me when I drew near to The Blood. It's horrible… a fear of something far worse than death."

            The raven-haired girl's enthusiasm didn't seem to die down much. She simply smiled at their dark prediction. "I have absolute faith that you'll do just fine!" Walking around the bed, she picked up her camcorder and zoomed in on Li's startled face.

            Meiling, who had sat down on a small wooden chair in the corner, broke her long silence. "Well," she said, pointing at Sakura accusingly. "As long as I'm there, I think Daidouji is right! Syaoran and I can handle ourselves. But for now," her finger turned to a waving motion, "we must leave Syaoran alone."

            Li watched sorrowfully as his friends filtered out of the room, secretly sorry that he was, once again, alone.

            Dreams. Sakura had once said that for one with magical abilities such as him, dreams were like a gateway to the future, a prophecy. But Li distinctly knew, in ways  even he could not explain, that what he was experiencing was undoubtedly from the past. Flashes of light, pale beams flew back and forth between the two warring sides. Bodies dropped to the ground, charred, and aflame in magical fire.

            Li was closer than the first time he had experienced it. He had suspected that there was some meaning to his visions when the initial dream took place. Now he was sure of it. Closer, he could make out facial expressions on the faces of the dying wizards. All of them were contorted into rage, pain, fear, and the common factor, hate. Like before, Li tried to put everything into focus, tried to get closer, see who the mysterious generals on either side of the fighting were. And, like before, Li shot back into consciousness just as the hazy details distinguished themselves. He shot up out of bed. It took him several agonizing seconds for him to realize that he was no longer on that distant battlefield, but rather in the small house he shared with Wei. However, being freed from the prison of his dreams did not serve to satisfy him in the least. Instead, he sighed, and fell back onto his bed. Li realized that it was the middle of the night. Soft moonlight cast dancing shadows throughout his small room. He'd put it off long enough. He would have to call home now. And ask about the new cards.

            Sighing, he got up off the bed and made the short trip to the counter where his cordless phone sat resting. He had tried earlier that day to make the fateful call to his mother, the person who terrified him more than any other human alive. But he had put it off long enough.

            'She's only human,' he reminded himself, as he dialed the Hong Kong number. Putting it up to his ear, he could hear the phone ring once. Twice. Still nobody picked up, and Syaoran was starting to hope that perhaps she was out. However, after five rings, a click on the line indicated it had been picked up, and Li heard his mother's commanding voice. "I have been waiting for you to call, Li."

            "Konban wa, Okaasan." He responded politely, not at all set back by her uncourteous greeting. He was slightly alarmed at her expectancy, as if she had known something was wrong.

            "Why have you not called me earlier, Syaoran?" she continued her inquiry, oblivious to his attempts at politeness.

            "What makes you think I had reason?" he countered, just as coldly, now certain that she had somehow found out herself about the new cards.

            "Don't play the fool, Syaoran." She snapped. "I have sensed it, too."

            "How could you have? You're hundreds of miles away." He said, even though he knew his mother's powers would sense a Clow Card from across the ocean.

            "I will not dignify that question with a response." She said. "However, I have also sensed that it has been sealed."

            "It wasn't me" Li said bravely, as if daring his mother to resent it. "It was Sakura."

            "Ah, yes. The girl." Her mother said. "I am proud of you two. You have both grown strong." Li was taken aback. Compliments from his mother were rare, and praise for his failure was rarer still.

            "My Rashinban," he said, eager to ask the question that had been plaguing him since his board had failed to work. "It… it-"

            "Doesn't work, I know," his mother finished for him. "Do not be alarmed, Syaoran-kun. It is no fault of your own, nor of the Rashinban's."

            "Then, what?"

            "We are a family descending from Clow Reed. We have his magic running through our veins, and his powers at our disposal. The Rashinban was created to detect Clow Cards. The magic you are dealing with is something else entirely."

            "We'd figured out that much." Li said. "But they're cards of some kind. It seems Clow Reed wasn't the only one to use cards as a focus for his powers?"

            "No. He was not." His mother said. "A man worked for him, an apprentice. He was with him when Clow  Reed developed the idea of storing his magic as spirits inside cards as a physical barrier. However, his servant, Deshi Nowarui, had conflicting opinions as to what the Cards should be used for. With a magic as potent and dangerous as Clow Reeds, he thought that it would be a great idea to attack the world powers, bring down all the governments."

