Volume 23 – The original and the copy are going at it in dreams, Sakura is horrified by their actions. Everyone outside the dreaming is waiting impatiently, as there is nothing they can do. Original Syaoran has fallen and Sakura runs to his side. Copy Syaoran even goes so far as to wound Sakura in his quest to get the feather inside O-Syaoran. Fei-Wang Reed goads C-Syaoran saying that Sakura’s soul is not important to his plans (only her body is necessary) so go ahead and kill her if necessary to get the feather. However, C-Syaoran finds himself unable to kill Sakura. A blow separates O-Syaoran from Sakura and C-Syaoran reaches inside the original to extract the feather. This somehow brings the two Syaorans into reality where everyone has been waiting. The feather is high in the air and they both jump for it, only to find that they have run Sakura through with their swords.
Sakura speaks to Original Syaoran and declares that she is not his Sakura. It is revealed that Fei-Wang made a copy of Sakura, as well as Syaoran, and it was the copy of Sakura that has gone on all these adventures. Sakura only recently came to the realization herself that she is a copy but regardless has been working towards changing the future that she saw. Apparently O-Syaoran suspected it from his arrival but never let on. Sakura tells O-Syaoran that his Sakura is still waiting for him. Sakura then turns to the copy and tells him that she has always loved him, before she disappears into flower petals. But that was just an image of her soul. Dr.Kyle, who has been shown to work with Fei-Wang previously, appears and takes Sakura’s body and C-Syaoran disappears as well.
O-Syaoran wishes to save both the real Sakura and her copy, Kurogane and Fai wish to accompany him. They ask Yuko for the location and are informed that the price of this knowledge has already been paid, he is in the Kingdom of Clow (where Syaoran and Sakura originate from) but in a time removed. Fei-Wang converses with Dr. Kyle and says that the original Sakura’s body has been destroyed, he has her soul and the body of the copy, that is enough for his ends. O-Syaoran, Fai, and Kurogane set out to retrieve Sakura and bring down Fei-Wang.
Volume 24 – Yuko does some magic to send Original Syaoran, Kurogane, Fai, and Mokona to the Kingdom of Clow, and declares that there is nothing else she can do, from here on out it depends on the companions. Fei-Wang Reed gloats that she can no longer interfere. The group finds themselves in Clow but realize that the citizens are living in a loop of just a couple of hours before sunset until some point during the night. On the third go round they start to notice inconsistencies and realize that their interactions have thrown off the the time loop. The also discover that everything has frozen just before Sakura’s seventh birthday.
In their run to the ruins, that Fei-Wang has been obsessing over for his plans, O-Syaoran reveals that he knew the original Princess Sakura up until the point he was taken by Fei-Wang. Time within the ruins has stopped on the day that O-Syaoran and Original Sakura met. They were together for many years until O-Syaoran turned back time with a wish to Yuko.
Here we flash back to an even earlier time when O-Syaoran first encountered Yuko. He was sent to her shop by his father. He knew there was someone he was supposed to meet on a different world, due to the dreams of his mother, and bargained for Yuko to send him. He appeared in the ruins as O-Sakura was performing her purification rites before her seventh birthday. Here O-Syaoran learns that the girl he met has the same name as is mother, Sakura, and that she and her mother look like his mother and grandmother. O-Sakura’s mother is a dream seer, like O-Syaoran’s mother. And O-Sakura, at this time, had great potential power, more than anyone else in the royal family. O-Syaoran’s first visit to Clow was to be for seven days.
Volume 25 – This volume is almost entirely back story explaining how the Original Syaoran and Original Sakura met. Sakura took an instant liking to Syaoran and was inseparable from him whenever she was finished with her purification rites for the day. One evening, while star gazing, Sakura has a vision that may be connected to the next day’s final purification rites involving danger. Technically only the person doing the rites is allowed to be in the ruins but as Syaoran isn’t even of that world, he is allowed to attend and watch over Sakura.
Even from this very early time in their acquaintance, Syaoran is determined to protect Sakura at any cost. During the rites a window in space opens with Fei-Wang Reed on the other side. Despite his best attempts, Syaoran is unable to protect Sakura from the magic Fei-Wang sends through. With the magic he mystically marks Sakura with black wings symbolizing death. Currently small, they will continue to grow larger, and once they are large enough to envelope her, she will die.
