Pushing against the night, Kurogane sights the enemy only seconds before Fai and Syaoran. Fei Wong sits aloof on the high throne blowing smoke into the air. It clouds him like a shroud.

Syoaran abruptly jerks, seeing transparency. "It's a trap," he identifies. The words in the room though, smother. It is only a breath that comes out.

Kurogane's battle cry is the same, but it could be louder than all of the world for what the warrior cares. He's sighted his foe. He's made this promise a lifetime ago.

Fai doesn't have the eyes anymore, but he feels Syaoran's warning more than sees it himself. Though Kurogane has the head-start, Fai shifts like a snowflake caught in an updraft.

Syaoran cannot move himself from his realized halt. Magic buzzes around him. The Witch had told him there'd be a pattern. He'd see what they'd need, finally having an answer. The boy can't accept having to wait though. He doesn't want to watch at what will unfold before it all completes.

The darkness, before the dawn...

Fai's words fall like a memory. Some wishes we cannot have.

Kurogane is fast, red rage. Fai finds his updraft. The smoke glitters and forms by commandment. Time and space condenses.

Syaoran hears himself declare the trap a moment ago, the sound of his voice finally breaking free. It rallies against Kurogane's initial screaming challenge.

Fei Wong's weapon makes no sound, but it slices cleanly. The slightest movement had put Fai ahead. An inch, and Syaoran can imagine the wizard performing the save in the gentlest, most natural way.

The long practiced summon dies on Kurogane's tongue. The wisp which makes up the wizards weight still manages to drive them both back--force, from a terrible, terrible thing. It's probably instinct which leads the warrior to catch them both. The ancient sword Kurogane wields is brandished in unconscious habit, with no one to fight.

A breathless laugh permeates the haze. Syaoran cannot see mirth in the face of their enemy, though. Fei Wong looks displeased, as if this serves as yet another change he must adjust to. His plans must be riddled with exceptions.

It is Fai who draws the laugh. "L-look," he murmurs. "I ma-managed to save some...someone I l--"

"You've saved no one," growls the figurehead, but time deviates Wong. He speaks his words to only himself, and the smoke curls frozen in the air; braided strands of blue and grey.

"You fool," Kurogane doesn't quite growl.

"I have accomplished my wish," Fai says, a grin lopsided and real. "Saved someone important. Sorry for being so...me."

Syaoran foresees the answer, just as he foresees Kurogane respond with, "I will hit you."

Fai chokes on his mirth and what's left of his life. "You...you will have your turn for a wish now. You can have your vengeance."

"I shouldn't have to avenge you too."

Fai, like a snowflake melting, wilts. "Shouldn't have had to save you...either. But we just can't h-help it."

One wish down.

Syaoran watches as the night stops trying to push it's way forward. Rather, the smoke draws back and the words they've all said in the room faintly echo. Fei Wong is standing in front of his throne now, looking down at what remains of his challengers with his confusion almost concealed.

"Boy?" Kurogane asks, still kneeling. Alone. "Do you know how to save the Princess?"

"I do."

The answer had been there all along. All wishes could be had, and it's this very secret that Fei Wong had not been able to unravel.

"Then I'd go do that, if I were you," the warrior says, drawing himself up as if the gravity of stars were pulling him. The night seems to cover him now. "I've got something here to attend to."

Two.

And Sakura--damn everything, fool and favoured--will have the third.