Chapter 12- Owari
Li had been lyeing in his bed in the dark for several days now. His wound was healed, and he had no feelings of betrayal left in his heart. When he thought about Sakura there was another feeling in him now. An over bearing feeling that grabbed his heart with a cold hand and dragged it to the pit of his stomach. What was this feeling?
Guilt.
For days he had been laying there in the dark begging for sympathy because the love of his life had betrayed him. Finally it dawned on him that while he was quivering with self loathing she was risking her life for the right to see him again, If only for a moment.
These thoughts ran laps around Li's mind until finally it inspired him to stand to his feet for the first time in days. He held his head as his blood rushed to his feet. It was a headache, his body swayed and when he opened his eyes for a moment he couldn't see. His servants ran up to him. He put up his hand. And they stopped.
"I have somewhere I need to be." Li said with a weak smile.
"You can't go anywhere." Dream said. "You're not well."
"I am fine." Li said sternly. He walked to the window and opened it.
"No!" Light said quickly. "You're hurt, and your mother will kill you if you leave."
"If I don't leave she is going to kill Sakura." Li said looking coldly back at his servants. They all grew quiet as his stern cold eyes melted away into a sad stare. "I cannot believe you allowed me to lay here in the darkness for so long."
"What do you mean?" Mist asked. "You were sick."
"That is what everyone keeps telling me." Li sighed.
"You were ill from the betrayal of your love." Dream reminded him.
"It wasn't betrayal at all." Li said quickly. "It was my fault. I kept those secrets from her, she had every right to be suspicious!"
The servants fell silent.
"I have been laying here wallowing in self-pity 'oh, my love betrayed me! She never loved me! It was all a lie!' and meanwhile Sakura was risking her life to see me one more time! She did the impossible, faced death, and crossed into the underworld to see me! I am the one who has betrayed her." Li looked to the ground with a lump in his throat.
"But master, you have done nothing..." Dream said, trying to comfort him.
He looked back at them sadly. "Exactly. Sometimes the worst thing a person can do is nothing." He pulled himself up into the window sill.
"Li." Snow stopped him. "You know... we will have to..."
"Tell my mother." Li finished her sentence. "Tell her, I don't care. I have to find Sakura." and with that he opened his wings and left his mother's castle in search of the princess.
--
Li flew straight out of Olympus and down to the Earth. He was barely above the ground as he flew around the fields searching for his love. He checked by the river and the fields of flowers and there was no sight of her, but it didn't discourage him.
It has been some time since she journeyed to the underworld, perhaps she is back to my mother's shrine. he thought to himself.
Li started towards his mother's shrine with a light smile on his face. The idea that he would be near her again made his heart race. he was so excited to see her again he could hardly contain herself. The overwhelming feeling of excitement was overbearing, and even covered his anger that he had for himself. In his mind's eye he went back to their days together in the darkness. When he would hold her close to him and gently kiss her lips. He remembered the feel of her soft hair, he often played with it as she was falling asleep. He was so taken back by his thoughts that he didn't realize that he had flown right by his mother's shrine. When he noticed he backtracked and retracted his wings. He ran into the shrine with a large smile.
He was greeted by a cold empty room.
He looked around, his smile not fading away.
"Sakura!" He yelled, but the only thing that replied to him was his echo.
His smile disappeared as he walked through the old shrine. The stone was cold on his bare feet. He looked around the whole room, taking in every part of it, making sure he wasn't missing anything, and then he noticed the back room. He walked in, a little reassured.
The back room was much smaller. It had bins full of grain. He walked over and lifted some of the corn from it's bin and let it slip through his fingers back into it's place.
This was her doing, huh? She did this for me. his smile was gentle, but he was a little discouraged. She wasn't in the back room either.
Then he heard a voice that frightened him.
"You're out of bed now?" Ruby Moon said coldly in the entrance of the small room.
Li spun around and faced his mother. He stopped smiling, and his stare was cold. He didn't say anything. She sighed lightly and started walking towards him.
"What motivated you out of bed, my son?" She asked as she walked.
"I've..... noticed I was missing something." he replied.
"Something?" She said slyly as she circled her son. "You mean someone." her tone was cold and vicious, like a snake bite. It's venom traveled through his veins and turned his blood to ice. She knew something.
"Where is she?" Li asked.
"Why do you care about a little tramp like her." She dodged the question.
"Don't talk about Sakura that way." Li said angrily.
"Why do you care for her?!" Ruby replied with an equal anger. "She is just a human."
"I love her!" Li said loudly. "I love her mother. She makes me happy!"
Ruby was shocked to hear the words escape his son's lips. She just stared at him for along moment, studying his face.