            "Pretty much rule the world, right?" Li said.

            "In essence, yes. He suggested it to Clow Reed, and of course, was turned down. Deshi stayed on a few more months to improve his own magical talents and learn the secret of storing spells in cards, then left Clow and went to perfect his own dark style of magic to complete his dark ends."

            "Did Clow Reed ever go after him, try to stop him?"

            "Well, of course he did. They waged a long and bloody battle before Clow Reed finally won in the end. Most of Deshi's cards were sealed, but a few got away. Clow gave up trying to find the last few, and went back and created Cerberus and Yue to act as his apprentices and guardians to replace Deshi."

            "I see," Li said, glad to have his questions answered at long last. "So that is why my Rashinban failed to detect it."

            "Yes," his mother answered. "But there is one more thing, Li. After Clow Reed opened hostilities on him, Deshi grew to hate him very bitterly. When you went to Japan, I think you have renewed that feud."

            Li gasped as he realized where his mother was getting at. "You mean-"

            "Yes. Most likely the cards are specifically targeting you, hoping to settle the score with Clow in one way or another."

            "What about Sakura? Why does she go sick whenever we go near one?"

            "She is more sensitive to magic than you may think. And unlike you, she is open to magic of all kinds, not just Clow Reed's."

            "I see," Li said, honestly. "Thank you, mother. You have put me at ease."

            "Do not feel at ease. Deshi's magic is more brutal than Clow Reed's. Beware. I am not sure if you and Sakura are strong enough to face this challenge. Do not fail me, Li."

            "I won't," Li said, and abruptly shut off the phone, withdrew it from his ear, and stared at it long and hard, as he pondered what he had just learned.

            Sakura groaned as she scraped her face off the ground. Crawling on all fours, she turned around to see what had tripped her. The offending object was quickly realized, as it was about the size of a chessboard. It was plain black except for a small white circle in the middle. Sakura picked it up. It was strangely heavy, and its back was identical to its front, save for the absence of the white circle. It was nothing that Sakura could identify. Shrugging, she got up and continued down the hall into her room.

            Kero-chan looked up from his video game as she entered the room, still clutching the black board. Thinking it was some kind of treat from him, he quickly pressed the Pause button on the controller, and zoomed up in the air to face level. "For me?" He inquired.

            Sakura had a puzzled look on her face for a few seconds before realizing that Kero-chan was referring to the board she had found. She held it up to show him that it wasn't anything edible. "It's just some board I found on the ground," she explained, walking over to her desk and throwing the board into one of her drawers carelessly.

            Kero-chan, disappointed, wafted back down to his controller, and began the rapid game once again. Between the blaring roar of the game car's engines, and Kero-chan's delighted yells, Sakura barely heard her phone ring. She turned her head to make sure she had really heard it ringing, and when she was quite positive of the distinctive sound, got up out of her seat and ran to the phone. She turned it on as she held it up to her ear. "Kinomoto residence."

            "Sakura?" A confused voice came from the other end.

            "Oh!" She said, surprised. Syaoran never called her. "Li-kun! What's wrong?"

            "I just talked to my mom. She knows exactly what's going on."

            Sakura was suddenly alert. Running upstairs, she tore Kero-chan away from his game, much to his dismay, and made him listen carefully as Li unfolded the story of Deshi Nowarui, his war with Clow Reed, and the remaining few cards. Syaoran was, however, completely unaware of just how much fear this was sending through Sakura, as memories of her recent dream flashed through her head.

            "They're specifically targeting you?" She asked, not daring believe it. Syaoran confirmed this, but assured her that he would be just fine. Sakura felt that he deserved an explanation. "Li-kun… I… I've been having this dream."

            Li, on the other line, gasped. "Me too!"

            Now it was Sakura who was surprised. Maybe if Li had it too, then it was nothing… or maybe that just made it more deadly. "It must be that we're having the same one. I'm standing on a building and you're on the Tokyo Tower, and you're… you're…"

            A loud burring came across the line, an upheaval of air that epitomized disappointment. "No. That's not the same as mine. I've had it twice so far. It's a battle, a magical one, and it's between two sides. There's generals on each side, but I can't make out who they are."

            "Well, isn't it obvious?" Kero-chan said. "It's Clow and Deshi. It must be that one of them is trying to tell you something."

