Shadowdance

Prologue

He was so handsome. Chul felt an overwhelming despair when he looked at the young man in front of him. Clad in white, Syaoran looked like a vengeful angel. Such power and beauty, but the eyes, the amber eyes were filled with mad hatred and sinister delight. The handsome mouth turned up in an ugly smirk.

" Abuji," Syaoran called, his voice laced with dark sarcasm, " You are looking well."

Chul felt something inside him shatter as he raised his own sword. His mind traveled back to the days when the boy was still young, and Chul had practiced with him the art of sword fighting. That time the child had been so tiny, so young and precious. His heart ached when he looked upon the man before him, so tall and grown and filled with hate. What happened? What had gone wrong? What had he done wrong?

" You can still stop this, Li Xiaolang." Chul said to the young man stoically, even as his heart turned in anguish.

" So cold." Syaoran sneered again. " I suppose one cannot expect less of the Water Lord. But I know you. I know you too well. You hide your pathetic thoughts behind that mask." He raised his hand. " How about it, Abuji. A duel to the death. After all, you can never be sure I am stopped unless I am dead at your feet."

Agony laced through him, emotional agony, the fear of letting his son win, the even greater fear of defeating him. There must still be a way to save Syaoran from this darkness. There must be another way so that Chul would not have to kill his own son. He could not kill Syaoran, but he had to. Chul wanted to weep.

But his son was dead. Long long ago. Something happened to allow this monster to take his place. Was Syaoran really dead though? Could there be some trace of him left?

They fought. Syaoran was a whirlwind of energy, Chul was a vortex of hot and cold. Syaoran had the brute strength of magic behind his artful swordsmanship, but Chul had the experience and strategy. Every clash made Chul feel remorse, regret. It had been clashes of a different form that led to this. It was all his fault, all his fault—

And suddenly Syaoran lost. The blade pierced slightly into his neck, only skin-deep, leaving a thin trail of blood. Chul held the blade steady, careful not to shake. Shaking meant losing his grip. Syaoran was on his knees, his white robes ripped and torn at the collar, but still so magnificent, even when humbled. The air around them crackled with doom, and Syaoran held his gaze, eyes defiant, with that horrid smirk on his face.

" Go ahead." The young man taunted. " The great Water Lord never hesitated before. What is another child?"

This time Chul's hand did shake. He must. He must kill Syaoran. Syaoran had to die. There was no turning back now. If he let Syaoran go, Syaoran will kill. The world will descend farther into turmoil, this time with no hope of recovery.

He stabbed, while his heart screamed—

Chul woke with a start. Syaoran stirred next to him, but settled again. The child's body was warm against his, alive and safe. Chul took a deep breath and sighed.

He had kept Syaoran by his side, even at night, and Syaoran had not complained. The first night Syaoran had nightmares, soft ones that had him whimpering in distress but not really screaming as Chul had almost done. He had been calling for his mother and trying to get her to wait for him. Chul had sent healing water, which comforted the child enough that Syaoran afterwards seemed to almost prefer staying with Chul. The child's own moon magic was a comfort to Chul as well, calm and soothing, helping with his own problems at night.

The Water Lord ran his fingers through his sweat-drenched hair. The despair was receding, but still eating at his heart. Relief flooded through him when he realized it was just a nightmare, that Syaoran was still small and safe and well and his. Well not his but, at least not that.

He dared not hug the boy, but snuggled so that Syaoran cuddled next to him. He listened to Syaoran's breathing, which was deep, nearing a snore. The boy was exhausted. Usually Syaoran was a lighter sleeper, perhaps because of his childhood training. Tonight he did not even wake when Chul was in the throes of his nightmare. Either Chul was masking his aura too well, or the child was too deeply asleep to sense it.

Chul shut his eyes. Syaoran was a good child, so good, but the danger in the dream was real. As thunderspeaker Syaoran would literally have no enemies once he is trained enough. He could do whatever he wanted. And the Shadowmasters will make sure to use that to advantage of that. It was what they excelled at.

But Syaoran did not have that hate. And Chul silently vowed to give Syaoran all the love he could want, so that he would never know it. He reached out and smoothed the boy's hair. The boy did not stir again.

Chul closed his eyes.

oO

In celebration of their newest member, the waterspeakers decided to take Syaoran to the beach. The waterspeakers were not actually on any physical location in either one of the Koreas. It was simply necessary to use the gate in South Korea near Incheon. The gate was opened fairly easily by any magician, but is fairly obscure to non-magical beings. So far, in all the years of its existence, the waterspeakers only had four humans pass through unknowingly and millions of insects, birds, and squirrels, occasionally rabbits and and snakes, so the gate was never guarded. The area the waterspeaker village itself was located was like another Korea on a different dimension, with the North and South sides merged because magicians had no problems with capitalism or communism. Therefore, the land, the weather, the general design was still very much normal Korea, and some waterspeaker children even go to school in South Korea. And apparently, Korea was not hot enough during the summer for waterspeakers to really enjoy swimming, because they chose the Caribbean as the hangout spot.

