Part Twelve
Conference. It’s nine in the morning. We have six hours before we have to go meet the Bitch and get Yue back. We need a plan, and we need one fast. We’re meeting in Eriol’s room, because Akizuki won’t let him out of bed.
We’ve been throwing around options for about a half an hour now. No one has come up with anything useful in the slightest. Eriol looks like he has the worst headache of his entire life. Akizuki is hovering over him anxiously, making him drink tea. She tried to make him oatmeal, but Yuki intervened and got him some toast instead. One wonders what’s causing the headache: the loss of his magic, the fatigue, being separated from Yue, or having Akizuki mother-hen him into oblivion.
We need a plan. But everything we come up with won’t work. Eriol is too tired to get out of bed. We don’t know what the Bitch is planning on doing, but she has to have some way of keeping us from just taking Yue and taking off.
“Why don’t we just suck all of her magic back?” Sakura asks. “We’ve got her pendant.”
We all blink at her.
“That’s got to be too easy,” the Brat states.
“Of course it’s too easy,” Akizuki snaps. “The only one who would be able to do it would be Eriol, because he’s the only one related to her. But he doesn’t have any magic.”
“I have some,” Eriol says. His voice is pretty weak, and therefore not reassuring in the slightest.
“You don’t have enough to be doing major spells like that!” Akizuki protests.
“I’ll find a way,” Eriol says. He sounds pretty confident. And it is for Yue, after all. But still, not having any energy is not having any energy. So forgive me if I seem a bit skeptical.
“But then what?” Sakura asks. She has one of the best ideas of the day, and then returns to normal.
“Well, we could do it right now,” the Brat suggests. “And then go pick up Yue while she’s pathetically incapacitated.”
Hm. The Brat isn’t usually so hostile. I suppose he’s upset on Sakura’s behalf.
“Because Eriol doesn’t have enough power to do it,” I interjected. “No offense, Eriol, but as much as you’d like to think you do, it would probably kill you if you tried.”
Akizuki lets out a muffled squeak and clings to Eriol.
“Being self-sacrificing is one thing, but there’s no reason to trade your life for his,” I say, in my best older-brother-I-know-better-than-you voice. “And before you offer, we still have five and a half hours to come up with something better.”
Eriol, who looked like he was about to say something, subsides.
Sakura starts shuffling through her cards while the rest of us consider options. As usual, none of the rest of us were coming up with anything useful. Then Sakura suddenly shrieks. “I know! I know!”
We all look at her expectantly.
“Look!” She brandishes a card in my direction.
“I would, if you’d stop waving it around,” I say, and pluck it out of her fingers. Ah, yes. The Power card. One of the cute little ones, from what I remember. “Does this work for magic as well as for physical strength?” I ask, showing the others what the card is.
“I dunno,” Sakura says. “But it won’t hurt him if it doesn’t work. He’ll know whether it worked or not.”
“Why don’t you cast it now and find out,” Yuki suggests.
“Okay,” Sakura says. She takes the card back from me and tosses it into the air, where it spins. “Power!”
Yuki gives her a sidelong glance and murmurs to me, “She really does just use the wand for show, doesn’t she.”
I nod. Eriol has started to glow faintly reddish-pink. Even before he says anything, I can see the difference in his aura. A rather embarrassing color for a teenage guy, but the pink is Sakura’s contribution, and I’m sure he’s not complaining.
“It’s definitely working,” Eriol says. He sits up a little straighter. “It’s not quite as much as the magic I usually have, but it’s certainly enough to do the spell. You have to figure she couldn’t have had that much magic when she started doing it.”
“She probably started with closer relatives,” the Brat chips in.
“So why are we sitting here talking about this?” Eriol asks, looking decidedly eager.
“Well, what happens if she doesn’t get knocked unconscious?” Tomoyo asks.
“She’ll have no magic. Just send someone who can beat her down,” Akizuki suggests.
“But,” I hate being the cautious one, but someone has to be, “they’d have to leave now in order to get there just as she loses her magic, so she doesn’t do anything to Yue in the meantime. And she’ll know they’re coming.”
“And she might do something if she senses somebody coming,” Yuki finishes my thought. “Why don’t we wait until the meeting time? She’ll be expecting us then. If we show up on her doorstep right at three, as requested, and Eriol-kun pulls her magic right as we get there, we can just scoop up Yue and run.”
Eriol looks like he’s pouting. “Oh, fine.”
Sakura nods and pulls back the Power Card. Eriol immediately slumps backwards, into Akizuki’s arms.
“So who’s going to go?” I ask.
“Eriol and I have to stay here,” Sakura says.
“I’ll go,” Yuki says immediately. I have this strong suspicion that if he gets the chance, he’s going to punch the Bitch.
“Me too.” If Yuki’s going, there’s no way I’m staying behind. God forbid things go wrong and I’m not there to help.
