A/N: Okie dokie guys. This update has been long overdue but I do have an important announcement to make. Yours truly is getting married in the second week of October! So, yeah... Wedding preparations have been taking up pretty much all my time outside of work. Only two weeks left and still a gazillion things left to do which is the reason behind such a long wait. But! Worry not dearies. I am not abandoning this fic. Update might be slow for a while but I repeat, I won't abandon this fic. If for any reason whatsoever I am unable to finish this fic, I will provide an advance warning as well as a summary of the rest of plot including the ending to give you guys some closure. That said, I still have any plans of abandoning this ficcie so yeah, here's a quick recap of everything that has happened so far.

Recap:

Kurogane met up with Yuui and reacquired Ginryuu, narrowly missing Mokona. Syaoran is adjusting to his new amnesiac life and came across Cavahall's version of Sakura who is in a coma due to what The Company's men in charge of the mines did to her before Touya killed them and took over. Lupa admits to having used Fai when they slept together though Fai suspects there's something that she is hiding. Kurogane meets Touya and gets turned into a Lupine. He also meets the amnesiac Syaoran who doesn't believe himself to be the person Kurogane knew.

And that pretty much covers it, I think. I know people have been complaining about a lack of progress as far as the plot is concerned. Hopefully, this chapter ought to change that. Enjoy~

Ignoring the dull throbbing in his head, Kurogane stood in front of the mirror, resting both his hands on the table as he glared at the face worn by his reflection. Greasy, sweat-matted hair hung about his lean face in loose curls. Thanks to Masooma's spell, the sharp angles of his cheekbones looked just as alien in his reflection as the aristocratic haughtiness of his features. He's understood and accepted the need for it, yet he was still shocked every time he saw the mirror. The most unnerving change of all, however, was in the eyes that were a luminescent amber instead of crimson. A motley of scar tissue ringed his shoulder, marking the spot where his arm, his flesh arm, had regrown. His discarded shirt lay on the floor somewhere behind him with his jacket and shoes. He could feel the wood warming beneath his palms as he glared at the stranger in the mirror.

The room was dark, with the blinds pulled to cover the solitary window and the door locked behind him, and yet Kurogane's eyes watered as though he was staring into the sun. He could hear the rapid thumping of his own heart like the constant beating of drums. He could even hear the sound of shuffling feet at the other end of the corridor, much louder than he should have. A child let out a delighted shriek in the street four floors down and Kurogane flinched as though it had been right next to his ear. He clenched his jaw, frustration mounting at the way the grinding of his teeth sounded like the grinding of two boulders. Kurogane gripped the table, his nails tearing into the wood as the splinters dug into his fingers. He let out an aggravated snarl, letting go as he backed away.

This is not what I signed up for…he thought as his feet tangled with his discarded clothing, making him stumble into the edge of the bed. It screeched across the floor like a keening ghoul as he fell on the squeaky mattress. Closing his eyes Kurogane brought up his hands to cover his ears, the action providing him with no relief. The sounds were too loud, the light trickling in from the gap between the window and the curtains too bright. He scooted back on the shrieking mattress until his back was pressed against the headboard. Folding his knees, he buried his face between them. He had to get this under control. He couldn't help anyone, not the kid, not the manju, and definitely not the mage. The mage never flipped out like this. What the fuck is wrong with me?

He shifted in bed and the sound of rustling sheets made him wince. His stomach churned, and Kurogane drew in a deep breath, nearly throwing up at the foul chemical stench that assaulted his nose. Gasping, he swallowed the urge with some effort though breathing through his mouth provided him with no relief. Kurogane dug his fingers into his scalp, feeling the sharp sting of his skin breaking, but he did not let up. He needed something else to focus on. Something, anything except for the ever present, noisy world around him. Something foreign was crawling under his skin and it was too loud even inside his head. Get a fucking grip!he snarled at himself as the throbbing in his skull built up a cacophony of banging war drums. A growl that was part whine built in the back of his throat as he clenched his eyes shut.

"Kurogane, it's Masooma," the healer said from beyond the locked door. The sound of her voice was like a flock of screaming birds. To make matters worse, she began to strike the door with a hammer, or was that the sound of her knocking? Kurogane couldn't tell the difference as he curled up in on himself, trying to focus on breathing through his mouth without throwing up.

