Title: An Irreplaceable Lotus

.-.-.-.-.-

They weren't strangers. Far from. And yet here they were, two best friends, screaming at each other from the tops of their lungs. Sakura couldn't help but turn and cover her mouth—hoping to God she didn't look as ill as she felt. Her stomach was doing uncharacteristic flip-flops, and her heart felt like it was in her throat.

Why were they shouting at each other? Shouldn't Ashen really be whirling around and blaming her for all of his sister's mishaps? Ultimately, she was placed in the role of the evil girl who stole Gwen's boyfriend.

Wow. The more she thought about it, the more bile seemed to claw at the back of her throat, and her stomach churned with such a magnitude of viciousness that she quickly sidestepped and darted for the girl's washroom.

"Boys!" Doors swinging open, a robust woman in a beige suit stalked past her. "What on earth do you think you're doing? We're in a hospital, not a rutting playground!"

Breaking apart from each other, Ashen fell back against the wall and Syoaran tumbled backwards into his seat, yet the both of them continued to snarl and in indiscreet mutters.

She wasn't sure what happened after that, but she'd burst into the lady's room, barely making it into a stall before she threw up. The pungent reek of lemon-and-citrus toilet didn't quite have the best effect for her nausea either.

After pleasantly emptying her stomach of all that was food, Sakura pressed down hard on the handle before staggering over to the nearby sink to wash her face and hands. She certainly wished to stop feeling so queasy, and began numbly splashing her face with cold water.

After about a minute of freezing torture, she reversed the tap and wiped her face against several paper towels. Now not only did she feel like shit, but now she looked as if she just had an allergic reaction. Lovely.

She had just left the washroom when she rammed hard into Ashen, who'd been perpendicular to her in the direction of the men's washroom. He reached out instinctively and steadied her. "Whoa! You okay?"

"I—am so sorry," Sakura blurted out, feeling her neck heat up. Not only was Ashen the last face she wanted to see right now, but she'd definitely bet she wasn't on the top of his list of friends either.

Turning from his destination after a brief pause, Ashen cleared his throat, almost anxiously. "Do you have a minute?" He hesitated. "I want to talk to you. Privately."

Praying for any way out of this situation, Sakura swallowed nervously. "Of course." She imagined his lectures on her lame boyfriend-snatching skills. She imagined him yanking on her hair and forcing her onto her knees to apologize to Gwen.

Ashen led her to a relatively isolated place beside the out-of-service vending machines, and leaned against one of the beige walls. "I think I already know what you are going to say to me," Sakura began, when Ashen cut in abruptly.

"No, you don't. I can't say I feel it is my place to say this, but I think you ought to know." He looked away hesitantly. "It won't take long."

"Listen, you must think that I must have made some error mistaking Syoaran and my puppy love for something more, but I—"

"You don't get it, do you?" He turned to her and the look in his eyes immediately silenced her. "I don't care about any of that. As far as I can tell, Syoaran looks at you with far more adoration than I've ever seen those apathetic eyes direct at anyone, including his own mother." His voice took a gentler tone as he continued. "Please, just listen?"

And thus, Sakura was let in on Gwen's family history, something fairly suitable for some sort of surreal drama.

It would appear that Jasmine Wong, Gwen's mother, was born into a family with rank and wealth—everything an asset. She was the daughter of a proud and successful father from a line of doctors and a popular show hostess, her mother. She was also heiress to the entirety of the Wong Hospital Wing and W.W.L. Industries.

Like most teenagers do during their youth, Jasmine had been persuaded into entering this trendy bar by some of her University colleagues. Naturally, given her demographics and age, none of this was out of the ordinary. Like her father, however, Jasmine had a mind not to intoxicate herself and only ordered non-alcoholic beverages, much to her friends' disdain.

The youthful bartender, however, was a more greed-driven, materialistic man as he was easier bribed by another customer to serve her drink with a small vial of tranquilizer. Gwen's mother had always been an extremely attractive woman, and was even more stunning during her youth. She easily attracted boys left and right, but never used her beauty to her advantage.

However, the effect of the date rape drug completely knocked her out when trying to make her way to the washroom—when the young adult who had bribed the bartender, another student attending the same medical school, dragged her to the hotel across the street.

When she came to, she was in a bed, with that animal of a potential doctor fucking her brains out. He repeatedly raped her, even when she cried and fought and begged for him to stop. As anyone could have possibly guessed to this point, the rapist was none other than the conniving, low-life Lee Wen. Needless to say, despite studying all about pregnancy and the whole birth-giving process, he had excluded the need to use protection and thus Gwen as conceived. Since she didn't want the public hearing of such a scandal, and putting a bad name on her family's reputation, she married Lee to keep her pregnancy prior to the wedding a secret to make it less scandalous.

