A/N: *sniffles* I've got flue and a sore throat and a fever and I'm stuck in bed. Lucky for me, I have the day off tomorrow and then I've got the entire weekend to recover. I still hate the fact that I had to get sick so close to my finals. But anyhow, since I had nothing better to do, I figured I should update this fic before I go to sleep.

I'd like to thank everyone for their votes. A lot of you guys wanted Fai to live while a couple asked me to kill him. There were a few that also told me to do what I felt was best at this point. You'll see what I decided on when you get to the end of this chapter. I'd recommend you should listen to 'Forgiven' by 'Within Temptation' when you read the end of Fai's part since that's what I was listening to while writing this and it really sets the mood. ;)

Enjoy~

He had the distinct sensation of falling through darkness, falling and falling and falling forever. Tumbling and turning, sometimes colliding with and sometimes phasing through random, floating islands of unidentifiable debris that seemingly appeared out of nowhere before vanishing again. He could hear snatches of voices around him, too, but they were too confusing for him to make out any definite words. His heart was thumping almost painfully against his ribs as he tried to slow his decent, uselessly flailing around in the air, watching on with horror as he fell towards a giant mass of land that strangely enough reminded him of the place he used to call home in his childhood, long before he had been sent on the journey to meet her. Only unlike the beautiful mansion with its spacious gardens lined with cherry blossom trees, this place was nothing but a shell of the former, the trees nothing more than charred skeletons, not a single leaf upon their withered branches, the mansion no more than a hollow carcass of burnt and weathered stone, steel and wood.

It was here that he crashed, the impact of his fall rattling every bone inside his body. Struggling to breath, he pushed himself into a sitting position, taking in his surroundings through wide eyes. There was no wind, but ash still seemed to blow in whirlwinds around him, some places still housing dying embers of the flame that had no doubt destroyed this place, wherever it was.

"We are inside your head right now," the soft-spoken words had him whirling around, adrenaline rushing through his veins. "Which is one of the reasons why you can actually stand."

"Wha-" he had been pretty sure he was sitting merely a moment ago, but looking down at himself, he could see that he was indeed standing.

"Get out." He glared at the apparition before him. The woman gave him a smile that was a mixture of pity and something else he couldn't quite identify.

"I can't do that, Syaoran." She shook her head, looking apologetic.

"Stop it!" he snarled, identifying the whispers of a calming sensation that washed over him all of a sudden.

"Stop what?" She merely cocked her head to one side, observing him through curious eyes that were so much like his own.

"Using that spell. Trying to gain my trust. Stop it!" he demanded angrily.

"I see." She lowered her head slightly and the sensation that had been whispering at him to stop mistrusting her vanished. "You can sense magic a lot better inside here. That's good to know."

"What are you going on about?" He narrowed his eyes.

"Can you answer a question for me, Syaoran?" she asked in return, giving no indication of having heard his previous statement.

"Why should I?"

"Hmm… Good question," she nodded, "Why should you, indeed."

A spark of irritation ignited inside him at this. This woman was… irritating. And for some reason, that made him feel less afraid of her. He wasn't quite sure why, though. He could not feel any more vibes of magic trying to make him change his opinion of her.

"If I promise to answer your questions in return, would you do it then?" she offered.

"… Why have you brought me here?" he decided to forego her agreement. He'd answer her only if she answered him first. "Why are you inside my head?"

"We're here because I'm trying to help you."

"Bullshit!" he growled.

"Have I done anything so far that would have hinted at an ulterior motive in me trying to help you?" she met his gaze head on, eyes shining with the same stubborn light he had seen in her eyes so many times before. "Or have I tried to hurt you in any way until now?"

"Why should I trust you just because you haven't hurt me until now?

"Well, why shouldn't you?" she countered defiantly.

"…"

"What is the last thing you can recall?"

"What?"

"What is the last thing you can recall before your friends turned on you?"

