What Matters In the End

Chapter 4

Today was a beautiful day, the sun was shining brightly, the birds were singing their morning songs and the temperature was warm and breezy. It was a perfect start for the first day of college.

Tomoyo and Sakura had woken up early today especially because of Sakura's habits of always getting up late but today Sakura didn't mind being deprived of an hours worth of sleep as today was the starting of something important.

They were walking along the streets making their was to college, when Sakura couldn't contain her excitement any longer and started skipping and twirling catching the attention of many passer bys, especially the guys.

"Tomoyo can yo believe it... this is our last year of college" she beamed "And you know what that means?"

Tomoyo couldn't help giggle at her best friend, the excitement in her eyes and the happiness in her expressions; she loved the way Sakura enjoyed life.

"What? What does that mean?" she asked.

Sakura's smile grew wider, "It means no more studying for the rest of our lives!"

Tomoyo laughed at Sakura, Some things never change. "I hate to burst your bubble missy, but we still have to survive the year"

Sakura poked her tongue out towards Tomoyo, "Hehehe I know, but im just so excited" she replied and linked her arms with Tomoyo's and together they continued making their way to college.

When they arrived they grabbed their timetables and went to look for their class.

"Hey Tomoyo, can I take a look at your timetable?" Sakura asked as they walked inside their class room. They were pretty early and not many students had arrived yet, but Sakura failed to notice the ones that were in their seats.

"Sure" Tomoyo handed her timetable to Sakura.

Sakura held the piece of paper in front of her face and closely examined the timetable, and then her eyes lit up.

"Hey Tomoyo we've got all the…" she was saying as she slowly lowered the piece of paper down only to be met with a pair of glaring amber eyes. "Same classes together…" she continued her sentence less enthusiastically.

What a welcome she thought and scratched her head in nervousness.

Tomoyo smiled and ushered her friend over to the table next to hers with the word Kinomoto on it, and much to her discomfort in front of Syaoran.

Nervously, Sakura sat down and tried to avoid the cold vibes Syaoran was sending.

Eriol couldn't help but chuckle at this sight, "Good Morning Sakura" he greeted.

Sakura didn't notice him sitting behind Tomoyo when she walked in. She brushed off her nervousness and faced Eriol. "Good Morning Eriol" she replied smiling and continued smiling when she turned to face Syaoran. "Good Morning Syaoran"

Syaoran crossed his arms and looked away from her. "Don't talk to me" he replied in a cold voice.

Sighing, This is going to be one of the best years ever…she told herself and faced the front waiting for the teacher to start their last year of college. I can just feel it.

………

The first week of college passed by pretty quickly for Sakura, Tomoyo and Eriol and they were content with it. They had made new friends, the girls continued being popular with everyone including the guys and the college work was pretty easy for them to handle.

Syaoran, however couldn't care less, he was though, annoyed at the attention he got with the ladies who their first lines to him was "You're the rich Li clan leader" or "Your hot, would u go out with me?"… To him they were nothing but high standard gold diggers but that wasn't all that annoyed him either. It was the fact that he was stuck with that idiot cousin of his and his stupid girlfriend and also the bimbo klutz, in every class and in the same seating positions for everything. It was like torture.

It was a Friday night and he was standing on his balcony, in an apartment he and Eriol lived in, scanning the town for any traces of evil magic or even the magician the elders were looking for… but to no avail.

You'd think with powers as strong as those two, you can at least sense some kind of aura; he thought and continued to scan the town.

"Any luck?" Eriol asked walking to the balcony and stopping next to him.

Syaoran shook his head. "Have you sensed anything strange in town before I got here?"

Eriol thought for a moment, "No I haven't, but you did say they were after people with magic right?" he asked.

"Yeh, so tell everyone you know with magic to be on guard" Syaoran replied in a serious tone. "Also..." but before he could finish his sentence, the ground started shaking violently for a minute or so and then it stopped.

"What the hell was that?" Eriol asked getting up.

"I don't know," Syaoran replied, who also stood up and looked over at the town. The trees were slightly tilting. "Do earthquakes happen often here in Japan?" he asked facing Eriol.

Eriol turned around and shook his head, "No I don't think so".

It was quiet for a moment when the earthquake came again this time twice as powerful. Some buildings fell down to the pressure, people on the streets were screaming trying to find shelter and everything in their apartment shook and fell, breaking into little pieces. The both of them were going to rush inside trying to save some valuable ornaments but the balcony gave way leaving the both of them to stumble forwards and fall.

They were going to fall hard into the ground and have a concrete balcony land on top of them, which will most likely kill them instantly, but using their quick reflexes and training they used their magic to get away and land safely onto the ground away from the falling concrete.

Syaoran frowned; this was no ordinary earthquake, as he can sense some kind of evil presence lurking around.

"Eriol can you feel it?" he asked calling out his sword.

"Yes it's quite powerful" Eriol replied and took out his own sword. He closed his eyes to try and pinpoint the exact location the presence was. It took him a while though but he found out where it was and suddenly his face grew pale. Hell NO!

Syaoran noticed this "What? What's wrong? Where is it?" he asked a tiny bit concerned at his cousin.

Ignoring Syaoran, Eriol quickly made a dash towards the direction of where he felt the evil aura, concerned and worried that if he didn't get there something terrible might happen.

Syaoran became confused at his cousin's behaviour but soon trailed behind him.

