Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot...

WoLfePaWs: Okay, so I've taken an extremely long time for this...but I've lost ideas for this fic for a long time, before I'm able to pick it up again and continue it [Cheerfully ignore the death- glares the readers send] Hey, I was in a good mood because I'm able to continue this so...Oh yeah, this story will be coming to an end soon, still have one more chapter to go, but I'll put up the last chapter soon before I lose my ideas again...and yes, I believe this chapter is a bit of an anti-climax and very short...Forgive me, all right? I'll probably revise this chapter if you guys are not satisfy with this...[Gets down on one knee and humbly present the 12th chapter] Enjoy...

Chapter 12:

Tomoyo's mind was working overdrive. First, she had been held hostage in a room in an unknown place. Now, she was in another place that looked suspiciously familiar to her.

'Hey, wait a minute...isn't this the Winter Soliloquy palace? How did I get here?'

Looking around her surroundings, she realised that there was a little difference in the atmosphere. As if...she was in another dimension. Confused, her legs carried her further into the palace when she came upon several people crying. Somewhere deep within her, she recognised the man lying motionless with various flowers surrounding him and the royalties kneeling with their heads lowered, tears falling from their eyes onto the cold stone ground. They were mourning for the dead king.

"Otou-sama..." The words came out of her lips even before she could register what she was saying. She felt something wet slid down her cheeks and realised that she was crying. For what reasons, she did not know. It was as if her body had been possessed by another soul; she did not have total control over her actions and speech. She wasn't even surprised when one of the people, obviously a princess from the clothes she wore and the way she moved, noticed her and went over to her.

"Arashi, go back to your room, ne? You have not been feeling well ever since the curse settle over Winter Soliloquy," The woman looked worriedly at Tomoyo, afraid that she might collapse any time.

"It's my fault Otou-sama died, Miko-neesan. I should have been the one lying there, instead of him."

"Don't say that. I'm sure father wouldn't want anyone of us to die. Live for his sake, or he would have die in vain. There is still Clow- sama to think of, he would be very upset if you seek death," Miko comforted, as she slowly led Tomoyo back, to which she presumed, was her room.

"I don't deserved to have his love anymore. Even as he told me he doesn't mind, I can tell he was upset. No man will be happy when the woman he loves had already been taken..." Tomoyo looked back towards Miko and smiled sadly. "Miko-neesan, I'm tired..."

Miko looked at her younger sister doubtfully. Somehow, she had a feeling that something bad was about to happen. "Rest well then. Do you want me to stay by your side?" At this, Tomoyo shook her head slightly.

"It might be too much to ask for, but I wish Clow-san was by my side right now..." She whispered to herself. Miko heard what she said, but choose not to comment on it.

"If that is the case, I'll get one of the kitchen maids to make some soup. I will come by later. Just rest and do not think too much." The princess reluctantly looked at her younger sister worriedly before closing the door. Tomoyo walked towards the table where her journal sat so innocently, waiting for her to confide to it about all her inner thoughts and fears. She reached out and flipped to a blank page. Another hand reached for the quill, in which the tip was dipped into the bottle of ink.

And there, she would write down her last entry.

"Why, exactly, did you have to do that for?" Eriol asked, trying to maintain his calm. Zean snickered.

"Oh, come now, I only send her soul to meet and get acquainted with her past self. No need to get so uptight over that."

"I do not think that it is so simple," Eriol narrowed his eyes at him. "There is a catch somewhere, knowing you."

Zean shrugged, then smiled in a way that would scare off little children. "Whatever Arashi experienced, she will as well. In other words, she will die when Arashi got to the part where she killed herself."

"..."

"Eriol-kun, what the hell are you doing, just standing there for? Getting Tomoyo-chan out is the first priority!" Eriol looked towards the source of the voice, which was in the direction of the balcony. Sakura was hovering in midair with the help of the Fly card, clutching her star staff close to her chest. However, she was frowning slightly when she attempted to get in and failed. Eriol saw why. A magical barrier was set up to prevent intrusions.

