Cessation
Izzy Girl

VII 'It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...'

It was like a scene from a nightmare. Sometimes, Sakura's trials had been tense, of course, but never like this. Tomoyo had never seen the cards act so blatantly... vicious. She ran out into the street, night air tinted with the distinctive smell of woodsmoke carried by the mounting wind storm. The ground rumbled angrily and Tomoyo could already feel the first droplets of water hit her forehead. Behind her, Touya stumbled on the shaking ground and shouted over the din:

"What's going on! How did the cards break free!?"

Tomoyo didn't answer, didn't even hear him really. She felt something stir deep inside of her, that same part she touched whenever Syaoran was trying to teach her magic. It didn't make any sense, but she felt as if she could,,, do something. She began walking.

"Daidouji!" Spinel called, his voice deep and silky in his transformed state, "Daidouji, where are you going!?"

Tomoyo was listening this time, but still didn't answer, because she didn't know.

Meiling walked slowly, but not hesitantly. Or at least she wouldn't admit to herself that she was hesitating. In fact, every unsteady step that she took she told herself that she couldn't wait to see the helplessness in her cousin's dark face. Couldn't wait to laugh at him and taunt him and make him feel as worthless as she had when he had struck her, but with the earth around her rumbling and the wind picking up, she couldn't help but wonder: 'what have I done?'

'Is it true? Was Hiiragizawa right? Am I bent on revenge and driven by jealousy because I'm bitter and foolish? Am I really that... that... petty.' she already knew her answer, though.

Around her, people were beginning to emerge from their houses, all sleep-worn and pajama clad. Police sirens wailed in the distance and a general sense of dread settled over the area. Meiling was causing others to suffer for personal gratification.

She gripped the charm tightly between her thumb and forefinger. It was simply a piece of crumpled rice paper with a few confusing Kanji characters painted down it's length. These were the things she never could understand about magic, how something so silly as a tiny parchment could have power. She scoffed at it, but secretly, it always fascinated her. The charm contained the power to relieve the prison spell that had been set around Syaoran shortly after the cards broke free. Meiling had been intending to rip it up and allow the boy to fester in those invisible walls until the spell had worn off, but now her resolve wavered.

She stopped at the edge of the dome, feet just brushing the edge, at her cousin's back. He and Kero were sitting impatiently in silence, Syaoran tapping his fingers against his upper arm, and Kero twitching his tail violetnly. Meiling swallowed heavily and spoke, her tone a masterful cover of snide resentment.

"Well, hello cousin dear. What a perdiciment you find yourself in."

Syaoran jumped to his feet and turned to her, face twisted with both concern and anger. Kero also turned, but his attention was still focused mostly on the cards actions, that circled around them widely.

"Meiling! Where the hell have you been for the past four hours!?"

Meiling grinned enigmatically and waved the charm scroll inches away from Syaoran's face, but ultimately out of his reach, "You want out?"

Syaoran's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed as he realized what she meant, "You... you had something to do with this!"

"Grovel." Meiling demanded, "Then I'll think about letting you out."

"Meiling, this is serious!" Syaoran shouted, "You can't just... you can't DO things like this! Don't you understand that I need to go seal those cards, otherwise people are going to die!"

"I said get on your knees and beg me to let you go." Meiling gritted her teeth, "I'll accept nothing else!"

Syaoran slammed his palms against the invisible barrier between them, wearing a most fearsome expression, "I don't believe you! Listen, I'm sorry I hit you, okay, but this is really unecessary! I was trying to find you to apologize, but obviously you have other ideas."

"Beg, Xiao Lang, I'll accept no other apology."

"No!"

"YOU BASTARD!" Meiling slammed her foot on the ground viciously, and raised the piece of parchment up where Syaoran could see it. Then, she ripped it in half.

Syaoran suddenly fell forwards, narrowly dodging Meiling where she stared in betrayed bewilderment. The wall was gone.

"That... cheat..." she muttered, "He tricked me..."

Kereberos spread his wings wide again, gesturing for Syaoran and Meiling to jump on. Syaoran wrapped a strong arm around his distraught cousin'd shoulders, "Come on Meiling, we'll talk about it later." he whispered, but she refused to move.

"You two, hurry up! We've got to get away from here, take down the Firery first!"

"I know, Kero, just wait a moment, I... oh shit..." three very different faces turned upwards simultaneously to see the wave crash down on them at exactly the wrong moment. Meiling felt Syaoran's grip on her loosen, then water filled her lungs and everything was black.

Tomoyo was in a daze. Around her cars whizzed and people ran, screaming and crying, in the opposite direction, but she felt untouched. Her hair hardly swayed in the breeze and her steps were slow, but sure. Water washed over her neatly dressed ankles and her shoes filled as she followed where the magic was taking her. The water grew deeper as she walked, and the streets slowly became emptier and absolutely silent except for the faint sound of running water.

The cold was insignificant, as was the discomfot she felt from being wet. He skirt grew bottom heavy as it skimmed the surface of the water and eventually her thick braid thouched it's surface. In her mind, Tomoyo recited a poem:

'I never saw a moor;
I never saw the sea,
Yet I know how the heather looks;
And what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God;
Nor visited in heaven,
Yet certain am I of the spot;
As if the chart were given.'

