A/N: And I broke the record for least time taking me from the moment the story concieved in my head and until I published it - a whole week. I'm kinds proud of, I must say, because I went trough lots of trouble with this story. After writing it in my military base (I'm a soldier) until midnight I returned home the next morning and forgot the story at the base! Those were two really sad days, plus I was ill and with no Internet connection. But why blabbering about my personal life - the story is more interesting!

This is a sneak peek to my future story "Alternative Universe", which is my commentary on what Syaoran's journey looking for a cure for the Death Seal placed on Sakura looked like. Besically I went really wild with that story so I'm really proud of myself - I'm going to use it for the sake of filling plotholes, answering questions, altering the CLAMP multiverse a bit and affording a happier sulotios to some characters who deserved it. Publishing it might take a bit longer, though, as couple of days ago I realized I've left a hugh plothole in my story... oops. As soon as I fix that you'll get the full story. I promise.

And this oneshot is just a part of it. I'm not telling the time setting, but the world should be quite obvious.
Presented in this oneshot is A from "Clover".

Enjoy~!

Rated T / Fantasy / Xing Huo, Syaoran / No spoilers / Original manga by CLAMP / Oneshot by Tomi Lang

It seemed like the late night have always been shrouded in only three colors - obsidian black, indigo blue and dark swampy green. Blue and black were painted together from one side of the horizon to the other, and the swampy green stuck to everything on ground and above - soft grass, rough tree trunks, thin and thick branches, and complex and extensive treetops, which looked more like large bushes placed on top of the trees than their assembly of leaves. From all plants the dark brownish-green dripped - so many shades of it, so different from each other, that watching them challenged the naked eye beyond its ability and limits. Especially in this nearly pitch-black darkness.

The young woman was hoping to see tonight the same yellow friendly spots of light from night before, but it seemed like they were reluctant to appear. Instead, they have left her alone, sitting on the grass with her back against the trunk of a thick and tall tree, hugging her knees and staring into the dark night, as far as her eyes could see.

"Not even a single bright night in this place", a cold voice was heard above her, echoing her thoughts.

The woman raised her head to the voice's source, seeing no more than a dark silhouette of a boy sitting on one of the many tree's branches, his legs hanging down. Only a pair of slender, bright and bare legs was visible from the dark figure, yet these legs were almost invisible as well, as they were clad in the black trousers the boy wore.

Returning her gaze to the darkness of the forest, the woman replied in a voice as chilled as the boy's, "Even the fireflies have ditched on us today".

The boy made a slight chuckle.

"You know", she added as an afterthought while rubbing her bare feet slowly through the tall grass. "It's nice to once in a while remove your shoes and feel the ground under your feet, for a change". A pair of tall black boots rested beside her like two soldiers, held high and proud. "Maybe I should start going barefoot, like you".

There was no answer. The woman looked up, trying to see if she could read the boy's face. His legs were not hanging from the tree anymore, and after squinting a bit she realized that he had lifted them, leaned against the trunk and rested his legs on the tree branch while she wasn't looking at him.

"Xiao Lang?" She tried to attract his attention.

It seemed like he has just heard her, and as he moved his head towards her direction, his face appeared in the dim moonlight. His expression was frozen and tense, as always, and his single eye pierced into her face in an examining look. However, his face softened slightly as he spoke.

"Did you say anything?"

She shrugged, removing any matter of what she has just said, and yet going on. "I just said the ground feels nice under my feet."

A slight smile rose on the boy's face, one of his rather bitter than merry smiles, and his gaze wandered towards the moon as if pulled by a magnet. The bright light reflected in his eye and created a strange pool of silver and amber. In an almost automatic gesture, he lifted a hand to the fabric patch covering his left eye, and when he spoke, his voice was distant.

"You shouldn't walk barefoot. If I could, I'd already walk around in shoes".

On the surface it seemed like the act of switching attention to the moon had nothing to do with the things he had said, but the young woman clearly knew that in context for both, the boy's mind wandered to memories and landscapes which remained a thing of the past.

Seconds after growing silent, his face disappeared in the tree's darkness.

She looked away from him, but instead of returning to stare at the darkness of the forest in front of her, she looked down at her glove-clad hands as they fumbled with the hem of the black dress she wore. Her thoughts also wandered home and back to all that she left behind.

