Author's Notes: Again, I appreciate all of your continuous support and incredible show of patience in my updating. I have reached over 150 reviews, and I just about had a heart attack when I discovered it too! Thank you to all of you who have left a review, and a thank you to everyone who is reading this story as well. I feel so elated at the fact that people actually want to read my fanfic. Well, enough of my babble. Enjoy Chapter 10! Constructive Critisism is always welcome!

Disclaimer: I do not own CardCaptor Sakura of her characters, but I do claim rights to this story, the plot, and her own characters.


Chapter 10: HiStory

'How can I face him after what I've said? I could never have imagined how low we have stooped, just because they were different. Just because they were males. I'm so lost. I understand why the village acts the way they do because I was taught the same thing, the same way. Over and over again, for as long as anyone can remember we've been taught that males were different from us. They have always been evil, monsters. Since were born we've been told of how, in the past, they used to force themselves on helpless women, abuse them, and ultimately kill them in the end. Eventually, the women grew tired of living in fear and took matters into their own hands. They revolted and punished the evil men who had shamed them and hurt their daughters.

'That's how it all started; the first clan of matriarchs, our main clan, hundreds of years ago. The blood of those women still flow in our veins, and even now I can't condem them for what those men did to them back then. It still feels right that those horrid men got what they deserved. I'm proud to be a descendant of them, women who stood up for themselves because they knew it was right. But now...,' Sakura rolled over in her bed to stare at the well in the dark. Dawn was a couple of hours away, but she couldn't sleep. In fact, she hadn't slept at all after everything that she had been forced to face in Midday the day before. No matter how hard she had tried, her thoughts wouldn't give her rest. After several moments, Sakura gave up her futile efforts with a sigh, and descended from her bunk. As silently as she could she dressed in the dark, her thoughts still swirling.

'Duty again today; it's been a week already. What am I going to do? What am I going to say?' Sakura's heart beat faster with every question. 'No. I have to calm down. There's no use panicking right now. I hace time a couple of hours to think about that bedore they even take me to the cabin, and then I have the whole trip there too. I'll be fine. I will...I hope..'

Feeling only slightly better, Sakura headed out through the door leading into the office. "Good morning Aya!" Sakura said cheerfully when she spotted the hazel-eyed woman behind her desk.

Aya looked up from the papers she was currently working on, "Good morning. You're up earlier than usual today."

"Couldn't sleep."

"There is no need to be concerened, it will be different from before, but I guarantee that everything is the same as the cabins."

Sakura looked at the woman before her, lost. "What will be the same?"

"Your duty, of course."

"Why would it be different than before? Has something happened? Is everything alright?" Sakura felt herself beginning to worry.

"No one has told you?"

"Told me what?" Sakura was struggling to keep feeling of her speeding heart-rate from her voice.

"Once you become a Guardian, you are no longer taken to a cabin. All 'duty' is performed here."

"Here?"

"Yes," Aya nodded to a door on her left that Sakura had never paid much attention to before. "There is an entire underground area built underneath this building and the adjoining kitchen as well. The area is only accessible throught that door. He is there now, and awaiting your prescence. If you would like to go early, I will take you there."

"He?"

"Yes, your partner." Aya rifled through a few papers on her desk and read off one. "...B1RE, Syaoran, is his name if I'm correct?"

Sakura stared at Aya, at a loss for words for a moment. "Y-yes. That's him," Sakura managed when she had found her voice again.

"Right. So, shall I take you now?"

"A-alright," Sakura stammered out, her mind trying to wrap around this new information. 'But I haven't figured out what I'm going to say yet. This is so quick. Can I do this?'

Aya stared at Sakura unblinkingly, her face as expressionless as usual. "If you are not ready you may wait until the appointed time."

Sakura surpressed her panic and doubts, and gave Aya a smile. "No, it's okay. I can go now. I was just caught off-guard a bit. I'm fine, really."

Aya nodded. "Then let us proceed. Please follow me, and do not not touch anything."

"Okay."

Aya stood-up from her desk and walked through the door she had indicated to before. Sakura took a deep breath and followed. 'Stop acting like an idiot. You're being ridiculous,' Sakura scolded herself, as she walked through the doorway to come face-to-face with another door set in a wall. She looked to her left to find Aya lighting a lantern.

"Is this the door?" Sakura asked, curious.

Aya answered without averting her eyes from her task. "No. That is where Lady Fuyu stays when she visits. No one is to enter it without permission. We will be heading down the hallway here."