“I’m going!” Akizuki announces. We all just look at her. She looks offended. “What? I want to make sure Yue’s okay.” Now our jaws are on the floor. “Well, I can’t pick on him if he’s dead!”
Eriol rolls his eyes. The rest of us snicker a little, except for Sakura, who looks sort of horrified. I won’t give my own opinion about how Akizuki wants Yue to be okay for Eriol’s sake. I have a feeling that wouldn’t be appreciated. It’s enough that she’s going.
“You guys should probably take someone a little more magical with ya,” Kero says. “So I’ll go with you!”
We all kind of look at him, but, given the fact that he can turn into a fire-breathing lion, don’t argue.
“I’ll go too,” the Brat volunteers. As much as I don’t like him, he’s got a ton of magic.
“But that only leaves Spinel and Tomoyo with them,” Yuki speaks up, looking nervous. “Will they be okay?”
“If Sakura is using the Power Card on Eriol, the two of them ought to be able to stand up to anything,” I point out.
“New problem,” Eriol says. “How are you going to get Yue home? It’d be hard enough to fit him into a car as it is, but if all four of you go, there’ll be no room.”
We all ponder this for a minute.
“I could use the Little on him . . .” Sakura says, then immediately adds, “Oh, wait, I’m not going.”
“You could meet us there,” Yuki says, but his voice is doubtful.
Sakura brightens. “I know! Oniichan, the cards like you!”
I don’t like this idea.
She takes out the Little and soon has a coin sized girl standing in her hand. “Hi, Little,” she says cheerfully. “Can you do me a favor?”
There’s a tiny little chirping noise. Apparently it’s an affirmative, because Sakura continues. “Can you go with my Oniichan for a while? Don’t turn him Little. We need to turn Yue Little so we can get him back home. Can you do that for me? Oniichan will telll you when.”
Another chirping noise. She bounces up and down a little.
“Really? Well, tell the Mirror Card that Oniichan says thank you for saying such nice things about him.”
Chirp. Chirp. My face is turning red, and I never blush. Yuki is snickering beside me.
“Yes, we’ll buy you a candy.”
Kero snorts. I can hear him muttering something about how the cards are getting uppity and Sakura is too nice to them and Clow would never have had to bribe one for them to do him a favor.
“True as that may be,” Eriol speaks up, “they like Sakura a lot more than they liked Clow.”
Sakura turns and hands me the Little. “Here!” she says. “She won’t turn you Little, I promise.”
She chirps. I put her in my shirt pocket.
My life just gets weirder and weirder.
****
She’s been up here, taunting and harrassing me all day. In and out. Not bringing me any food, not that I eat. She took away the blanket, too. I’m so cold that I’m shivering. I hate her. There’s really no reason for her to be so mean. The shivering is making my wing hurt.
Where are they?
It feels like they’ve abandoned me. But they wouldn’t. I know they wouldn’t. It just feels like they have. It’s amazing how little impact logic has on emotions.
It’s just . . . Sakura could get help from Eriol and just make a new guardian, and maybe she doesn’t want me because I’m so crabby all the time. She had to keep me around when I was still Yukito, because she loved Yukito, but now that I’m all on my own maybe she doesn’t want me anymore. And Eriol, who knows what Eriol was thinking? Clow, at least, was very good at saying one thing and meaning quite another. Maybe he was just trying to keep me calm. Or keep me from killing Akizuki. If they got a new guardian, this one wouldn’t argue with Akizuki.
And I know that I’m coming up with worst-case scenarios, but they’re not here, and I don’t know why they’re not coming. The woman keeps coming up here telling me that they haven’t even called, so she’s assuming that they’ve given up on me. Because what are they supposed to do, really? They could give her the pendant to save me, but then Eriol would die. And of course everyone loves Eriol more than me. Because he’s charming and nice and handsome and so many other wonderful things . . .
I have to stop thinking like this.
But if that’s not it, why haven’t they called? I know there must be some reason, but it’s hard to think of one when I’m so cold and so lonely.
Maybe Eriol doesn’t want me anymore because I admitted that I loved him.
I mean, I’ll be around for eternity. What if he gets sick of me? Okay, maybe I won’t be around for eternity if this keeps up; it’s possible for me to die, and right now I’m so cold it feels like it’s getting close. In reality, it’s probably not, but if I’m being a pessimist, I may as well be whole-hearted about it.
Maybe Eriol really didn’t want me to begin with, and he got scared because of the conversation we had the other day. What if he told Tomoyo not to come in and get me?
No, that’s just plain silly. The woman came back just after Tomoyo had gone outside. They must have only barely escaped themselves.