"I've set up a barrier, just so only you can enter," Zean announced proudly, glancing at Eriol, who in turn returned his glance with a mere cold look.

"No need for you to tell me that, since it's pretty obvious," Eriol smirked. He was getting a bit frustrated that he wasn't going anywhere with this rescue operation. And so, he vented a bit of that frustration on Zean.

"...!" Zean's face was flushed red, from anger and humiliation.

The princess was increasingly getting worried for her youngest sister. Something about Arashi was definitely not right, and so when the kitchen maids had finished preparing the soup, Princess Miko gestured for one of the maids to follow her as she brought the soup up to Arashi's chambers.

The sound of silverware hitting the stoned ground on the castle was heard a moment later when Miko knocked lightly on her sister's door. Receiving no answer from the otherside, Miko decided to intrude and opened the door, only to witness a horrifying sight before her. Arashi had a letter-opener positioned slightly below her chest and Miko could clearly see that her wrist was bloodied from self-mutilations. Before Miko could stopped her, Arashi plunged the letter-opener straight into her chest.

"Arashi!!..." Miko screamed.

Tomoyo was fighting. Strange as it sounded, but she was fighting with herself. Or rather, with her incarnation, Arashi. Arashi had reached for the letter-opener on her desk after she had finished writing her last thoughts in her journal.

Currently, she was trying hard not to slit her own wrist to commit suicide, but Arashi was acting as her subconscious, and that was exactly what she wants Tomoyo to do. To commit suicide.

'No!' Tomoyo bit her lip, when the letter-opener missed the main vein and glazed across her pale skin. The process was repeated several times, with Tomoyo slashing her own wrist, until blood was dripping steadily onto the stoned ground. Arashi had been resoluted in taking her own life and she directed the letter-opener to her chest...

"Eriol-kun! Tomoyo-chan is bleeding!" Sakura cried out in alarm. Once again, she tried barging into the room, but to no avail. Tears streamed down her beautiful face as she watched on, helpless to do anything for her best friend.

Eriol turned to Tomoyo and indeed, mutiple slashes had appeared on Tomoyo's wrist. 'Tomoyo...'

"It seems that Arashi is trying to commit suicide now..."

"You're too noisy!"

Eriol's voice cut in like a sharp knife and he directed his golden sun staff towards Zean, letting loose a blast of crimson energy. The attack was so strong and immensed that it took Zean by surprised and sent him flying to the other side of the room, knocking him out in the process. It saved Tomoyo in the process, for when Zean was knocked out, the magic that brought her soul to her past was broken, thus saving her from the final blow that would end her life. But Eriol was not in time to save her from the damaged that Zean had indirectly caused, to her wrist.

Life returned to Tomoyo's eyes and she winced when she felt the pain that she/Arashi had inflicted on herself.

"You are losing a lot of blood...Let's get you out of here before anything bad happens to you...damn...the Queen is going to have my head..." Eriol muttered to himself as he ripped off a sufficient amount of cloth from his robes and made a makeshift bandaged around Tomoyo's wrist. Eriol shifted his attention to the unconscious magician lying pathetically in a corner. Ropes materialized and wind itself around Zean, magically restraining him should he gain consciousness. Eriol then murmured a quick charm and Zean was lifted up into midair, hovering horizontally towards the window, where Sakura was. It seemed that the magic barrier was also dispersed when the castor lost consciousness.

"Sakura-san, bring him back to the castle as well, we'll decide how to deal with him when we get back," Eriol said as he wrapped one arm around Tomoyo in an embrace, while the other held on to his sun staff.

"I'll see you back at the castle then..." Sakura sniffed slightly, regaining her composure.

"Hiiragizawa-san...Thank you..."

"Shush...Don't talk too much. Hold on tight, we'll be back in the castle in a moment," Eriol whispered, afraid that should he raised his voice any louder, he would hurt Tomoyo.

Activating his staff, he send the both of them back to the Quintessence, where everyone was waiting.

...Tsuzuku...