In. Out. In. Out. In…

"Nixon told me that you weren't feeling well when you got back. I've come to take a look. Can I come in?"

No. You're too loud… go away.

"Kurogane?" More hammers hitting the wood. What the hell was she trying to do? Break it down? Couldn't she see he'd closed the door for a reason? "Kurogane, are you okay?" The doorknob jingled as she tried to turn it. "Kurogane, open the door."

Shut up!

"Kurogane, open the damn door." The frantic pounding on the door reverberated inside his skull and the world shook, turning and tumbling all around him as he somehow ended up on the floor. When did that happen? The door blew inwards, a blast of freezing air battering against his sweating body and he cried out. No. He didn't need that. He could get it under control if she just left him alone. Couldn't she see she was making it worse? "Oh shit!" Freezing fingers on his skin, reaching through his muscles to dig into his bone as he convulsed. He pushed the hands away and a piercing whistle sliced through the air followed shortly by the sound of the world shattering around him.

"Hang on." Tendrils of magic wrapped around him, holding him in place as he struggled against them, trying to break free. The magic was constricting his chest. He couldn't breathe. Air. He needed air. What the hell was she doing to him? "You're having a sensory overload. You need to calm down. Focus on breathing."

Well, what the hell was he trying to do? He gasped, wheezing when he couldn't draw in anything. He was choking. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't— The tendrils of magic snaked into his chest, letting up on some of the pressure and blessed air filled up his burning lungs.

"Come on, that's it. That's it." The spell holding him down eased up and Kurogane lay on the floor, gasping for breath, shaking like an old man. "Good job."

Kurogane opened his eyes to find Masooma smiling down at him, though the expression did not quite reach her eyes. The light in the room had dulled, as had the sounds, though his vision was tinged with crimson and Masooma's voice sounded far away. He reached up with one hand to touch his eyes, surprised to have his fingers blocked by an impenetrable barrier a couple of inches away.

"It's a dampening spell," she said, still sounding as she was speaking from a long distance. "It's self-sustaining so you don't have to worry about it fading away, though I would recommend you leave it in place for a week or so."

"Why?" he asked, his own voice hoarse and scratchy, like thorns scraping the insides of his throat. Dust that he must have kicked up during his fit floated in the air, tickling his nostrils in a way that made him want to sneeze, but the earlier stench of chemicals had let up some. Wrinkling his nose, Kurogane shook his head in an attempt to get rid of the strange feeling of something blocking his nasal cavity. He could still breathe, but he could also feel the magical block. Masooma giggled and he shot her an irritated look. "What?"

"It's nothing," she chuckled, and unlike the smile before, the mirth sounded real.

"Well, if you're done laughing at me, I want to know what the hell just happened."

"You had a drastic reaction to the virus," she said as she sobered up, giving him a worried once over. "It's a good thing I came up to check on you when I did. It could have gotten real ugly, real quick."

"What do you mean?"

"Over seventy-five percent of Lupineinfections result in death," she said, offering him a hand. Kurogane ignored it, standing under his own power. A flash of hurt crossed her face, but Kurogane was too irritated to feel bad for the witch, and she averted her gaze. "You just experienced the primary cause of mortality."

"The sensory overload?" Kurogane frowned, repeating the term she had used earlier.

"Yeah." She nodded, rubbing one of her arms, and Kurogane was surprised to see a bruise the size of his fist blossoming on her pale skin. As he looked closer, he also noticed the rips in her shirt on her right shoulder, exposing the torn skin below. Her hair was in a disarray, loose strands having escaped from the knots she usually kept it in. The beaded clips that she usually wore to keep the knots in place hung loosely from her head, adding to her disheveled appearance.

"Oh hell…" Kurogane swallowed thickly, not missing the way Masooma tried to cover up her injuries. "Did I do that?"

"Don't worry about it." She shook her head, casting a quick healing spell that she directed to her wounded shoulder. Despite the damping spell working to tone down his senses, Kurogane still heard her sharp intake of breath as her breathing sped up, and yet she still offered him a watery smile for comfort. "It looks worse than it feels."

"Bullshit," Kurogane snapped, immediately feeling a pang of guilt when she flinched and took half a step back. Drawing a deep breath, Kurogane forced his roiling emotions to a corner of his mind. He could deal with those in private. "You saved my life, more than once. That's not something I take lightly, but don't lie to spare my feelings."