Syaoran, still shy, though it came out as being rather moody, was not really inclined to wear swimming shorts and nothing else while surrounded by comparatively proud and loud waterspeakers. It further discouraged him when Chul was also not inclined to degrade himself that way. Syaoran therefore settled with a normal t-shirt and shorts, which was just as well because as much of a swimmer as he was, he could not hope to compete with the fish-like or dolphin-like stunts that the waterspeaker children were pulling.

He had felt distinctly out of place from the start, but he felt even more like a misfit now. Not only was he not Korean like most of them, he was a thunderspeaker, the only one of his kind. And while this might have earned him some merit he was still rather lonely, with only Chul to confide in, and Chul, despite his warmer nature, was not the easiest person to bother at a whim. The mishap in Tomoeda still disturbed him, and Chul's constant guard, to the point where he kept Syaoran by his side even at night, did nothing to dispel that.

Chul's constant guard did alleviate one of Syaoran's fears completely. The Water Lord was willing to do anything to keep the boy safe, and this time he even did it without complaining. Syaoran doubted that even if Chul knew he had to keep an eye on Syaoran at all times, the waterspeaker would have allowed Syaoran to sleep by his side at nights had there not been genuine affection. It was the ultimate protection, but also as close to the ultimate violation of privacy as one gets.

One of the girls brought the boy out of his musings. She was waving to him, calling for him to join the group.

" Come on," Ritsuko was in a swimsuit. Actually, Chul was dressed in casual clothes as well, but somehow he still managed to look regal. " Why don't you go into the water. Maybe they can help you go faster, you never know." She winked.

Syaoran reluctantly allowed himself to be convinced. The water was beautiful, the beach white and the sea a turquoise blue and many types of fish swimming near the shore. The sun was bright, and Syaoran could vaguely remember the feeling of light, when he had been among them, shining down into the depths of the Caribbean. Now though, the sunlight was more invigorating than harmful as it might be to the others.

He dove in.

The waters were slightly colder than the outside, at first, but quickly grew warm. He felt the presence of other waterspeakers pushing him deeper and marveled at how fast he was going now. He did not even have to move, since they were pushing him. The dolphins were a little further away, and they pushed him to them because the dolphins were fun creatures, intelligent and inquisitive and friendly. They knew him, strangely enough, and brushed him as they passed around him. He has met them before, as light, and dolphins are sensitive beings.

He smiled. The water felt cool to his teeth. The dolphins hovered in front of him and nodded exuberantly, opening their mouths in a wide grin and clicking and making loud whistling noises. One of them even brought him a clam, still alive and whole. He accepted.

Above the water at the beach Chul sat down next to Matt.

" Something bugging you?" Matt asked. He cursed at the sand. " So much of it. Gets into my eyes."

" I had a dream."

" What dream?"

" I had to kill Syaoran."

Matt tossed at the sand. He blew at it. " Jesus." He muttered. " Well, that's not really surprising."

Angry, Chul glared. " What's that supposed to mean?"

" It's a possibility we were all facing." Matt pointed out. " Kid's freaking family dies in one go, plus he gets chased by a bunch of firespeakers. If he were anyone else going insane would be relatively harmless, but as thunderspeaker there's no way to contain him."

" That's a lot of help. Thanks a lot."

" Well I'm just saying." Matt kicked at the sand, cursing the sand again.

" You do that you'll just get more all over yourself." Chul snapped.

" Yeah, well," Matt shrugged. " In any case you were aware of it too. Just take the steps to prevent it, that's all. You and the kid are already developing a bond."

Chul sighed. " I don't know. He still seems very uncomfortable with me."

" I heard that's kind of how he usually was. Takes a lot of comfort to sleep with someone like you. Jesus, you and your magical twitches. I'm surprised the kid isn't dead on his feet."

Chul glanced at Matt thoughtfully. " I haven't been having those."

" Hm. Really?"

" Yeah. He gives me moon magic too, from his sorcerer blood."

" Ah. Good kid. He's a nice kid. Heard from Nakuru that he's the type that makes you want to avoid him but secretly does nice things that completely overweighs anything out of his mouth. That's what Eriol said, anyway. He knows how to be considerate through actions, anyway."

" He's a good kid." Chul agreed.

Matt cursed the sand again. " You seem to take this dream very seriously for some reason."

" It didn't feel like a mere dream."

" You think it's a premonition?"

" I'm hoping it's not."

