FIC: Song of the Stars (Sakura, Gen)

[shiiki]

Title: Song of the Stars
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG-13 (for discussion of death and description of injuries)
Characters/Pairings: Kinomoto Sakura, Tsukishiro Yukito, Yue, Li Syaoran, Daidouji Tomoyo, Keroberos, OCs, Gen with hints of Syaoran/Sakura and Touya/Yukito/Yue
Word Count: 7,301
Fandom: Cardcaptor Sakura

Summary: Sakura has to face the question of what happens to the cards and their guardians after she's gone.

Notes: This was meant to be written for femgenficathon , but it was as though the Big card was used or something because it wouldn't stop growing. And the femgen prompt protested. This fic wouldn't die, though, so here it is, in all its overgrown glory. :P Unbeta-ed, as I'm not familiar enough in the CCS fandom to pester people, but if anyone wishes to offer, I'd be thrilled. :)

Warnings: Offscreen character death.

Link to fic at Fanfiction.net | Ao3


In her dreams -- the real ones, which always had something to do with magic -- she was always ten years old. Even after half a century of practising magic, she had never figured out why this was so.

This time, her schoolgirl self perched precariously on the edge of a crevice, watching a figure hunch over on the narrow ledge of a cliff, clutching at his wounded leg. There was a deep gash on it and blood was pouring out, soaking his trousers.

He was young -- Sakura pegged him around the age of her oldest grandson -- with flaming red hair that fell in uneven lengths to his shoulders. His eyes were closed at the moment as he grimaced with pain. When they opened, she saw that they were the deep navy of a night sky.

A hand reached just under his collar, fingers tightening around what was probably a talisman underneath his shirt. Sakura could see the glint of the silver chain that it hung on around his neck. Whatever it was, it seemed to give him strength. Suppressing a groan, the boy gripped the tear in his trousers and ripped off a length of material. He proceeded to wrap it around his calf tightly, effectively bandaging his wound. And then, he pushed himself to his feet and struggled on, determination blazing in his dark eyes.

The scene was so painfully familiar.

He was climbing now, pulling himself along the cliff face with strong arms. Sakura prayed for his safety, hoped that his fingers would find firm rocks, that his muscles would not fail on him. She floated along next to him, insubstantial as the dusty air around them. She could feel something tugging -- her time in this dream was up, but she strained against it, needing to know that the boy would make it safely to his destination.

Miraculously, he did, collapsing in the mists that swirled atop the flat cliff top. Just ahead, Sakura could make out something shining brightly. Something with a distinct magical aura. An aura she knew ...

'The goddess's stone,' the boy whispered reverently. 'I reached it. Hold on, Okaa-sama ...' His head turned, suddenly looking at her directly, his eyes latching onto hers.

It had only ever happened once before, and then, she had been exerting all the power she could so that she'd be able to appear to guide Sakura-hime home. This was completely unexpected, an improbable occurrence.

He can see me.

The boy opened his mouth, said something, but it was lost as a louder voice rang out clearly: 'Daijoubu da yo!'

It was her invincible incantation, spoken with the unfailing cheer that her ten-year-old self had always possessed. Her voice, as it had once sounded before age had added maturity and depth to it. Without meaning to, Sakura had spoken.

And upon realising this, she felt another strong tug, one she could not fight, and found the world before her vanishing.

---

She awoke to a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently.

'Sakura! Sakura!'

It took a second for her to take in her surroundings. She was on the floor of her room, just next to her bed, with her husband on one knee beside her. It was his left hand on her shoulder; his right held his sword, pinning down a glowing card.

Dream?

'Sakura, thank goodness!'

'What happened?' She pushed herself into a seating position and reached for the card under Syaoran's sword. It felt warm in her hand, though the glow was fading.

'You were muttering,' he said, returning his sword to its pendant form. There were beads of perspiration on his forehead, she noticed with a pang. Controlling her magic was getting to be a greater challenge for him these days, although he would never admit to it. 'I thought it was just another one, when I saw the Dream card out of the book ... glowing ... and then you rolled right off the bed and wouldn't wake when I tried to rouse you ...'

The tugging, she thought, trying not to feel ungratefully annoyed. He'd been worried about her.

'I'm okay,' she said, repeating the phrase she'd offered to the boy in the dream. 'It was just a dream.'

'But the Dream card ...'

He was right. The Dream helped to explain why the boy had been able to see her, but the ease of it was still uncanny. And there was no way it should have been able to activate without her express, conscious request for it to. But if she admitted this, he'd no doubt jump straight into trying to protect her and wear himself out. Which was ridiculous. These were her cards, and she could settle them well enough herself without draining Syaoran's already weakening strength.