Syaoran is badly wounded, and as his time is up in Clow, he returns to Yuko’s shop where she tends to his wounds. He begs a wish to go back to Clow. Yuko will send him but the cost will be that the trip is one way, so he will never see his family again. Syaoran readily agrees and goes back, determined to find a way to remove the death mark. Only Syaoran and Sakura’s mother can see the mark. He searches in vain for years but is unable to find a way to remove it, as the mark continues to grow. Years pass and it is her birthday again, which means rites in the ruins. This time her family is with her, along with Syaoran, when suddenly the mark stretches out and seems to stab through Sakura. Sakura’s mother stops time and Syaoran wishes that he could go back in time, to the day that Fei-Wang put the mark on Sakura, and try better to protect her from ever getting the mark. Creepily, Fei-Wang’s voice calls out that he will fulfill that wish.
Volume 26 – About the first third of this volume is more flashback. Fei-Wang Reed says that he can fulfill Syaoran’s wish to go back in time to when Fei-Wang first appeared during Sakura’s purification rites several years ago. A magic circle appears under Syaoran, and Yuko’s voice calls out saying that she can grant Syaoran’s wish. She warns that the burden of guilt will be high because not only will be be altering Sakura’s path, he will also effect everyone else’s path who is connected to her. Also, his freedom will be taken away and he will only be able to watch as events unfold. Syaoran readily agrees.
Syaoran himself is knocked back in time to the age when he first met Sakura. Because Syaoran has left a hole, where he once was, a new existence has been created to fill it. Watanuki (whom Syaoran met in the dreaming) was created to fill the hole. Fei-Wang and Yuko talk over Syaoran’s head and discuss someone named Clow Reed, who is a distant ancestor of Syaoran, and Fei-Wang’s wish to bring someone back from the dead (what has been driving him this entire time).
Now we jump to the present and Syaoran apologies to Fai and Kurogane for all they have been through as the result of his wish to turn back time, since Fei-Wang manipulated them. They assure Syaoran that he is not responsible to carry the burden of everything that has happened and they will stay by his side. Copy Syaoran appears in the chamber, and does Fei-Wang does from the other side of a portal. Kurogane and Fai attack Fei-Wang for all the pain he has put them through. Original Syaoran and Copy Syaoran face off. The battle is quite intense as both Syaoran’s can use magic. In the end O-Syaoran is unconscious and is dragged to the portal where Fei-Wang waits. But it is all a ruse and O-Syaoran stabs Fei-Wang, who is greatly surprised by the subterfuge of C-Syaoran. Fei-Wang then runs C-Syaoran through. Fei-Wang is blown back, into his dimension, by magic from both Syaorans. In his dying breaths, C-Syaoran apologies to everyone and thanks them for the happier times they shared together.
Volume 27 – Another layer of complexity gets added to the saga in this volume. But first, Copy Syaoran breaks apart into fragments. The magic he stole from Fai coalesces and returns to Fai. Fai, Kurogane, and Original Syaoran charge after Fei-Wang Reed. The body of Copy Sakura rises up as Fei-Wang intones that it is beginning. Time has been frozen in the ruins since Sakura’s mother froze it many years ago, it now begins moving again.
Mokona detects a feather deep in the water, under the ruins, but previously there had been no feather in Clow. Fei-Wang explains that because the actions of the companions changed the past in one dimension, it allowed the past to be altered in other ways. The Kingdom of Clow is actually the same world that they previously visited, the one with acid rain where Sakura left a feather to protect the water supply. Apparently this feather has been gathering power for hundreds of years and now it returns to Sakura. Fei-Wang has now gathered a body that has traveled through dimensions, and the power built up in the feather and is now ready to tear apart the bonds that connect dimensions, and break the law of life and death.
With time moving again, Syaoran can finally try to correct his mistake those many years ago and prevent Sakura from getting the mark of death in the first place. In doing so the young Sakura, previously frozen in time, and the older one, who traveled between worlds, meld together. Fei-Wang taunts that he will do what Clow Reed, a more powerful magician could not do. But Yuko tells him his gloating is premature for hidden in her shop are two people, who knew this day would come, and so they turned back their time and set themselves apart from time, even though it took them away from those they loved, and have been waiting for this moment. Yuko unleashes them and Syaoran is stunned to see it’s his father and mother when they were the same age as himself and Sakura. Also, they look nearly identical to Syaoran and Sakura, even down to the clothing (which is an odd detail).
This is when a whole bunch of magic gets flung around by almost everyone, Fei-Wang, Syaoran, Syaoran’s parents, and Fai. Fei-Wang is incredibly powerful and everything they throw at him doesn’t seem to be enough. Then Syaoran casts a magic circle and Fei-Wang is shocked to find it the same as Clow Reed, and appears a little frightened. The book then cuts to Yuko in the land of dreams where the Copy Syaoran is remade. Because he was man made, he doesn’t die, he simply vanishes, the same for the soul of Copy Sakura. Before that happened, Yuko brought them both to the dreaming, and now she is going to present C-Syaoran with a choice. And volume ends.