A/N: How many of you were surprised to see a version of Sakura in Cavahall in the last chapter? And do you think someone else might show up soon? If so, who do you think will it be? Drop me a review at the end and let me know. For now, it's time for a little bit of Fai-torture. ;)

Enjoy~

Fai stifled a gasp as he found himself revisiting the nightmare of his childhood. He knew it was just a dream, but the tremors shooting down his spine upon seeing the Valley of Sinners spread before him were far too real. His breath came in short bursts that failed to provide enough oxygen to his lungs and he felt like he was drowning. The insurmountable walls boxed him in from the front and the back while piles of broken bodies cut off his path in other two directions. Nausea bubbled in his throat as a body was flung from the tower.

"No!"he tried to scream,but no voice escaped his throat as the body slammed into the ground. Crimson pooled in the snow around the broken boy and Fai let out a keening wail as lifeless eyes stared accusingly at him. He staggered over to the fallen boy and fell to his knees on thecrimson-stainedground.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Reaching over with trembling hands, he pulled the lids over sightless amber eyes. "I'm so, so sorry, Syaoran-kun." Tears burned trails down his cheeks as he gathered the broken boy in his arms and cradled him to his chest. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I couldn't save you. I'm sorry."

Fai sobbed harder as he buried his face in Syaoran's hair.With a deafening crack that echoed all around him, Syaoran's corpse shattered into thousands of shards, which then dissipated into nothingness, leaving him alone, kneeling in a frozen pool of blood. Clutching his hair, he wailed. "I'm sorry."

The wind began to blow, kicking up snow as it swirled around him.Fai watched, wide-eyed,as it formed an icy wall in front of him. This had never happened in his nightmare before. The wind blew around pink sakura petals that began to accumulate in one place on the other side of the wall, taking the form of a beautiful girl.

Sakura-chan...he gasped, clambering to his feet as he raced towards the princess, fearful of what he might see next. On the other side, Sakura hurried towards him, her bare feet slapping against the snow that had turned pure at her appearance. His surroundings slowly shifted from the Valley of Sinners to the snowy mountains that had once surrounded Ruval Castle. The sudden shift gave him pause as he looked around before turning his attention back to Sakura,who was stuck on the other side of the ice wall.

She appeared to be saying something as she beat her hands against the wall,but no sound reached him. The world began to change once more,but instead of turning into something new,everything began to fall away, leaving behind only empty blackness as he felt himself begin to wake. Sakura's attempts at getting through the wall grew more frantic,but he woke up before she could reach him.

The shift from sleep to wakefulness left Fai feeling disorientated as he lay upon the flimsy mattress. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he swung his legs off the side of the bed and sat up, mind whirring from the turn his nightmare had taken. He'd been having that dream for nearly a week but it was the first night that something had happened beyond the point where Syaoran's corpse had shattered in his arms. Sakura's appearance was an unexpected but pleasant surprise, providing him with a momentary escape from the nightmares his sleeping hours had turned into. Even if it had been for a few moments he had gotten to see a familiar face, unmarked by the scars of his mistake. No. That wasn't right. Sakura was the one most affected by his failure to save Syaoran, but the girl in his dream had been just something conjured by his tortured mind. Sighing heavily, Fai tried not to dwell on his dream as he pulled on a shirt and ran a hand through his tangled hair.

Frustration constricted his ribs, making it hard for him to breath and he stood, filled with restless energy. It had been far too long since he made that promise to avenge Syaoran's death, but he hadn't been able to act on it. None of his attempts at escape had worked and instead he was left at the mercy of his captors, the very people who were responsible for Syaoran's death.

Moreover, he still hadn't been able to figure out a way to disable the nanites in his body, and that prevented him from making further escape attempts. Not for lack of trying, though. He had tried the same trick he'd done with the Cerellium compounds by using his magic to isolate the nanites and overpower them with his magic. Unfortunately, whatever Akira had done to his brain kept him from controlling his magic in such a precise and focused manner, and anything less than that meant the risk of triggering the nanites to explode. Which was something that Fai wasn't willing to risk.

The only thing he could do was bide his time. He had no choice but to wait for the final event to end and Akira to take out whatever she had stuck in his brain. Fai slipped out of his room and jogged towards the cafeteria. Maybe if he was lucky, he had slept in and the metal doors barring the passage that led there were already raised, as was the norm during mealtimes. Maybe he could even find Roy and talk to him. Kamui was barely civil around him, and Lupa had vanished altogether since that night.

Fai still wasn't sure what had come over him for him. He'd slept with Lupa, but he knew he needed to talk to her about what had happened. He had only seen the Lupine once in the past two days, and even then there hadn't been a chance for them to talk. She had been leaving the training room with Kyle just as Seishirou had been leading him and Kamui there for practice. He hadn't been willing to risk drawing attention towards what had happened with so many witnesses, deciding instead to track her down after training. Sadly, she had vanished altogether.