'I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was going to use it last night.' She hung her head so that he wouldn't see her face. Fifty years had only made her marginally better at lying, and she knew it.

'Sakura, you nearly gave me a heart attack!'

'I'm sorry!'

He sighed, then squeezed her shoulder before standing up -- still trembling from the effort of restraining the Dream, she noted with sadness -- and disappearing into their bathroom.

In her hand, the Dream was still uncharacteristically warm.

--

Sakura's first and only visit to Yuuko Ichihara's shop had been on her way to her son's wedding in another world. The first thing she'd noticed upon walking in had been her star staff, sitting in a corner in plain view. Sakura could only imagine that the Dimensional Witch had left it out with the express purpose of letting her see it. What that purpose was, however, was anybody's guess.

'If I wished for it now, would I be able to get it back?'

Yuuko returned her question with another: 'Do you need it?'

No, it wasn't a matter of need. She could use her cards and her magic easily without the staff now. What she really wanted to know was-

'And that isn't the real question you're asking, is it?'

After thirty years of experience, Sakura knew better than to ask how Yuuko knew this. She nodded and waited.

'Time has many threads,' Yuuko said, 'but in the end, it is hitsuzen that ties them all together.'

Sakura didn't know what she expected from a visit to Yuuko now -- probably more cryptic answers like that one -- but if there was one person still around who could understand what was going on, it would be her. And this time, she did have a need.

Unsurprisingly, Yuuko seemed to be expecting her. The tea table in the back room was already set for two, and Yuuko plucked the kettle off the stove as Sakura walked in.

'Sakura-chan,' she said, and Sakura knew before Yuuko turned that there was a smile playing on her face.

It seemed pretty pointless to state, You knew I was coming, so Sakura simply returned the greeting politely and drew a seat at the table. Yuuko filled both their cups and they sipped at their tea for several seconds before she broke the silence.

'Well, you must have a wish that brings you here today.'

Sakura shook her head. 'Not a wish. Just a ... problem.'

'A problem,' Yuuko repeated.

'Hai. I've been ... dreaming.' There had been more occurrences after the first, though not all had involved the Dream card. Fortunately, none of these subsequent dreams had roused Syaoran again -- in fact they'd been pretty tame, with no evidence that the Dream had been invoked until she awoke to find it glowing on the bedside table.

'Has this to do with your cards?'

'It's Dream,' said Sakura. 'She -- I haven't been trying to use her, but still ... I was wondering if -- could I trade for my staff back?'

'I'm afraid that would be impossible.'

'Why? I do have need of it now.'

'The staff is no longer with me.'

'What? But ...' How? was the question she wanted, but it faltered at the tip of her tongue. Somehow, she could feel that the answer to this question, as well as the one that she had not asked, was connected. And that answer was just there, within her grasp ... except that she hadn't figured out how to reach it yet.

'In a way,' said Yuuko, almost conversationally, 'this is a trading shop. A sacrifice given by one becomes the wish of another, fulfilled.'

'Someone else wished for my staff.' That would imply that her cards were responding to the command of another. But surely that couldn't be the way things worked ...

'Though when a wish is made in such a case, the need for the wish is important as well. Once, a precious item was sacrificed, and it became the salvation of another.'

'Who ...' But she knew the answer before the question left her. The flame-haired boy with the desperate blue eyes. Things were starting to become clearer now, but her mind still felt muddled as to how it all fit together.

'That is as far as the limit of interference will allow me to go,' said Yuuko. 'But I believe that I have already given you enough to work it out in time.'

There wasn't much more to say. They finished their tea. Sakura thanked Yuuko and said her farewell. Just before she left the shop, however, Yuuko caught her hand.

'I'm sorry for your loss, Sakura-chan,' she said, so softly that Sakura wondered if she'd misheard.

---

Sakura would remember Yuuko's parting words a week later, when her brother took a bad fall that sent his aging heart into cardiac arrest.

Touya's passing brought some facts into painful clarity. She knew that sixty-three was by no means ancient, and Touya at seventy should have had more years in front of him, but time still seemed to present itself as ticking clock, counting down to the day that mortality would catch up to them.

If she really opened her eyes, it was painfully obvious. The last of her given family had already left her; how much longer would it take before her chosen family -- her husband, her friends -- did as well? Tomoyo, who was still beautiful with wrinkles and snow-white hair, appeared more frail and fragile than ever. Meilin's letters, that neatly printed handwriting, showcased a growing shakiness in the hand that penned them. And Syaoran ... he was, thank goodness, still hale and hearty, but even he was not as limber as he'd once been. And there was his magic, which was weakening ...

