Syaoran ran, ignoring cries of protest from the people milling about, ignoring everything but his goal of getting to the amusement park and stopping Hope from destroying everything. He had to focus on his goal, because if he spared one thought on anything else, his own personal grief would threaten to overwhelm him. Finally, he reached the entrance to the park and he stared in shock.

The Ferris wheel, the roller coasters, the carousel all were shimmering and fading in and out in some places, and flowing through strange colors in others. The whole park seemed like a strange mirage, as if everything was fading in and out of reality. In fact, he realized, that was exactly what was happening. All of the children in the park were tapping into the power that Hope was putting out, but since each had their own unique view of reality, the power couldn't resolve the conflicts and this was the result.

Syaoran moved to avoid a group of running kids, but as they came near they faded out, only to reappear farther along, near a wall that had suddenly became a cotton candy stand. Everything was shimmering and changing so much, that Syaoran was getting slightly nauseous. He closed his eyes and breathed, trying to settle his stomach, when behind him he heard the sound of wheezing. He opened his eyes and turned to see a very breathless Touya and a glaring Yue. He had forgotten that Touya had less endurance since giving up his powers, and that Yue was particularly sensitive about the subject.

Touya looked around quietly; he seemed both disturbed and amused by the strange environment. "Well," he said, staring as a section of the roller coaster disappeared only to be replaced by a length of candy canes. "I guess we are lucky they didn't build a penitentiary here."

Yue spoke softly, "This is no laughing matter, the belief of a child is a powerful thing, and who knows what will happen once Hope's power resolves all these conflicts."

"Wait." Touya said, pointing, "Look over there, that kid isn't fading in and out like the others. Why's that?"

Syaoran looked at Touya like he was crazy; experiencing a twinge of envy that Touya was still so much taller. "Who cares! We need to get to the tower and look for Hope not play around with some kid!"

Touya narrowed his eyes and looked over at the twerp, "Listen brat, I've got a feeling about this and we are going to go talk to that kid, right now. Aren't we Yue?"

Yue sighed, "Its better to just humor him Syaoran, after all you can't face hope alone and we don't even know that she is here."

As the two walked towards the kid, who really didn't look any different from the others to Syaoran, he muttered, "She is here, she has to be here."

As Touya approached the child, there was a loud popping sound and suddenly the child was holding an ice cream cone. He walked over to the child, kneeling to put himself closer to the child's eye level. "Hey kid, what do you have there?"

The kid smiled, revealing the large gap where his front baby teeth had fallen out. When he spoke, there was a kind of whistling sound along with his words. "It's my favorite ice cream. Today is a magic day, if you want something and wish for it real hard, it comes true. It must be because it's my birthday, don't you think? Like when you blow out the candles but you can do it more than once!" The boy giggled and took another slurp of his ice cream.

Touya smiled at him and said "Happy Birthday." Then, he turned back to face the others, Syaoran looked about ready to bolt up to the tower himself while Yue looked thoughtful. Touya tousled the kid's hair without thinking and winced, reminded of all the times he had done the same to Sakura as a child, much to her protest. How Syaoran could be running around after Hope at a time like this Touya didn't know. It was hard, so hard to keep going, to ignore the pain eating away inside. Sometimes all he wanted to do was…well, that wasn't a productive line of thought with Hope playing around making peoples desires manifest.

He stood brushing off his pant legs, wondering why Yue still had that look on his face. He had grown pretty good at reading both Yue's and Yukito's expressions, a fact made easier by their growing mergence. And the look in Yue's eye right now meant that he was planning something. Oh well, whatever it was, they had come here for a reason. Touya walked towards the tower and said, "Come on brat, are you going to follow or just sit there all day."

They approached the tower, Touya ignoring Syaoran's muttering. As they stepped inside, they coughed for a moment at the overwhelming smell of mold and mildew. Syaoran led the way up the stairs, climbing up higher and higher trying to sense something with their respective senses.

Yue shook his head, "I'm not getting anything. It looks like she isn't here after all."

Touya furrowed his brow; something was nagging at him, a strange halfway familiar feeling. "There something, like a weird pulsating sensation," he pointed out the window, "that way." He looked surprised at his own words, and then glanced over at Yue who was blushing slightly. "Wait, why am I sensing anything?"

Yue turned a darker shade of red and looked away, "With so much power in the air it seemed a shame not to take advantage of it and try to give back what I stole from you."

Touya scowled and spoke his voice rising slightly, "We've been over this a thousand times! You didn't take anything from me! I gave you my powers because I couldn't stand watching you fade out like that! Because I didn't want you to leave when I could give you what you needed to stay."

There was a strange thickening sensation in the air, like just before a thunder strike. Syaoran shivered with the sudden bone numbing chill, "Hey guys, hate to break up the love fest, but do you feel that?"

Yue looked at Touya in mild alarm, which for him was like anyone else screaming in panic.

"Were thinking about…"

"Yes, do you mean that…?"

"Me too, so probably..."

"So that means…"

"Yeah…but I really don't mind."

"Me either, actually, it's kind of a relief. But shouldn't we…?"

Syaoran sighed heavily, why couldn't couples ever make any sense? Though, he and Sakura sometimes slipped into that kind of synch, come to think of it. But that thought merely poked his open wound, and he shied away from it. He was a little distracted, so he was twice as surprised when both Yue and Touya turned to face him. He felt a surge of power and everything flashed white.

Suddenly, he was outside the park, trying to figure out what in the world was going on. That's when he noticed the tower, or what used to be the tower anyway. It was like something had taken the land and twisted it, everything spiraling upwards. It started to fade out right in front of his eyes, but as it did something strange happened. Whether it was because of Touya's and Yue's magic or some other reason, who could say. But as the tower faded out, the ground around it seemed to ripple. The park itself was moving up and down as if it were nothing more solid than water. The ripples stopped just shy of the entrance, and Syaoran wondered what would happen if he got closer and touched one.

Before that thought was finished, the ripples had increased pace, the ground vibrating like wild, hundreds of pulses per second. Then with a pop, it was gone, all of it. The entire park vanished, except for part of the entrance. Not a stray bit of grass or rock path remained. It was like something had just wiped away any trace of life ever being there. It was so much more than had happened at the Daidouji mansion, so either Hope was putting out more power than ever, or these distortions fed off the magic of the people inside. That's when he realized that Touya and Yue hadn't teleported out with him. He looked around in shock, sure that they would pop up somewhere. When they didn't he screamed in frustration, was he going to lose everyone important in his life!