            Li, across the city at his own home, was amazed at the lucidity, the painful obviousness of that theory. Of course it was Deshi and Clow fighting. He should have realized that as soon as his mother had told him they had fought. "Oh, yeah. That could be it," he said. Something else was bugging him. Something Sakura'd said. "In your dream, you said I was something. What did you want to say?"

            Her heart fell, having hoped that Li hadn't noticed her being cut off. "You were dead, Li-kun."

            Silence on the other line. After a few long seconds, Syaoran said, "I see. Well, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Just be careful." He hung up, leaving Sakura with even more questions to ask herself.

            The whole house shook with Sakura's resounding cry of "I'm late! Again!" In half a minute, she was running down the stairs, her school uniform hastily donned, her mass of hair untidy. She skidded into the living room where Touya was calmly reading a newspaper. She glared at him angrily, wrath in her eyes. "ONIISAN! Who turned off my alarm clock?!?"

            "I did, monster."

            "Why would you do something like that?"

            "Because it's Saturday, monster." He said calmly, sipping a cup of tea, never looking up from his paper.

            "That's not important! I've got plans to go to the park with Tomoyo-chan!"

            Touya looked at his sister for the first time that day, and scanned her up and down. "In that?" he said simply, referring to her school uniform.

            Sakura looked at her clothes, checking to see what her brother meant. When she saw what she was wearing, she let out another tortured moan, ran back to her room, and came down in half a minute wearing casual clothes. "I'm leaving," she called out as she ran through the door.

            "No breakfast?" Touya, always looking out, asked.

            "No, we're going to grab something to eat at the park!" She slammed the door and ran out onto the sidewalk, gulping in the sweet morning air. Clouds in the air were scarce, and the sun beat down mercilessly onto the planet. Overall, it was a great day to be alive, Sakura-chan thought. She started heading towards Tomoyo-chan's mansion, but stopped when Tomoyo turned the corner.

            "Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura called out happily. "I thought I was supposed to come to your house!"

            The girl beamed happily. "You were, but you woke up late, ne? I decided to meet you halfway."

            Sakura smiled nervously. "Thank you, Tomoyo-chan. Shall we go?"

            She nodded, and the two went off towards Tomoeda Park. The two girls drank in the beauty of the morning light, delighting in the warmth. Sakura looked down from admiring a weeping willow to see Li, with his back turned to them, standing by a confectionary stand, buying something.

            "Tomoyo-chan," Sakura elbowed her, "look! It's Li-kun!"

            She looked in the direction her friend was pointing at, and her face lit up. "You're right! And there's Meiling!"

            Indeed, Meiling had turned the corner and was now in full view, grabbing Li's arm and hanging onto it affectionately, much to his dismay.

            "Li!" Sakura called out. He and Meiling, still clutching his arm, turned their heads, a stunned look on their faces. Li's degraded as the source of the voice was confirmed, and Meiling's face lit up. "Daidouji-san!" she said to Tomoyo. "What brings you here!"

            Tomoyo giggled. "We were just going to the park for the day."

            Li's face grew bright red in misery, as Meiling announced that they had made the exact same plans, and suggested they spend it together.

            They bought some ice cream from the confectionary stand, and began walking through the trees. Sakura fell back to join Li, who was walking by himself at the back of the line.

            "Do they know yet?" She said, licking her cone.

            Li nodded. "I called them up and told them." His cone was untouched.

            They found a bench and sat down in it. The girls laid back, stretched, while Li sat awkwardly, starting on his ice cream, which was dripping down the cone, onto his fingers.

            Fear.

            Sakura shot up. She looked around, desperate.

            Struggling.

            She got up, dropping her cone onto the ground. She looked around desperately. Nothing. No screams. But she had definitely sensed something.

            Control. Total control.

            "Kinomoto, what's wrong?" Li asked, a smile on his face, licking the cone voraciously.

            She made another complete turn, wary for signs of danger, but nothing appeared, so she uneasily sat back down on the park bench. She looked at Li. "Didn't you sense something?"

            "No," he said plainly.

            Tomoyo looked concerned. "Are you OK, Sakura-chan?" Meiling smiled mischievously. "Calm down, Kinomoto! If Syaoran doesn't sense anything, it must just be your imagination."