"I've loved her from the moment I saw her." Li said in a quieter voice. "She is so kind and understanding, and she loves me too."
"What makes you think that you love her." Ruby asked coldly.
"Because I can't stop thinking about her." Li replied quickly. Then he started thinking, why did he love her, he never stopped to ponder it. "I think about her more then is probably healthy. When I am near her my feelings go wild. My heart races when I see her, or hear her, yet at the same time I am comfortable. I am at home around her. When I am with her I can't stop smiling... I can't stop feeling good." He broke himself from his thoughts and he looked at his astonished mother. "My whole life I feel like I just make one mistake after another, but when I found her I knew that for once in my life I was doing something right." he sighed. "And when she kissed me I felt like for the first time in my life I was were I was meant to be. All of this time that we've been apart I was miserable, and now I know that it wasn't from my wound, it was because I wasn't with her when she needed me most."
She frowned lightly, looking very defeated. "There is no remedy for misery my dear." she sighed. "But I suppose you can try to find one anyway." she closed her eyes for a long time, thinking to herself, shocked by her son's words. "What makes you think she loves you, after he betrayed your trust in such a way."
Li didn't hesitate. "She left her family for a second time. She faced you without fear." he ran his fingers through the seeds. "She did this for me, she faced man eating monsters for me, she traveled to the Land of the Dead for me! If she didn't love me... why else would she risk her life to see me atleast one more time."
She sighed deeply while she stared at her son. She could tell her son wasn't lieing. He was very much in love, and despite her hatred for the girl, she knew she had no right keeping her son from being happy. She kept her mouth closed and turned to leave him there to continue his search.
"Where is she?" He stopped her from leaving.
"I don't know." Ruby replied without turning to face her son. "She never returned from her final task." guilt over took Ruby.
The words struck Li with a powerful merciless force. All the terrible things that could have happened to her. She was lost in the Land of the Dead, what could have happened? Li ran passed his mother and out the door of the shrine, not hesitating to expand his wings and take flight, moving quickly towards the entry to the underworld.
Ruby Moon stood motionless in her shrine, her eyes on the ground. All this time she thought she had been saving her son from heart ache, she never realized she was the one who had hurt him, the one that made him sick and left him in a dark cold room.
She took a deep breath and slowly left her shrine.
--
Li moved so quickly the world was nothing more then a blur.
Where could she be? What has happened to her?! I swear is something happened to her I will..... I will... Li's thoughts stopped there. If something had happened there was nothing he could do, and he knew it. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he forced them back.
This is no time to lose my composure. My eyes have to be clear, I have to be able to see her. I have to see her.
He arrived at the entrance to the underworld and landed upon the tower. He dropped down into the underworld quickly and flew past Cerberus, who was forbidden to attack God and Goddess in the first place. He past by all of the tortured souls who were stuck on the wrong side of the river Styx and didn't stop moving until he was face to face with Charon the ferryman.
"Well well well, Syaoran." Charon said in his scandalous voice. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Where is she?" Li asked, winded. He had never moved so fast in his life.
"Who?" Charon asked.
"The girl."
Charon cackled loudly. "I cross alot of girls! Be more specific!"
"The princess! Sakura! Where is she?!" Li asked, unamused.
"Ahhhh that pretty little girl who needed to see Sonomi, ne? I crossed her some time ago." he said thinking to himself.
"What happened to her after you crossed her?" Li asked quickly.
"Well, she went in the castle for about fifteen minutes and came back with her little box full, and I crossed her back." Charon replied.
Li had a sigh of relief. "So she made it out of here?"
"Yeah. I certainty didn't hear Cerberus tearing anything apart, so yeah I think she made it out." Charon laughed.
Li didn't find that statement funny.
He didn't say another word, he just turned and quickly left the underworld. If she had made it out of there, where could she be?
--
Li stood upon the tower and looked around the landscape. Night was falling, and he still hadn't found Sakura.
Where could she be? he asked himself. Where could she.... that's when he saw it.
A sight that broke his heart.
That stole the breath from his lungs, and for a moment it stole his life.
Just a little ways away from the tower in tall grass he saw the body of his love laying motionless on the ground, the box opened beside her.
His feeling left him for a moment, then in a rush of adrenaline his wings tore from his back and he flew down to her. He stood next to her body for only a moment before his legs fell weak and he fell to his knees beside her. He gently rolled her over. Her skin was cold and gray, her hair didn't shine, he found no comfort in her limp limbs. He lifted her up and she sat heavy in his arms.