Invariably, it would happen. Such is the way of nature, that all life is given their time to live, grow, flourish ... but also to die.

Sakura, however, held in her the power to hold on for centuries more if she desired. To live on, though, with those important to her beyond her reach ...

Was this the choice Clow Reed had faced?

But then, Clow had been an individualist. He'd had a tendency to create his own companions rather than depend on the world to provide them for him.

Sakura wasn't Clow. It was her connections with her friends and family that defined her: people with whom she'd spent time interacting, whose love could be unconditional, or a challenge to attain. She adored Kero and Yue, but her relationship with them was as equals, not of master-and-creation.

Yet, dissimilarities aside, Clow had chosen to leave the two beings in the world that mattered most to him. He'd entrusted them to her, along with the cards he had cherished, for safekeeping. An inevitably, he'd called it, every time they'd 'met'. Hitsuzen.

A future he had seen through dreams?

Sakura wondered if this, her dreams now, was exactly the way Clow had found her.

---

The Dream came to her again as she dozed in a chair at the wake, taking her soaring above the landscape of craggy mountains, which she'd become familiar with despite never having been there in person. Down through a barren valley, into a run-down shack where the red-haired boy knelt weeping by a straw bed.

'Okaa-sama!' The wail was of pure pain, and he beat his hand against the bedpost, not seeming to notice the red that stained his knuckles as he did so. The tears that dripped from his eyes fell upon the still body of the woman on the bed.

Maybe it was because the grief was so heavy in her own heart too that Sakura forgot the rules she had held herself to since the first of these dreams: keep out of sight. She knelt beside the boy and placed a hand on his head, stroking his hair gently, maternal instinct taking over completely. He looked up in amazement, so stunned to see a ten-year-old girl materialise next to him that it seemed to halt his tears.

Sakura realised belatedly that she'd been trying not to interfere, not to let whoever was controlling her cards to succeed. Also, that her appearance here was completely incongruous with her actual age.

The boy gaped for a moment, then his eyes widened in recognition and his mouth formed the almost inaudible words, 'The goddess?'

It was her turn to be taken aback. Goddess?

'I'm not ... '

She felt rather than saw the glow -- an expansion of magical power in the room. The boy felt it too, she could tell, for his face turned directly to the book lying on a table at exactly the same second as hers. Not following her movement but his own sense of magic.

The book. She knew that book. What was it doing here, infused with a golden glow that was growing brighter every moment, eclipsing the flickering candles that provided the room's light? Below her feet, the familiar circle of magic spread.

No, no, no!

Through her horror, she managed to ascertain that the brilliant light was enclosing a third person in the room, and that it was now softening, wrapping itself around the figure like a translucent pair of wings. At last it faded to a dim glow, and the person -- a young girl, from the looks of it, stepped forward.

She was dazzling -- there was no other word to describe her. From head to toe, she emanated that same, soft glow that had surrounded the book she'd risen from. Her feet barely skimmed the ground as she floated towards the boy. Like Yue, thought Sakura. Only this was a different light. It made her think of ... stars.

A pale hand reached out to touch the boy's cheek, moving lower to finger the thin chain around his neck. The talisman he always carried with him fell out now, dangling in plain sight. Sakura felt her breath catch in her throat.

And there was a tug. The dream faded.

---

'Sakura.'

'Yuki-' She realised that was wrong as her eyes registered properly just who was in front of her. 'Yue!'

She hadn't seen her Moon Guardian since the day Touya had slipped away. Yue had pressed a kiss to his brow, then retreated, allowing Yukito the privilege of holding his hand as he crossed the threshold.

He hadn't appeared again, not even when Sakura, knowing that they would take the loss harder than she, had timidly approached a brooding Yukito to voice her concern for both of them. Her cautious question, however, had been met with first a blank stare, and then a deadpan reply: 'He doesn't want to talk.'

Nor had Yukito been keen on further conversation. Sakura had tactfully let the matter drop.

Now she stared up into the ice-cold blue of Yue's eyes, trying to wrap her mind around it all -- her dream, Yue turning up, her missing star staff ... How coincidental that she had just thought of Yue in the dream when the ethereal maiden had appeared. No, not coincidence; she had learnt the lesson well by now: there were no coincidences, only hitsuzen.

'Yue,' she repeated in a more level tone. 'How are you?'

He ignored the pleasantries, launching directly into his purpose for confronting her.

