Affirmation

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Koneko-chan Says!

LOL! Thanks for reviewing so much now xD hehe it's so pleasing to get reviews. Grins Well, I'll try to write more, but I can't really promise with exams and projects that are worth fifteen percent of my mark… well, I try my best. Wish me good luck and happy reading! D

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"NO!" Sakura screamed, as she whipped out the Shield card. "I'm not going to forget either of you!"

As the Erase began to fight an eager war with the Shield card, Sakura felt the card her sceptre was facing begin to falter and waver. Her hands were trembling as she tried to fight against Kei's will. "Why are you doing this? You know about me, why can't you understand that I won't betray you?"

"It's not about whether or not you betray me, Sakura." Kei said, when he twisted his fingers around and created a different pose with his hands. "Erase, Overdrive!"

Suddenly the sceptre was ripped right out of her hands, and Sakura put her arms in front of her face.

"NO!"

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She braced herself defensively, but it didn't help the Erase card seep into her memories. Instantly her vision blurred and a brilliant flash of white took over. Very slowly, the white got streaked with an never-ending strip of black. That kept on growing. Suddenly, she couldn't remember what was doing this. She was beginning to forget.

"Stop! Kei!"Sakura screamed, clutching her head in her hands and doubling over with the intrusion. "I don't want to forget you! I don't want to…!"

"It's not an option, Sakura. Don't fight the inevitable, you're facing Erase's Overdrive with your will alone You're never going to win. Just forget about this, and we'll go back. Then you can carry on your life here with Syoaran."

The black was taking over Sakura's thoughts, now. She couldn't remember Gwen's face. Her hands released her face and she looked up. The blurs that she saw were what was left of the vision she could see of Kei. Gwen, slumped against the door. "Stop—Stop it! Please!"

Suddenly Kei's hands flinched, breaking his seal for just a movement. His eyes widened awkwardly, and continued to look at the seal on his hands. Could this girl's will have…? No, it can't be. A will is a will, it's not physical. It couldn't have done something that would've affected the Caster of the Seals.

"SAKURA!" Tomoyo put a hand to her mouth as she backed back out of the hospital door and into a wall. Gwen got up limply. "You're not going anywhere…" she panted weakly, and she dropped the cards again. They scattered over a small area of the hospital floor. A wall. Tomoyo looked around her… now that the only exit was sealed off, they wouldn't be able to leave unless Sakura—or those two—did something. And at the state that Sakura was in, she wouldn't be able to do a thing.

"What are you doing to her! Stop it!" Tomoyo's hands clenched when she had raised them to her chest, a habit she had picked up from years, making her feel safe. "Kei-kun! Please, stop this! What are you doing to Sakura?"

"To…mo—" Sakura squeezed her eyes shut again. She couldn't bear this. She couldn't remember what had happened since the day she ate lunch with Syoaran after she had been introduced to the new student girl.

Suddenly Gwen seized Tomoyo, and pushed her onto the floor besides a crouching Sakura. "Kei—her too, it'll be bad, if something happens when Sakura doesn't know something that this girl does."

Kei just nodded, and focused, he switched fingers on the seal, making the window his hands made bigger. He focused on the two, Tomoyo looking like a deer trapped in headlights, and squinted his eyes. "Erase!"

For the split second that Kei had reformed his seal, Sakura's memory fought to return. And so it had—a little bit. Kei glared. This can't be. She lasted this long on her will. But it's almost over. To finish off Sakura-san's memory, then we can just leave and pretend this didn't happen. At least, to them.

"Kei!"

Kei broke his concentration when he glanced back. The wall stared blankly back at him. Then it was practically blasted apart from a series of very familiar moves from Chinese martial arts.

"Honestly, can't leave either of you for a second without you getting involved in something big."

Meiling went back into a stance. "You promised me you wouldn't use that, Kei. If you're going to break your promise, I'm going to break mine."

"Meiling—stop—he has to do this. We want to go back to Hong Kong—our memory and our secrets can't be trusted by them, even if they give us their strongest word. We can't trust them. Maybe for a century or two, but what comes when they're older and can't remember a promise?"