"Sakura?" he said quietly, in a weak voice. He placed a small weak smile on his face. "Sakura." he said more loudly and shook her a little. She was unresponsive. "Sakura!!!" he yelled at her body. "Wake up!" tears began to stream down his face. "Wake up! This can't be happening." He ran his fingers through her cold hair. "This can't be happening." he told himself, not attempting to stop the tears that ran down his face. "Sakura... no! You can't be gone...!" He stared at her lifeless body for a long moment before burying his face in her neck, holding her as close to him and he could. "You can't be that far away from me..." he whispered.
His eyes were clinched tight as he tried to breathe in her scent. Something to remember her by. He pressed his face into her neck, trying to convince himself that it was all a dream, and that is when he heard something shocking.
A pulse.
A faint pulse.
He could feel it in her neck pulsing lightly. He held her out from him and he stared at her for a moment. That is when he caught the secant of something strange. He looked over at the box and layed Sakura softly on his lap as he lifted up the box. It smelled of a sleeping gas that was commonly used as punishments in Olympus. Then he recalled a constant quarreling between Sonomi and his mother. This trap was meant for Ruby, and Sakura's curiosity got the best of her. Li couldn't help but smile as he wiped his tears away.
Li leaned down over Sakura and put his mouth only centimeter's above her and took in a deep breath. As he did the sleep left Sakura's body into his, and he blew it back into the box and closed it tight.
At this moment Sakura began to move around. Li smirked at her. The color returned to her skin, and she was warm again. Her eyes shot open and she gasped for air, sitting up fast and grabbing her throat. The last thing she remembered was drowning in smoke. Then it dawned on her just who's lap she had been laying on. She turned quickly and stared at him as if he were a ghost.
"Your curiosity got you again, Princess." Li said with a bright smile on his face.
Sakura's lips turned up into a smile, and then tears streamed down her cheeks as she lept forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, almost knocking him backwards.
"Li, is it really you?" she said between tears.
"I am here." he said, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her close to him. "I am so sorry."
"Why are you sorry?" Sakura asked leaning back to look him in the face. He moved her hair from her face and smiled gently at her. "I am the one who betrayed you."
"No." Li replied softly. "I layed in my room and left you to fight your way to me. I left you alone with all of those terrible things. I am sorry."
Sakura smiled at him and buried her face into his shoulder and spoke. "I love you.... I love you so much Li. I am so sorry."
He laid his head on her shoulder and kissed her neck. "I love you too." he said quietly.
They sat like that for a few minutes in silence, just taking in the fact that they were together again.
Li was the first to speak.
"Princess.." he said softly.
"Hmn?"
"Will you marry me?"
She shot back and looked in his eyes. She was both happy, and worried. "You can't do that. I am a human." she replied.
"You don't have to be." Li said with a soft smile.
"What.. do you mean?" she asked with excitement and curiosity building in her heart.
Li lifted her in his arms and let his wings spread wide. He flapped his wings once and floated in the air for a long moment, smiling down at her.
And that moment was one that Sakura wished she could live in forever. She was so happy to finally see Li. She had fought for days, risking her life for this very moment, and it was worth every moment she spent suffering. She clenched his robe in her hand and smiled up at him, and that was the happiest she had ever been.
Li held her close as he flew off towards Olympus. The world was moving so fast around her she couldn't make out anything, and it took her breath away. All she could see was blurs of blue and white, which she could only assume was the sky flying past her. Eventually they went so high that the cold wind hurt Sakura's eyes. She clenched her eyes tight until finally they stopped moving. She slowly opened her eyes and what she saw stole her breath. She stood on a cloud before a throne of gold with a red carpet that led to the man sitting in the throne. Her jaw dropped when she saw who it was.
There before her sat an immortal with silver hair so long it nearly sat on the floor. His eyes were thin and cold, a blueish grey color. After a long moment of admiring him Sakura noticed Li knelt on one knee before him. She did the same.
"Oh great Yue (Zeus) The God of Gods." Li said boldly up to the man on the throne.
Yue, who was sitting with his right leg resting over his left in his throne, looked down at him without emotion, his left hand held up his head, and his right hand he held up and stopped Li before he could speak.
"Don't bother, Syaron, Ruby Moon has already told me." he said moving his long silver hair from his face.
Li felt an anger and an anxiety grow inside of him. Surely his mother had slandered his love. "What did she say?" Li said aggressively. "It was all a lie I'm sure of it!"
"Oh?" Yue looked rather coldly down at the two of them. "So you do not love her? You didn't face banishment to be with her, and you shouldn't have the right to be with her?"
Li looked shocked, his eyes wide. "Did she..." his voice softened "Did she really say all that?" his eyes fell to the ground. He felt bad for accusing his mother, in the end he had slandered her name, not the other way around. "Where...?"