'What are you planning to do with the cards?'

'The cards?' Sakura frowned. 'What do you mean?'

Yue closed his eyes. 'Clow could have lived for centuries more, but he chose to die. I do not think that you would make a different choice.'

'Yue ...'

'Clow made a mistake.' How rare it was, to hear such words from Yue. 'He intended for us -- planned for us to be given away, to give ourselves away to a new mistress. We never had a choice in the matter. He never gave us the option to follow him.'

'Would you have?'

'Without the choice to, that is irrelevant.'

'Why are you telling me this, then?'

'Because the time has come when you will make a choice as well. I need to know if you are planning to do the same. And if I will need to persuade you to choose differently.'

'Yue, I don't understand,' she said, although what she meant was, Do you really mean what I think you do?

'When it is time, Sakura,' he said calmly, 'let me go too.'

---

'Kero-chan. Kero-chan.'

'Sakura, I'm almost at level-' The guardian beast's gaze flickered briefly to her face and without another complaint, he paused his game. 'What happened?'

'I need to talk to you.'

'It can't wait, huh? What is it, then?'

Sakura twisted the wedding ring on her finger, a nervous habit she had. 'Kero-chan,' she started slowly, 'what happens to the cards -- and you and Yue -- when I'm ... when I'm gone?'

'Well. Um ... that, huh?' Kero seemed to be avoiding her eyes.

'I talked to Yue.'

'He asked you not to keep him around, didn't he?'

'Did the two of you discuss that?'

'No. But I know Yue. When Clow died, he moped around for decades in that book. If he'd been given a choice, I don't doubt that he would have followed Clow into the afterlife, no questions asked.'

'Do you think he should have?' Sakura asked, alarmed. Clow made a mistake. Did Yue mean that allowing him and Kero-chan to live on with the cards had been wrong?

'No, Sakura. For what it's worth, I think Clow was right then. He made us, and we were happy with him, but we hadn't the chance to really live and love for ourselves yet. I don't think we could have done that if we'd been forever tied to him. I know Yue thinks we didn't have a choice, but honestly, if we'd died with Clow, it would have deprived us of many more choices -- those that we made with you.'

'So ... then now ... I shouldn't let him ...'

'I didn't say that. Maybe Clow made the right decision for us then, but it doesn't mean that the same decision now would still be correct.'

He had a point there. Yue had now lived out the life Clow had wanted him to have, had even loved and lost once more. Hearts weren't meant to be repeatedly broken and mended forever.

Then it dawned on her that Kero had said 'us'.

'Kero-chan ...'

He smiled sadly at her. 'Did you think I could bear to live another hundred years without everyone?'

'Then -- both of you --' The enormity of it was hard to take in at once. Kero and Yue wanted to die, eventually. It was the same thing she would have said in their positions, but contemplating her own death was much less heart-rending than thinking about the death of a cherished friend -- especially when that death was something she would have to condone.

She found herself sniffling a little, dabbing at the tears that leaked out of the corners of her eyes. Kero spread his wings, transforming into his true form. The soft white feathers wrapped around Sakura, hugging her close. 'Hey,' he said. 'It's us. Everything will surely be all right.'

She couldn't help but laugh at that.

---

It was just like old times -- the five of them sat in a circle, the book of cards in the centre. Sakura and her two guardians, Kero in his false form, Yue as himself; Syaoran, and Tomoyo. The latter had, of course, insisted on bringing her video camera.

They were going to do a reading. It was the best way that Sakura could think of to ask the opinions of all the cards together. With the other four watching, she opened the book, retrieving the entire deck and placing them on the table. Carefully, she shuffled the stack with her left hand, silently posing her question to them as she did so. Then she laid the top nine cards out before her in a diamond formation.

'O cards, I seek to know your futures, the path you wish to take. Show me the way that I may help you.'

The swirl of magic sent a soft wind spiralling through the circle, tousling their hair and rippling through their clothes. It settled again, and Sakura proceeded to turn over her cards, starting with the topmost.

'First card represents the dilemma,' she said. The Erase in her court-jester costume stared back at them.

'Well, that sounds about right,' said Kero, shrugging.

'Erase is a card ruled by the Dark,' conceded Yue. 'Appropriate.'

Sakura nodded and skipped the second row to reach for the middle card. 'The action to take ...' She flipped it over to reveal the Create.

'Something new,' interpreted Kero.

'Something you have to make?' suggested Tomoyo.

It didn't make much sense yet. Fortunately, in a reading like this, there were still the surrounding cards which could shed more light on the entire situation. Sakura moved up again to the second row. 'People who will be involved.'