"I-I…"

"Can you recall the reason why they turned on you all of a sudden?"

"I don't…"

"Do you even know what made them decide that you deserved what they did to you?"

"They…"

"You can't remember it, can you?" she said, seemingly reading his mind and that scared him. His thoughts were all that he had left and this woman could easily rip apart those feeble shields he had around them and learn every secret he had.

"So what?" he exploded, folding his arms across his chest as he glared at her, "Who cares why they did it? What matters is that they did this to me!"Finally! He had struck her speechless. All the hurt and hatred and feelings of betrayal that he had felt ever since they had turned on him began pouring from his lips like water from a broken dam, "They were supposed to be my friends, my family! Yet they forgot about it all! They enjoyed watching me in pain, torturing me, relishing my screams, laughing at my cries."

"You're wrong, Syaoran." She replied in that calm tone of hers, "Of course it matters. It matters a lot more than you can imagine."

"Why? Why should it matter?" He was screaming by now, not even noticing that the whirlwinds of ash were growing in size as time passed. "I was willing to die for them, to die for her! I gave up half my life for her sake. And she…"

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Hearing her say it only made all the anger that he had felt come tumbling down on him with the force of a raging ocean. He did not want to feel that way because she was right; it did hurt, thinking about it all.

"If this is supposed to be your way of 'helping' me, don't." He turned away from her, not even wanting to shout anymore. A deep ache in his chest started to replace the anger that he felt, the fire slowly dying to leave behind the glowing ambers instead. "Just… Just leave me alone."

"Would leaving you alone solve the problem you have with your friends?" He heard her take a step towards him.

"They're not my friends." He cut in sharply, fists balling by his sides as he stood there shaking in silent rage. The whirlwinds of ash were spinning madly by now, pulling up debris as they spun.

"You want to know why they did it to you, don't you?"

"Stop it!" the dying ambers burst to life once more, threatening to swallow him whole.

"Despite it all, you want the answer to that 'why?', because even now, deep down, you still can't believe that they could have done this to you. Don't you?"

"No, I don't." He grit out. He was lying and he knew that she knew that too. But he did not want to talk about it.

"But you do," she said, walking around him to look him in the eye. God. He hated her so much just about then. Why did she have to keep at it, picking at the barely healed scabs of his wounded heart and making the gouges bleed anew? "We wouldn't be having this conversation otherwise."

"We're having this conversation because you won't shut up about it." He snarled. "Stop it. Just leave me alone!"

"Can you at least give me a chance to explain once?" Even though her tone was firm, her eyes were pleading.

"… Why are you trying so hard?" he asked, searching her face, daring her to lie to him.

"Because you're important to a lot of other people…" she replied evenly, "Including your father. He wants to see you get better."

"My father…" The force holding the raging whirlwinds together vanished all of a sudden, causing the ash and the debris fell back to the ground with a thud. He remembered a voice telling him to hold on for his father when he had all but given up and vanished inside the void. This woman, she reminded him of that voice. Was it even possible? Was there really a chance that what she said was true?

"Just give me one chance, Syaoran." She said softly. "If you still want me to leave you alone after that, I… I will."

His heart thundered inside his chest, threatening to break him apart with its violent beating. He did not quite trust her but there was a part of him that wanted to know the answer to those questions. If this woman claimed she had the answers then… Steeling himself, he gave her a barely perceptible nod but she must have noticed it.

"Thank you." she smiled gratefully at him as her fingers danced through the air, tracing out crimson runes that swirled around them, kicking up the ash and debris once more before he was plunged into darkness all over again. The whispering voices were back, echoing all around him as he tumbled through nothingness until it all grew silent suddenly and he was slammed into a familiar place, his heart catching in his throat as he took in the dimly lit cell, the scent of blood and sweat and human waste assaulting his nose with a vengeance.

