A/N: ch 10, rewritten.

Chapter 10:

Somewhere in the countless dimensions, in a distant world, the sun sunk low, hiding behind the fluffy white clouds which hovered just above the distant horizon along the western ridge. The soft pink glow of the fading sunlight enveloped a semi modern looking city consisting of sloping roofed bricked houses and other important looking official buildings. A dark haired man could be seen making his way across the streets, his head bowed low, brow furrowed in a thoughtful frown, hands digging deep into the pockets of a pair of blue pants. He wore a jacket of a similar shade on the upper part of his body.

He seemed to be paying little mind to the direction in which he was heading. It was almost as if his feet were leading him in a certain pre-determined direction towards a destination he didn't even know of. Sooner than he would have expected, he found himself standing before a strange, oriental looking shop. Without even meaning to, he pushed against the small wooden door and stepped inside.

"And I am not your servant!" a raven-haired boy in his late teens emerged from inside the shop as the rice paper door slid apart. The boy still had his head turned towards the shop but his blue eyes widened the minute they fell on the startled man.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was walking in here." the man apologized quickly as he turned around and tried to walk out the way he had come.

"Wait!" he heard the teen call out behind him. Surprisingly enough, he found himself obeying the boy. It was like his feet had frozen to the ground the minute he had turned around.

"Watanuki, bring him inside," He heard a woman's voice speak. "It's about to rain."

Rain? Not a single cloud had been visible in the sky when he had left his office. It had been barely thirty minutes. Then how? But just as the woman had said, a drop of water fell on his face. Then another and another…

"You can speak inside," the teen spoke quietly as he led the man inside the strange looking shop. He led him upto a pair of rice paper doors but stopped just outside them. "You can speak with her in there." The teen instructed him.

The man was dumbfounded yet funnily enough he found himself sliding the screen doors aside.

"Welcome," an exotic, pale skinned, dark haired woman was leaning on a low back recliner. Grey swirls of thick smoke curled around her frame as she smoked from a wooden pipe. The woman was dressed in a deep cut, figure hugging, deep crimson dress. The color reflected in her eyes, making them appear just as red.

She turned around in her seat and slowly rose from the low seat, taking slow yet coy steps in his direction.

"You're ambitious." She said in a soft tone as she observed him through narrowed eyes. "You dream of overthrowing your current leader to take his place. Your plans have set in motion yet you seem troubled. But not for yourself. A subordinate, perhaps?" she added after a pause.

The man's own eyes mimicked her action, narrowing ever so slightly but in suspicion instead of thoughtfulness.

"You're a state alchemist, no?" she asked as an amused smirk spread across her red lips.

"And you would be?" he finally spoke.

"Yuuko Ichihara," she replied. "Although, it is considered better manners to give your own name first." She gave him a sly grin.

"Flame Alchemist," he replied shortly.

-0-

"Wow!" Syaoran gazed at the stone tablet with awe. "This tablet is still in perfect condition and very well preserved. All of the engravings are clearly visible. It was definitely made by a very skilled craftsman but," a frown formed on his face, the previous twinkle gone from his eyes as the brown orbs dulled considerably. "It's not the complete thing. Half of it is missing. As if someone wanted to keep something a secret."

Naomi and Ian gaped at the boy with shocked faces, just like the rest of the group.

"You can tell all that with just taking a mere glance at the thing?" Maddy said incredulously.

"Well, I did have an interest in archeology," the brown-eyed teen scratched his head sheepishly.

"Can you decipher it?" Naomi seemed to have pulled herself out of the shock induced by the boy's declarations.

"I can try," Kurogane could tell that the teen was trying very hard to hide the extent of his excitement.

"If you don't have anything else to do right now," the grey-eyed commander said. "You could come with us and I'll show you the rest of it."

"I'd like to come too." Sakura said softly, right before she swayed and fell to the ground. Or she would have if Syaoran hadn't caught her.

"Is that all the Sleeping Beauty can ever do? Mumble and then fall asleep?" Maddy said as she rolled her eyes.

"She does eat, you know," Xahra said conversationally.

"Oh yeah, that too," The brown haired girl said in a somewhat careless manner.

"Sakura-chan has only regained two of her feathers so far," Fay's expression was somewhat serious. "I'm sure she'll be more energetic once she gets a few more of them."

"For her own sake, I sure hope that will be the case," Maddy mumbled as she bent forward and took the unconscious girl from Syaoran.

"I'll take her back," she explained noticing the boy's surprised look. "You go ahead and enjoy yourself."

"But-" the amber-eyed boy tried to protest.

