Chapter 16: One Sakura, Two Sakura

Sakura trembled in fear as she watched the darker version of herself fight Rusaki Akila. Her other half was fighting brutally. She was striking at the weak points of Akila's body with her card-enhanced strength, attempting to cause as much damage as possible.

"Please stop! We don't have to fight each other," She begged. She didn't want her other self to do this. What Akila had done was mean and hurtful and would cause her and Syaoran pain problems for weeks to come, but that was not a good enough reason to hurt her. It would be better if they talked it out and overcame their differences.

"I'm not just fighting her, I'm killing her!" The dark Sakura yelled excitedly. She swung a fist at Akila's head. Akila dodged, leaning back and doing a handspring to avoid tripping over a bench. Sakura leapt over the bench after her. As Sakura came down, she struck out with a partially closed hand as if she meant to rip Akila's heart from her chest.

"I call upon Ra, let me be his vessel!" Akila cast her spell quickly. She took half a step back and caught Sakura's hand in her own. Akila's eyes now shone with a fiery golden light. A third eye had appeared and opened up in the middle of her forehead. This eye was blood red and spun around, watching in every direction.

"You're never going to get the chance to lay even a single finger on my Syaoran!" The other Sakura yelled as she punched with her free arm. Akila caught this punch as well. Their strength was equally matched, but Akila seemed to have more experience fighting. She took a deep breath and looked confidently at Sakura.

Sakura head butted Akila hard in the chin. Akila's head flew back and she released her breath with a cry of pain and a spray of blood. Along with the escaped breath came a large fireball which flew into the air. She had not been expecting such vulgar brawling tactics.

"Someone tell me what's going on!" Kagetora roared. He was in completely over his head. Syaoran took advantage of the distraction and elbowed him in the gut. Kagetora's restraining hold on Syaoran loosened and Syaoran squirmed free. He dove for the innocent version of Sakura. She rolled out of the way and was cornered by the edge of the ring. She cowered there, clutching the bottle she desperately did not want Syaoran to have.

"Just give me the bottle. Everything will be all right." Syaoran smiled reassuringly at Sakura as he slowly reached for the drugged bottle.

"A chance to be happy? My only chance to be happy is to have you freaks out of my life!" Tomoyo stood up and stormed away from Eriol and out of the protective shield that he had erected. Eriol watched her leave. There was nothing else he could think of to say to her, at least nothing that would not make her angrier.

Tomoyo turned and glared at him one last time. She didn't even see it coming. A large burning orb hit her right in the chest. It exploded violently sending her flying.

"Tomoyo!" Eriol exclaimed. There was nothing left where she'd been standing except charred concrete and splatters of plastic from the cheap stadium seating.

Syaoran crouched over Sakura and used his superior strength to begin prying her fingers off of the bottle. Sakura squirmed and twisted trying to keep it away from him.

"Please stop," Sakura begged. His nails dug into her hands, drawing blood.

"Everything will be fine when you give it to me. Don't you want me to be happy?" He had already figured out that Sakura was split into the good and evil halves of her personality and was trying to use it against her. "This is what I need to take away all my pain." Her grip on the bottle was loosening. He knew that it would only take a little more to make her give it up.

"I can't let you have this. It will only make you worse." She curled her body around the bottle as tight as she could. She wished that she could just pour out the drink and the drug down the nearest drain. She couldn't do it though, because she didn't know what was in it. As much as she didn't want to hate Akila, she also didn't trust the girl. Anything could have been added to the drink. She had to protect it until she could give it to the doctors so that they could help Syaoran.

"Idiot!" Meiling came up from behind Syaoran and knocked him unconscious with a blow to the back of his head.

"This is going to be fun!" The dark Sakura smiled as she stood over Akila who was holding her hand over her injured jaw. Sakura raised her wand and swung it towards Akila's face with all of her might.

"Baasht pwrotesht shmee!" Akila's jaw would not move properly as she called out her spell. Sakura's staff struck a powerful barrier and stopped.

"Power!" Sakura doubled the effect of the strength on her and the magical barrier began to crack under the pressure. Before it could completely give way, the barrier exploded. Sakura raised her arms in front of her face to protect herself, but was sent flying backwards by the force of the blast.

Sakura grunted as she landed and the wind was knocked out of her. She was several feet from where she had been standing. Her ears were ringing. Her other goody-two-shoes self was nearby, timidly watching her. Kagetora was completely baffled and kept muttering, asking what was going on. Meiling was talking into her cellphone, giving orders to people who had not yet entered the building due to the attempts of the crowd to exit it. Syaoran was lying unconscious in Sakura's lap. She had been too busy fighting to see what had happened, but she knew that only Meiling would have done that to him.