This was all she saw and heard until she reached the tempest of the Watery's storm. She stood breast deep in the water now, and around her familiar bodies floated. She raised her dark eyes and met the Watery's.

'Hello.' she said in her mind.

The card blinked it's wide, aquamarine eyes and flowed towards Tomoyo and the girl was flooded with an overwhelming feeling of it's... it's 'thereness'. She didn't know how else to describe it, but suddenly she knew that the card was there. Shuddering now, Tomoyo continued.

'I'm Tomoyo Daidouji. I was a friend of the Card Mistress Sakura Kinomoto.'

This time, the emotion was agreement- affirmation. As if that card was replying with the words 'I know who you are.'

'Why are you doing this?'

Abruptly, the water level rose to Tomoyo's neck, but she didn't feel light as one usually does when emerged almost entirely in water. She felt weight down, sucked into the water's void. Around her, bodies floated, but she sunk beneath the weight og the card's answer. It was anger, it was misundertanding, it was abandonment, it was... it was Sakura.

'You're angry at Sakura?' Tomoyo asked searchingly, certain that she understood, 'But why are you angry at her? It's not her fault that she died. It was all an unfortunate accident.'

The water rose again. Tomoyo gasped for air and tilted her head back to keep the water from rushing into her nose.

'Please, answer me! I promise that if you just answer me and we can understand, I'll tell the other. They'll leave you alone then!'

The emotions were too conflicting, too strong and they buried Tomoyo as metaphorically as the water buried her physically. She knew enough to hold her breath, but when she tried to swim she was only pulled deeper and deeper. Her eyes were pressed closed tightly, her lungs contracting under the immense pressure and her mind desperately searching out the Watery card, trying to make the angry creature understand what she was trying to ask.

Her eyes began to flutter and the air was failing. Finally, human instinct took over and Tomoyo tried to inhale. Her lungs filled with water and she tried to cough, only succeeding in allowing more water into her lungs. Her eyes popped open frantically, and she flailed her arms. No air anywheres! He throat was raw, her veins tight and her heart both speeding and slowing. Her mind grew groggy and for a rare moment, Tomoyo Daidouji was terribly frightened. She could feel her life slipping away, as if she could catch it if she were just strong enough to keep hold of it. Her grip was failing, though, and her stinging eyes rolled back in her head flutteringly.

'I'm dead.' she thought in that sad, amazed realization of one who is gone before thier time, 'I wonder if it was this bad for Sakura...'

'No. No, I never felt such pain.'

Tomoyo snapped back to reality and suddenly the pressure was gone. She felt a cool breeze on her cheek and air filled in around her. She scrambled to hands and knees and coughed, gasping for breath like a new born tasting air for the first time. It was some time before she could get her breathing back to normal, and when she did, she observed her surroundings carefully. When she stood, she saw at her feet the Watery card, sealed, and sealed securely at that. Around her lay the unconcious bodies of Kereberos and Syaoran among the softly breathing strangers.

'I was blessed.' Tomoyo closed her slender fingers around the card thankfully, then disjointedly remember the voice.

'Was that just an illusion? A vision of the near dead? Because it sounded almost like...' her gaze caught the lingering traces of a shadow skipping it's way across the rooftops before dropping to stare again at the sealed watery card, '... Sakura...'

"Was all that really necessary?" Eriol wondered lazily from his lofty vantage point, "It seemed a bit excessive to me."

'What? It was just the beginning! Aren't you enjoying this lovely little trial we're submitting the Mistress's friends through?'

"Oh, of course I am." Eriol sighed, "I am you, after all I just... don't see the point in it..."

'Well, then we're rather blind tonight, hmm? You grow ever more skeptical with each passing day. It worries me.'

"I wouldn't dwell on it too much. In fact, you have no choice. I have already decided not to dwell on it and since I am you and you be me, that's the end of it."

'Aren't you at all intrguied at who our little game brought out of hiding?'

"Well, since you are, obviously I am too. Funny how that works, isn't it? Won't Xiao Lang and the others be cross..." Eriol chuckled to himself, and continued this inane self dialouge.

'It's rather ridiculous, isn't it, that we have these silly arguments.'

"Quite. I'm almost beginning to worry about myself."

'Well, didn't you already tell our darling descendant that you're insane?'

"I am, but I never thought you were."

'It's the same thing. How did you phrase it? I am you and you be me?"

"Actually." Eriol's expression turned dark and thoughtful, "We're not the same at all. I thought by now you'd have realized... I have thoughts you know nothing about."

'I know everything about you, I AM you. Or rather, another personality you have created to represent Clow and therefore liberate yourself from feelings of guilt and uslessness after Sakura died. You're a very pathetic person, Eriol Hiiragizawa, to think that you are anyone but Clow Reed.'

Eriol shook his head sadly but refrained from walking away. This was the one conversation he would never be able to escape. Unless...

'Those suicidal thoughts are unheathly, Mr. Reed.'

Eriol grinned wickedly, "Unhealthy for whom Mr. Hiiragizawa? You, or myself?"

For a moment there, he was confused about which part of the conversation he was supposed to be speaking. He forgot which one he really was. Who was the fake personality, Mr. Reed or Mr. Hiiragizawa? Who was the one who held the body's soul, Clow or Eriol?

Or were they really both the same person?