What Matters In The End

Chapter 9

Syaoran stood on the balcony scanning the city once more, for at least any hint of the two powerful beings he is looking for, but still to no avail. Taking a deep breath in and exhaling loudly, he ruffled his messy chocolate brown hair in frustration. He walked inside and sat on the lounge opposite to where Eriol was sitting, with an annoyed look on his face.

"I take it no luck" Eriol asked examining Syaoran's body language.

Syaoran shook his head.

"Don't worry; I'm sure they'll turn up soon" he assured and was going to walk into his room when the phone started to ring. Immediately he ran to grab the phone.

"Eriol speaking", he said looking all cheerful but as soon as he heard the voice on the other side, his cheerfulness washed away.

Syaoran couldn't help but feel intrigued at who could make his cousin turn all serious, so he listened carefully to what he was saying.

"Sure, Hold on" Eriol continued, and pressed a button. "Can you hear me elder?"

Upon hearing that Syaoran's face too turned more serious than his normal serious face.

Should of known. He thought to himself.

"Yes" came a strong, low gruff voice from the other end. "Syaoran are you present?"

"Yes Elder" Syaoran replied.

"Good, Now I have some news. Over the recent days magicians in different countries have been found bloodied and bruised, drained of all their magical powers. There have been sightings of five different types of creatures who are supposedly responsible for these but we can't be for certain".

"Does that mean the evil isn't in Japan anymore?" Syaoran asked in disbelief.

"That's the problem. We can still sense the evil there but we just don't know where. The elders and I are guessing that the creatures are doing the dirty deeds for the person there."

There was silence for a little while until the Elder broke it.

"Syaoran, destroy the evil and its creatures before it cause more chaos. At this rate if we don't stop it soon, it will have just about enough power to annihilate the world."

"I will Elder" he replied looking at the phone.

"Good. Everyone is counting on you." Was all the elders reply and hung up the phone, leaving Eriol and Syaoran to think about what was going to happen next.

….

The following day the four went off to college and were patiently waiting for their teacher to come and start the class. Tomoyo and Sakura were chatting and giggling away to each other whilst the boys just sat and listened to their high pitched voices.

Sighing at the amount of noise two girls could make, Syaoran took a quick glance at Sakura, who he thought seemed to be back to her cheerful self.

"Good morning everybody" the teacher interrupted.

Everyone turned their attention to the front of class and shock, anger and sadness came to the faces of four of the students.

"My name is Mr Reyes. Your teacher is very ill at the moment so for the mean time I will be taking her place", he said looking over at Sakura with a small smile.

Sakura didn't really know how to react but she suddenly became very uncomfortable at the ruby eyes gazing at her.

Of all the teachers in this campus it had to be Darren she said to herself and diverted her gaze to outside the windows.

Syaoran and Eriol gave the man in front of them the biggest death glare that they could ever muster. They felt the uneasiness that Sakura was radiating and it took almost all of their energies to control themselves and not hit him.

Tomoyo looked over at Sakura, who had turned very quiet. Poor Sakura she thought. She will give Darren a piece of her mind later.

Time seemed to be going very slowly in this class. Sakura would shift around in her seat whenever Darren looked over in her direction and sighed every now and then. It was once her favorite class but now she dreaded it. After what seemed like forever to Sakura, the class had finally finished.

"Good Progress everyone and see you all tomorrow." Darren yelled out as everyone started to pack up.

Sakura rushed to put her books away in her bags and tried to make a run for it out the door but was suddenly stopped by Darren. She sighed and looked out the door to see if Tomoyo, Eriol or even Syaoran was around to save her, but no one was there.

"What do you want?" she spoke in a harsh and angry voice. It was the first time that they had spoken for a very long time.

"Sakura, please we really need to talk". He pleaded with her and started walking closer to her; however with each step he took forward, she would take one step back.

"Talk now" she demanded, her back hitting the wall.

"Not at school. Meet me at the lake by the old cottage at 8" his voice came gentle and soft.

"Why should I trust you?" she replied looking at him with a frown on her face.

"I just think we need to sort things out, so we all can just move on and live our lives".

Sakura thought about what he said for a little while about moving on. She didn't want to live her life afraid and didn't like the feeling of fear and anger, so she nodded and walked away from him out the door.

Too pre occupied with her thoughts, she had walked passed Syaoran who was leaning on the wall, cross armed by the door with his always serious face.

She's too naïve he said to himself, hearing the conversation that happened inside the classroom. If he were in her shoes, he would have killed him a long time ago.