"Once I finish with Akila, you're next," She muttered, angrily. Syaoran was hers; no one else was allowed to hurt him, or to touch him. She groaned and turned her head painfully. Her body would probably hurt for a while.

"Nyao..." From her position on the floor, Sakura saw a cat staring out of one of the open bags. Its body was pure black and it emitted a sinister energy. Sakura quickly figured out what it was.

"A talisman spirit." She stood up slowly, testing to make sure that her injuries were not too serious Akila was lying completely still. Sakura knew that she had at least a little time before her enemy could move again. "I'll capture you, and then I'll test you on her," Sakura said to the spirit as she raised her wand, "Spirit, give up your power and bind yourself under my contract."

The drain on her magic reserves was phenomenal, it seemed even worse than when the strength had been sealed. As she focused on sealing the spirit, her arms began to tremble and she fell to her knees. She almost had it. She poured more and more energy into the sealing until she had nothing more to give. The spirit was losing cohesion and being sucked out of the animal in front of her, but she had no energy left. She was no longer channeling the power of her star, but using her own body's reserves. She was so close to sealing it that she couldn't let herself stop...

No, she didn't have enough... "Too late to stop..." Sakura wheezed as her dessicated body collapsed to the floor dead. Next to her a card appeared: The Yin. It floated lazily over to the still living Sakura.

Sakura watched in horror as her other half died. It was not a sight she had ever wanted to see. Her corpse was completely drained, like a mummy. It stared at her. She grabbed Syaoran's body and hugged it tightly. Her imagination showed her images of the body getting up and walking around on its own. She still hated scary things.

"Nyao..." A white cat walked up to her and rubbed against her. It purred comfortingly and nudged her key. Sakura pulled away, startling it.

Eriol panicked. Had Tomoyo been vaporized? He walked to the molten crater. There was no sign that she had ever stood there. He focused on his foresight, looking for any future where Tomoyo survived. The future was bathed in shadows. He could see others around, but many of them were in shadows. Those he did see all had futures that led to their own death, or his. He couldn't see her, not even the fuzzy future he had gotten from her before.

"I just have to calm down," He tried to reassure himself. He stood in the center of the blast and looked around and found Tomoyo standing behind him, completely unharmed.

"Tomoyo!" He smiled gratefully and breathed a sigh of relief as possibilities for a happy future glimmered faintly in the deepest corners of his mind. Tomoyo seemed to be in shock.

"How am I alive?" She rubbed some dirt off of her dress and hands. The explosion had knocked her down into an aisle. There was a sticky spot on her elbow where she had landed in an old spilled beverage.

"The gem I put in your hair protected you," Eriol said, relieved, "I took it from a member of a group called Templar that hunt down and execute anyone that uses magic. It absorbs magical energy from the environment and uses it to cancel or deflect any magical attack. I modified it so that it could accept my magic, though still protect you," Eriol explained.

"You're saying that you are now unable to hurt me or control me in any way?" Tomoyo smirked in satisfaction and slapped him. The thought of him being unable to do anything to her filled her with a sense of freedom. He was responsible for all of her pain, and now he wouldn't be able to manipulate her anymore.

"Goodbye," Tomoyo walked towards the nearest exit. "It's good to be free."

"I'll see you soon," Eriol sighed. He looked back down towards the battle. It was as he had predicted. Both of the girls had died. He could see possibilities though. The way to fix this situation had entered his view now that the unpredictable elements were leaving the area. Things would turn out all right, and he didn't have to interfere at all. Maintaining a safe distance, he followed Tomoyo.

The Yin landed in the living Sakura's lap. The white cat pawed at the card, forlornly mewing.

"You just want to be with your friend, don't you," Sakura realized and stroked it, "but I can't transform you on my own. Didn't you see what happened to her?"

The white cat's big eyes shimmered as if it was on the verge of tears. Sakura could not bear seeing anything so cute and sad.

"You will have to help me," She said, "Key of the star, reveal our true form before me. Sakura commands you under the contract. Release!" Her wand was pure white with a pale blue star. It would have been a perfect accessory if it had belonged to Yue since it matched his color scheme so perfectly. Sakura focused as much power as she dared into a glowing sphere that hovered between the wings of the wand. "Take this power and use it, discard the power you once had and bind you under my contract."

The cat reached out a paw and batted the ball of energy. In no more energy than it took to transform a Clow Card into a Sakura card, the cat transformed into The Yang. She still had plenty of the energy she had amassed left. She absorbed it, sending it back where it belonged.

Sakura looked at her new cards. The Yin showed a black tiger with white stripes, and the Yang was a white tiger with black stripes. When she put them together, she was surprised when the two cards became one. It was a tiger with two heads, the top black and the bottom white. Instead of a single name, the card had three. Above the black tiger was 'Yin'. Below the white tiger was 'Yang'. Across the border between the two was 'Balance'.