"I'm fine, really," she said again, still giving him that empty smile. The skin on her shoulder knit itself back together under the influence of her magic, and she directed the spell to the bruise on her arm next. Much to his surprise, she brought the spell to her ribs right after that, wincing as the magic fixed whatever damage he had inflicted there. "There. All done, see?" She dismissed the magic with wave of her hand. "You should take it easy for a couple of days, just as long as it takes you to get used to your new physiology. The dampening spell is designed to deteriorate on its own, so the change in your sensory input will be more gradual. If you experience persistent headaches though, you should come see me. Once you're feeling better, I'll arrange for your Lupineinstructor to speak with you about your training. Sorry about the lock, by the way. I'll ask Nixon to send someone over to fix it for you later."

And with those words, she was gone. Kurogane watched her leave, not missing the limp in her steps as she exited his room. He thought about going after her, but before he could move to follow, he caught sight of the smashed tiles on the floor. Feeling his heart sink, he looked around the rest of the room and spotted one of Masooma's beaded hairclips next to the broken lamp. Clenching his hands into fists, he walked over and bent to pick it up.

In her hurry to leave, she'd probably not even noticed that it had fallen out. Then again, with the way he'd attacked her, was it all that surprising?

For a moment, he considered following her, just to see how much he had actually hurt her, but then the destruction he'd rained caused came into his focus. Shaking his head, Kurogane staggered back until he collided with the wall. He slid down to the floor, hitting the back of his head against the plaster as he clenched his left hand around the clip. The metal dug into his flesh and, for once, he welcomed the pain.

"Fuck..."

-0-

Fai hid a frown as he bit into the blood bag, eyeing an armed guard as he marched past the table. Security had been upped by several levels as the final event of the Gladiator Tournament drew nearer. A stringent curfew had been implemented; the movement of the Unnaturals being kept on that floor was being strictly monitored and controlled. The duration of mealtimes had also been reduced to half an hour, three times a day, with all the gladiators being forced to share the hall. The overcrowding meant that fights between various teams broke out more frequently, which necessitated the presence of armed guards to discourage uncouth behavior. According to the warnings they'd been given, the additional security was also to serve as a deterrent against sabotage between teams.

Every spare moment outside of mealtimes and the seven hours of sleep allowed at night was taken up the handlers training their charges for the final event. Of the eight teams set to qualify for the finale, only one spot remained open, with the slot being awarded to an unqualified team that could either defeat an existing qualified team or gain the most popularity amongst the viewers to be voted in. As a result, televised matches between the qualified and unqualified teams had also grown more frequent.

The combined efforts of Seishirou and Kyle had managed to turn Fai, Kamui and Lupa into a somewhat functional team. All three of them were strong in their own right and more than a match for their opponents in one-on-one combat, which had been enough to help them qualify for the final event. But Fai knew that if they were to face a team that knew how to work together, they'd be in trouble.

Fai could hold his own against multiple opponents for a short while, even without the aid of his magic, but he had seen some of the opposing teams working together in the tag-team matches. He doubted the others would come to his aid if he was ambushed. Kamui still insisted on acting like a sullen teenager, and Lupa was passive-aggressive both inside and outside the arena, at least toward Fai. Their mutual dislike of Fai had given them enough common ground to work well with each other, though neither was eager to include Fai, and he had little hope of that changing in time for the final event to begin.

Because two members of the trio couldwork together, their handlers weren't too forceful about suggesting they include Fai, considering their team had yet to lose a single match. With the team at the top of the rankings list, the pair of handlers was happy enough not to interfere with the team dynamics, especially since antagonism amongst members caused the viewer ratings to shoot upwards. Or so Roy had informed him.

Lupa and Kamui absolutely hatedhim and had been trying their best to set him up for failure. Had Fai still had uninterrupted access to his magic, he wouldn't have had an issue with that, but the juvenile behavior of his teammates was going to get him killed.

Fai recalled the way Kamui had refused to tag in when Seishirou had expressly instructed them to work together and scowled at a passing guard in annoyance. If he had any hope of—

"What the hell are you looking at, Leech?" the guard barked as he came to a stop in front of Fai, tightening grip on the gun in his hands.

Fai regarded the man with a level stare, swallowing a mouthful of blood. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Fai watched the man squirm under his gaze. When the guard looked dangerously close to exploding in anger, he said, "Nothing of consequence."