Sakura glanced at the door again, wondering what was on the other side. "Oh." A sudden light erupted from her left, and she turned to see holding the now-lit lantern and watching her.

"This way," Aya said abruptly as she turned and headed down the dark hallway.

Sakura followed closely behind watching the shadows flee from the approaching light before them. As Aya made a sudden turn to the right, Sakura caught the sight of another door on her left. "What's-"

"-it's the male entrance."

Sakura was taken a-back by the abrupt explanation, wondering is she had done or said something wrong. "Oh, right." She followed Aya around another right corner and found herself in front of a set of wide wooden stairs leading down into the immense darkness. The stairs looked like four people could walk side-by-side without any difficulty, and like they were used frequently. When Aya didn't show any hesitation, Sakura descended the stairs next to her.

"I apologize."

Sakura looked over at Aya, who kept her eye-sight forward. "For what?"

"Going down here...is difficult. For many. I apologize."

Sakura puzzled over what the impassive girl could mean as they traveled the short distance of twenty steps, and with each step the temperature dropped and a disturbing stillness enveloped them. Sakura drew closer to the warmth and safety of the lantern as she strained to see beyond the darkness, aware of the faintest sounds. Their footsteps seemed to echo off all the surfaces, and even the flame seemed to whisper too loud in it's container.

At the bottom Aya turned left, but not before the glow of light passed over a set of double-doors further down the hall. The sight of them seemed to fill her whole line of sight, and an eerie feeling washed over her. The sense of forboding made every instinct scream at her to turn and run away as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

"Aya...," Sakura's voice wavered.

Aya kept her eyes firmly in front of her, and answered slightly tense herself, "I know. Just don't look at it, and don't ask questions. We're almost there."

With a concious effort Sakura tore herself away and continued after Aya. Very suddenly she found herself in another hall, and stopped in front of a door on her left. As Aya lit a lantern hanging in front of the door and another on the floor, she explainedn without prompt. "This is your room for the day. There is another next to it, on our right, and two directly across from them. The inner design is the same as the cabins, more or less, and the lantern outside is to ensure that you will not be interrupted. I will collect you when your day is done. Until then, I shall take my leave."

Sakura anxiously watched the fading light of Aya's lantern, and her form being swallowed up by the darkness disappear before picking up the light lef on the ground and hesitantly opening the door. She quietly shut the door with a click behind her, and proceeded toward the table against the wall, keenly aware of the feeling of another presence in the room. Sure enough everything was there; she gathered her usual supplies and reached for the key, aware the her every movement was being listened to.

'I can do this. I can do this,' Sakura chanted to herseld as she placed everything on the ground and walked toward her partners form on the back wall. 'I can do this. I'll be fine. I can handle this,' she repeated as she unlocked his chains, both the wrist and ankle cuffs, and helped ease him against the wall. 'See? Your fine, you can do this. No problem.' She continued to remove his gag as her heart pumped faster, but she kept her hands steady. She let the gag fall and started on the blindfold. 'You can do this. You can do this-,' as the blindfold fell away she caught a pair of amber eyes staring right into hers, '-I can't do this.' Sakura's face flushed and she vividly recalled all the events from the last week, from her kiss to the moment she walked in the door. In a panic she dropped her gaze and turned toward her supplies.

"You didn't ask."

Sakura's heart jumped at the sudden sound of his voice, but didn't face him. "What?"

"You always ask before you do anything. You haven't asked anything yet."

Sakura's face flushed again in realization. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"...everything. Absolutely everything." Her voice dropped nearly to a whisper. "I never thought- never allowed myself to imagine what was really going on. I- we- everyone in the village- always suspected that we never really knew, but most of us didn't care about knowing the truth. It was all so peaceful, almost like a dream, when I think back on it. Our "duty" has never been a big deal to most. You just do what your told, and usually it's done and over with in a matter of a few visits. It was always just a passing thought, a distant memory...

"I had Time yesterday, at Midday. It changed everything. They're just children..." Tears formed and slowly rolled down her face as she recalled the horrid memories of the day before, "...pure, innocent, terrified children, and I didn't know what to do...what to say. When I think about when they must endure everyday, I feel sick. I feel so...unclean, like a stain I'll never be able to scrub away. And all I keep thinking about is every word I ever said to you. How much it must have hurt...how stupid I must have sounded...how entirely ignorant...just like everyone else..."