Meiling and Kagetora were doing their best to revive Sakura's other body. Men and women in Li uniforms were entering the stadium from all entrances. The people who had been attempting to leave had all been stopped in the parking lot. They would all have their memories erased before they returned home. Sakura stood up and then walked by Kagetora and Meiling to kneel at the other side of her body.

Kagetora seemed to be in shock and glanced unbelievingly between the two Sakura's until a Li came up and grabbed his arm. He was led away, given the comforting assurance that everything would be explained to him. Sakura wondered if he would be okay. Another man picked up Syaoran.

"What should we do with him?" The Li agent asked Sakura.

"Take him to the hospital and make sure he's restrained." Meiling ordered. The agent glanced at Sakura, waiting for her approval. Sakura nodded, slightly. It was enough for the man.

"What will we do with her?" Another agent asked. He held the body of Akila. Her once flawless jaw line now had a large bloody dent and most of her body was covered in burns and cuts from the explosion. Sakura could not even guess in how many places the jaw had been broken, or how many internal injuries had been caused by the concussion of the explosion. Akila's eyes held a vacant look. Sakura had seen the same look on Rusaki Numaru's face the first time she had killed him.

"Burn the body." Meiling ordered.

"No!" Sakura couldn't allow that to happen. She had already been responsible for too many deaths. She did not want to hurt the Rusaki family any more than she already had. She reached out and touched the dry, cracked skin of her other half's corpse. "Give her back to her family."

"Are you sure? Their family has magic that can –"

"Just do it, please..." Sakura had an idea. It was a dangerous idea. "I am going to try something. I may need more magic, or maybe even a doctor when I'm done."

A minute later, every agent that was not otherwise occupied was standing at the ready around Sakura. A pair of paramedics also stood by, ready to give her medical attention.

"Please, tell us what you're going to do," the highest ranking Li officer said. "We'll be of more help if we know what you're doing."

"I'm raising the dead," Sakura said, simply. They had warned her in her magic lessons that death raising spells usually required many living sacrifices to restore their life and that she should never try it. Sakura knew that the same thought was probably going through all the Li's heads at that moment. It was their duty to stop her so that she wouldn't kill herself. Before they could react to what she had said, she activated her new card. "Balance, make me whole."

The corpse shimmered for a moment then seemed to be sucked into Sakura. It felt like her entire body was on fire. Magic was being drained from every one of her cells. The Li agents were futilely trying to replenish her, but their energy was much too weak or incompatible with her own.

"Damn, dying hurts..." she rasped before collapsing.

The parking lot was crowded. As people tried to leave, they were stopped by police vans by the exits. The occupants of the cars were taken from their vehicles and into the vans. After several minutes they would return from the vans and be allowed to leave. Tomoyo wondered what was going on inside.

Tomoyo walked towards the exit. She hoped that she could get by and call for a ride once she left. As she tried to pass by the police blockade, a man who looked nothing like a police officer stopped her.

"We will need to take your statement. Please, come with me." He was not allowing her any other choice. He grabbed her arm in a vice-like grip and pulled her into one of the vans. "Wait here and an officer will be with you in a second." He closed the door and locked her in.

Tomoyo sat there for several minutes in the almost blackness of the windowless van. It seemed as if no one was coming for her. Perhaps they had something different in store for her because she had tried to sneak by. The van suddenly became brighter. A hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her out. Wind whipped by her as she was whisked away.

"Eriol?" She could barely see because of the wind that stung her eyes.

"We can't stop for a second," Eriol told her. "You tried to evade them, and you know too much. They'll either erase all your memories or kill you if they catch you."

Tomoyo went stiff with fear. She could still remember the dream she had seen where Syaoran had killed her for hurting Sakura. It had haunted her restless nights several times a week ever since the night her videos of Sakura had all been erased. None of the repeat dreams had been as intense as the original, but she had already been scared enough.

"Won't the gem protect me?"

"From the memory alteration..."

Tomoyo gripped Eriol tightly as he began to speed up. At least, that is why she told herself she was holding onto him. She wanted nothing more than for him to leave her alone, but he never did. Now he was risking his own life to save hers. That wasn't right. He knew things. He would not risk his life like this. He must know that he would survive.

Eriol turned suddenly. "They've detected us." Tomoyo heard a gunshot.

Eriol stumbled and they fell. Tomyo screamed.

"Don't move," Eriol whispered, "I'm fine... It's all part of my plan."

The ground under them disappeared. They fell into a large sewage pipe. Eriol covered Tomoyo's nose and mouth with his hand as they were immersed in the disgusting water. Eriol stood up and lifted Tomoyo out of the sewage.

