57. Two Hearts. Syaoran, Sakura.

They were clones.

Unfinished creatures. Lifeless, empty, until someone started filling up their beings and their souls. It had taken so long but they had found each other: in the smile of their parents, the laugh of their friends. How strange how injuries that had never occurred could hurt so much, and how love could heal so many injuries.

Memories of many lives followed them wherever they went. It became their heart, their second nature: look out. One day it had to happen. One day, two hearts would finally meet.

Sakura had never seen him before. Still, she knew him.

58. Alternate: Eternity. Fye.

"So they each went back to their countries, and the world was at peace."

Fye closed the book and found three pairs of critical eyes on him.

"Sorry, Mage De Fluoryte," the eldest child said, "That ending? It totally sucks."

The mage grinned. "You think so, too?"

"Oh yeah!" The second boy nodded vigorously. "All that romantic crap aside: come one, who waits for someone forever?"

"What do you think, sweetheart?" He asked the third child.

The girl's eyes were wide. "It's a sad story."

"Why?"

"They couldn't even touch each other."

"It's just a story, Naho," the eldest said.

59. Alternate: Return. Kurogane.

Tomoyo was right behind him – as he'd known she'd be. Kurogane did not turn around. Instead, he regarded the landscape before him: lush green trees, green meadows, a small river meandering through the valley.

"Maybe," he said, more to himself, "I should leave and live here again."

Tomoyo's voice was soft like the wind. "Stay in Suwa? Farming, watching, protecting your people? It would be a good life."

"Yes." In his mind's eye he could see the golden wheat.

"So stay."

"So any random assassin can kill the Miko of Nihon? You're so lost without me."

Behind him, she laughed.

60. Alternate: Wandering. Syaoran. (Guest appearance: Myo-Un, Ryu-Sang and Aru from Nabi)

"Who's that old man with Lady Sabu, Nonna?"

Aru was tugging at Myo-Un's skirts, her small hands insistently demanding the older girl's fullest attention. Myo-Un bent down to pick her up and turned: the Master was crossing the yard slowly with a tall man with snow-white hair with an intricate, red-gold-green sword at his side.

"An old friend of Lady Sabu's," she explained. "He seems to be wandering the world. Sometimes he stops by."

"Why? Has he lost something?"

"Maybe he lost his mind," Ryu-Sang supplied sarcastically from behind them. Myo-Un froze. "Who would continue looking for someone who has died?"

61. Alternate: Failure. Yuuko.

No.

Yuuko pressed her lips together: she could feel droplets of her blood fall onto the ground where her fingernails had cut her palms. The image was crystal clear – Feiwan laughing victoriously – and time ticked by. Irreversible.

"You hear me, Witch?" He shouted. "I won't allow it! I will kill the girl every time she is reborn and you will never find the exit of the circle you are caught in! I won't allow you to die!"

Two men in their own blood, a boy huddled brokenly over the lifeless body of a girl.

Oh Clow, what have we done?

62. Beginning, Part 1. Sakura.

The sun rose – beautifully, gloriously, red and golden and warm.

"You make it impossible to look at you," Touya said. "Really, Sakura, white?"

"I see nothing wrong with her color of the ceremonial robes," Yukito chuckled. "The Princess has always worn white."

"Yeah, but she's so damn blinding!"

"Aww," Sakura said. "I take that as a compliment."

"Whatever," Touya grumbled. "Now hold still."

The circlet of gold was heavier than she expected but perhaps it was her imagination. When she rose, the bells on her robes chimed through the morning air. Somehow, she would have thought she would feel different.

63. Beginning, Part 2. Sakura.

The Sun rose.

"My Queen," her brother said as he and Yukito bowed and slipped away to let her complete her prayers.

At some point she realized she was no longer alone. A man stood at the side of the sacred pool, his face hidden by the shadows of the huge dome. The water hadn't protested his arrival.

"Who are you?"

He stepped forward, into the light.

As the words slipped from her tongue, Sakura had the sudden feeling that finally, everything was right.

Every journey ends at its beginning: But this one is a story for a different night.

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

e.e. Cummings, "somewhere i have never travelled"