"...when I was seven years-old, "Syaoran began toward Sakura's back, "my village was attacked. Meiling and I watched as one-by-one everyone we had ever known was killed, trying to protect each other. It was chaos. Fire, the smell of blood, and the clash of weapons were everywhere. My father and mother were slain in front of my eyes as they tried to protect my older sisters, Meiling, and I. In desperation my sisters pushed the two of us away, ordering us to protect each other. Meiling dragged me away, crying, as I fought to get back to them.

"We waited out the night, hidden, as the sounds of people dying filled the air. At dawn, when everything had quieted down, we crept back to our village. Not a single trace of who had attacked us was left behind, but the bodies of my villagers carpeted the ground. We buried who we could, starting with our family; I found them, all of their bodies. We never got to finish, however, as we were suddenly attacked again, and Meiling and I had to run for our lives. We managed to avoid their grasp for two whole days. On the third morning we stumbled upon your village, seeking help, but the people here sezied us instead.

"Our attackers must have given-up when they saw where we had run to, figuring we'd be off worse then dead soon anyways. Meiling and I tried to fight them off, but we hadn't ate, drank, or slept much in the last three days at that point, and we didn't have the strength or energy to put up a good enough struggle. We didn't understand anything anyone said, and more women arrived until it was chaos all over again. At that moment, three new women arrived and seemed to be trying to help. One looked older than us by only a few years, and she tried to speak to us, but she didn't help much. She couldn't."

Sakura listened silently, tears steadily flowing down her cheeks, leaving wet stains on her clothes and the packed earth beneath them.

"Another woman came and spoke firmly and with authority. We could tell she was in charge before she even addressed us; she held herself so proudly over everyone else. My captors shifted me to get a better view of her, and in that instance I locked eyes with a wide, emerald-eyed girl. She seemed to be about my own age and held my gaze with a look of confusion, curiousity, innocence, and pride. In the next instant I was busy trying to listen to the youngest of the women before me, as she translated. In the end, Meiling and I agreed to co-operate, but not before she promised she would "save me," even though we both knew it would be impossible for years to come, if ever."

As Syaoran relayed his story, Sakura recalled her own memories of that first day, when had first begun to question everything around her. She knew what was coming next and felt half-afraid, half-anxious to hear it.

"From there I was dragged into the Midday barracks and locked in next to many other males. By then I was completely drained and exhausted and I slumped into unconciousness for the next few days. When I awoke, I found a pair of dark-brown eyes watching over me. They belonged to a light-brown haired father and his dark-brown haired son, chained on the same peg as me. I panicked at first, unsure of where I was, but it only made me more disorientated. The father frowned in concern as he tried to get me to relax. He tried talking to me, but I couldn't understand a word he said. His son spoke to him and several others in the cell as well. They seemed to come to an agreement on something. When the father noticed me studying all of them closely, he simply smiled at me calmly. At the time I only glared back like I blamed all of them for the state I was in, but that never stopped them. Later I would discover that they had agreed to watch over me.

"As the weeks went by I kept trying to escape anyway I could, and I was constantly being punished for my actions. At first the women who were in charge looked on it as a kind of joke, but when I never relented it became more of a nusciance and the punishments became harsher. The others around me tried to stop me at first, but one-by-one the gave up. Through it all, only the father and son didn't give-up on me, and kept looking after me. With the months that followed they slowly taught me their language, usually during the times when I was healing and couldn't move after my last retaliation, "a hint of amusement laced his voice in rememberance, before becoming serious again, but as quiet as ever.

"I met some of the others in our cell, the sons more than their fathers. The first was a black-haired, navy-eyed boy who introduced himself as Eriol Hirigazawa."

Sakura felt her eyes widen, and her heart pump faster in recognition. 'That's Tomoyo's...'

"The next one had brown hair and eyes, and introduced himself as Takashi Yamazaki."

Sakura slowly turned around to face Syaoran again in a sort of horrified astonishment.

"Between the two of them they introduced me to Kumori Niwa, a quiet, gray-eyed person, Yoshiyuki Terada who had come from "the outside" like me, and Rae the "tough one" as he called himself. Eventually I even learned the names of the father and son who watched over me too."

Sakura braced herself and bit her lip in nervous anticipation, hardly daring to breathe.

"They introduced themselves as Fujitaka and Touya Kinomoto." Syaoran shifted his gaze to look right into Sakura's, his expression unreadable.

Her heart skipped a beat as fresh, hot tears steadily rolled down her cheeks, and she quickly dropped her gaze to the ground. 'I knew it...'