"It's not a problem, really." Maddy said with a shrug as a small smile formed on her lips. She adjusted the girl in her arms, "Shower your adorations on some thousand year old rock…"

"I'll come along too," Xahra chirped happily, sending a grin in her friend's direction.

"Me too," Fay declared as a thousand watt grin formed on his face.

"Don't forget about Mokona." The white bunny hopped onto Syaoran's head.

"Meh. Do whatever you want." Kurogane grunted as he turned his back to the group. "I'm going back to the house."

The group had left the house to roam about the city and gather information regarding the feather. So far, they had come up with nothing whatsoever.

They had barely entered the marketplace when Sakura had spotted Naomi and Ian.

Having nothing else to do, the group had headed in their direction, hoping to get some information from the two. Although as luck would have it, before they could have asked something, or anything for that matter, Syaoran had spotted the stone tablet tucked under Naomi's arm…

"Ungh!" Maddy grunted as she shifted the unconscious girl in her arms. For all her petite physic and dainty outward appearance, the girl sure was heavy. Out of the corner of her eye, she cast a look at the red-eyed man walking next to her in a careless manner. So much for hoping he might turn out to be a gentleman.

What did they feed the princess back in her world? She thought as she shifted the girl yet again, but refused to ask the ninja for help. If he hadn't had the sense to offer some help, then she be damned before she ever asked for some. She could handle carrying a heavy sack of flour for a while. Wait! What! A sack of flour? Where the heck had that thought come in from?

Shifting the sleeping princess, so that her head was resting on her shoulder, Maddy cast a look around her to see where they were. The narrow lawns and stone building on either side of them told her that they had yet to enter the residential areas of the city.

Maddy inwardly groaned as the realization struck her that she was going to have to carry the girl for another five minutes at least.

"Why did you volunteer for it, if you had not wanted to carry her?" Kurogane snorted at her. Okay, so maybe she had groaned out loud.

"It was quite evident that Syaoran really wanted to see the rest of that stone tablet," she replied as she shifted the unconscious girl yet again. "Seeing how excited he got at the sight of that rock, I figured he would enjoy it."

The ninja gave her a careless shrug as he kept on walking beside her.

"Unfortunately for me though," she continued. "I had no idea that someone thinks it's okay to not offer any help when a person seems… to be struggling under a heavy… sack of flour…" she grunted the last parts.

"A sack of flour?" Kurogane turned to look at her with a raised brow.

Damn! I said that out loud? Feeling the heat rising along her cheeks, she mumbled out something incoherent about the sun and the weather being too stuffy.

Kurogane chose not to comment on that as he merely looked on ahead, resuming their walk. The sight of the silver shimmering shield in the distance caused her hopes to lift somewhat.

Just when they were at the end of the street, it happened.

"Oof!" all the air rushed out of her lungs as she tripped on something and lost her balance. The weight of the unconscious princess caused her already poor balancing skills to suffer and her to tumble. The sleeping girl flew out of her arms as she fell on the hard stone road. Grazing her arms and knees in the process.

"Great." She groaned loudly, picking herself up while brushing off dust off of her clothes at the same time. "Maddy, the great klutz, has done it again. I swear it. This dimension travelling stuff is messing with my coordination skills. I mean come on. Twice in less than two day? Gimme a break already."

"Oh wait," she stopped her rant only to look around quickly, realizing that something or rather someone was missing. "Where is… Sakura." She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the girl slung across the red-eyed ninja shoulder.

"Phew! It's a good thing you caught her Blackie," she wiped non-existent sweat from her brow as she looked at the man. "With my luck, I guess the poor girl would have ended up getting bruised if you hadn't caught her."

"My name is Kurogane." Said man growled in a low voice as Maddy carelessly began walking ahead of him.

"I know," Maddy chirped happily before she eyed the bleeding scratches on the palms of her hands. A frown slowly formed on her face as her expression became thoughtful.

"Say, Blackie. Do you have any idea where I could get some metal?" she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, her expression still serious. "And maybe some coal?"

-0-

"..and this is where you will the path to the stone." Syaoran straightened as he finished reciting what was engraved on what appeared to be the remaining part of the stone tablet.

"Hyuu. Syaoran-kun is pretty good." Fay fake whistled as he clapped his hands in acknowledgement. Ian was giving him a strange look but the blond did not seem to have noticed.

"Where did you learn to read this language, again?" Naomi narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. "No one has been able to decipher it since the last two hundred years."

"My father and I used to travel a lot, back in my own world." Syaoran replied somewhat sheepishly. "I learnt this language in one of the northern countries."