            Sakura shook her head, "No! I felt a struggle. As if something were taking control of something else. And won."

            Li shook his head. "Don't worry, it's just your imagination."

            Sakura eyed him suspiciously. His words were coming out strange, as if rehearsed. And Li had an eerie warmness around him. And he was smiling. Li never smiles, Sakura thought.

            Tomoyo-chan got up. "Let's go for a walk!" She suggested. "We've been out in the heat too long, we should go through that forest over there, it's nice and shady!"

            They all got up and headed towards the woods. It was indeed much darker and cooler there. They walked through the thick cover of trees, until they were about halfway through. Syaoran grabbed Sakura's wrist. "Kinomoto-chan." He said, in the same stilted voice. "Come with me. There is something I need to show you." Sakura looked confused. She slowly nodded, still highly suspicious of his strange behavior. He took her deeper into the woods, leaving Tomoyo and Meiling together, and very confused.

            "What is it that you wanted to ask me, Li-kun?" Sakura asked. Li looked over his shoulder at her, a sly grin on his lips. "You will see. Come with me."

            Sakura broke his wrist grab and stepped away from him. "No, Li! Tell me now where you are taking me! You've been acting strange all day."

            He turned around, exasperated. "Sakura, come on-" he froze immediately, realizing his slip. Seeing that his cover had been blown, he quickly flew into a punch, aimed at her face. She too, had been on guard ever since he had called her 'Sakura' and was ready for it, dodging under his blow. Li was no longer smiling. His featured contorted into rage. "Come back!" He screamed. He dove for her, but she was too quick, sidestepping. He fell onto the ground, rolling. She took advantage of his position to quickly take the Clow Key out of her pocket. "O Key, that hides the power of the dark, by covenant reveal thy true form to me!" The key glowed blue, grew longer. "This, Sakura commands! RELEASE!" She grabbed the fully transformed Sealing Wand, and held it out to ward Li off.

            "What's wrong with you?" she screamed shrilly.

            "Darkness!" His voice came out raspy, as he got to his feet. "The world will succumb to darkness! Penumbra Cards will be the destruction of you all, weak mortals!" He lunged again at Sakura, and she sidestepped again, hitting his back with the Clow Staff as he flew past. He landed on the ground again, but this time managed to turn it into a roll and come up crouching. Syaoran put his hand behind his back and withdrew his sword.

Sakura gasped. There was nothing she could do against a sword, except… "SWORD!" Her Sealing Wand became shrouded in a mist of light, and came out a sharp sword. Li jumped forward towards Sakura, blade held out towards her neck. She brought her own weapon to parry it.

"Syaoran, what're you doing?!" A new voice broke his concentration. He turned towards the sound to find Tomoyo and Meiling looking very alarmed. "What's gotten into you?"

"Something's controlling him!" Sakura said, the solution being a sudden revelation for her. "That's gotta be it! That thing I sensed… a Clow Card is controlling him!"

"No!" Li shrieked, his voice embodying hate. "I am not a Clow Card! Never speak that name to me again! Penumbra cards are, and always have been, the superior focus. Clow Reed was a fool!"

"Penumbra cards?" Tomoyo said, getting out her camera. She pressed a button and opened the LCD screen. "So that's what they're called!"

"Whatever they are," Sakura said, trembling, the familiar wave of sickness coming to her again. "if they start using Li's magic against me, I'm toast!"

"Don't worry about it, Kinomoto!" Meiling said. "No offence, but Li's a martial arts master! If whatever's controlling him had access to his skills, you'd be gone by now. The fact that he's losing tells me that the card can't use any of his powers. And that includes magic!"

            Li seemed angry that Meiling had figured out his weakness. He hissed angrily in Sakura's direction. "With or without this fool's magical powers, I am still far superior." With a cry of rage, he threw Li's sword at her. It arced through the air towards her, but the toss was lazy, and it was no hard task for Sakura to jump out of harm's way.

            "You've got to do something, you can't keep dodging his attacks, he's going to get you eventually!" Tomoyo said, her voice shrill with panic.

            "Don't you dare hurt him!" Meiling contradicted her.