Syaoran continued unfaltering. "Once I began to understand, I started to question everything. Why was I here? What was going on? Why were we being enslaved? But all I recieved in reply was silence, a cautious warning not to ask questions, or a statement of "that's just the way things are." But I wasn't satisfied with those answers, and I continued to fight. I was always rebeling, constantly retaliating. Pretty soon it was more uncommon for me to not be injured for punishment, but I couldn't stop. Watching everyone just accept their role and the terrible conditions we lived in fueled me on. The constant pang of hunger, dehydration, disease, and lack of care, I grew used to, but I couldn't stand to see others being hurt for nothing. For simply breathing, simply living.

"As time passed I recieved two bands around my arm to mark who I was; my name stripped away and an identification given to me in its place. I heard the horror stories of what the females would do to us once we left Midday. I kept fighting. Soon Touya turned fourteen, and both he and his father had to leave. The former to Afternoon and the latter to Nightfall. A few years later Eriol left, the Yamazaki, and next was my turn. I struggled and fought against them the whole way there. Everyone else soon followed; it was a new place, but exactly the same. When we entered we were informed of the "duty" was would have to perform, the duty to ensure our lives, if only for a certain amount of time.

"I continued to fight as others around me lost their will. When you live like we do, you learn how to turn everything off. You tune-out so that your mind isn't concious of the pain your body recieves. It's the only way to live, to survive in there. They lost the shine in their eyes, the look of being alive, as if they had slipped into a coma. Touya was different. I saw the change in him the very day after his first visit. He seemed to be holding a secret inside, one that made him want to live life in peace and contentment. I didn't understand, and it didn't last. Two years later I witnessed him look so full of pride when it was announced that his partner had given birth to a girl, but the incredible look of pain and loss echoed out from behind his smile. Soon after, her too was moved to Nightfall.

"Many of us began to dread the day of out duty, but it came wether we were ready or not. The stories they brought back came as no surprise to us by that time, and even more succumed to their dull eyes. But, to our surprise, Takashi came back with a story that sounded like a dream. The dream, we knew, was a miracle and something the rest of us would never experience. But then Terada, Eriol, Kumori, and even Rae came back with similiar stories. We began to wonder if those females were sisters, but the new bands proved us wrong. These females created a stir among all of us, but we were smart enough to keep quiet about it. Why ruin it? A few of us had a chance to live a different life than the one we all expected. Of course, Rae suspected it all to be a trick to lower our defenses, and he swore to fight-off the female he was assigned to. He's still wary even now, everyone is, I mean, you always wake-up from the dream, right?

"I was the last of us to go. The whole way there I fought against them. Being bound, gagged, and blinded was like a cruel joke. It's like we're the one's who are a danger to others, despite the fact that we're all kept so weak it nearly kills you to miss a meal, since they're so infrequent. Of course, I was punished for putting up a struggle, but it had never stopped me before. I waited in the dark for several hours, as we're always put off their hands as soon as possible, " Syaoran spat out. "Then I heard the door open and I braced myself for what I knew was coming."

Sakura herself tensed for what she knew was coming. 'He has every right to criticize and berate me. I deserve all of it...'

"But too my surprise, I too would get to experience the dream."

Sakura looked up in confusion and surprise of her own to find Syaoran looking at the ground now, staring at something only he could see. She closed her eyes and listened to his voice.

"I heard some moving around, but it was hard to discern what. The movements were so quick and light, almost silent, but they moved steadily toward me. With the footsteps came the warmth and brightness of a light. The footsteps retreated as the light stayed, though at the sound of metal connectiong with the ground I flinched. I cursed myself as the footsteps moved closer, sure that I was going to be hit now for showing weakness. When I felt fingers near my face I reacted in the only way I knew how, and tried to fight off the person near me. Half-afraid of what was going to happen next. The person fell to the ground, and I felt a small bit of satisfaction until the person reacted.

"A feminine voice scolded me in my own language, and I was thrown off-guard. My thoughts filling with memories of Meiling. I was sure I had just imagined it though, so I waited for her to speak again to prove myself right. She mumbled something to herself, and then repeated herself in her own language, calmer this time, and I felt both relief and disappointment. She moved closer again, and again I reacted out of instinct. She backed away and yelled out at me startled. I waited, unsure of what was going to happen next, and felt dread fill my stomach when I heard her moving around again. I jumped at the sound of a slap, but to my surprise, it wasn't aimed at me and instead she began talking. She spoke of taking care of injuries and removing chains. I couldn't respond, I was having a hard time convincing myself that I wasn't dreaming. I was so lost in my thoughts that when I was released I was caught off-balance and fell.