" Well, what was happening in the dream?"

Chul paused. " He was taunting me. He was a lot older. I think he might be taller than I am."

Matt whistled. " Good for the ladies. Taunting you? What was he saying?"

" He was telling me to kill him." Chul sighed. " He was inviting me to duel. To the death. Because he can't be stopped until he's dead."

" Sounds like paranoia." Matt quipped. " Anything else?"

" We fought." Chul said slowly, gazing out into the beautiful sea. " We fought, and I won, somehow. And he was kneeling before me and my sword was against his neck. He was telling me to kill him, because…he knew about the other children and…well…"

" Did you?"

" I was going to." Chul replied neutrally. " But I woke up just before I struck."

" Okay, still sounds like paranoia. What about the dream has you so worried?"

Chul paused. " The detail."

" Detail?"

" You know how premonitions are very detailed. They're just short." Chul replied. " It was like it was real. Everything was real. Syaoran was real…older, but real. He was wearing white robes to signify light. He had that white chou. He had this headdress on."

" Erm…okay…" Matt paused. " We don't usually get that many premonitions." He added, referring to elementals. Chul shook his head.

" I want to see a seer."

" You can, no one will stop you." Matt replied. " I know a good one. She's in Brazil. Don't know her name, but supposedly she's called the Blue Raven. Maybe when you get a chance you can take Syaoran there with you."

Chul hesitated. " I doubt Syaoran would appreciate the idea of me thinking of him as some evil maniac."

" She'll know to keep silent, I'm sure. After all, if she doesn't then she's not a good oracle."

" True." Chul suddenly froze. " Syaoran."

" What?"

The Water Lord got to his feet. " Something's wrong. Syaoran!"

oO

The dolphins bumped into him affectionately, clicking loudly so Syaoran's head almost hurt. He grabbed onto the dorsal fin of one which sped through the waters like a bullet, taking him along with it. It suddenly doubled back in a frenzy, whistling almost frantically. Afraid that he had hurt it or offended it somehow, Syaoran let go.

Behind him a shadow loomed in the otherwise clear waters. Syaoran saw it and realized his mistake. The waterspeaker children knew not to push him out of Chul's sight, but the dolphins did not. Then again, he had no idea that the dolphin would take him on a short trip to the deeper sea.

The dolphin had come back, and this time Syaoran realized it wanted him to grab on again. Syaoran did so, but the shadow surrounded them like a school of fish. The dolphin went up and made to leap out of the water, but Syaoran lost his hold on its slippery fin. Falling into the shadow, he felt it entangle around him, its touch cold and slimy.

Syaoran, He heard his father's voice call, My son…

Syaoran was not easily fooled. Though he did long for his father, he was not so gullible as to instantly forget the years of neglect, or that one day when his father acted so cruel. He used his moon magic, but that was nothing against this shadow.

Come with me, my son, His father's voice beckoned, All shall be well…

Syaoran was quickly losing air. The blackness surrounded him and he could not tell which direction was up. Though the shadow itself did nothing to contain him, Syaoran was lost in it. Normally he would just let his body float, but that seemed to take forever to reach the surface. He let out a bit of breath and struggled frantically. It really should not be that hard to tell which direction was up! And where was that dolphin?

Suddenly, something plunged into the shadow. He was suddenly moving, being propelled, and the shadow dissipated to reveal light, the beach not too far away. Syaoran choked and Chul grabbed him. They shot out of the water.

Matt cursed as Chul checked Syaoran over. Syaoran felt like all his energy had been sucked out somehow and lay on the beach towel while his guardian did so.

" He wasn't even that far away," One of the children exclaimed fearfully, " The dolphin just shot off but he wasn't that far."

" No, he wasn't." Chul replied neutrally. " Syaoran, Syaoran can you talk?"

He was touching Syaoran's hand, which meant Chul knew Syaoran was feeling almost nauseous by now. Syaoran tried to speak, but that only brought a new wave of nausea.

" Too close." Matt continued cursing. " That was too close."

One of the waterspeakers knelt down to try to heal him. " There's nothing wrong with him." He said. Ritsuko took her turn, examining him.

" It's some kind of influence." She said to Chul. " The shadow."

" He is light. It's not surprising." Chul replied. He looked at the boy and frowned. " Hang in there kid."

" Is he going to be alright?" A teen asked.

" Should be. We might as well go back. We know Lee is here." Chul sighed. " He has been keeping to his word."

Matt cursed, still muttering. " How did he trace us like that?"

Gathering his charge in his arms, Chul evaporated into mist along with Syaoran. Everyone else looked at each other awkwardly.

" Hmph." Matt muttered, disappearing into wind. He was not going to Korea with them. Everyone else also evaporated, leaving the beach empty. The festive mood had shattered.