"Hey, can I ask you guys something?" Xahra addressed the grey eyed commander and her raven-haired friend. "You guys asked us about something known as jewelstone when you were interrogating us and this stone tablet thingy keeps on mentioning it over and over again. Just what exactly is this jewelstone?"

"You don't know what jewelstones are?" Ian asked in an incredulous manner as though if it was a crime not to know about them.

"Nope," she shook her head. "I wouldn't be asking if I knew. Hey Fay, do you know anything about them?" she directed her lavender-eyed gaze towards the magician.

"I'm afraid not." He replied with a grin.

"In ancient times," Naomi started to speak before Ian could say anything. "There was a group of elders who created six very powerful stones. Four of them were elemental, one spiritual and one physical. The elemental stones were based on the four elements of air, fire, earth and lightening. The spiritual one was will and the physical one was the strength jewelstone."

"What was so special about them?" Xahra blurted out before she could stop herself.

"They could control the elements they were named after for one thing," Naomi replied. "But the power of the stones proved far too strong for the human race so it was decided to hide them all by scattering the stones. The elders then assigned six of the most elite and respected families the task of guarding the location of their respective stone."

"This duty was fulfilled by the descendants of each family for many generations until a few years ago."

"What happened?" this time it was Syaoran who had asked the question.

"Some sort of energy source fell from the sky," Ian answered. "I've heard rumors that it was in the shape of a feather. The presence of this new source unsettled the delicate balance that the guardians had been struggling to maintain for almost a thousand years."

"One of the guardians defected. He sought the jewelstone he had been entrusted to guard with his life." Naomi said in a disgusted manner.

"He found what he was looking for." She nodded, answering the unasked question as she looked at Xahra.

"One would think the bastard would have been satisfied then," Ian growled angrily.

"He went after the other stones." Five pair of eyes turned in Fay's direction.

"That is why you seem to be anxious about finding their locations, right?" he looked at the two natives. "Although it seems to me, you succeeded in finding at least one of them." he was now looking at Naomi.

"Mephistophele found a second one not long after the first," Naomi replied.

"Your friend, Madiha," Ian said, eyeing the group closely. "How did she do that with the earth back in the forest?"

"Believe me, if I knew," Xahra shrugged in response. "I would have told you."

"We really don't know," Fay replied with his ever present grin. "We've been travelling together for less than a week."

-0-

"Syaoran?" Xahra was observing the chocolate haired boy very closely as the three of them, four if you counted Mokona, made their way back across the now darkening streets of Citadel. Sun had set shortly after they had left the underground temple where the rest of the stone tablet had been. It turned out that the chunk that Naomi had been carrying around in her hand had been a very small part. It had taken Syaoran three hours just to finish reading it. Decoding it had taken another whole hour. Add that to the one hour it had taken them to get to the temple and the one it took them to get back, it had been six hours since they had left Sakura, Maddy and Kurogane.

"Yes Xahra-san?" the boy looked up with curious eyes.

"How long ago, did that incident with Sakura happen?" she asked, hating herself for being so tactless. But what Naomi and Ian had said, something kept bugging her about the information.

"Right before the high priest sent us to Yuuko-san's shop," the boy replied, his expression becoming sad and pained.

"Oh," the girl nodded as she bowed her once again.

"Ah! How is it possible?" After almost fifteen minutes of silently walking alongside the two males, the lavender-eyed girl cried out in frustration. "It doesn't make any sense."

"What, Xahra-chan?" the Celesian wizard tilted his head to one side.

"How could there have been a feather here, a few years back," Xahra asked. "If Sakura lost them less than a week ago?"

"It appears as though, time flows differently in different dimensions," Fay replied.

"Huh?" it was Xahra's turn to be confused.

"Think of it this way," Fay explained. "The few days that we spent in Hanshin Republic could have been equivalent to few years in this one. Or," he continued seeing the expression on the girl's face. "The few days we spend here could equal to a few hours in another world."

"So there is a chance that Maddy and Xahra might get back home before the end of the week," Mokona chirped happily.

"Or it could be," Xahra's shoulders slumped, "that we would be gone for years in our own world."

-0-

A/N: I know I picked on poor Sakura, a lot. Sorry I couldn't help it. Oh and if I made mistakes with the part with Yuuko in it, feel free to point out. I haven't exactly read xxxHolic so I have no idea how she behaves around customers in her shop. So please forgive the OOCness.

Oh wait. I have an excuse. This is an AU, thus OOCness be excused or else… *cue evil laughter* Mwahahaha… *shot*

Hope you liked it. Feel free to leave constructive criticism. If you won't then I'll never know what I did wrong.

Ciao!

~Nims