AN: Well this is it, the second to last chapter! A big thank you to everyone who reviewed, because as always this story wouldn't be going anywhere without you! I would also like to thank everyone for not getting angry with me for not updating. But hey after the next chapter, there won't be anymore updating! Unless I consider a sequel?

The Prophecy

Chapter 16 - The Strength of Friendship and Love


Sakura did not know that Syaoran had regained consciousness, and was still fighting Kenjii as well as she could. She felt a hand slip into hers, and when she turned to look she saw Syaoran. He looked a little worse for wear, but he was standing. Sakura smiled as her hand tightened around his. Inside her heart was leaping with joy, at least he was alive now. Sakura tried to focus her self, now was not the time to let her emotions for Syaoran get out of control. She had to destroy Kenjii first, and then she could sort out stuff with Syaoran.

Kenjii saw them together, and was instantly enraged. How dare that cheap son of a bitch take his woman. Sakura was his, and he would kill Syaoran to prove it. There was no way he would back down until he was either dead or had Sakura as his queen.

Kenjii closed his eyes for a moment, and beside him appeared four demons from the underworld. Sakura, Syaoran, Eriol and Tomoyo all looked stunned for a second. These demons where most grotesque things they had ever seen. Each one had its own deformity.

"Let me introduce you to Rage, Hate, Anger and Death" said Kenjii in a cool controlled manner, pointing to each of the demons as he said their name. "These will be your destruction. After all someone like me can't waste their time destroying arrogant little pieces of shit like you."

The four demons stood there grinning. Each one had a look of malice and hate in their eyes. There was one demon for each of the chosen ones. They charged at the four, but before they had even got near the barrier that Eriol was still sustaining, they burst into flames. Sakura grinned.

"Well lookie lookie" she taunted. "It seems that even your little demons can't come near us. Is that why you're afraid Kenjii? Do you already know that if you overstep a certain threshold you will disintegrate? Or are you just too weak to carry out your own plans?"

Kenjii let out a scream of rage. How could they have become so powerful already? He began to realise that there were only a few limited ways to kill these four before they killed him. He now also knew that there was no way he would be able to take Sakura as his queen. She would have to die. He started a chant, and although Sakura could not hear what he was saying, the tone chilled her. Deep down she knew that those words where full of evil, and she found the situation a little worrying.

Syaoran looked at Sakura, and somehow he could tell that whatever Kenjii was saying was worrying her. He put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Eriol with his arms around Tomoyo. He wished he could hold Sakura like that.

Tomoyo was leaning on Eriol, lending some of her strength to him. She could feel a deep connection between them, something deeper than just the love they felt for each other. She turned and smiled at Eriol, who smiled back. The love they felt for each other before this all started seemed so simple and so trivial. She was glad she now had the chance to test their love, and could now see just how strong such a simple emotion could be.

~*~

Kenjii could feel the power growing inside of him. It was ridiculous even thinking of having to use such a spell to defeat these four. It hadn't been like this every other time. They normally didn't put up such a good fight, and the only reason they won was because of a sloppy mistake. Deep in his mind he could hear the voices that guided him telling him not to let his guard down, not to let the fourth gain his power and not to let his anger or emotions get the better of him.

He focused all his anger and hate towards the four of them in his chant. This was the only was to get enough power to even think of defeating them. He could feel different strands of himself strengthen. From his back there grew dark coloured devil wings, his blood still dripping from them. His nails grew longer and sharper, and his eyes where now a blood red colour.

This was his true form, and the form from which he was most powerful.

"You don't have a chance now!" he boomed, his voice deeper than before and with an uncanny tinge of evil in it.

Sakura looked ahead at him, and although the uneasiness inside her was churning, she stood there looking brave and unfazed by his change in appearance.

"You mean you're just uglier and bigger than before" she retorted. "Oh well never mind, you weren't exactly a pretty picture to look at anyway."

"You little whore," yelled Kenjii, "You think that this change means nothing. How wrong could you be, I will destroy you."