He watched Sakura's retreating figure.

There was something about Darren that really nagged him the moment they met. It wasn't because of what he did to Sakura. It was something else. He wasn't really sure if it was a good or bad thing but he had to go and find out.

…

That night Sakura told Tomoyo she was meeting a friend and would be home late. She suspected Tomoyo knew that she was lying but she didn't want her involved in the matter, for her safety.

It was very cold by the lake and Sakura didn't even think of bringing a jumper. She was too busy thinking about Darren and if it was really a good idea for her to come here by herself after what he had done to her.

What if he was lying and is planning to hit me again? She said to herself but shook that thought away, hoping that wasn't the case.

"Are you cold?" Darren's voice came behind her, making her jump backwards.

"Sorry" he said walking beside her, making her shift a little. "Here have my jacket" he said taking it off and placing it around her shoulders.

Sakura just looked at him and later nodded thanks. She was too cold to say no.

There was uncomfortable silence.

"It seems beautiful here" Darren interrupted trying to break the silence which was driving him crazy.

"Just tell my why I'm here Darren" she said crossing her arms and stared out towards the lake.

Darren sighed. "I know what I did was wrong and I know that I hurt you so badly. I deserved everything I got and more and I don't really think that I should be forgiven, but I'm asking you to look inside your heart and forgive me." Darren watched her trembling figure.

Sakura just continued to stare out towards the lake but she had heard every single word he had said. She faced him and looked at him seriously but her expression was gentler than before.

"Have you learnt your lesson?" she asked him.

Darren nodded. "The hard way"

"Will you ever do it again?"

"I promised that I'm a changed man. I could never do the things I did back then" he replied sincerely

"What if you did get angry and you lost your temper. Do you think you would resort to violence?"

"I would kill myself first before I do that", he said placing a hand on her shoulder.

Sakura heard all the things that she wanted to hear from him. She knew he didn't deserve the kindness that she was giving him, but life was short and they say that you should always forgive and forget and give people second chances.

She gave him a smile. "Your forgiven" she replied and gave him a hug which he returned.

"So tell me what you have been up to? What's happening in the life of Darren?"

Darren returned her smile. They continued to talk and catch up on the times they had been apart, just like the good old days, when Darren heard a growling noise in the bushes.

He immediately turned around and stood protectively in front of Sakura.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked leaning to one side to see.

"Shhh" he told her and looked around to see where he had heard the noise. A rustle came and then all of a sudden a beast resembling a lion, with black wings on its back, flew out of nowhere and shot out fireballs towards them.

"Watch out" Darren yelled pushing Sakura out of the way and taking the damage.

"Darren!" Sakura yelled getting up from her spot and went to his side. "Are you alright?" she asked looked at the burns around his body.

"Yeh I'm fine" he replied and stood up looking at the creature with angry yet determined eyes.

The lion looked towards him and shot out more fire balls hoping to injure the targets enough to drain their energies out.

Darren had mumbled a couple of words and all of a sudden his eyes had turned purple and he shot back the fire balls towards the lion. He had brought out a sword out of no where, just like Eriol and Syaoran and within a split second, the creature had been killed.

Sakura looked at Darren in total shock. For all the years she had been with him, she never knew that he possessed such powerful magic till now. One question came to her mind. Why had he been hiding it from her?

Darren called back his sword and his eyes had turned back to normal.

"You're not hurt are you?" he asked examining her.

Sakura shook her head. "I'm fine" she whispered and stared at Darren's wounds.

"Here let me heal those" she said taking a hold of his hand.

This time it was Darren's turn to be shocked.

"Since when did you have magic?" he asked her, tightening the grip on her hands.

"I could ask you the same question…" A deep voice yet familiar to them came hidden in the shadows of the trees.

Darren stood in front of Sakura protectively once more.

"Who's there? Show yourself" he demanded bringing out his sword.

Out of the shadows, Syaoran walked towards them with his sword in his hand, just incase Darren decides to attack either him or Sakura. He gave him a glare.

"I'm not going to hurt her" he coldly spat out and continued walking towards them. "Now answer my question".

Sakura gave him a puzzled look. "Syaoran?" she asked him, tilting her head to the side. "How long have you been here?"

Author's Note: Sorry it took so long to update but I'm back now. So what did you think of the story? Darren didn't deserve a second chance but hey this is Sakura we are talking about.

Thank you for everyone who reviewed, you're my inspiration.

Always Chikka