He chalked her disappearance up to whatever mysterious task Kyle had assigned her. He hadn't liked the fear that had been barely masked by her angry façade that night he'd overheard her conversation. With no way to find out how she was holding up without cluing someone else in to what had happened, Fai could only hope that she was okay.

But even if she wasn't, he would find out that evening when they were scheduled for another televised match.

Fai cast one last glance at the metal doors barring his way before he turned on his heels and headed towards the only place he knew would be accessible at that time. As he neared the practice arena, he heard the sounds of someone already inside. In the time he had spent so far being on the same team as Lupa and Kamui, he had learned that that practice arenas were always assigned to the individual teams to prepare for the final event. There were cameras installed in these rooms, recording all of the practice sessions that were compiled into specials that were aired during the lull in between death matches.

Realizing that the grunts coming from the practice room were too feminine to belong to Kamui, Fai hurried his pace. The door was left slightly ajar but instead of hiding outside, Fai pushed and walked right in. In the midst of a few badly mangled practice dummies, Lupa was practicing by herself. His breath hitched when he caught sight of the way her body moved with fluid grace as she flipped and twisted on the floor, fending off blows by an imaginary opponent. Her deadly claws slashed through the air as she went on the offensive, gouging the wood off the practice dummies. Lashing out with her right leg, she snapped one dummy right off its support and flipped backward, vaulting on one hand to land back on her feet. Without pause, she rushed towards the next dummy, lashing out with her claws to rip the head from its body. Spinning around, she kicked the dummy in the chest, breaking it off its support. The torso crashed into the floor as Lupa relaxed her stance momentarily before she exploded into a flurry of movement.

Fai watched, impressed by the display. At first glance, it appeared chaotic and uncontrolled, but there was an underlying precision with which each strike was carried out. It was mesmerizing, like watching a dance. Each move was carefully planned and executed, seamlessly flowing from one into the other as she kicked and slashed her way through the practice dummies. The power she packed into a single blow appeared to be more than enough to kill a grown man and Fai wondered for a moment if she was imagining her handler's face as she struck. The last of the mannequins fell and Lupa stilled in a crouch. She was breathing hard, but if Fai hadn't been able to hear her, he would have thought her to be carved out of stone.

"That was amazing." Fai clapped his hands as he approached the arena.

"Glad I could provide you with some entertainment," Lupa said, her body fluidly unfolding from the crouch as she turned to face to him.

"That's not what I meant," Fai said, stopping next to the boundary markers as he made note of the hostility in her tone. It was the way she had always spoken to him, so it shouldn't have surprised him, but it had. Maybe he had been expecting a slight change after what had happened between them.

Lupa stalked over to him, clearly holding a different opinion. "Oh, I know exactly what you meant," she hissed. "Now, why are you here?"

"You h-h-haven't been coming for meals," he said, realizing that she appeared to be in a worse mood than usual. "I thought that maybe you were—"

"Don't tell me you were worried about me, Pretty Boy," she snorted. Fai frowned. "I can take care of myself."

"I can see that," he replied, tilting his head towards the carnage behind her.

"What do you want?" she demanded, pulling her lips back in a sneer. What did I do to make her so angry with me? Fai wondered. Fighting a frown, he looked back at Lupa, noting how the sclera in her eyes were still Lupine-black.

"I wanted to talk."

"There is nothing to talk about." Her sneer grew more pronounced as she drew closer, making Fai back into the boundary marker.

"Nothing to talk about?" He frowned."L-L-Lupa, what h-happened that night—"

"Nothing happened that night," she growled, baring her teeth as her features slowly grew more wolf-like.

"That didn't feel l-l-like nothing," Fai argued. "I completely l-lost control, otherwise I wouldn't ever..."

"Fuck the crazy bitch?" Lupa said, tilting her head back to stare down her nose at him.

"I didn't say that. I wanted to know if it was the same for you."

"I thought it would've been pretty obvious, but maybe you're more damaged than I thought," Lupa said as she walked her claw fingers up his forearm, resting them lightly against the crook of his elbow. "Sometimes when two people sleep together, all they're looking for is a good lay," she said in a condescending tone as she trailed her hand along his thigh and pressed up against him. Fai caught her hand before she could trail it inwards. Lupa grinned as she took a step back and freed her hand from his grip. "From the look on your face, it looks as if you thought it meant something."

"So that's all it was? An act?"

"What?" Lupa gave a harsh bark-like laugh that was cruel and vicious, the sound grating against his eardrums. "Did you think there'd be something special between us now just because we screwed each other?"

Fai clenched his jaw as anger curled in the pit of his stomach. "You used me."

"Don't think so highly of yourself, Berserker." Lupa's expression turned cold as she crossed her arms and looked at him through narrowed eyes. "We both used each other. I saw the way you looked at me when you thought I wasn't paying attention. Frankly speaking, you're not so bad to look at yourself, so I figured I might as well get it out of the way."

"What happened that night didn't feel l-l-like a simple 'getting things out of the way' fuck," Fai hissed, recalling the way he had lost control. No matter how badly he had been lusting after her, his loss of control couldn't have just been lust. He knew himself better than that.