The second and third cards were the Flower and the Firey.

'Flower I understand,' said Tomoyo. 'That's you. But what would Firey mean?'

In her mind's eye flashed the image of hair the colour of flame. Could it be?

'Cards four and six,' she continued. 'Past, present, and future influences.' The corners of the diamond formation turned out to be the Time and the Dark.

'Time is representative of a predestined event,' noted Kero.

'Meaning the future, then. Any action now will inevitably link an event there.'

'Isn't that like something Mizuki-sensei used to say?' Tomoyo put a thoughtful finger to her chin. '"There are no coincidences in this world; only --"'

'Hitsuzen, yes. And it wasn't just Kaho-sensei ... it was something Clow-san believed. And Yuuko-san,' Sakura added as an afterthought. Time has many threads, but in the end, it is hitsuzen that ties them all together. None of this was coincidence, was it? The dreams, Yuuko's cryptic messages, her missing star staff, Touya's passing, Yue's request ... and whatever decision this reading pointed to; it was all connected.

'There is Dark as well,' Yue pointed out the other card. 'Signifying an end.'

'Past influences,' whispered Sakura. 'Onii-chan.'

'Sakura.' Syaoran, who had been silent throughout the reading, finally spoke up. 'Both cards are ruled by the Moon. Time and Dark. I believe there's a connection there.' He looked directly at Yue. 'You will have something to do with this ... well, whatever this is the cards are thinking of.'

Kero glared at him. 'What about me? Don't forget I'm a guardian as well.'

Sakura made haste to interrupt before her guardians and her husband could get into an argument. 'Relax, Kero, we don't even know what it is that needs to be done yet. Let's take a look at the next row, all right?' She reached for the seventh and eighth cards.

'That's right, those will tell you the hidden factors surrounding the situation,' agreed Kero, placated. He grinned as the first card Sakura unturned was the Fight. 'That's one of mine.' The next one, however, was the Libra.

'Truth, justice,' said Sakura, her eyes on the picture on the card that balanced the sun and moon. 'Isn't that why we're doing this? To be fair to all the cards. That's not an unknown factor.' She shifted her gaze to the Fight. 'And Fight ... for strength?'

'And skill. Fight is directly under Firey,' said Kero.

Firey. Her eyes strayed back up to the card which had been the third laid out. Maybe it wasn't her who was meant to need strength and justice ...

Before she turned over the last card, she already had an idea what it would be.

'There's something,' she said, when they all stared at the Dream, 'that I should have told you.'

---

Syaoran was stony silent, his anger only apparently if you were as attuned to the flash of his eyes and the tightness of his lips as Sakura was. Although he hadn't said it, Sakura was certain what upset him was that he'd guessed the trouble she'd been having with the Dream -- but he'd done nothing. Never mind that she'd misled him about it; he always blamed himself whenever he failed to help her. It made her feel horribly guilty for lying to him, even if her intentions had been good.

When she finished her tale, Yue was the first to speak, his tone bitter and acerbic. 'Well, that makes everything perfectly clear, doesn't it?' He waved his hand at the nine cards in front of them. 'We continue. Pass on to a new master.'

'You don't know --' began Kero.

'The Dream is one of my cards, Keroberos. The messages she carries are never false. If the cards were present, then they exist.'

'She didn't see you there.'

'We are appointed guardians of the cards. We were created as such -- forever linked to our cards' and their mistress's protection.'

'There was another --'

Kero didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. Large white wings wrapped themselves around Yue's body and when they unfolded, it was Yukito who stood in his place, looking slightly bewildered as he always did after a transformation.

'Let a person finish talking, can't you?' Kero snapped at Yue's unfortunate false form.

Yukito closed his eyes briefly. 'He's disappointed,' he said softly. 'And actually, I can understand why.' He gazed at Sakura with sad eyes.

'Yukito-kun ...'

'Wait.' Tomoyo held up a hand. 'So far all we have is a reading, a series of disconnected dreams --'

'Prophetic dreams,' corrected Kero. 'They're all connected.'

'-- dreams which are due to the Dream card working on its own. Sakura, have you even tried actually using the card instead of letting it control things?'

'N-no.' Sakura looked at her best friend in surprise.

'Well, shouldn't you, then?'

She did, admitted Sakura, have a point.

---

The Dream was a tricky card to use. It had the ability to transcend time and space, but those were difficult dimensions to control. The one time she had properly used it Sakura suspected it had worked because of the specificity of her request and her own determination to get through to the girl who needed her.