But nobody really wants me. Even Yukito probably doesn’t. I mean, it was one thing when we shared a body. He couldn’t get rid of me then. But now we don’t anymore, and I’m still always around. And now he and Touya have to spend all their time trying to make me happy. They’d probably be better off without me, too. They’re just better at hiding it than Akizuki.
And of course Eriol doesn’t want me around because I keep getting in between him and Akizuki, and he made Akizuki so of course he likes her better. I’m always just in the way.
The door opens. Here she is to rain on my parade some more.
“C’mon, up,” she says. “We’re going to go wait in the living room.”
“Wait? For what?” I have to stumble after her as she tugs me along. It’s warmer in the house, and I feel the shivering slow down. But my wing is throbbing as she practically pulls me down the stairs.
“You’ll see.” She shoves me into a chair. Jostled my wing. That hurt. A lot. I have to lean really far forward to keep it from banging up against the back of the chair. I glance at the clock. It’s about five minutes of three.
“They’re coming?” I ask, trying not to perk up. If they come, they’ll give the pendant back, and then Eriol will die. I don’t want that. Then again, I don’t want to be stuck up in her attic for eternity. But my life isn’t worth more than Eriol’s. That’s something I know for certain.
“Shut up,” she explains.
*****
So the plan is that Eriol-kun is just going to suck out all of that nasty lady’s magic and put it in the pendant, then he’ll use the pendant later to filter it all out. We can’t really give it back to its rightful owners, because too many of them were probably really young kids who didn’t realize they had magic yet or really old people who don’t care. I mean, Robert-san said he would ask around and see if anyone thought their magic had been stolen, and maybe we could give it back to them. But other than that, I don’t think we really have a plan as to what to do with the extra. I’m sure Eriol-kun will come up with something.
“It’s three o’clock,” Eriol announces. He has a funny gleam in his eyes. He looks like he thinks this is going to be really fun. Well, I suppose.
“Power!”
Eriol-kun starts to glow reddish-pink again. I’ll have to tell him later that it’s not a very good color on him. Just plain red is fine, but reddish-pink? No. Then again, he’ll probably be glad. Most teenaged boys don’t want to look good in pink, anyway. Though Yukito-san always did!
He starts concentrating and doing the stuff that Robert-san taught us how to do the first day. Eriol-kun said it’s more complicated now, but since he’s actually met the nasty woman now, he can find her magic. Or something.
Suddenly he starts to glow really bright red. And that’s it. I think the spell is over. Terribly anticlimatic, really. He opens his eyes. “That was . . . unexpected.” His voice is all wavery.
“Are you okay?” Spinel and I ask in unison.
“Oh, I’m just . . . wonderful.”
And he passes out, falling backwards onto the bed and letting go of the pendant.
“Eriol-kun! Are you okay?” I lean over him.
“I think he’s just unconscious.” Spinel examines the pendant. “Again.”
“What happened?” Tomoyo-chan asks.
“I’m not sure,” Spinel says. “But my guess is that the pendant isn’t designed to hold as much magic as she had. So when Eriol kept pulling, it overflowed and went directly into him, rather than filtered.”
“He looks healthy,” I volunteer. “If . . . asleep.”
“It must’ve been a shock to his system,” Spinel says. “He’ll probably be awake pretty soon.”
“Do you think the others are okay?” Tomoyo asks.
“I’m sure they’re fine,” Spinel replies.
****
If nothing else can be said of Eriol-kun, it’s that he has excellent timing. No sooner has the cold-blooded bitch opened the door, but she blinks at us and then passes out. None of us make a move to catch her. She just falls to the floor with a thud. I think To-ya was shocked when I just stepped over her without moving her at all. I almost kicked her. Okay, I did kick her. But only a little! And not hard.
Yue is sitting in the living room, leaning forward to keep his wing from being bumped. He looks completely shocked when we walk in. “You’re here,” he says.
I blink at him. “You didn’t think we’d just leave you, did you?”
He looks away. “Of course not.”
“Yue, you’re an awful liar.” I almost forgot that he has the abandonment complex from hell. “Well, we never thought of leaving you here. Not even for a second.”
He looks like he might melt. “But . . . Eriol . . . the pendant . . .”
“All taken care of. Everything’s okay. Now we just have to get you home.” He looks up at me, obviously skeptical. “It’s okay. We have a plan. C’mon, stand up.”
He does so, and I immediately take the opportunity to give him a hug. “You’re freezing.” And he really is. Eriol-kun was cold, but Yue’s hands are like ice. I’d wrap him in a blanket, but I think his wing would get in the way. “Well, we’ll put you in front of the car heater.” I keep hugging him for a minute, then let go. “You feel any better?”
He nods hesitantly, then asks, “Car heater?”
“We’re going to use the Little on you,” I explain. “It’s the only way to get you home without anyone seeing.”
“Oh,” he says. “Is Sakura here?”
“No. She lent the Little to To-ya.”
