Dying Flames

A/N: Hello to my loyal five reviewers and all others reading this story! I know it's been a long, long, long, long, long, long, long… Well, you get the point right? I'm so sorry for the epic delay, but my inspiration has been selling me short lately… So yeah.

Aside from that, I'd really like to give thanks to my reviewers. It's thanks to you that this chapter was written. I'm so grateful to you. If you need someone to boost the morale of any of your stories, I will happily do it. Thank you so much! Hugs all around! hugs all of the reviewers

So yeah… Here's the next chapter of Dying Flames!

Signed by yours truly,

thegeek

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Disclaimer: I don't own MKR. Does thegeek even look like CLAMP? I didn't think so.

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Chapter 2

Hikaru sat on her cushion, her dark eyes glazed over. She looked down at her hands, studying every detail as if she had never seen them before. "The world is mine, gripped in these hands… These small, weak, pathetic hands… I can barely hold myself together; do they really expect me to be able to carry a world?" She looked up, tears tickling at the edges of her long, thick lashes. "I'm going to let them down, aren't I? Soon this world will be filled with beings of darkness and torment… My torment…" Her voice grew more pained, the tears skimming her porcelain cheeks onto her hands. "I might as well call the magic knights right now…"

Her eyes widened as soon as the words left her mouth. "No! How could I say something like that?" Furiously she wiped the wet streams off of her face. When she was done, she looked out of her window at the land below her. Before her glassy red orbs, the storm faded into a bright spring morning, and birds once silent now sung filled with vibrant and happy song. A small smile graced her lips. "That's better. I can't let this world fall into darkness, now can I?" Her smile faded. "I will never let this world die. Never. I will not let the cycle repeat itself. The Magic Knights will not be summoned again to go through what I- what we did." Determination in place, she grasped her hands and began to pray.

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Clef stared down at his papers, glaring at them with his blue eyes. There was nothing, absolutely nothing on how to destroy the Pillar system. "Damn it!" He slammed his hands down on his desk; the pages of one of the books he was researching through flipped open to a random page from the force of it. Angrily he turned from the useless piles of parchment and marched over to the window, folding his arms to express his grumpiness. Did all of his best efforts mean nothing! Should he just give up now while he was ahead! Should he just let Hikaru DIE!

His anger melted away instantly, and he sighed. No… No, he couldn't let Hikaru die. There was no way he could do that. His duty was to serve her, to be her guide… A small smile curved itself from his lips. And more than that… He had to be her friend. He knew it wasn't easy being the Pillar; if he didn't know that, would he be researching as hard as he was for an answer on how to destroy the whole system? He knew what a weight it was, and be damned if he wasn't going to support her all the way through it. Be damned if he wasn't going to be her friend. Be damned if he wasn't going to find a way to stop all of this madness.

With a new light in his eyes, he went back over to his desk. He grabbed the papers from off of it and began to organize them; searching through them for anything he might have missed before. As he was picking up the last of them, his eyes caught a figure drawn in one of the books. It was a figure unlike any of the others he had seen before. "That's weird…" he muttered to himself. "I could've sworn I looked through everything…" He set down his papers and began to look at the page. His eyes widened at the text. He had to read it several more times before he could accept what he had read. A grin spread across his face, wide and filled with excitement. "I've found it…" A soft silence followed his whispered statement. "I've found it!"

His eyes danced as he looked down at the page again. He'd really found it. He, Master Mage Clef, had found the answer on how to destroy the Pillar system.

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Sorry it's so short and that it took me so long to update! I'm going to try to get back in the swing of things, but it's going to be a little slow, so bear with me, alright? I'll try to get an update out as fast I can. Any suggestions you have are highly appreciated!

Sincerely,

the-geek