"How far we are from what we knew and loved", she muttered to herself. "And how close we are to hell. Trapped in a bloody tournament of simulation games where we chase our own tails in a dark labyrinth..." Her head darted towards the black sky, and it reflected in her oval eyes, extinguishing their regular spark. She sighed and proceeded to talk to herself.

"And in this abyss... In this game inside our heads... we lose ourselves… and from dream persuaders we become the Devil's messengers... what does it mean about us, Xiao Lang?" She wondered if he even heard her, let alone listened.

"What have we become?"

Her question was never answered and was not to be until death and beyond.

Above her she heard the boy standing up and her mind was forced to return to present and reality - or virtual reality, at least. For they were not in reality, but in a computerized game. Leave the maze or eliminate all opponents - and win.

And it seems like the opponent has just arrived.

"Xing Huo". The boy's voice was heard in perfect silence above her. Her only response was a slight nod. One hand was sent to her boots and the other was used to support herself and move to a compliance posture.

Out of the darkness came a young man clad in white - a color standing in stark contrast to the darkness of the night. His black hair was tied in a loose ponytail resting on his right shoulder, and his quicksilver-colored eyes reflected the cold smile on his lips. He moved towards them slowly, his hands hanging loosely at his sides and his expression in a relaxed manner which looked almost suspicious, not to say - dangerous.

"How comfortable", he announced with a festivity of a launch ceremony. "To catch two crows with one stone. The two remaining members of the black team exactly at the same place, just waiting to be killed in a wave of a hand".

The woman's eyes hardened. She understood the slight clue hanging in the word 'remaining'.

"Just like I iced your teammate." The smile on the stranger's face widened. "What a pity that death here is not finite... but on the other hand, if we end up competing against each other once again..."

She heard the boy landing beside her with a cat's grace.

"…I can just kill you two again".

As he spoke, she had already managed to slip her legs into her boots and move into a battle stance. Beside her, the boy mimicked the stance in perfect accuracy, as if they were a man and his reflection.

This did not stop the opponent from talking instead of beginning the battle, though. He seemed to enjoy the talking, especially with the tilt of his head and his joyless chuckle.

"And of all contestants in the tournament, I am to meet no other than the infamous Bat Siblings. Now I see what has won you that nickname." He gestured with his head towards their matching black outfits and the red bat symbol they both bore on their chests. "And I have yet to even mention your dubious reputation - twenty-seven games in a row with not even a single death, and forty-three games without dying in total. And these are just two out of the twelve records you broke in this tournament, including most records for any contestant ever... if I kill you right here and now, not only the game will be over, but also I'll be responsible for breaking your magnificent sequence".

The woman's brain was about to explode from both impatience and the ease with which the stranger stretched the moment as if it were chewing gum. It seemed like he was going to enjoy the battle - which was not part of her and her partner's priorities, on the other hand. All of these games have grown her into eagerly looking forward to the finals and winning the tournament – the victory must be theirs, obviously.

They desired the prize as much as any other contestant did, more or less.

"We have already understood that you can talk," she made her voice heard to the opponent before he could continue his speech. "But can you fight as well?"

The stranger smirked. "I've gotten all the way here. Of course I can fight".

In unified hand gestures and a golden beam the woman and the boy next to her summoned two identical swords and grasped them with steady hands. The stranger understandingly accepted the impatient signal to begin the battle and summoned two scythes with blades on both ends.

"I prefer fighting bare-handed, but I am willing to play by your own rules".

He moved into his own battle stance, ready to leap at any moment.

"And just so you know, in case you haven't heard about my own personal reputation – my name is A".

The boy pointed his sword at the stranger, adding scarcely any words to the almost one-sided conversation. "We know who you are."

If possible, the stranger widened his smile even more than it already was, and both sides attacked each other in a mutual collision of metal blades. In the moonlight, clearing in a mere second, all blades shone together and added an almost blinding silver glow to the obscure night's fallacious and dark variegation – the new color shining bright, standing tall and proud comparing to the dim black, blue and green.

The battle has finished the game indeed – but Xing Huo and Xiao Lang were the ones to be on the winning side.