Yue looked down to his right, and at the bottom of the throne Ruby Moon stepped out around the base of the golden throne and smiled weakly at her son.
"Mom I thought.. you hated her." Li said quietly.
She smirked. "You don't." she sighed. "I've never seen you so happy in your life, Li, and I have no right to keep that from you."
Li smiled at his mother, then he felt Sakura slip her soft hand into his. He looked back and she was smiling softly at him. He squeezed her hand and looked back up at Yue. "Lord Yue.. I have a request for you." he couldn't help but smile softly. "Will you make my bride immortal so I can be with her forever?"
There was a great silence in the room. Li and Sakura smiled hopefully up at the beautiful god. It felt like time stood still as they waited for his answer.
Finally he spoke.
"And why should I?"
This shattered the smiles in the room.
"You have disobeyed the laws of Olympus and lied to everyone around you, and more over you dragged young Eriol in to this as well, he may have to be punished for not reporting to me. You took his young princess from her castle and introduced her to a world no mortal should know." Yue sighed. "Why should I grant your wish after all of this?"
Li's head dropped, he had no argument. After he had broken so many rules it is shocking that Yue didn't make him a mortal. Li's shoulders dropped and his eyes stared straight at the floor, and his grip lessened on Sakura's hand.
This action more then anything else broke Sakura's heart. The feeling of Li letting go and giving up tore her soul. She grabbed his hand with bother of hers and squeezed it. His eyes moved from the ground to her eyes. Her eyes glimmered with tears, but her lips were turned up into a smile.
Such a sad smile.
Then she let go of his hand and an air of bravery over took her. She walk boldly up to the throne of Yue and knelt down before speaking to him.
"Lord Yue.. What does it take to become a god?" she asked.
He looked shocked that a mortal would speak to him. Ruby looked equally shocked, but Li smiled lightly at her. Her bravery was one of the many things that he loved about her.
"Bravery." Yue said. "Kindness, and a spirit that deserves immortality."
Li stepped forward. "But sir, she has all of these things!"
"Can you prove it to me?" Yue asked, looking intrigued for the first time.
Prove it? They had no proof, and there was no way he would settle on Li's word. Sakura's vision fell to the floor and Li's moved to Sakura. They were so close, so very close to each other, and yet still they were too far apart to be together.
That's when Ruby Moon stepped up before Yue. "Lord Yue.. This girl.. she warmed the cold heart of my son and replaced all of his sadness with happiness, as if with magic." She turned and looked at her son, who was only a few feet behind her and she smiled at him gently, looking like a mother for the first time. Then she turned back to Yue. "She gave him his first real smile, and I thank her for that." Sakura smiled at Ruby, thankful for her words.
"But this means nothing." Yue said lightly, again shattering all of the smiles in the room. "Syaroan can you not cause love simply by pricking a being with your arrow? The fact that she brought you happiness does not grant her the right to immortality."
"But your majesty!" Li spoke up quickly. "She is wonderful! She is brave! She deserves immortality more then even I!"
"Can you prove to me that she was brave?" Yue said with a small grin, beginning to enjoy the show."
"The tasks." Ruby said quickly. "She did ever task I asked her to do."
"I believe she had help with those." Yue said, and with a wave of his hand a little orange ball of fur and a little black ball of fur flew into the kingdom and up to the throne.
"Kero?" Sakura looked shocked at the little creature laying against the throne.
"Heheh, Hi Sakura." He said rubbing his head, he flew up to her. The little black and blue creature flew up to Yue.
"Why'd you bring us here?" The black one said. Sakura recognized it's voice and stared up at it.
"That's Spinel." Kero whispered to Sakura, confirming her suspicions. It was the river god who had helped her in the second task.
"Do you two know this girl?" Yue asked pointing down to Sakura.
"Yeah, of course." Kero said. "This is princess Sakura, so what?"
"She wants my permission to become immortal and live among us." Yue said. "But I don't believe she is worthy, she is not brave enough to be a god."
"Are you mad?" Spinel found himself saying.
"Do you know what she did for that kid?!" Kero flew up with Spinel and pointing at Sakura. "She did impossible tasks for the mere chance to see Syaroan again, if only long enough to say she was sorry."
"She faced man eating goats and flooded streams to see him again." Spinel said. "She is far braver then I."
Sakura smiled up at her friends. She could hardly believe they were so willing to fight for her.
"But you two helped her with those tasks." Yue said unmoved.
Silence fell over the room again.
"Yeah.. we helped a little, but she still did it!" Kero said.
"You, Kero, separated the seeds for her, she simply put them in their bins." Yue said.