Yue smiles a tiny bit at that. “They really do like him.”
The others walk in then. Much to my surprise, To-ya also gives Yue a hug. Yue turns the color of a ripe tomato, but doesn’t say anything. Kero alights on Yue’s shoulder and starts -- of course -- trying to pick a fight. Akizuki-san picks him up and swings him around a few times. “Be nice!”
Yue gapes at her.
She gives him an angelic smile. “I couldn’t let you rot here, right? Eriol would be so unhappy.”
“I won’t question your motives,” Yue says.
I look at his wing. It’s definitely bent. I wonder if it would be easier to fix it before or after we made him little. It would take less effort to fix it when he’s small, but the bones would also be more fragile. We might do more harm than good.
To-ya takes the Little out of his pocket and gives it a dubious look. Then he holds his hand out to Yue. From what I can see, the Little leapt out of To-ya’s palm and glomped onto Yue. The next thing I know, Yue is inch-high.
I reach down and pick him up. “He’s so cute when he’s palm-sized!” I can’t help saying it. “Look! He even has a chibi scowl!”
Akizuki-san and To-ya both crowd around for a look. “Kawaii!!!” Akizuki-san squeals. “Can I hold him? Can I?”
“No,” To-ya, Yue, and I all say in unison. Though Yue sounds awfully high-pitched. I have to stifle a fit of snickers.
“What do we do about her?” Syaoran-kun asks from the doorway.
“Leave her,” I say. “She’s lost all her magic. She can’t do any harm to any of us.” A sudden inspiration hits me. “Unless we wanted to drag her out into the middle of the road -- ”
“Yuki,” To-ya says, a touch reprovingly. I give him an angelic smile.
“Great idea!” Akizuki-san has grabbed the bitch by the arms. “Tsukishirou-kun, get her legs!”
“Just drag her. She’ll bump,” I say.
“Will both of you cut it out?” To-ya says.
I look at him. “Why?”
He blinks. “Because you’re usually so charitable. This is weird.”
“It’s a residential zone. They’ll see her in time to stop.”
Akizuki-san drags her out the door before To-ya can protest further.
****
Sakura scampers over as we walk into the doorway. “Yue! Are you okay?!”
“I’m tiny,” Yue says. In a tiny voice. He’s obviously quite displeased with this current state. So, now that we’re home, I take the Little out of my pocket again. She glomps onto Yue, at which point he springs back to normal size, overbalancing Yuki and sending them both to the floor.
“You okay?” I ask, looking down.
“Ow,” Yue answers.
“We’re fine,” Yuki says. I help him back up.
“I think my wing broke more,” Yue says.
“Well, stay on the floor and we’ll fix it,” the Brat says.
“Maybe we should put him on a bed first?” I suggest. “So he can just stay there afterwards.”
“Okay,” Yuki agrees. The two of us haul Yue upwards.
“Oh, I’ll be right back.” I pick up the Little and bring her into the kitchen, at which point I locate a lump of chocolate and settle her down with it. “Sakura’ll come get you in a while,” I tell her.
The Little is looking at the chocolate with shiny eyes. I’m not sure she heard me or cares.
I help the others take Yue upstairs and lie him on his stomach on his bed, after Sakura gets to hug him carefully. Then we look at his crooked wing. “So how do we fix this?” Yuki asks.
“We should just be able to straighten it out,” I say. “I don’t think it’s a compound fracture.” I very carefully feel along the obvious break to see how bad it is.
Yue takes a sharp breath. “Can you put me to sleep first?”
“Does the Sleep Card work on you?” Sakura asks.
“It will if I let it,” Yue says in a strained voice.
So Sakura puts him to sleep and Yuki and I manage to straighten the bone back into its original position. “I think they’ll have to stay out for a day or so to heal, before he can retract them,” I say, regardless of the fact that I’m totally guessing. “How’s Eriol?”
“He passed out,” Tomoyo answers. “But in a good way, according to Spinel.”
I blink. “How can he have passed out in a good way?”
“Apparently the pendant wasn’t made to hold that much magic,” Sakura chimes in. “So when it overflowed, it all went right to Eriol-kun. And it was a bit too much for him, I guess. But Spinel says he’ll wake up in a few hours and feel great.”
“Okay.” I put some blankets over Yue. He really is freezing. What the hell did the Bitch do to him, anyway? We have to use separate blankets on his top half and his bottom half, because of his wings. Which is rather annoying. How on earth was his wing broken, anyway?
I’m beginning to feel glad that I let Yuki and Akizuki dump her in the street. She definitely deserved it.
“So what’s he going to do with all the extra magic?” Yuki asks Sakura.
She blinks. “I don’t know. I guess he’ll think of something. I mean, he’s Eriol-kun.” She nods vigorously. “He always has a plan.”
****
Part 13
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