He…he was back in hell…

-0-

"Do what you did with the kid." Kurogane ordered urgently. As a ninja, he had been trained to keep a tight rein over his emotions, but as he saw the Mage's broken body bleeding all over the sheets of the Oracle's bed, he could feel panic bubbling inside him. Now that the imminent threat of the hunters barging in to kill them all was over, keeping the blond alive was all that mattered

"I can't." The princess's words caused his heart to skip a beat, panic clearly showing in her green eyes as she met his gaze. "His ribs… They won't be able to handle the pressure. They will p-puncture his heart if I press down on them."

"Well then…" Alternate waves of hot and cold rushed all over his body as words escaped him. They couldn't just let him die like that. There had to be something. Anything. "Do something." He finished rather helplessly, watching the jade-eyed girl as though she could come up with some brilliant solution to save the idiot but the girl seemed just as much at a loss on what to do as him.

"Sakura, step back for a minute," the Oracle stepped forth, a constant stream of obsidian runes, so very much like the ones the blond mage used to trace yet so unlike them at the same time, encircling around the blind man before shooting towards the unmoving man on the bed just as the princess hastily made to get out of the way. The dark-haired man crouched next to the magician, his brow furrowed in concentration as he kept on murmuring something under his breath. Realizing that blood was still dripping from the wound on his wrist, Kurogane hurriedly tore a piece of his shirt and tied it around the bleeding arm, watching on with bated breath as half the runes sank into the mage's body while the other half floated in the air above him. The ninja almost expected the blond to come back to life with a deep gasp, his wounds healing before their eyes as he grinned that idiotic grin of his. Several moments passed as his gaze bore holes through the idiot. What was taking him so long? The vampire blood in his veins should have healed him by now.

"There's nothing there…" the Oracle whispered, slumping back as the spell broke, the dark characters shattering and dissipating into thin air in wisps of hazy mist, "I… I can't find anything…"

Fai-san… Is h-he? He was vaguely aware of the kid's ghostly apparition stuttering out, his voice tinged with panic and disbelief.

"He's dead." The princess wailed, the sound echoing around the room like the cry of a grieving bird, just as she crumpled on the ground beside the Oracle, "I can't feel his soul anywhere."

"He's gone," the man mumbled weakly, as he squeezed his eyes shut, drawing up his knees and curling his arms around them before burying his face into his arms. "He's gone. We were too late."

No! There had to be something they could do. The bastard couldn't have just died. Not like that. He wasn't supposed to have died like that. He still had so many things left to do. The idiot had sworn to help the kid find a way to get the other brats' bodies back. And that witch… what about her? He had probably left her waiting for him. 'Just like you left Tomoyo waiting for you,' a voice viciously snarled inside his head before he pushed it away. He was still alive, wasn't he? Once he had done his job and knocked some sense into the two brats- something that was long overdue- he'd go back to her. He wasn't going to die and leave her waiting for him. But the mage… he couldn't have just… it would completely crush that girl if he…

There had to be something… there had to be-

"Kid, you can pass through things, right?" he gritted out, subconsciously clenching his fists so hard he could feel the nails digging into the skin of his flesh limb and the metal creaking in his artificial arm. It was a wild idea, bordering on insane, but there wasn't much of anything else that they could do…

I-I can. The brunette responded, sounding a little alarmed and concerned at the same time as he looked back at the man who had been his mentor in another lifetime. Kurogane was sure his eyes were shining with a slightly manic gleam as he quickly tried to go over the idea inside his head.

"Princess, we just need to find a way to get his heart to start beating again, right?" He was afraid to hope too much. If this worked… if this worked, they could save him. But he wasn't the medical expert. What if what he had in mind wouldn't work because that wasn't what was needed to save the idiot? He refused to believe that the bastard was dead already.

"Y-Yes…" the girl sobbed, struggling to control the ragged cries that tore from her throat.

"Pump his heart," he barked at the brunette, "you can do that, can't you?"

H-Hai… I can… I can do that. A tiny spark of hope shone in the two teens' faces as the ghost hurried over to the mage's side, a tremor racing up his whole body as his hand disappeared into the blonde's chest.