           "And I'm not planning on it!" Sakura dodged another sloppy kick. "This card doesn't seem to be a very good fighter. It shouldn't be much of a problem for me to hold him still long enough to seal the card. In fact," she dug around in her card pouch, "I think I've got just the thing!" She hit the card with the end of her wand. "Wood!" Immediately, powerful wooden vines shot out of the cards towards Li. They grew longer, wrapping themselves around his body, lifting him up into the air by the waist.

            Li was shocked by this sudden change, but once the surprise wore off, he got to work slicing the branches as fast as they were created. As he chopped the last one holding him in the air, he fell three feet onto the ground, careful not to impale himself on his own weapon. Rolling to absorb the shock of impact, he jumped as several more branches flew to where he had been a second ago.

            "This!" He landed on the ground holding his sword, as the power of the wood card began to die down. "So this is the power of a Clow Card. Impressive. Perhaps that old fool had some mind in him." He pushed off with his hand, charging Sakura, who was busy stuffing the used Wood card into her pouch. Seeing her old friend running towards her, sword poised to strike, accelerated her movements, and she quickly dug out another card. "FLY!" She jumped onto her wand, now bearing wings, just in the nick of time, shooting off into the sky not a second too late.

            'This would be a great plan,' Sakura thought, 'if only I could use cards while flying!'

            Li, looking up into the sky, seeing his prey zooming around at impossible speeds, decided upon a different tactic. Uprooting his sword from the ground where it had implanted when trying to strike Sakura, he walked over towards Tomoyo, who was still filming their battles. She looked up from the LCD display to see Li knock the camera out of her hand, grab her brusquely, wrap an arm around her waist, and position the sword to her neck.

            "Sakura!" He called out, adding even more to the realization that it was not Li saying these things, doing these things. "Come down and fight, or your friend gets it!"

            She looked down, could faintly make out Li holding somebody… "Tomoyo-chan!" she called out, realizing what Syaoran- no, the Penumbra card, she corrected herself, was planning on doing.

            Tears were suddenly streaming down Tomoyo-chan's face. "Sakura-chan!" She called out in a choked voice. "Don't come down! He'll kill you!"

            Sakura never did get a chance to save Tomoyo. A swift kick sent Li's sword flying out of his hand, landing on the grass. Shoving his would-be captive brusquely onto the ground, he turned towards his attacker. Meiling was in a martial arts stance, ready for a fight. "You don't want to pick on those two, they're defenseless! Come on, fight a real warrior."

            The look of terror on Li's face clearly said that he did not at all desire fighting anyone who had the capability to fight back. "Get away from me! You don't have any magic in you at all! You're useless!"

            Meiling's eyes flared angrily. "Useless? I'll show you useless! With or without magic, I can take you down any day." Then, much softer, she whispered, "Sorry, Syaoran" before launching into a frenzied, but deliberate, attack. Punch after kick after punch landed on the defenseless boy, pummeling him to the ground. Tomoyo, who had retrieved her camera, crowed in appreciation at her friend's onslaught. "Go Meiling!" she yelled energetically, as a well-placed kick knocked Li to the ground, blood once again soaking his clothes. The attack had taken its toll on Meiling too, however, and she was panting, sweat on her being as abundant as blood on her victim.

            Sakura, meanwhile, had landed near Tomoyo, and returned her wand to normal. She quickly ran to her friend's side. "Are you OK, Tomoyo-chan?" she inquired, genuinely worried about her friend's grueling ordeal. She simply smiled. "Of course I am, although I think my camera took quite a fall." She nodded her head in Meiling's direction. "I think she needs your help more than I do."

            Sakura nodded, running to Meiling's side, towering over Li. "Good job, I'll take it from here!" Meiling, breathless, nodded silently, and walked back to where Tomoyo was circling the two adversaries, trying to get the best shot of Sakura's capture.

            Sakura held out her staff, preparing to seal the card that had been controlling Li. "Return to thy true-" Sakura was interrupted by a swift kick on her shins, knocking her down on the ground. Li, meanwhile, had scrambled up off the ground and was running away.

            "After him!" Tomoyo cried, already running, trying to keep up close enough to film the capture. All three of them were running after Syaoran's retreating back, but none of them were close to being able to catch up to him.

"DASH!" Sakura took the time to stop and use the card, but it paid off. The greatly increased speed was quickly overtaking him. But as Sakura drew closer, it became increasingly obvious to her, with mounting dread, that Li had a destination. And she also seemed to remember what it was.