Meiling shook her head. "No! You're wrong. Sakura, Tomoyo, Syoaran-kun… they can be trusted on this. You all know Syoaran. And Syoaran trusts Sakura with his life. And Sakura trusts Tomoyo with her all. She won't betray you!"

"I'm not going to stop. This way we're doing them no harm. We can just go back to normal! Meiling, stop tryng to act so mature when you know that it would be better if it's this way!"

"You're wrong, Kei. What if one day something happens to you and Meiling? It would be bad if Sakura doesn't know what she's up against." She lowered her head, her eyes setting into a glare. "Kei-kun, if you're not going to stop, I'm going to have to make you."

"Martial arts won't work on him, Meiling. He's got a barrier. You're just going to get hurt yourself."

"Barriers that he makes without a seal only protect against physical moves, not magic." Meiling shot back. Gwen stared blankly. "What—you—you don't have magic! …Do you?"

"Meiling, stop!" Kei yelled, but he was still holding his seal. That was enough of an invitation for her.

Holding up a white ribbon with a string of silver bells, Meiling closed her eyes and formed a seal of her own. "Kei—this was for breaking your promise to me. And for trying to hurt my friends. What you're doing isn't the best thing for them. What if it takes over you, like it did me, once? Sakura can't fight an enemy she doesn't know she has. Fight!"

The glowing goddess shot up from the light in her hands, and sprang towards Kei, piercing his barrier in a second and knocking him to the ground. Meiling ran to stand above him, and Sakura broke the last of the spell, practically falling to the ground on Syoaran, who's eyes were open wide, he was trying to remember. And it was, slowly coming back.

"You know that my seals are stronger than you, Kei! Why did you break your promise? You know I can sense when you cast a spell. You know that I know about Gwen's cards. I'm the one you stole your powers from, Kei. Twelve years ago. And now you're using them as if you're superior to me! What's with that, I told you to stop—and you don't?"

Kei coughed from the blow, gripping him stomach. But when he focused his eyesight upwards to look at Meiling, the light from the hospital room cast her entire body into a shadow. He couldn't see her features. The only things he saw, were the piercing bright, purple eyes, that were mixing in with Meiling's original red ones.

"Oh no." Kei struggled to his feet. "Meiling, revert back! If you stay like that for too long—you'll become that demon again…! Stop, please—I won't hurt them anymore. Just come back!"

The swirling wind around Meiling stopped, and the aura around her became less intense. Her eyes began to fade back to its normal shade of red. Slumping against the wall, she shivered. "That was… that was too much for me. Like before, I couldn't control it. I can't control it. The most I can do now is revert back to my normal self. But…"

Gwen looked mortified. Her big eyes seemed even larger than they were originally.

"… Mei…ling?" Sakura asked numbly, trying to get to her legs. "What… are you—was that… stronger than…" her gaze dropped to her hands, where she loosely clutched the Sakura Cards. "Are you stronger than I am?"

Meiling looked wide-eyed from Sakura, to Gwen, to Syoaran, to Kei. They were all staring at her with dumbfounded expressions. Then Tomoyo also got up limply. "I… I suppose you can say that. Syoaran was… the descendant to Clow Reed. I guess I would be the descendant to his brother. But… Clow Reed's brother… Kashi—his cards were superior to Clow Reed's. He just didn't know it until he died. That's why I'm stronger than the one destined to hold the Clow Cards… now known as the Sakura Cards."

"How come I didn't know about this? Not even Mother…"

"Mother knew, Syoaran-kun. Almost everybody knew. You were almost the only one who didn't." Meiling slumped onto the ground, exhausted from refraining herself from her terrible double self. "Did you honestly think Mother would keep me with you if I didn't have a bigger purpose…? Everyone in our family is special. If I didn't have these abilities, she would have kicked me onto the streets."

"You lie. Mother's not like that, she wouldn't kick you out, Meiling. I…"

Meiling grinned weakly. "You know something, Syoaran? You're just… like… your older brother…"

…Brother?