Since Lee was the one who committed this crime, he had no choice but to oblige to her marriage request or else she'd sue his ass off and then some. After all that, he despised her. He got the ass he wanted, and was content with that. But, despite half of Gwen being part of that monster, her mother loved Gwen for being her daughter. Every spare second of the day was poured into her... all the talent, morals and lessons in life a mother would tell a child- until she died. Gwen was young, then. But she hasn't forgotten a word her mother had said to her.

After her mother's death, Gwen inevitably grew up in an empty mansion full of maids and gardeners. She literally locked herself up in her room with books and read, even when Jade married him and Ashen was first introduced to her.

"I just thought of Gwen as a natural bookworm and left her to her novels, when one day she saw me playing outside with Syoaran, whom I had met at school." Ashen kicked at a rather large ball of dust lying on the ground, and shook it in irritation as it clung onto the ends of his shoelace. "After that, he was like a magnet drawing her outdoors rather. Considering how cute she was, it struck me as no surprise that he had immediately invited her to play. After that, they were absolutely inseparable."

Until Syoaran had moved to Tokyo, the two of them had been together and were rarely seen apart. However, only more conflicts arose once he departed and took the light from her life with him.

She was subject to bullying from many of the girls for being a 'slut' due to her unrivaled, unintended popularity with the male population at the school. No girls wanted to speak to her or group with her, so she found her niche among the guys which just fueled their disdain further.

You know Japan. Hazing involved physical and verbal abuse, vandalizing, theft, brutal pranks—she not only endured it, but that was when she was actually cheerful about it.

Afterward, their father had begun drinking more and more frequently in larger amounts, and didn't even bother to conceal the fact that he had around ninety mistresses here and there to serve him every half-hour of the year. If a bunch of prostitutes purchased from the local whorehouse weren't enough, one night during her freshman year Gwen was asked if she might participate in a small "talk" concerning her dressing behavior as of late.

"Actually, he more like demanded it. Of course I was curious, and I know how Gwen felt about our father for being such a womanizer. So I peeked in, and had leapt into the fray just in time to save her from being sexually assaulted from our very own father. She was quite physically developed for her age, so it didn't surprise me she was capable of turning other guys on, but—"

"That's absolutely disgusting," Sakura spat out bitterly, unable to bite her words back or keep the horror from her tone.

"I know. It was because of that I earned her trust, and we've shared an irreplaceable bond ever since. After that incident, Gwen was always very cautious around our father, and for good reason. But he ignores the both of us now as if we don't even exist. By second semester one of our high school teachers also attempted to force himself on her, and he may have damn well succeeded if Syoaran hadn't shown up. I wasn't supposed to know but—how could I not?"

It wasn't until then that all Gwen's mental ignorance seemed to disappear, and it was like her exterior completely froze over—hardened. It was like nothing fazed her. She was this gorgeous, independent, indomitable person who had virtually no flaws.

But she was sure to crack.

Ashen looked at the blinking sign on the vending machine: Out of Service.

"I'm sure you're aware of what happens after that," he said silently. "Gwen's been robbed of everything that's ever meant anything to her. She hardly depends on anybody, but she knew that there were pillars nearby if she ever needed to take a rest." His voice choked, and he cleared it in agitation. "Not anymore. Her mother's gone, my mother's gone, Syoaran's gone. Her—"

"Her career," Sakura interrupted with a low murmur. Ashen nodded.

"She was going to be hired for a big time production. A scout had come two weeks ago to analyze the performance of her and Rachael, her competitor. But everyone knew Gwen had it in the bag. Sad how life works sometimes, huh?"

Sakura tuned him out. She was far too busy letting the heartbreaking words sink in. Of all the things that she's lost, the only possible thing she could ever gain back would be...

"It's my fault, isn't it?" Sakura asked emotionally, "if I weren't with Syoaran, she'd still have a pillar, besides you. I cannot revive the dead. I cannot erase her past or heal her ankle. But perhaps with her heart, if just a little—"

"Stop."

To Sakura's surprise, Ashen cut in. "Don't think for even a second that it's your fault. Meiling told me about what Gwen's been doing to you—and you've put up with far more than your fair share of Gwen when she tried to take Syoaran back on her own. I… apologize on her behalf, but the bottom line is Syoaran chose you. His feelings for you are genuine, with or without someone like Gwen practically throwing herself at his feet."

"But I—"

Sakura shuddered. How could someone as close to Gwen as Ashen be so nice to her archrival nemesis? Didn't he want her to break up with her boyfriend? He cared about Gwen so much, so how could it be that he wanted her to be with him instead?

Smiling softly, Ashen tilted Sakura's chin and kissed her lightly on top of her head. "Gwen's going to be okay—both physically, and mentally. She'll find somebody. I know she will."