Eriol came to a stop infront of a white cosy house surrounded by a beautiful garden, but due to the earthquake it was more of a wreck then a garden. There infront of the house stood a dark figure, and upon seeing this he started to grit his teeth. It was tall man with dark brown hair, blood stained eyes and was wearing cameo clothes, beside him was two figures wrapped around in vines and branches.

"Put the girls down" Eriol demanded and prepared himself for a fight. He looked towards Sakura and Tomoyo. They were struggling to get out, and he could see that they wanted to say something or scream but the vines covered their mouth.

The figured just laughed at him and raised his hand. Sakura and Tomoyo were lifted up in the air and a sudden green light appeared through the vines.

When Syaoran had finally caught up to Eriol, he was out of breath. He took a look at his surroundings and finally realised why Eriol had ran so fast. He took a stance beside him.

"I see you've finally come Syaoran" The enemy said and looked towards him.

Syaoran was taken back, What the hell? he thought and sent him a glare. "How do you know me?"

"I just do" The guy evilly smirked "The names Miko" he told him and closed his fists.

The vines Sakura and Tomoyo were trapped in tightened and started to drain their energies away. They put up a good struggle at first but soon became tired and still.

"Bastard!" Eriol yelled and lunged towards Miko with full force, but Miko saw the attack coming and he countered it by throwing rocks towards him.

Eriol was quick enough to dodge the first few but he hadn't anticipated some, which had hit him to the side of the body and his head.

"Argh" Eriol yelled in pain, collapsing on the foot path.

Syaoran became furious now and raised his sword to stab Miko, but was held back by a couple of vines and was thrown to the ground, hard. He tried to get up again but some kind of magical force was holding him down. He was getting even more furious that one guy could be so powerful. He looked towards the helpless girls. What the hell does he want with them? he asked himself, and faced Eriol, who was now knocked out cold. This cant be good.

"Mwahahaha, You two boys are no match for me" Miko laughed and continued to drain Tomoyo and Sakura's energy.

Sakura felt so tired and weak and wanted to just go to sleep but she couldn't. The situation for the four of them didn't look too good. She turned her head to face to Tomoyo, who was limp and her eyes were drooping ever so slowly. The vines that covered their mouth disappeared and Tomoyo stared over at Sakura. "Sorry" she whispered and fainted.

"No, Tomoyo please hold on" She cried, then looked over at the guys who were on the ground. Eriol really didn't look too good, as blood was sliding from the side of his unconscious body and Syaoran looked immobilized and pained. She then looked over at the town. It was in wreck and even from here she could hear the cries of everyone.

I have to do something, If not…If not then...No I will not think that way, she spoke to herself and little by little she started to gain some inner strength. She started to glow a little and muttered a few words underneath her breath, catching the attention of a certain amber eyed boy.

As soon as she finished muttering the spell the whole town seemed to have frozen. Glancing down she saw Syaoran staring at her, and she weakly smiled a little.

Syaoran can you hear me? She said telepathically

Syaoran recognised the voice and nodded in surprise.

Good, I don't know how long I can freeze time, but attack him now Hurry! She yelled.

Syaoran nodded again seeing as this was the only chance to take Miko out, so he made a run towards his sword. Grabbing it, he called out the wind to lift him so he was levelled with Miko.

"This is for you Bastard" Syaoran said in seriousness and slowly pierced the sword through Miko's chest making sure he can feel the after affects.

Sakura soon ran out of energy and time started to unfreeze again.

When Miko awoke he came face to face with a frowning Syaoran and he looked down and saw that he had been stabbed. What was surprising though was that no blood came out.

"Clever little trick Sakura" Miko said knowingly. Master knew you'd do something like that he told himself.

His body was starting to disappear and he said his final words. "There are more of us out there, some even stronger than I" he whispered to Syaoran, and gave a smirked at him.

"My boss knows what you are trying to do…." With that he disappeared into thin air and along with him, the vines that had surrounded the city, mending the fallen buildings and houses, also the damages of the earthquake were reversed and everything was as good as new. No one was hurt and everything was back to normal.

The vines that were holding the girls captive gently placed them to the ground, right beside Eriol. Seeing this, Syaoran rushed to the three of them to see the injuries.

He came to Eriol first, examining if he was okay and alive whilst Sakura sat up and checked on Tomoyo who was sleeping soundly. Sakura knew Tomoyo was drained of most of her powers and was very weak so she gently took Tomoyo's hand and transferred some of her remaining magic to her. She was so exhausted now, but she was curious about Syaoran. Tilting her head slightly to the side she watched in fascination as the cold Syaoran checked his cousin's pulse and ripped of his sleeves and wraps it around the wounds.

So he does have a kind side to him, she thought and continued to watch him with a weak smile.

Once Syaoran finished bandaging Eriol, he walked up to Sakura, and gave her a solemn look. Sakura was confused at first, till he started talking.

"So you and Tomoyo have powers?" he asked in a monotone voice.

Sakura nodded in reply.

Syaoran crossed his arms and turned his back on her. "Stay out of the way, both of you girls will only be a burden to us all" he harshly told her and walked back to Eriol.

Sakura was shocked to hear those words, and it hurt her, but she should have expected it from him.

She looked at his retreating form and sighed. "Got it" she whispered and looked away to face Tomoyo with a little tear escaping from her eye. So much for that kind side she thought and wiped away that single tear.

Author's Note: Well that's another chapter done, please tell me what you thought about it. Syaoran sounds pretty mean doesn't he? Don't worry though he'll eventually be nicer as the story progresses.

Stay tuned for the next chapter.

Always, Chikka