If the man had looked angry before, he looked positively murderous now. "Then know your place and keep your gaze lowered, you piece of shit!" the man snarled as he pointed the muzzle at Fai's face. Fai considered snatching the weapon from the man's hand and smashing it in his head before dismissing the idea. That was something Kurogane would have done. Besides, Fai didn't fancy getting locked up in solitary for his 'savage' behavior. Again. "Don't fucking look at your betters!"

It took considerable effort on Fai's part to look down at the man's feet, lowering his head in submission as was considered 'proper' for The Company-owned Unnaturals. The cafeteria that was quieter than the norm was now deathly silent. Fai could feel everyone's eyes on him. He knew Lupa and Kamui were part of the onlooking crowd, as was Roy, but he did not expect anyone to come to his defense. Expecting such of his teammates would be idiotic and though Roy had become something of a friend, Fai did not expect nor wish for his help. And Roy probably knew that too.

"At least it can understand simple commands," the guard scoffed as he snatched the blood bag from Fai's hand. "Now kneel on the floor."

Fai clenched his jaw to bite back a scathing response, staying where he was. He knew resisting the man would only make him angrier but at that moment, Fai didn't care. Cold, stale blood dribbled down his face as the guard emptied the snatched blood bag on Fai's head.

"Are you deaf, you stubborn mule? Get down on the floor and kneel." The guard smashed the butt of his gun into Fai's face and pain blossomed in his jaw. Clenching his fists in his lap, Fai stubbornly remained where he was even as the taste of copper filled his mouth.

"I told you to fucking kneel, you bastard!" the guard yelled when Fai refused to react. "Do as I say or I'm going to blow your useless brain out." The cold metal dug into his flesh as the guard pressed the muzzle against Fai's temple.

"Leave the stubborn thing alone, Shawn," said a second guard, marching up to the man harassing Fai. "Seishirou will have your head if you damage it."

'Shawn' scoffed, but did as the other guard had asked and lowered the gun. Grabbing Fai's hair, he jerked him close enough to hiss a threat. "You won't always be this lucky, Leech."

Fai gave the man a predatory grin, his fingers twitching beneath the table as he wove an invisible curse. He flashed his eyes to vampire gold as he locked his gaze on Shawn and let go of his hold on the curse. "H-Have a pleasant day."

The guard jumped back with a yelp as though burnt before turning away with a glare and marching off.

"You're either suicidal, or crazy," Roy hissed as he slid into a seat across from him a couple of minutes later. Ten feet away, 'Shawn' gave a startled cry as he fell on his face and Fai grinned as he met Roy's horrified gaze.

"Possibly both," Fai said in a conspiratorial whisper.

"What the hell... Did you do that?" Roy gasped.

"I did a l-lot more," Fai said, winking for dramatic effect as he grabbed the extra blood bag Roy had fetched. That was nice of him.Fai thought as he absently cast the flavor enhancing spell on Roy's dinner. "The guard won't be h-h-happy to wake up with boils in some very embarrassing places tomorrow morning. Or the unlucky streak that will follow h-h-him for the next seven days."

Roy's eyes bugged out at the declaration as the man gaped at Fai before shaking his head as he looked down at his meal. "You're insane and you've got a death wish. Great. That's really good to know. At least now I know you won't be sticking around for too long once the Finale begins."

Fai chuckled but refrained from replying and they both lapsed into silence. He looked down at the blood bag in his hands, recalling a thought that had been niggling his mind for quite some time. Three weeks had gone by since the night he'd spent with Lupa and despite sharing a table during mealtimes, he hadn't had an opportunity to talk to Roy about it. One of the patrolling guards who wasn't 'Shawn' passed them by and Fai waited until the man was halfway across the cafeteria before speaking, "Pyro, does L-L-Lupine blood h-h-have any unusual effects on vampires?"

"Not really." Roy shrugged, chewing on a spoonful of his goopy dinner. "It's pretty much the same as regular blood. Except for the whole rapid regeneration thing. Come to think of it, I bet that's why The Company uses Lupine blood to feed the Vampirosa."

"I see." Fai nodded, falling silent as another guard passed by their table.