"You're still hung up over that?" Lupa snorted as pushed past him and started for the door. "I have no idea why it can't get through to that addled brain of yours, but none of it meant anything. Let it go, Berserker." She paused at the threshold of the training room to throw him one final glance. "In here, only idiots get emotionally attached. If you want to help our masters increase their ratings by adding a romantic twist, be my guest. However, I suggest that you leave me out of it."

And then she walked out, leaving Fai alone, confused, angry and –strangely enough— hurt. Was what she said really true? Had he expected things to change between them? She was attractive in an indescribable way. But that was all it was. He wasn't foolish enough to believe anything could have developed between them, despite what Lupa had claimed about his feelings for her. Though her outright dismissal of what happened didn't sit right with him. Fai knew something more than lust had been at play that night. And the way Lupa had shrugged it off led him to believe she knew the truth. She had pulled on a brilliant mask, but Fai had worn those long enough to spot one on another face. Lupa was hiding something. Of that he was certain. All he now had to do was figure out what it was and how it was related to his loss of control that night.

-0-

Fai studied Lupa as she sat alone at the corner table in the cafeteria. She was picking at her food, barely touching anything on it as she stabbed at it with a plastic fork. In fact, if he wasn't mistaken, she looked a little sick. Fai frowned at that. She had appeared to be in perfect health just a few hours ago, but now she was sullen and distracted as she picked at her lunch. Not that he had any doubts before, but seeing her so out of it that she hadn't even noticed Fai staring at her yet was proof enough that there was something on her mind.

What are you hiding, Lupa? His eyes narrowed as she pushed away the tray and stood up in an abrupt manner.

"You really need to give up on her, my friend," Roy said as he slid into seat next to him, startling Fai out of his observation. "If you want to make it out alive you need to set your priorities straight. Pining after that girl should not be within a hundred feet of that list."

Fai picked up the blood bag and extended his fangs to bite into the plastic tubing. Blood gushed into his mouth, cold and stale but invigorating nonetheless. He quirked a brow in the man's direction, knowing full well that his eyes would have turned to their customary catlike gold, though Roy didn't flinch away from the gaze of a predator. He was wearing an unusually serious expression, something Fai hadn't been witness to so far. The resulting emotion that made his heart beat just a little quicker was far too close to unsettling for Fai's liking.

"I mean it, Fai," Roy added, lowering his voice as he looked around to ensure no one was listening to their conversation. The cameras along the wall whirred softly as they panned the room, but no one else appeared interested in what was going on at Fai's table. Fai gulped the mouthful of blood before pulling the bag away from his lips, silently inviting Roy to elaborate."She has a reputation in here, and I'm telling you, Lupa is not the kind of girl you want to get involved with."

"Why?"

"You must have heard of the Shah family, right?" Roy sighed, piquing Fai's curiosity. Fai had heard of no such family, having been captured as soon as he had arrived in this world, but Roy continued without waiting for confirmation. "Not a lot of people know this, but La Lupa is their youngest daughter, Madiha Shah."

"What does that h-h-have to do with anything?" Fai questioned, filing away Lupa's real name in his memory. Madiha Shah, huh?

Roy looked at Fai as if he was stupid for even asking such a thing, but he continued with his explanation regardless. "She was bitten at a very young age when a rogue Lupine broke into their family home while her parents and elder brother were away. I lied when I said I didn't know how she evaded detection for so long. Her family went to extreme lengths to keep her condition a secret, but she was a part of high society. I met her at a dinner gala once, a few years back. Looking at that girl and this one, you wouldn't believe they're the same person, but even then, I could tell there was a ferocity to her that would match no others.

"The first year she was here, hers was the only team to come out of the final event alive," Roy said, his tone hardly louder than a whisper as he pushed around the tasteless gruel with his spoon. "Her Handler decided to put up the other two members for auction and she was kept behind. She got passed over for her teammates the second year too. So you know what she did in the finals last year?" Roy looked up to hold Fai's gaze, still looking serious. "She bit both her teammates after winning the final match, to make sure she wouldn't be skipped out on the auctions. That part wasn't televised but let's just say the directors felt she couldn't be sold off after a display like that."

"The teammates died?" Fai glanced towards the table Lupa had occupied but it was empty.

"The Vampirosa did. I'm not sure what became of the Elemental. Maybe he was sent to R&D or maybe he was auctioned off.All I'm saying is, be careful. Just because you're on the same team doesn't mean you'll be safe in the finals."

"I see," Fai nodded as he finished off his blood bag. He saw Seishirou appear in the side corridor and stood. "I h-h-have to go get r-ready for the match."

Half an hour later, Lupa opened the match. Fai was strongly reminded of Roy's warning when five minutes into the fight, she snapped her opponent's neck and their team was declared the winners.

A/N: Do you think Fai is right in suspecting that Lupa is hiding something? If so, any guesses on what she might be hiding and to what lengths will Fai go to uncover the truth? I'm really eager to hear your responses so don't forget to leave me a review guys.