"We were supposed to have saved him before this happened." He heard the Oracle mumble. "We were supposed to have gotten to him in time."

"Shut up!"Kurogane snarled, punching the wall next to him with his flesh hand, gritting his teeth in rage. The ninja could feel blood pour from his knuckles where his skin had broken but he could care less about it then. How dare he… how dare he say that… "We haven't failed. The bastard is stronger than that."

"Oh, yeah?" The blind man's head snapped upwards, his sightless, bloodshot eyes glaring holes through the other man.

Behind him he could hear the kid murmuring a soft mantra of 'Come on, Fai-san, you have to wake up.'

"THEN WHY THE FUCK IS HE DEAD?" Kurogane felt his breath catch in his throat at what he saw. It should not have been possible, given the film of grey that covered the Oracle's pupils, yet he could still see the vast ocean of emotions tumbling inside the other's eyes.

'It's not working.' The boy told him dejectedly. His heart nearly skipped a beat. It had to work. It had to.

"Keep trying."Kurogane ordered, tearing his eyes away from the sightless gaze that made him feel weak and sick at the same time.

"Did you hear him, you self-conceited bastard?" The Oracle roared at the unmoving blond, "You're supposed to be stronger than the shit they put you through! WHY THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU DEAD?"

Kurogane-san…

"Keep trying, kid." He repeated firmly, refusing to acknowledge the cold sinking feeling in his gut. He wasn't one to run away from anything. People died all the time. Death was a part of life and Kurogane had always prided himself on knowing that he wasn't one of those who lied to themselves. Yet even as the others had all seemingly accepted it for what it was, the red-eyed ninja could not for the life of him accept that the mage was gone, that he'd never hear another idiotic nickname ever again. He watched the kid's face, expression dejected and broken, the princess slumped on the ground, shoulders shaking and trembling, the Oracle curled almost into a ball, face pressed into his arms as he kept on mumbling the same thing again and again.

Kurogane knew he would not be able to deny it for a long time. A heavy weight settled over his heart, cold, icy claws painfully squeezing it inside his chest as minutes, years and centuries went by. He wasn't waking up. The dumbass wasn't fucking waking up! The kid had been pumping the bastard's heart for quite a while now but it wasn't working. It had worked for the other kid but it wasn't for the mage. Looking at the brunette's face as he kept chanting his mantra for the blond to wake up, he knew that the kid knew it too. Gritting his teeth, he turned away so he wouldn't have to take in the sight of the blonde's mangled chest or his cold blue lips or his deathly-still, broken, bruised and torn corpse.

"You can stop, kid. There…" His voice clogged up in his throat, a hard lump forming there that made it difficult for him to breathe. He squeezed his eyes shut as a warm, burning liquid gathered there, making it impossible for him to even see the wall, "There isn't anything we can do for him…"

Behind him, he heard the princess wail even louder, her cries mixing with the choked sobs of the brown-haired apparition and the constant mumblings of the Oracle. A couple of tears escaped from his eyes, tracing fiery paths down his cheeks as he clenched his fists even harder, not even noticing as his fingernails broke the skin to draw blood, a wire twanging as it snapped under the strain he put on his mechanical limb. A tiny voice inside him echoed the words the blind man whispered.

"He wasn't supposed to die… We were supposed to have saved him…"

A/N: Yeah… I went with what the bunnies wanted since they're the ones controlling the entire plot and it's best not to go against their wishes. So I hope no one threw their laptops/PCs to the ground in anger. ^_^;

Don't worry by the way. This is NOT the end so stick around, you guys might not want to kill me after reading the next chapter. ;) ;) There will be angst there since Fai is officially dead but the coming chapters will not be boring, I can promise you that much.

Please leave a review and let me know if the end made you cry or not because it sure did bring me to tears when I reread it. Till next time.

~Obsidian