"I hope so." Sakura lifted her head to keep back the tears. "Gwen is so beautiful, and her talent is apparent. Why would Syoaran care about someone like me more than somebody who I couldn't possibly compare to?"

"Gwen's a pretty girl. But that's not to say that you aren't, Sakura. Plus there's something more attractive in you than your face. Syoaran sees that."

"Why are you so nice? I'm just an evil girl who took away your sister's boyfriend."

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a crash sounded and the both of them braced themselves for something dangerous. It took a half minute for them to realize no harm had been done directly to them, and they book exchanged alarmed looks before bolting for the door. When they returned to the waiting room, Syoaran was gone.

In fact, he had taken no time to run to room 207, which had shattered glass and segments of concrete from the hospital wall spread out all over the ground. Gwen was not only standing, but the plastic and metal had been ripped off her leg and her ankle seemed completely—healed. Tossing a deck of black cards in her hand, she stepped forward.

"Gwen! What are you doing?" Syoaran yelled, quickly rushing up to her. Gwen just pulled herself in a blocked position, her eyes dead. Is she in some sort of sick trance? Syoaran quickly glanced at the cards. They looked exactly like Sakura's old ones. Why on earth were they black? And why were there even duplicates to begin with?

"Watery." It was barely audible, but the card glowed- and immediately a dark blue goddess lashed out. Syoaran expected water, so he quickly defended himself with his Wind talisman. Unexpectedly, the goddess appeared to have a mind of her own—not at all depending on Gwen's commands. Seeing that water simply wouldn't do the trick, she surprised him by throwing a wave of flame at him.

What the-! Syoaran was thrown back and quickly extinguished the flames on his person the old-fashioned way—rolling around the floor like a dog. Why can this clone use Fire and Water? If she fights against Sakura- those cards are too powerful. Sakura's would surely be obsolete!

His mind raced back to when Sakura had briefly described to him what Touya had told her from Miss Kaho. I thought she said his brother's cards were defective, he thought bitterly, blocking off another blow. Gwen- a manipulator? No way. Could it be possible that Gwen's strength could make the cards... stronger?

.-.-.-.-

Sakura broke the scepter off of the chain from her neck, and quickly summoned the crucial item for summoning the spirits of the cards. Holding her right hand over the deck in her left, the Sleep Card immediately reacted to her will and shot up almost automatically into her hand.

"Obey your contract with me, oblige the request that I lay upon you-" Putting an instinctive spin to the throw of her card, Sakura flipped the scepter in her hand. "Sleep!"

The youthful golden goddess spun out, and proceeded to shower a rain of dust as she flew out of the room. Sakura looked out of the door to watch the interns drop down as well as Ashen. Hoping there weren't any dying victims in the hospital, though they would be in emergency and not in the Wings, Sakura reached for another card to move onto the offensive when the Reversed Watery lunged at her. Syoaran practically tackled her out of the way, and was thrown into a wooden table by the hospital bed. A tray of needles rained down upon him, and shattered into millions of tiny shards, engulfing him with medical fluids.

"You cannot defeat me, Li Syoaran." Gwen said, her eyes lifeless, yet wide. She raised her hand again, but in the form of an ancient Chinese seal. "You are a descendent of Clow; for that you will die by my hand. Let that old man know the cards he had so whole-heartedly rejected were the ones that killed the last of his descendants."

Suddenly, the Watery card threw itself at Syoaran, summoning large, sphere of water in her hands, stunning purple, black and dark blue streams of water flowing about it. Its Final Attack.

"Loop!" Sakura screamed, desperate. The card immediately broke into a tight, red line in-between the clone and Syoaran, and the attack was lost in its reflection and struck the Watery from Behind. Syoaran looked closely, his analysis skills mustn't miss a single observation. Details were crucial.

"You. Always you get in the way of my descendant." Gwen scowled, turning to Sakura. "I'll get rid of you both!" She tackled Sakura to the ground, her hands aiming for her throat. Syoaran quickly tried to reach her, but the Loop card closed him in. No matter how fast and far he thought he ran, he still found himself in the same square of the hospital room.

"Sakura!"

Sakura squeezed her eyes closed. Who in the world was calling her? She choked out a single gasp of air before Gwen succeeding in wrapping her hands completely around her neck before after a split moment, she was knocked off of Sakura.

To her amazement, it was Ashen- totally unaffected by the effects of the Sleepy card. He heaved Gwen off of her- then proceeded to jerk Sakura up. "Get to your feet!" He demanded. "I can't do much with what I have. You must get those cards away from Gwen, it's the only thing you can do!"

Syoaran ducked another blast of water, as the Loops disengaged itself and Syoaran was free to roam. Doing something Sakura had never seen him do more, Ashen held out another Chinese talisman- one of his own.

"Firey!"