Asking the Dream to provide her with the answers to all her questions in one night seemed a little too vague and chancy, however. Sakura held it in her hand as she sat on the edge of the bed, trying to think of the best way to phrase her request for the sake of clarity.

'Are you going to do it now?' The soft voice made her look up. Syaoran stood in the doorway to their room. He was clutching something in his hand -- pen and paper.

'Yes.'

He came to sit next to her. 'I'm not angry at you, you know.'

'You should be. I lied to you.'

He sighed. 'I wish you'd let me help from the start.'

'I'm sorry. I know -- I was worried you'd ... but I wasn't in any danger, really. Dream used to do this to me, after all, even if that was a really long time ago. I've thought about it, and I don't really think she's out of control, or that any of the other cards are going to act up or anything as well. Dream's special.'

'Maybe so, but be careful anyway. And I don't know if this will help, but ...' he held out the paper in his hand to her, 'I worked this out.'

Sakura took it, smoothening it out with her palm. Syaoran had drawn the nine cards from the reading, each labelled in his neat writing. The middle three cards were circled, and he'd written 'Yue' by the side. Diagonal lines joined cards two, five, and eight, and cards three, five, and seven, forming an 'x' that depicted the connections between them. Two triangles formed an hourglass shape between cards five, seven, and eight, and cards two, three and five.

'The crucial connections in the reading,' Syaoran explained. 'I'm certain Yue is at the centre of it all. Both the Flower -- you -- and the Firey -- if it's that boy you saw -- are joined by the Create; which also links you to the Libra and the boy to the Fight. And those two are touched by the Create as well. It seems that the really important question is how are Yue and the Create linked. And it's probably a good thing to keep in mind too that the Create is sun-ruled.'

She leaned over his diagram to kiss him. 'Thank you. You're always so much better at this stuff than me.'

He shrugged. 'Logic and interpretation.' His arms circled around her and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. 'Good luck, then. Sweet dreams, love.'

She nodded against his shoulder, knowing that he would probably not sleep tonight, keeping vigil over her as she dreamed with the card. Guilty as she felt that he'd be skipping out on his rest for her, she couldn't deny that it was comforting.

Syaoran let her go and she clasped the Dream in her palms, closing her eyes to issue her command.

'Help me to find the key to Creating a happy future for all the cards, Yue and Kero.'

---

It dropped her in the middle of a minefield, next to a horrific explosion that should have taken her head off if she'd been corporeal. As it was, the shock of it made her stumble back with a little gasp. It took a while before the smoke cleared enough for her to see around her.

The ground she was standing on was stained with blood and littered with ... parts she didn't think she wanted to identify. Sakura had the violent urge to be sick, which she fought down. Dragging her eyes away from the ground, she raised them towards an alien sky: jagged black clouds broke out of a sickly green background.

What is this place?

She spotted him then -- his flaming hair was unmistakeable, as were the enormous wings that sprouted out of his back, carrying him high above the devastated grounds she stood upon. Sakura watched in horror as a crackling bolt of magic struck out of nowhere, hitting him and sending him tumbling downwards.

'Akako!'

The voice that cried out after the boy belonged to a golden-haired angel, that goddess-like being who had reminded Sakura of Yue the last time she'd seen her. In the same manner that Kero and Yue had come to save Sakura countless times before, this angel-like girl dived, wrapping arms around the boy to halt his fall.

A second beam seared towards her, however, sizzling a hole in her brilliant wings. She cried out in pain, and both were plummeting now.

Sakura didn't even stop to think about it. 'Float!' she yelled, not caring if the boy -- Akako -- was the wielder of her star staff in this universe. She was still the mistress, and if they were her cards, they were going to listen and save them.

Float arrived, suspending them in mid-air. Sakura instructed the card to bring them gently to the ground, and it obeyed, depositing them by her feet before returning to its card form and drifting into her hands.

There was a soft whoosh, and suddenly the other cards came flying out of the unconscious Akako's pocket to join the Float in her palm.

'Minna-san,' Sakura whispered. The cards were warm in her hand. They seemed to hum, floating up again and circling her with a faint, familiar glow. 'Is this what happens?'

Two of the cards stood out from the circle and began to materialise: the Mirror and the Hope. The former stepped out in Sakura's form, bowing to her; the latter was the same long-haired little girl she always appeared as.

'Mistress Sakura,' said the Mirror softly. 'We're needed here.' She cast a fond look on the unconscious boy and continued, 'He fights against the injustice that blankets this world. He needs our magic. It's ... good to have a purpose.'

'What happens to -- to Kero-chan and Yue?'

