Chapter One-Hundred-Eight
"Syaoran!"
His face—both their faces—turned toward her for a moment. With a silent plea, she begged her Syaoran to stop.
There was a moment, when those mismatched eyes met her gaze, that she thought she saw something human in them. Regret. Sorrow for what he'd done. A silent wish that things had turned out differently in Tokyo.
And then her Syaoran drove Hien through the new Syaoran's shoulder, and suddenly he wasn't Syaoran anymore—he was the Other, the image, the clone. He was the enemy, a pawn of the true villain, the spark that had burned their little group to cinders. Syaoran no longer existed—only the clone and the dying boy in his arms. "Syaoran!" she screamed.
The Other dropped Syaoran at his feet and pulled his sword out. Blood gushed from the wound, splattering against the hard white stone as the dying boy collapsed. As Syaoran collapsed.
The next few seconds passed as with the clarity of a dream. Her legs moved under her, as heavy and uncoordinated as steel springs. Forgotten in her hand sat the sword Kurogane had given her, still nameless, still without a proper sheath. Without a conscious thought, she threw herself to the ground beside the dying Syaoran, her hands seeking the growing spot of red on his shoulder. His brown eyes panned up to look at her face. "Syaoran . . ." she whimpered, vision blurring.
"Leave him," the Other said. "You're coming with me."
Her eyes flashed up to the mismatched eyes of the image. Her heart fluttered with unfamiliar rage. "No."
Consternation flickered through his eyes for half a second before he reached for her. She slapped his hand away. "No."
"He's going to die. Leave him."
"No!" She returned her attention to Syaoran, clamping a hand down on his wounded shoulder to stop the bleeding. Crimson fluid slipped between her fingers, the flow too great to stanch, even if she'd had the resources of an entire hospital at her disposal. "Syaoran . . ."
Syaoran lifted his right hand to her cheek and brushed her water-soaked hair away from her face. His brown eyes glistened, glazed over with pain.
"We're going," the Other said, snatching Sakura's upper arm and dragging her to her feet. Fury pulsed through her, her hand going to the hip and ripping the sword free of the loop on her belt. Without a thought, she spun the blade around and drove the point up through the Other's abdomen, cutting through his diaphragm, and piercing his heart. Her body met the resistance without flinching.
Shock flitted across his face, the most human expression he'd worn since Tokyo.
But there was nothing human left in that Syaoran, nothing she could salvage, nothing she could love. So even when he whispered her name with his dying breath, all she felt was a twinge of regret for mourning his absence so long.
She turned back to Syaoran—the real Syaoran, her Syaoran. More blood rushed out of his wound, pooling around his hair.
The barrier created by Fai's stolen magic fell.
"Sa . . . kura . . ." Syaoran whispered, his right hand twitching. Knowing what he wanted, she took it and lifted it to her cheek.
His fingers were like ice.
He blinked slowly, as if surfacing from a peaceful dream. The crimson splotch on his shirt spread further. "I love you," he whispered.
Tears rolled down Sakura's cheeks, dripping onto Syaoran's neck. At a loss, she leaned down and kissed him once on the lips. "I love you, too, Syaoran."
Kurogane and Fai arrived just then. "Oh no . . ." Fai whispered, kneeling down beside them both. Sakura watched Syaoran's eyes slide over to the magician.
"Fai-san . . . You'll take care of Sakura, won't you? I don't . . . I don't think I can, anymore."
Fai made a choked sound at the back of his throat. Before he could respond, Kurogane stepped in.
"Don't be stupid," the ninja growled. "You're not going to die. You're a vampire. You'll heal up just fine."
Already, Syaoran was shaking his head. "No. Not this time."
"Why not?" Sakura asked, her voice thick with building sobs. "Why not this time?"
His gaze returned to her. His hand trailed down the side of her face, fingers probing the skin of her neck. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine. "Not this time," he repeated with such deep sorrow, she knew it to be the truth. "Too much damage."
And things must truly have been dire, because of all the people who could've suggested it, it was Kurogane who said, "Call the witch."
"No," Syaoran whispered. "Not for me. I won't ask you to—"
"Do it," Sakura said to Mokona, fingers curling around Syaoran's palm. "I'll pay the price."
"Sakura—"
"Please Syaoran," she said. "You've given up everything for me. Let me do this."
"The price—"
"I will bear the price." So long as you exist, I can bear the price . . .
"Sakura . . ." He trailed off helplessly, fingers going limp against her skin. She held his hand to her face, letting her body heat seep into his cold fingers.
"I will bear the price," she repeated. "To atone for the pain I've caused you."
With a pained expression, he shook his head. "No. I won't let you. You're strong now. You can take care of yourself." He closed his eyes, his voice dropping even lower. "You can live without me now."
"I won't," she hissed, fingers curling around the sticky fabric of his bloodstained shirt. "I won't live without you."
A circle of light formed on the stone floor, with Yuuko at its center. Sakura turned, heart fluttering painfully under her ribs. "Yuuko-san, we need help."
"There will be a price."