"The sudden contact with another person, let alone a female, left me frozen in shock, but at the sound of her voice I tried to wrench myself away, as if scalded. I couldn't manuver well, but she was quick to help. She released me wrists from their bondage, something I hadn't felt in the last ten years of my life. They felt to light. And she continued to surprise me. She scrubbed off the layers of filth that had collected on all of us over the years. She was gentle and careful. She halted when I wanted her to, and never stopped asking persmission. I felt the cool ointment of healer's balm since I was seven, and the calming flow of her voice. When she finished, she kept her distance and continued to talk.

"Over the next eight weeks she continued to clean, to heal, and to talk. I became entranced in her story. Without even realizing it I began to live for that one day of the week. I calmed down and stopped fighting because she seemed happier when I was better. I became so comfortable around her that I would relax into my first, truly-unguarded sleeps since I had first arrived here.

"I learned about her name, her family, her friends, her life, her thoughts, and her genuine personality. I came to trust her and depend on her voice to remind me that not everything in my life had gone wrong. Finally, we met face-to-face, and I discovered that her eyes were as captivating as her voice, and that they held the came purity, curiousity, and innocence that they had all those years ago. She asked me my story and I was at a loss as to how or where I would begin. How could I compare to what she had given me?

"I heard about her first day of Time, and knew she had been shaken. I didn't want her to know the bitter reality, but she plunged into it was her same brave smile and a helping hand. Word about her spread quickly from barrack to barrack, everyone was stunned in amazement and disbelief. We all knew she had been hit hard by what she had experienced, but knew that there was worse to come, and we all wonder if she will be able to handle it without breaking...

"Well? Miss White Angel? What do you think?"

Sakura opened her eyes to find him looking back at hers. A blush spread over her face. "Thank you," Sakura said quietly, her heart pounding in her chest, "but I'm not an angel."

"You're constantly helping me and the rest of us, against all your beliefs. You even removed all the chains today, something that happens very rarely for us. It's like a miracle. Why else would you do it if you weren't an angel?"

"I did it because I wanted you to know that females here aren't all the same, just like all of you aren't the same. And I did it because I wanted to. As for those, "Sakura shot the chains a look of disgust, "they're horrid and I wish I could never see them on anyone ever again."

"Exactly," Syaoran said as a hint of a smile reached his face.

"You know...this morning, I was thinking about my clan's beginnings. How the matriarchy first started and I realized something. We're exactly like those horrid men who made their women's lifes a living hell. We're exactly the same, worse when I really think about it, and the thought horrifies me."

"You're not all the same. Look at your friends, your mother, yourself."

"But everyone else?...It makes me sick to imagine the terror all of you live through each day, and what I'm doing can never be enough to fix all the damage."

"It's a start though, right?"

"I suppose so..." Sakura stared at her hands in her lap.

She looked so forlorn and despondent that Syaoran had the sudden urge to hold her close and steal her pain away. Tenatively he reached out and embraced her. "Then whay are you still crying?"

Sakura didn't make a move to shift herself away as she replied, "How can I not?" Her heart raced and she felt the heat emanating off her face, but she felt strangely content. 'What's wrong with me? I feel...different. I should be pulling away, but my body won't listen.' Before she knew it he released her, and before she could meet his eyes she caught sight of his wrists. "I need to take care of those," she said as she reached for her medicinal supplies. "Wrists and ankles are so sensitive; they're rubbed raw so easily." She stopped at the sound of chuckling, and looked to find Syaoran smiling at her. "What?" she asked, flushing.

"You did it again."

"Did what?"

"You're more concerned about me than yourself."

"Well, your hurt," Sakura protested.

"And you've stopped crying."

"And you smiled and laughed."

They both met each other's eyes and a smile graced their faces, as a comfortable air filled the air between them.

----------

When it was time for her to leave, Sakura again waited to put the pieces of cloth on last.

"I'm telling Aya that I don't want to be under Heaven anymore, and I have a feeling that I won't be under too many positions under Earth for much longer either. And, well, I may be at Afternoon by the end of the week if all goes well in Midday over the next few days." Sakura looked up into Syaoran's face, when he nodded, she returned it with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she finished tying the knots on his blindfold.

"I know..."

With the tying of the last knot, Sakura quietly exited the room, aware of his prescence, lost in the darkness.