Syoaran ducked another unnaturally strong blast of water, impressed at how the walls could endure it. He jerked his head in Ashen's direction just in time to catch him calling upon his spirit, when a familiar fire goddess sprang up from the warp of energy emerging from the talisman with his hands. "Attack the Watery!"
The goddess, after an impressive lightshow, attacked Gwen's Watery as viciously as she knew possible—clashing will against will, card against card.
"No! You—" Gwen began, whirling around just in time to watch her goddess disintegrate in a cloud of colorful specks. The impact of her Firey's final blow was strong enough to throw Gwen back against the wall—cursing all the way.
"Take the cards! Now!" Ashen demanded as he cancelled his Firey, and nearly all of them practically jumped Gwen to retrieve the cards. Holding her down with his body's full weight, Syoaran reached for the cards when his entire body was lifted up and tossed off Gwen with an enormous strength.
"Syoaran!" Sakura shrieked, before spinning around to face Gwen. The cards had definitely repelled Syoaran, the descendant of Clow Reed. Of course. They needed someone objective, but one who still possessed power. Grabbing hard at Gwen's wrist, she tried with all her might to pry the cards from Gwen. The barrier surprisingly did not throw her off as it did Syoaran, but some form of black electricity cracked around her as the cards fought to fend off the infiltrator.
"—I can't do this! I need help!"
Ashen grabbed at Sakura's hands, and with one final, powerful yank, the two of them went tumbling backwards into Syoaran—taking some of the deck with them. With her will lessened, Sakura scrambled back onto her feet and kicked the remainder from Gwen's hand.
There was no maniacal scream; no crazy, black spirit lifting up and disintegrating like in the movies or manga. Gwen just simply collapsed onto the ground.
Panting, Sakura doubled over, placing her hands on her thighs and inhaling deeply. She felt she couldn't afford to stand otherwise. She looked in alarm as Ashen, who had most of Gwen's Reversed cards in his grasp, let the used talisman slip from his mind. It was now blank.
"Ashen—how? What was that?"
He got to his feet slowly and dusted himself off, before silently walking over and gingerly picking up hjis sister and pulling her back onto the hospital bed. "I'm really sorry about all of this," he murmured, dodging her question as his gaze lifted to meet Sakura's. The intensity in his eyes nearly made her choke, and she felt immediately intimidated. "It was not of my intention to show you any of this."
"Listen, Ashen, you don't have to do this!" Syoaran said immediately, scrambling to his feet once again, panic evident in his voice. Sakura darted her glance between the two of them. What was going on?
"It's too great a liability to have you two remember." Ashen responded, as he picked up another talisman and held it in front of him. "Now I have no choice but to have you forget it all. Erase!"
She saw the mime-esque goddess spring to life from the magical bond he had formed, and she instantly understood his intention completely.
"No!" Sakura screamed in denial sharply as she whipped out the Shield card expertly from her deck, "I'm not going to forget! Either of you!" She spun the card into the air before the Spirit jumped into play, just in time to clash powerfully against Ashen's Erase. Feeling the scepter tremble in her hands from the slight obsoleteness her strength had over Ashen's, she realized keeping the Shield up was becoming increasingly hard to maintain. Her hands were trembling with such intensity she thought her fingers were going numb.
"Why are you doing this?" She screamed in spite of herself, "You know about me being a captor, you call this justified? Why can't you understand I won't betray you just as much as I know you won't betray me?"
"It's not about whether or not you'll betray me, Sakura. It's the matter that your very being knows about these seals that I have to do this." Ashen replied when he took one strenuous step forward. "Erase!" He shouted again, this time with far more passion in his voice.
Suddenly, the scepter was ripped right out of her hands, and Sakura put her arms in front of her face, bracing herself for the attack.
"NO!"