            He skidded to a halt inches in front of a deep, rocky cliff, sending a few stray pebbles falling down into the distant ravine. He turned around. "Stop right there!"

            Sakura also halted, holding out her hands in a desperate plea not to move. "Penumbra card, don't do it! You'll destroy yourself, too!"

            "Don't be stupid. Cards can't be destroyed. All I'll be doing is ridding the world of the one who bears Clow Reed's tainted blood. Plus," his mouth curled into a sadistic sneer, "I know how important this boy is to you. I will spare him, on one condition."

            Sakura put her staff down, knowing that she was hopeless in this case, a case where her enemy must not be harmed in any way. "What do you want?"

            Li held out his hand. "The Clow Cards. All of them. Give them to me now!"

            Sakura gasped. She could feel her will exiting her, leaving behind a broken shell. She started crying. This was an impossible decision. It was either the whole world or the most important person to her.

Her dream. It started coming back to her. Li Syaoran. Dead. But it wasn't here. It wasn't like this. "No," she choked back her tears. Her hands started creeping inside her pocket, trying to make the movement unseen.

            "Go ahead." She bluffed. "Jump, see if I care. He's my rival, I don't need that much."

            Confusion and confidence played across Li's face, trying to decide if Sakura really meant what she was saying. "You're bluffing. You wouldn't sacrifice your friend."

            "The heck I wouldn't," Sakura said, not believing these words were coming out of her month. "I spent a lot of time on these cards." Still kneeling, her hand flipped through and found the card she was looking for. She slid it in between her fingers so she could pull it out rapidly. Li still hadn't seen her yet.

            "Fine," he took a step backwards. "But remember, you are the death of him!" One more step took him off the cliff, and in one second, he was no longer visible. Quickly whipping out her reserve card, she threw it in the air and quickly activated it. "MOVE!" she mentally targeted Li, hoping it could reach him. Nothing happened. Li did not magically appear on the edge. Suddenly, Kero-chan's words came back to her.

            "Move can't target anything really big. Or anything living."

            Li was living. For the moment.

            Realizing her mistake, Sakura's heart sank, as she comprehended the result of her actions. She ran a quick mental scan of all the cards that might be of use to her. Float… no, that could only target her. Silent? No, he probably wasn't making much noise. It suddenly hit her. Quickly pulling out her card, she activated this one too. "WINDY!"

            The magical spirit seemed to sense the urgency of the situation, and so did not waste any time in emerging from the card and shooting rapidly down, parallel with the cliff wall. Sakura ran to the edge, eager to see if she had thought of it quick enough. The Windy spirit was shooting straight down at a rapid pace, but Li had already fallen a good amount. Sakura's card was catching up, but she didn't know if she'd thought of it fast enough.

            "Why'd I have to use the Move card and waste so much time?" Sakura berated herself. "If only I had Li's Time card…"

            She looked back down over the face of the cliff. Li was still plummeting with Windy in hot pursuit. Just as he would have hit the rocky face below, Sakura's card came in a long arc and caught him. Despite his struggles, he couldn't break free of her grasp as it carried him back up to where Sakura was waiting, a new card in hand. The Windy card gently laid the struggling boy onto the ground before her, and returned to card form, gently drifting down beside him.

            Li looked up, anger and hatred melded on his face in an expression Sakura had never wanted aimed at her. Nevertheless, she continued on with her plan, using the next card in her lineup. "Illusion!"

            From the bright light that Sakura could see coming from behind her, she could tell that the illusion she's summoned was appearing there. She did not turn around to see what it was. She knew what she would see. Her mother.

            But from Li's apparent increased hatred, Sakura knew what he saw. What he most wanted to see. Clow Reed.

            "You filthy thing!" He screamed in a voice that sounded like his face looked. With a sudden leap, he jumped over Sakura's head to where the illusion was. He had a few seconds to wonder why he'd gone right through Clow Reed's body before he hit the ground. Sakura was ready, having whirled around, Clow staff set.

            "I command you to return to thy true form! Penumbra card!"

            Li knew he was beat. He didn't resist as wisps of energy materialized on his body and flew in towards Sakura's waiting staff. It arranged itself in the form of a card, which Sakura caught in midair.

            Li, sapped of energy, lay on the ground, eyes closed, unconscious as Meiling and Tomoyo burst through the trees, having finally caught up with them.