"I will pay it," she said. Syaoran would do the same for me. He already has . . . "I need a way to save Syaoran's life."
Yuuko's wine-red eyes followed Mokona's line of sight to Syaoran's limp body. Syaoran moved his head from side to side, gasping like a dying koi. "It seems he does not wish to be saved."
"I wish to save him," Sakura said fiercely.
Yuuko nodded, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, they were solemn. "You would not be able to bear the price alone. Even your own life would not be enough."
Her shoulders sunk. Another salty tear slipped free of her eyes as she blinked.
"However, there is a way."
Her eyes flashed open again, her body unconsciously leaning forward.
The witch went on. "As when the others sacrificed their most valuable possessions for Mokona, his life could be saved with the sum of your offerings."
Sakura's eyes flickered to the others. Both of them leaned close to the circle of light, desperation evident in every twitch of their muscles. She turned back to Yuuko. "What do we have that you want?"
"Something personal," the witch said. "Something of even greater value than the price you all paid for Mokona."
"Don't . . ." Syaoran whispered, his hand stretching out as if to stop Yuuko's words.
Yuuko's gaze slid over to him, then back to Sakura. "Yet the price is also the same, in a way. Your memories. Suffering for each of you in turn, beyond the scope of what you've faced in this reality. And one other thing." The light in her eyes dimmed, lips parting and moving soundlessly, as if she couldn't bring herself to say the words.
"What? What is it?"
"The only way to save him now is to turn back time."
"No!" Syaoran yelled with such intensity, Sakura thought, just for a moment, that he could've pulled through on his own. Then he coughed, splattering blood across his already scarlet-stained shirt, and that tiny shred of hope died. "The damage that could do . . ."
"The damage it will do is great," Yuuko said. "But it is not your wish, even if you may benefit from it. You have no say in whether the others choose to pay the price."
The witch turned back to Sakura. "The price of turning back time will be the granting of the wish itself. The ramifications of this wish will be far-reaching, should you choose to accept. You will face grave dangers, endure worlds where each of you will suffer greatly, pay prices you would not have to pay in this timeline. Additionally, everyone who has died in this timeline will have expired in the most natural way prior to the point in time to which you return. All of your memories will be edited to fit this new pattern. However." At this she paused, her expression growing impossibly more grave. "To prevent this series of events from repeating itself, Syaoran's memories will remain unchanged."
Sakura thought of all the suffering Syaoran had endured in the past months, all the trauma Seishirou had put him through, all the coldness she had shown him in Infinity, all the sorrow he'd felt because of them. And now, the thought of forcing him to relive it all, to allow herself to forget this and make the same mistakes . . .
It was a steep price. She had known it would be a steep price, but now she didn't know if she could endure it.
"I accept my role in this price," Fai said suddenly, staring at Yuuko with a mix of horror and relief. He addressed Syaoran. "No matter what point in time we end up in, don't give up on me. Tell me things will change. Don't let me treat you like I treated you in Infinity."
Syaoran stared back, eyes glassy as he struggled to hold on to consciousness. They were running out of time. Syaoran was running out of time.
Sakura's heart convulsed, a sob breaking through her lips.
"You know my stance," she said shakily, hoping Syaoran would remember enough of this, at least, to know she loved him, would grow to love him again. "I will pay my part of the price."
Yuuko nodded, then turned her head toward Kurogane.
The ninja looked back at her, his red eyes impassive, unreadable. His eyes flickered once to the dying boy. "Tomoyo said I would face a choice where both options would cost me. She said she saw it in a dream. She trusted me to make the honorable choice, whatever it was. But I can see now that neither of them are right. Neither choice is honorable when the person being saved wants to die, yet everyone else wants him to live."
Syaoran nodded in agreement. Sakura held back a gasp of shock.
Kurogane's voice grew louder as he turned his attention to the witch. "But I've made this decision before, and I stand by it. So whether he wants to live or not, I'll keep him alive now. If that means I'll be hurt because of it, that's fine."
"Kurogane-san . . ." Syaoran whispered, his voice tight with betrayal.
"It's not your call, kid. I'm not going to watch you die."
"You accept the price?" Yuuko asked.
"I accept the price."
The witch nodded. "Very well. It will be done." Her image shivered out of view, the circle collapsing. As soon as she vanished, the ground rumbled beneath them, as if disturbed by something massive moving underneath it.
Sakura took both of Syaoran's hands in hers, leaning down to kiss him. When their lips met, she tasted blood. "I'm sorry," she whispered, as the edges of the world dissolved, floating away like the furry seeds of a willow tree. "I love you."
His eyelids slid shut. "I wish . . ." he murmured, then twitched, almost choking on his own blood. The wound in his shoulder let loose another gush of red, still not healing.
Sakura leaned closer, turning her head so his lips were at her ear. "I wish we'd had more time together," he said. "I wish I'd never left you, even for a moment."
She nuzzled her cheek against his, the world collapsing, folding up like a crumpled sheet of paper around them. "I wish I'd realized I loved you sooner," she told him, just as the world vanished in a haze of white.