The rest of the cards answered the question for her, moving to circle the golden-haired angel lying next to Akako.

'Is that -- your new guardian?'

'We take care of each other,' the Mirror corrected her. 'And we all take care of Master Akako. We help him.'

'That means I ...' Her mind struggled to put it all together.

'You gave this world hope.' The Hope put her hand in Sakura's and squeezed. The world around them dissolved and as if in a dream within this one, she saw it all unfold, watched the scenes of this timeline flash by. Finally, she understood.

The cards returned to Akako's pocket then, and Sakura waited for him or the new guardian to come to.

Akako was the first to stir. His eyes blinked open and met hers. Shock had him sit up so abruptly that a low hiss of pain left his lips. They stared at each other, all the things that Sakura felt she should say running through her head in quick succession. I'm so sorry things are so hard; It's going to get harder, you have to be strong; Take care of each other; Don't give up.

In the end, it was the Hope's words that stuck with her when she opened her mouth and assured him, 'Don't worry. Zettai daijoubu da yo!'

'That's what you said before,' whispered Akako. He remembered her, she realised, from that first encounter.

'That's because it will be all right,' she said. 'It's an invincible incantation, don't you know?'

'Zettai daijoubu da yo,' he repeated, smiling. 'I'll remember that.'

'Good,' she said, and she knew it was time to go.

---

Syaoran had stayed up, as she'd expected, and she was never more grateful for it as she emerged from the Dream with a heaviness in her heart that threatened to make her fall to pieces. He noticed right away, taking her into his arms.

She lost it there, burying her face in his shoulder and giving in to the urge to cry.

'Shhh,' he whispered into her hair. 'It's all right. I'm here.'

She didn't answer, couldn't answer through the tears that it was not for herself that she wept, but for a young boy who had faced heartbreak and terror already and would have to go through more before he could make things all right; for a guardian who she would sacrifice to make that boy's future all right; and strangely, for a happy end that would be worth the blood and tears and sacrifices eventually.

---

She told Yukito first, before she even talked to Yue, partly because she knew that Yue would be able to hear it through Yukito anyway; but also because she was already fairly certain Yue would approve, and she wanted to be sure that Yukito agreed to it too.

'Of course I do,' said Yukito quietly. 'I knew there had to be a way.'

'Syaoran was right. Yue is -- you are -- directly involved. It's going to take some of your essence, and the magic that ... supports you.'

'Which is as it should be. That magic should have had a limited life span, if it'd been left with its original owner. It would be twisting the laws of nature for me to hold on to it for eternity.'

She nodded, twisting her hands in her lap. Yukito saw, and said, very gently, 'It will be hard on you, but it is something that we want, Sakura. Can you let us go?'

'I ...' she hesitated, then answered with conviction, 'it makes you happy, doesn't it? It'll be all right.'

'Arigatou,' said Yukito. 'When will it happen, then?'

'I'll need Kero-chan's help, and probably Syaoran too, to set things up -- especially with the theoretical magic. But after that ... well, whenever you're ready.'

'Ah. Any time, then, Sakura-chan. I'm-'

His wings appeared mid-sentence, engulfing him. The sentence was finished by Yue: '- ready.'

---

It took almost a month of planning, charting, and calculating to get things set up. Even so, it felt too rushed to Sakura. To give birth to her children, she'd carried them for nine months; to create a fully-formed being within a month of her 'conception' just didn't feel right in comparison.

'Think of it this way,' said Tomoyo. 'A lot more thought and preparation is going into conceiving this girl. I hardly think Syaoran was all occupied with mathematics and -- what's that you're calculating now, angle of fit? -- when you were creating your children.'

Syaoran looked up from his calculations, a deep red flush spreading across his face. 'That's sick, Tomoyo-chan.'

She smiled sweetly at him.

'And that's the angles between the corners of the receptacle that will allow the magic to be concentrated, by the way.'

'Of course.'

Yukito gave her a wan smile. 'I see you have your video camera ready as usual.'

'I couldn't not record Sakura-chan doing really important magic. Or the birth of the cards' new guardian.' Tomoyo patted her camera fondly. 'It's always good to have a record of everything. Anyway, is everything ready?'

Sakura hesitated, glanced swiftly at Yukito, then nodded. 'It's ... yeah ... ready.'

'Here.' Syaoran tossed Sakura a piece of chalk. 'Let's make the circles.' As Clow Reed's closest descendent among them, they'd agreed that Syaoran would recreate the magician's circle; Sakura, of course, would deal with her own.