"Whatever" yelled Syaoran, his passion for Sakura growing stronger. "I will not let you lay a finger on her, no matter how big headed you get. You're just the same snivelling weasel now as you were in high school."

Sakura felt something within her twinge. Syaoran had just practically put his life down for her. She felt warm and happy inside. The necklace that hung on a thin chain round her neck began to glow.

Kenjii saw the necklace, and using his mind he summoned it to him. Sakura could feel the necklace being lifted away from her and tried to grab it, her arms stretching up into the air. But it was to no avail, Kenjii quickly manoeuvred it out of her reach, and it floated across the battlefield toward him.

Kenjii's face broke into a cruel smile as he grabbed the necklace. He could feel its goodness, burning his hand. But he refused to let go.

"Well well, look what I have," he said jokingly. "Am I right in saying that your brother gave you this? So I take it you won't mind if I do this?" he said as he flicked it up into the air, and when he caught it he crushed it in his hand. Leaving nothing more that a fine dust that slowly floated to the ground.

"You bastard," screamed Sakura. "That was the last thing I had from Touya, you wouldn't even let me have time to mourn his death, and now you take away the last think I have of him."

Sakura could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, she knew she shouldn't let her emotions get control of her, but it was so hard to ignore them. Touya had died only a couple of days ago. How was she supposed to get over such a loss in such a short space of time? It was bad enough that her parents had died, but to loose her only remaining family was just tipping her over the edge.

"Aww, look the little baby is crying," taunted Kenjii. In truth he was incredibly happy that something so trivial had gotten such a reaction out of Sakura. Now all he needed was to get a reaction out of the other three, and their deaths would be sealed in the bag.

Syaoran was furious with Kenjii, how dare he speak to Sakura in such away! He held Sakura as she tried to choke back her emotions. She felt right where she was, in his arms. Syaoran could feel the anger rising from within. Not only had this cheep bastard killed her brother, he was now gloating over it.

"You really haven't changed since high school have you. You where always the stupid on back then, and its good to see that you haven't changed." He yelled. "Ok granted you seem to be more stupid now than back then, but hell you're just as ugly as before, and just as weak."

Kenjii felt the anger in him rise itself. "How dare you speak to me like that? You cant defeat me, so why not just give up now, and I'll make sure you die quickly like the rest of humanity." He gloated. "Or then again I could just wait till you've all run out of energy and kill you slowly and painfully."

Syaoran was getting more and more angry with Kenjii. There was nothing he could do without letting go of Sakura, and right now he just didn't want to.

"You're just a fake. You where fake then and fake now." He yelled. "You don't have the decency to be human."

Sakura could hear everything, and was grateful at Syaoran for sticking up for her. She pulled herself out of his embrace and turned to face Kenjii, her fingers still weaved between Syaoran's. She brushed back her tears with her free arm, and glared at Kenjii, her eyes full of an unnatural hatred.

"That's it Kenjii," she said in a cold cruel voice. "I don't give a shit if you think you are the all powerful demon that's going to destroy everything. And to be honest I can't see what I ever saw in you. But the point is it ends now. If I kill you Yue and Touya can finally rest in piece. Don't think you can stop me cause you're so in over your head!"

"Ohh am shaking from fear." Said Kenjii in a sarcastic tone. "What can four pieces of crap like you do to me eh? You haven't even been able to land a hit on me yet. And I seem to recount that I took your precious Syaoran out not that long ago. Wouldn't be hard to deliver a stronger blast would it now?"

"Is that a threat?" asked Syaoran calmly.

"Well let's see pretty little mummy's boy, yes, yes it is a threat. Why you scared now?" he replied.

Sakura's grip on Syaoran tightened, she was telling him not to let his anger get out of control. He smiled at her gratefully, bent down and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

The second his lips touched her the necklace began to glow more powerfully than it had been. It was a blinding light and it surrounded both Sakura and Syaoran. The two of them floated about a foot of the ground, hands still locked. They looked ahead with deadly precision.

Kenjii looked ahead in terror. He knew it was all over now. He had known from the beginning that if Sakura and Syaoran showed their love for each other that it would be his demise.