"I have some extra clothes for you at my house. No one else will see, or smell, you like this." Eriol promised.

Eriol began to run along the pipe towards the stadium.

"Why are we going back?" Tomoyo chocked out through the noxious fumes. Even breathing through her mouth could not curb the rancid stench that permeated the dark tunnel. Tears were forming in her eyes. She didn't know whether it was from the smell, or that she now realized that she was dependent on the person she hated most in the world.

"Because they think we're going the other way."

Eriol ran for several minutes. Tomoyo had no idea where they were when Eriol passed through the pipe again in the middle of a wooded area.

"We've lost them," he said, "They won't find us now." He was breathing deep and labored breaths. All the running had taken a lot out of him.

Tomoyo breathed a deep sigh of relief as she finally stood on her own legs in the grass then vomited from the smell. Eriol waved his staff and the two of them were doused in warm, clean, water and then dried by a hot wind.

"That should help a bit." Eriol's nose twitched as if he could still smell the rank odor of the sewage that had coated them. He turned his back to her and dropped to one knee. "Climb on."

"I'll walk on my own," Tomoyo said. He said they were safe, and she was relatively clean and dry, there was no reason to stay with him anymore.

"If you insist," Eriol said, pointing in a direction, "Walk that way for thirty hours or so and you should begin to recognize the area."

Tomoyo sighed exhaustedly and climbed onto his back.

"Hold on tight." Eriol jumped. He flew high over the treetops.

"Bastard," Tomoyo grunted as she was forced to grip him tightly around the neck. If they weren't so high up she would have liked to strangle him. Looking around, Tomoyo could see the sewage treatment plant receding behind them while the city buildings grew closer in front. They landed on a treetop and Eriol jumped again.

"Sorry. I am not as graceful as Sakura," They bounced off of another branch.

"You're doing this on purpose." Tomoyo said. She was forced to hold him tightly, almost intimately as they flew through the air.

"Well, if this is not to your tastes..." His staff grew wings and he began to fly, looping and corkscrewing through the air. "How's this?"

"I hate you." Tomoyo replied as she clutched him even tighter.

"Your mouth protests, even as you cling to me," Eriol chided and went into a steep dive. They were now racing between buildings, avoiding concrete walls by mere inches.

The scenery was a blur as it passed. Tomoyo just closed her eyes and held on tight, fearing for her life. Then they stopped. She opened her eyes and saw that they were inside.

"Last stop, my room."

"Idiot..." Tomoyo trembled, "Are you trying to kill us?!"

"I promised that no one would see you in your current state." Eriol gently pried her hands off of him. "Come now, you must want a proper bath and change of clothes even more than I do.

He led her through one of the doors into a large bathroom. There was a large European style tub with lion's feet. The floor was tiled in white marble and the walls were paneled with dark wood at the bottom and painted dark blue at the top. The sink was set on a tiled marble counter. The faucet was shaped as a lion's head, and the knobs looked almost like a pair of wings.

"I'll leave a change of clothes out for you. I hope you don't mind, but they will have to be some of Nakuru's."

"Whatever."

Eriol opened a closet and brought out a fresh set of towels. "You can use these when you're done." He glanced around for a moment and then sighed. "You'll probably need this as well." A half empty bottle of shampoo appeared in his hand, "If you forget it here, I'll bring it over in the morning."

Tomoyo took the bottle from him. It was the same one that had been in her bathroom moments earlier.

Eriol turned off the water. It was crystal clear for a few moments, and then he made a thick layer of bubbles appear on top.

"Just leave your clothes in the hamper. I'll burn them for you."

Tomoyo started to laugh. Her clothes still held the stench of sewers and the colors had become a medley of greens and browns and grays that were not at all appealing.

"It's the first time you've ever said anything that I could not think of a reason to disagree with you." It felt good to laugh. She couldn't remember the last time she had laughed.

"You should do that more. Brooding really doesn't suit you." Eriol said and left, closing the door behind him.

Tomoyo stripped and then immersed herself in the water. Relaxing in the tub, she reflected on the events that had transpired, and on everything she had learned. The awful memories of Laishi's death resurfaced, bolstered by the newly spread anger.

Tomoyo cried until the water became uncomfortably cold. She let the cold water drain, then refilled the tub with fresh hot water. To her surprise, the bubbles remained.

After washing her hair several times, Tomoyo felt that she was as clean as she was going to get. She emerged from the tub and dried herself off. She wrapped a large towel around her body and a smaller one wrapped her hair. She checked her appearance in the mirror. She looked tired. Her eyes were red from crying and there were dark bags under them, but for the first time in a long time, Tomoyo felt almost normal.