Kero grew quiet.
"And you, Spinel, flooded the river and told her the secrets to rerieving the golden fleece. You two did all of the work for her."
"But she still went into the underworld for him!" Kero argued.
"Even then!" Yue said loudly, his voice echoing in the halls, silencing everyone else. "She listened to a spirit in the tower who gave her everything she would need to survive. She did nothing by herself."
Sakura's eyes filled with tears, but she choked them back. "I still went into the darkness, I still faced Cerberus and Charon. I still had to see all of those lost souls." She closed her eyes for a long moment. "I saw things I will never forget, they will haunt me until I am gone... and I did it all for him." Sakura was shaking, her knees were quivering, her hands were numb. Adrenaline pumped through her. She couldn't stand the idea of being so close to Li just to have him stolen from her again.
"I know I wronged him, and I know we dissobeyed your rules... but I've payed for those sins.." tears streamed down Sakura's cheeks. "How long must I pay for them?"
Yue stared down at her with no emotion in his bright eyes. That's when Sakura felt Li slip his hand into Sakura's and laced their fingers together. Ruby stood behind the two if them. Kero and Spinel each sat on her shoulders and together they all looked up hopefully at Yue who still had no emotion in his eyes.
Everything remained still for what seemed like an eternity before finally Yue reacted.
"Ok." he said. "I will grant you immortality."
At first there was shock in the room, and then celebration. Kero started by jumping up and screaming his approval, and everyone else followed suit. Li turned Sakura to face him and slipped his arm around her waist pulling her close to him and he pressed his lips against hers, and after a moment of kissing she ran her fingers through his hair and they separated their lips only to look into each other eyes.
"But it is not because of what you have told me." Yue said.
Everyone turned their attention back to the throne, yet again confused.
"If not our words.. then what motivated you Lord Yue?" Spinel asked.
"It was his." Yue waved his hand towards the bottom of the throne.
Everyone reacted as if someone was there, but Sakura couldn't see anyone.
"Thank you... so much. I don't know what it is you said, but thank you." Li said brightly to the invisible figure.
"Who... who is it?" Sakura asked in a timid voice.
"Hello Princess.." A familiar voice said in a sad tone.
"Shot?" Sakura grew excited. "You are the reason he said yes! Thanks to you I will become immortal!" she smiled brightly at her invisible friend.
"He came to me yesterday and told me all about the two of you." Yue said. "At first I was very angry, but he stayed calm and told me about how wonderful you were Sakura. He begged me to spare you."
"Shot... you really did that... for me?" Sakura smiled softly at him.
"Of course." she heard the smile in his voice.
Yue choose this moment to wave his hand and bestow immortality on the princess. She started to glow brightly, it blinded her. She felt warm and then the golden light began to fade. At first all she saw was a dark silhouette by the throne, and as the light faded she began to make out the features of Shot.
He had long fluffy hair that came to a point at his feet. His skin was pale, and his eyes were sad, but his thin lips were turned up into a soft smile.
Sakura smiled back at Li, who nodded and let her go. She walked slowly up to Shot. He smiled at her before blushing lightly and putting out his hand to shake hers. She looked down at his hand and took it gently in hers. For a moment they looked at each other without sound, and then she wrapped her arms around Shot's shoulders and held him close, burying her face in his neck. He stood shocked for a moment before wrapping his arms around her as well.
"Thank you so much Shot.. thank you..." Sakura said quietly.
Shot smiled without reply. After a long hug Sakura pulled back and smiled at Shot, who returned her smile.
"Come on." Li said happily, holding out his hand waiting for Sakura to take it. "Let's go home."
Sakura's smiled back at Shot one more time before running to her husband and taking his hand. The two of them walked out of the doorway. Then Li picked Sakura up and kissed her softly.
Kero laughed lightly before he and Spinel left the throne room. Ruby just smiled back at Yue and and took her leave.
Li let his huge white wings show themselves before taking to the air and flying off into the blue sky with his beautiful immortal bride in his arms.
The only two left in the room was Yue and Shot.
Shot stood at the bottom of the throne and smiled lightly at the empty door way. Yue slipped from his throne and landed softly beside the servant.
"You know.. she will never love you as you love her." Yue said quietly.
"I know." Shot admitted to himself. "But she is happy this way. I have never seen a love like the love the two of them share. My crush will never compare."
"I will never understand why you so willingly came to me begging for them to be married." Yue sighed to himself. "Are you willing to serve her for the rest of time knowing she will never return your feelings?" he asked.
"If I get to see her smile everyday." Shot smiled over at the god of gods. "I've never been happier in my entire life!"
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