From both Sakura and Syaoran there came a bright powerful light, so bright that it seemed to be the middle of the day. Around them trees burnt up from sheer force. Kenjii saw the light approach him in slow motion, and in the second before it hit him he knew that realistically he never had a chance of beating them, never had the chance of really being with Sakura.

As the light hit Kenjii he could feel himself being torn apart, his wings turned to dust and within a few seconds there was nothing left of him, except for the few particles of good that still remained inside him.

The particles that still loved Sakura, right to the very end.

~*~

Sakura could feel her eyes flutter as she slowly regained consciousness. The energy that both her and Syaoran had used for the final blast had wiped her out. Her head was throbbing and she just lay there, unable to move for a while.

The dust and ash from what had been destroyed slowly fell from the sky like snow and settled on her and everything around her. She pushed herself up, and gave herself a second to take in everything that had happened.

'We did,' she thought. 'We won.'

Sakura stood up slowly, her head still throbbing and making her dizzy. She stumbled a bit until she found her footing. Her legs wobbled slightly under her for a minute or two from the sudden depletion of energy. Once Sakura felt confident enough to walk she started of in search of her friends.

She came across Tomoyo and Eriol first. They where both stood in the middle of the destruction, looking in awe at what had been done. Eriol was stood behind Tomoyo with his arms wrapped around her, his chin resting on her shoulder. Both where stood there in complete silence and didn't here Sakura approach.

"Tomoyo?" asked Sakura quietly.

"Sakura!" Tomoyo cried as she ran towards her friend and hugged her. "Oh thank god you're ok. I was worried that, well you know…"

"We were worried I had died along with Kenjii." Finished Eriol for Tomoyo.

"No, I'm fine, just a bit shaky." Replied Sakura. "Have you seen Syaoran anywhere?"

They both shook their heads, and immediately Sakura thought the worst. She was exhausted from the final blast and couldn't imagine what state Syaoran was in. After all he had been in a worst state than she was. She put on an unreadable face in front of Tomoyo and Eriol so not too worry them. Tomoyo and Eriol agreed to go looking for Tomoyo's mum, leaving Sakura on her own to look for Syaoran.

Sakura wandered here and there, not really concentrating on anything as she looked for Syaoran. Deep down she was so worried that he wouldn't make it. He had already been hit once when they where fighting.

Sakura saw something a small way away. She ran to it, not caring how tired she felt. When she got there she saw Syaoran lying on the ground, not moving. She knelt down next to him and brushed his hair out of his face. The dust that had now settled bathed him in a white covering. He was breathing slowly, just as if he were asleep.

Sakura looked upon him, she took his hand and held it in her hand. She could feel raw emotion building up within her, and threatening to overspill in the form of tears. Why had she let such a petty argument go on for so long? Why couldn't she have just bitten down on her pride and apologised? How did she manage to miss the love she had for Syaoran?

The tears that had threatened to flow where now running freely down her face. She closed her eyes, trying to will the tears away from her eyes. She felt a thumb graze her cheek wiping the tears away. She opened her eyes once more, only to Syaoran lying there smiling up at her.

"Syaoran," she whispered, her vision going blurry because of the tears that returned.

Sakura practically launched herself at Syaoran. They ended up lying side by side with Sakura's head on Syaoran's chest, his arms wrapped around her and holding her tight. They lay like that for a while, just bathing in the warm glow of each other's company.

"Did we win?" Syaoran asked, breaking the silence.

"Yea, we won," replied Sakura, burying deeper into his chest.

Syaoran smiled and held her tighter she tilted her head and looked into his eyes, and lying there on the battlefield they shared their first kiss.

~*~

And once the glare has faded, and the ashes begin to settle.
And the pair finally realise that their love was there.
All along.


And here end the last lines of the prophecy.

~*~ End chapter 16 ~*~

AN: WA I can't believe it's nearly finished, don't quite know what I'm going to do with myself when I've written the epilogue.
I hope that you all liked this chapter - it probably would have been up earlier if I my computer had stopped turning itself of all on its own.
Please review.
Ja
demi-kaijuu
-x-