Netherworld
By SMYGO4EVA
Syaoran-kun…
Sakura supposed that by now, she had forgotten what the diamond-like stars and the beautiful moon looked like.
She had been in the unknown realm of where time-space was halted for so long now that she had lost count of the days she was there. She doesn't really mind though; sleep was what she wanted after the long and painful journey she had so far, and time didn't really matter all that much, not really.
Sakura felt that she should have forgotten what the outside world looked like, but she was always reminded of the glorious sun of Clow Country, and the lovely moon at nighttime – and the kingdom would be surrounded by stars every now and then, too. It didn't matter that the stars that she saw in this realm were beautiful, but they were murderous.
It didn't matter because even their twisted, dark forms sparkle in the darkness of the time-space realm.
The time-space realm held the worst of those stars, but Sakura thought it was the most interesting because they were like eyes in the pitch black of the world, and they are the ones that shine the most. It didn't matter that those eyes are full of malice – they still shimmer as brightly as the stars back in the world where time and space were completely different from each other, and where time had graced itself upon the worlds so beautifully.
She still didn't know where Syaoran had gone, and no matter how she had felt at him, she couldn't help but worry about him, about Fai, Kurogane, and Mokona.
In her mind, her ever whirring mind, she remembered a single memory a few years ago, back when she and Syaoran had first met; when he had noticed her in the reflecting waters when they were little. It seemed like fate that they would meet just like that, and it was years ago now, and it was Syaoran of all people, so she didn't understand why they were apart right now.
She missed his warm smile, and his friendly nature – she felt her heart ache just thinking about him.
Syaoran-kun….
"Still thinking about that Syaoran, are you, princess?"
Her eyes burst open upon hearing an unknown yet eerily familiar voice, whipping her head round to see from her sleeping quarters, that someone she never thought she'd see again was there.
The person who was the false doctor from Jade Country, and arrived again in Piffle World, was sitting just across from her with a bored smirk on his face.
Dr. Kyle…
With an all-knowing leer on his face, he looked straight at her, his eyes twinkling, glittering with a subtle glint of joy as he saw her tremble under his gaze.
She jumped when he stood up, half-walking, half-gliding across the room before throwing himself onto the bed beside her, a toothy vampire-like grin on his face.
Sakura shivered under the false doctor's gaze, wanting desperately to change it so she couldn't see it even when he was smiling with his mouth closed. It was so disconcerting and just added to the impression she was that he wanted to devour her whole.
"Never thought you would see me again, did you, princess?" Kyle spoke to Sakura, an unusually mischievous tone in his voice.
It wasn't a question.
"You shouldn't rely on your beloved Syaoran for anything, you know – except for getting what you wanted all this time, the precious feathers, but I guess I oughtn't to have told you that."
Sakura narrowed her eyes, her hands clenching themselves in a growing bout of fury, bubbling inside her very being.
She didn't think she'd felt so angry in a very long time.
"Stop it."
Kyle's eyes thinned at her uncharacteristic response, reflecting both a disgusted look and yet shown an aroused light in his dark orbs.
For reasons only known to her, Sakura felt absolutely infuriated. She was upset enough as it was with the false doctor, yet for some reason Kyle seemed to delight in making her even more miserable.
What did she ever do to him?
Nothing that was what.
She, Syaoran, Kurogane, Fai and Mokona did absolutely nothing and yet he still acted like an incorrigible fool.
He still preyed upon them like a vulture to a carcass.
Her fists clenched even tighter and her eyes thinned into dark emerald slits.
"You're one to talk!" she growled, briefly aware of Syaoran's voice in the back of her mind, kindly chastising her for snarling like that. It wasn't befitting of someone of her nature.
"You and your master have done nothing but make everyone's lives miserable, bending and twisting them to benefit your own agenda, to bend fate in your favor! And don't you dare talk about my friends that way!"
Sakura didn't need to elaborate; the damage done by Kyle and the Master to Fai, Kurogane, and Syaoran's lives was more than enough testimony to that.
The false doctor then tilted his head, his dark eyes piercing her own orbs, sending a chill to crawl down her spine, stifling her fury with just one look.
"I seem to have underestimated you, princess Sakura – you're more foolish than I thought. You're not that different from your dear magician friend."
Said princess's eyes shoot open, and then narrow suspiciously.
"What do you mean?"
Kyle grinned, this showing none of his teeth – this made him seem even more elusive.
"So naïve, my dear Sakura, knowing nothing of your precious mage companion, and what is being done to him at this very moment – something you wouldn't even have dreamed of."
Sakura straightened up in her sitting spot and looked around furiously before finding herself frozen in the exact spot.
"Fai-san? He-He's here? Wh-What have you done to him?"
The false doctor shook his head almost lazily, closing his eyes before opening them to the distressed princess once again.
"No need to worry, princess. I'm sure he is alright, for the moment, but what a certain assistant had made him feel was surely nothing he had ever felt before. What you and He have in common is that this place is not an illusion, may it be a dream, but it is a mirror of your own consciousness."
Sakura shivered under his gaze, his gaze piercing and unsettling within the color of dimmed cobalt.
"The difference, dear princess, is that I never take matters such at that seriously. You, on the other hand…"
He grinned once more, and then reached out, tracing a finger across her lips and peering at her as if she was a work of art. It was a look she had seen him feature a few times, but it was never been directed at her before, which is why she was too stunned to flinch away from him.
She notice that his eyes weren't cerulean like she had thought - they had become dark, sinister, in the shade of blood-red nightfall.
He grinned, the expression predatory, feral and more than enough to make Sakura turn scarlet. She didn't know why; this was the false doctor, but his eyes let on a menacing and seductive glare, more than enough to make her tremble under his touch.
"There is a way to escape from my grasp, dear princess…as well as a way to save your magician friend…," Kyle whispered, an undertone of malicious glee in his voice. "But trust me – there's no chance of that."
The princess was rendered speechless, frozen as his lips met her own; the starlight was then eclipsed in the realm that was akin to the netherworld.