Disclaimer: All characters and story elements belong to CLAMP, SquareEnix, besides the one I created just to add to the flavor. This story will not exactly follow the anime, manga, movies, or video game storylines, (and I do not proclaim to know everything or enough to show accuracy, for I write whatever comes to mind.) This is my first fan-fiction story.

Tsubasa: Mysterious Version

Prologue

First came a speckle of light, appearing somewhere beyond the vast darkness of outer space. That speckled became greater, brighter, enlarging, forming a vibrant dimensional rift in the fabric of space and time. Spat out from that came a mass of energy hurling through space towards the planet nearby. The streak of light soared fast across the sky like a shooting star during the daytime, swiftly descending towards the surface of the planet.

Down below upon the surface, wind blew along a great grassy plain. Suddenly a burst of power ignited, forming a forceful dome of light. That light soon faded away, leaving only a vague crater where grass once grew, but nothing remained by dirt and dust and a strange looking feather with pinkish tattoo-like markings on the backside.

Suddenly mystical energy erupted underground, attaching to the feather, surging wildly before materializing into a sphere of light. The energy ceased, and the feather remained, but that energy had solidified as a large orb of glassy material. With the orb, that strange feather rested without motion, emanating waves of mysterious magical power.

Lost Memories

This chapter follows the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and xxxHolic manga for understanding.

A burst of magical energy arrived from beyond space and time, speeding toward the planet of a vast solar system before passing through the planet's stratosphere. Slowing from dimensional speed, the streaking burst of energy shifted, changing from its energy form and materializing into tattooed feather. Floating high in the sky, it performed zigzag patterns through the air, descending gently towards the surface of the planet below. A shining globe of energy enveloped the exotic feather, radiating with great mystic power, and soon the feather finally touched down upon land…

Narrowly rescuing her from the mystic anomaly that claimed her soul and her latent powers, Syaoran carried her exhausted body and hurried up the stony stairway, reaching the sun-baked surface of the ancient ruins. Already shocked by the poor condition of the princess, he felt surprised to see dead soldiers in black uniforms lying about. That included defenseless members of the excavation team, mean and women dressed in civilian clothing.

There stood the King, trembling in agony, barely strong enough to stand on two feet. His eyes narrowed to near slits, and he appeared as if about to faint.

With the princess in his arms, Syaoran cried, "What happened?

King Ashura, wishing he never stepped foot outside the castle today, dropped to his knees, fairly subdued from battle. His hand could barely hold that huge-bladed sword in his possession, and it dropped to the dusty ground. Clank!

The quick-footed priest rushed to his aid, catching his body before it dropped to the ground face first. He held the King upright, trying to help preserve his royal dignity in the presence of that youngster, but Syaoran seem too concerned about the King's condition to care.

Syaoran carried the princess, approaching the King and crouched down before him, for his arms grew tire of holding the limp princess. He watched the priest examine the King for a moment.

"There seems to be poison on the opponents' swords," said the priest.

Poison? Syaoran's youthful heart pounded hard with his chest in fear, and she cried, "Are you okay?"

The King, seemingly fazed, drooped his head and did not respond.

"King!"

Delirious from pain and taint burning the blood within his veins, the nonchalant King lifted his glance to meet Syaoran's eyes, and he smirked, saying, "You're late, brat."

Syaoran stood on his knees feeling helpless before the King, speechless.

"You didn't hurt Sakura, did you?" With those final words, his body fell limp before he blacked out.

The priest trembled emotion, and whined, "I won't let the King die." The dark haired ruler felt heavy within his arms, even lifeless, but that was when he realized that Sakura appeared the same way—lying in the youngster's arms, unconscious. He turned his head, glancing at the boy and his childhood friend. "The princess…"

Syaoran fearfully explained, practically stuttering. "There were runes symbols under the ruins, and there was and earthquake and then…"

A sun tanned hand glided towards his face, touching its fingers upon Syaoran's forehead before he could finish his explanation of what happened down below the surface. A spark of mystical light radiated from that point of touch, filling the priest's mind with fast cycling images of recent events. "I am reading your memories," said the pries, now witnessing a flashing glimpse of feathers—dozens of them with intricate tattoo-like patterns of runic design upon their surfaces, and these many feathers sped by as streaks of mystic light, seemingly transcending space and time before vanishing into oblivion. The priest gazed into the boy's eyes, shocked, and he said with concern, "The Princess' feathers scattered… didn't they?"

"Yes," he said, watching the nervous priest sweat bullets.

Scared to discover the truth, the priest nervously placed his mystic fingers upon Sakura's forehead to read her mind, only to find that her memories were… gone. "Those feathers are the Princess' memories."

"Memories?" The boy bunched his eyebrows, puzzled.

Shocked by this psychic investigation of Sakura's mind, he removed his mystic touch and stood up as if in a state of shock. Seemingly staring off into space, he spoke and said, "The memories from the time she was born are now gone from her… and…"

Syaoran, still holding the fainted princess in his arms compassionately, frowned at the priest, wishing he would stop staring off into space and finished the sentence. Something was apparently wrong with the princess, and he felt eager to know why.

Gazing off into the distant desert horizon, he said, "The scattered memories are no longer in this world."

"Huh?"

"With no memories, the body is merely an empty container."

Syaoran trembled with her in his arms, deeply concerned, gazing into her sleeping girlish face.

"Because of this, the princess…"

"Is there something I can do? Anything!"

The priest, in his silence, suddenly snapped back into reality and acknowledged the seriousness of this situation. "There will be no hesitation," he said, waving a hand through the air while performing magic with his fingers. He realized how much time he wasted being in a state of shock, so she said, "I shall take all the blame." A mage staff mystically materialized in his hand, and he increased the power of his spell, waving both the staff and free hand through the air while weaving swirls of magical energy. "I will now send you to another world where people live, the place where someone has the same power of the moon."

That moon emblem at the head of the staff glowed with power.

Flames of desperation burned at his heart and mind, provoking him to shout out. "Who is that person? What do I do to get there?"

"The person is called the Spacetime Witch. Please tell everything to that person, to find a ways to save Sakura." His powerful spell came to near completion when dimension streak of energy began wrapping around Syaoran and the Princess.

Engulfed within a shroud of energy, Syaoran and the princess in his arms were thrust into a realm of dimensional shifting activity, as the world as he knew it had gone away. Syaoran found himself hurling through a spiraling realm of pure magical energy, but all he could do was kept his mind on Sakura, hoping that he would soon discover a way to save her.