She caught the chalk and knelt to draw out the pattern that would form the earthly base on which her magic would focus later. They'd already cleared the furniture and marked the floor -- Syaoran had always been good with this sort of meticulous calculation, fortunately -- so that she could mark out the dimensions easily now.

'I step in this one, right?' said Yukito calmly, once Syaoran had completed his circle.

'Hai,' Sakura confirmed. A lump seemed to have grown in her throat. 'Yukito-kun ...'

'It's all right, Sakura-chan.' Yukito came to take her hands in his, as he had always done over the years whenever she needed comfort. It was a gesture that never seemed to grow old between them -- the way Touya had never ceased to call her 'kaijuu'. She felt the tears spring to her eyes. 'Even if my other self is wrong and we'll disappear during the transfer, it will be okay. It might even be easier than having to watch us fade slowly. Don't cry for us -- we'll be with Toya, after all.'

She fought back a sniff. 'I know.'

Yukito hugged her, then stepped away into the Clow Circle. With a deep breath, Sakura began the incantation.

'I call upon the power of moon and sun, in the presence of the power of my star ...'

The actual magical circles began to form, spinning beneath Yukito's feet. It matched the chalked circle perfectly, resulting in a misty glow that seemed to float him several inches above the floor.

'Guardian of the cards, assume thy true forms ...'

Snowy white wings erupted and closed around Yukito inside the circle and Kero on the outskirts of it, unfolding to reveal both in their true forms.

'... and bestow thy power ...'

Right on cue, Kero opened his mouth and blew a column of flame onto Sakura's circle. Sakura flung two cards into the centre of the dancing fire.

'Light and Dark, masters of birth and death, release thy power!'

The twin shapes, white and black, emerged from the cards and drifted up Kero's magical fire, hands entwined. Sakura tossed out another card.

'Create! Give life and form!'

The pages of the book that was the Create card's true form fluttered as though in a strong breeze. Within the column of fire, a wavy outline was beginning to take shape.

'Guardian of the Sakura cards, awaken. I, Sakura, call on you to assume your role and life.'

The fire was fading now, the outline of wings above Sakura's circle becoming clearer. In contrast, at the centre of Clow's circle, Yue appeared to be fading. The sight tore at Sakura, but she didn't dare halt the spell now to go to him. If this is it ... goodbye, Yue. Goodbye, Yukito-kun. I'll miss you terribly.

'I offer my gift to you ...' The last two cards that would complete the spell were thrown directly up and their true forms -- the fatherly man and the long-haired little girl -- floated gently down towards the forming wings. 'Time! Hope!'

It was done. Sakura ran to Yue, who seemed to have been reduced to nothing more than the faint, wispy outline of a shadow. Her fingers closed around air.

Yue smiled at her. 'Arigatou, Sakura.'

'Are you ...' Leaving? Disappearing?

'I'll change back into Yukito,' said Yue, 'but I haven't any magic left to reverse the transformation once I do. Goodbye, Mistress. Until we meet again.'

'Goodbye ...' she whispered as the wings closed around Yue for the last time. She blinked, and it was Yukito again. 'Is ... Yue ...?'

'Still here, yes. Not for long, though.' It was still a relief. The hard goodbyes would come, she knew, but later. She wrapped her arms around Yukito, thankful that there was still substance enough in him for a hug.

'Sakura!' It was Kero's deep voice calling her, sounding exhausted. She turned to see Syaoran cradling a bundle of tiny wings in his arms. He came to her and she held out her arms to take the newborn guardian.

The protective wings covered her new guardian's tiny body completely, but Sakura knew the little one inside had pale, delicate features, golden hair, and eyes that would open to resemble the bright star whose power had created her.

'Minna-san.' Sakura addressed the cards, who glowed in response, their joy and excitement palpable. 'Take care of her.'

She could feel their effusive energy as they surged forward to surround their new guardian, wrapping her protectively in a swirl of magic.

'Guardian of the Sakura cards, Bearer of the Power of the Star,' Sakura intoned. 'Xing -- named for the stars in Chinese.' The formalities of naming complete, she let her voice soften. 'Good luck.'

The cards seemed to hum as they tightened their circle around Xing, slowly carrying her with them into the book. There, she would have the chance to grow -- Time would take care of that, and she would carry with her the gift of Hope to the future. The Sakura cards would guard her, nurture her as she grew, until the day came that their positions would be reversed -- and she would step into her role as their guardian. Taking care of each other. Taking care of the boy in another world who would lead a revolution and bring happiness to his country.

It was a lot of promise to carry, but she would do it with grace.