Chapter 4: Sakura and the End of Days
With little way to defend themselves against the enraged NOTHING Card, Shaoran tells Sakura to run for it. She does, using the FLY Card to stay ahead of NOTHING's rampage, but she has precious little magic left and is on her last legs. Shaoran prepares to make a final stand and use himself to shield Sakura and Kero. As NOTHING and Joker draw near, Sakura acknowledges that while there may be no way to stop the latter, the former still needs their help. Kero and Shaoran are skeptical, but they decide to put their faith in Sakura. As Shaoran gives her some encouraging words...
... he is engulfed in one of the NOTHING's void spheres, and is erased.
Sakura breaks down, weeping for Shaoran, Tomoyo, and her lost Cards. Joker appears, taking the time to engage in some Evil Gloating, and he makes a cryptic reference to "the Three", just before an enraged Kero attacks him directly.
Sakura staggers to her feet and uses the SHIELD Card to safely approach NOTHING, shedding tears even for the Card that took her beloved Shaoran away from her. NOTHING attacks in a frenzy, but is unable to stop Sakura despite her best efforts. As Sakura pleads with her to recall her true self...
There is a burst of "-static-".
NOTHING screams as she remembers two conflicting versions of events: the one in which she awoke on her own and menaced Tomoeda to get the Cards back, and the one in which Joker woke her and told her she had been abandoned. Still using SHIELD, Sakura does the impossible and embraces the sphere of void that forever encloses NOTHING, whispering to the Card to remember how she changed...
There is a burst of "-static-".
NOTHING's red eyes fade back to blue as she returns to normal, horrified with herself.
Joker taunts Kero, toying with him until the Guardian Beast latches onto his knuckle with his teeth and breathes fire on it. Annoyed, Joker flings Kero aside and prepares to finish him off... but a void sphere swallows most of his body, courtesy of of a supremely pissed-off NOTHING. She erases him entirely, yet his only reaction is to laugh.
Unfortunately, though NOTHING is back to her old self, she can't restore the things she erased. To do that, she needs to become the HOPE Card once more, and to do that, they need the Nameless Card, which is a representation of hers and Shaoran's love... Just as Sakura tries to reassure her that they'll find a way, Joker reforms with a new body and seals NOTHING back inside her Card. When a grief-stricken Sakura asks him "Why?", he responds with a chilling Motive Rant, proclaiming that "everyone, everywhere, everywhen" will suffer the same loss of purpose he did when Pierrot died. He advances on Sakura...
Someone taps him on the shoulder, and when Joker turns to look, two fists hammer him in the face. It's Toya and Yukito, showing up as The Cavalry. While Yukito attempts to comfort Sakura, Toya roughs the harlequin up something fierce, demanding that he return everything he stole from Sakura. Joker makes his mistake, and calls for backup: the Time Reaper. This ominous figure brings its burning scythe down with a ferocious slash, a dome of bloos-red light encloses the city...
... and Tomoeda's sky shatters, fragments raining down upon the town. There seems to be no escape, and Sakura realizes that this was what she saw in her dream the previous night. She despairs and thinks that it's all gone wrong... A mysterious, silent toddler with red, heart-shaped Odango Hair appears out of nowhere and takes her hand, showing her a vision of a sanctuary, a place safe from Joker... a Lighthouse. A simple wooden door with peeling white paint and a tarnished knob appears in the middle of the street. With nowhere else to go, Sakura, Kero, Toya, and Yukito pass through the door, leaving the dying Tomoeda behind.
Once the dome sealing off the city disappears, all that's left is a circular crater...
Tropes That Appear in this Chapter:
- Apocalypse How: Class 0. Tomoeda is wiped off the map by the Time Reaper, leaving nothing but a massive crater behind.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker: Toya and Yukito make their entrance by punching Joker in the face.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: In the middle of his attempt to reassure Sakura, Shaoran is erased by the NOTHING.
- Relative Button: Joker hits Toya's hard, and gets the crap beaten out of him for it.
- Unstoppable Rage: Joker is on the receiving end from both Kero and the NOTHING Card, once she regains her senses.