"Why?" Roy asked, having waited until the guard was well out of earshot before placing his own question. "Are you and Lupa doing the whole blood-sharing thing now?" Roy asked, sending a crooked grin in Fai's direction, shaking his head in wonder when Fai ducked his head. "Lupines don't normally enjoy sharing their blood with the Vampirosa. I had no idea you were into kinky shit like that. Should I be worried about my virtue?"

"I am," Fai replied with a perfectly serious expression. Roy glanced over at him in surprise. Fai grinned internally. "But that's only the case with the r-r-really pretty ones. You and your non-existent virtue h-have nothing to worry about. Elementals are too unpredictable for my tastes."

Roy blinked, taken aback by the straight-faced admission before he understood what Fai had said and laughed.

"So he does know how to make jokes," Roy said, and Fai gave a goofy smile in return. "Make sure you take a shower before curfew. You look like a savage with all that blood in your hair."

Fai nodded, ducking his head to hide his troubling thoughts. He'd been certain he'd lost control because of her blood though he'd chalked it up to a property common to all Lupines. But if that wasn't the case, then what in the world had possessed him? There was one other possibility, though a part of him had hoped that not to be the case. Suppressing the urge to frown, Fai bit into the blood bag, knowing he had to conserve his strength for the task he had to accomplish once the curfew was in effect.

-0-

A freezing shower and thirty minutes after dinner, Fai entered his room. He discarded his soiled shirt in a corner just as the locking mechanism activated. He tried the doorknob once, to ensure that it was locked before he sat down on the floor in the middle of his room. Closing his eyes, Fai tried to clear his mind.

It had become a habit of his lately, to try and meditate in hopes of gaining better control over his magic, though his progress was negligible. Simple spells like the curse he had cast weren't that difficult, but when it came to complex spells, his control was worse than an apprentice with only a month of magical training.

It was frustrating and annoying and left him grumpy and prone to bouts of recklessness, like his actions in the cafeteria during dinner that day. This was the fourth time he'd intentionally provoked the guards, with the last two attempts having resulted with him being confined in solitary -a glorified name for a tiny cage- for well over a day each time.

He had also become prone to nightmares, though luckily, those were fewer than the time he had been trying and failing to learn healing magic back in Celes. Only this time, Fai knew he had no room to give up.

Dismissing the thought, Fai attempted to reach for his magic. The ebb and flow of power within him was weak, barely noticeable. What had once been an ocean of pulsing, thrumming energy was now a shallow pond barely a few feet across. It shifted and swirled inside him, sluggish to respond as Fai coaxed it to move around in his bloodstream. The tendrils of magic fizzled and hissed as they came in contact with the Cerellium, aiding the nanites in canceling the compounds.

Furrowing his brow, Fai directed the magic away from the Cerellium and into a small percentage of the nanites themselves. The effect was instantaneous as the Cerellium levels in his blood rose, attacking the magic that was disabling the targeted nanites. Digging his fingers into the palms of his hands, Fai pushed more magic into his bloodstream, all too aware of the steadily diminishing magic inside him as he held the targeted nanites in place. The temperature in his blood began to rise as the three-way war between Cerellium, nanites, and his magic drew out. He could feel the sweat soaking through his skin and clothes, dripping from the tips of his short hair, but he resisted the urge to shift as he pushed out more magic. It helped him map out the internal mechanism of the nanites and he focused on the parts where the explosive charges were loaded into the devices. With a silent snarl, Fai pushed everything he had accumulated over the course of the day into the charges, setting them off.

Crying out as spikes of pain shot through his right forearm, he fell on his side, gasping for breath as he waited for the ringing in his ears to stop. Eyes watering, he gingerly pushed himself back into an upright position with his uninjured arm. Wiping off the sweat dripping into his eyes, Fai inspected the swollen limb where he had set off the nanite charges. The skin had turn into a mess of black and blue from the burst blood vessels, torn muscle fibers, and burnt tissue. His arm had swollen considerably and every touch radiated a volley of pins and needles when Fai poked at it with a finger. He sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth and let his injured arm be. Damage like that would put a normal person out of commission for months, but for a vampire with accelerated healing, it barely lasted half the night.

With all the practice he had gotten with his nightly sessions in the past couple of weeks, Fai had gotten the healing time down to the last minute. Every night after his training or televised match, Fai retreated to his room to meditate, using his magic to discharge a small percentage of the nanites in his blood stream. He had to have gotten rid of at least ten percent of the explosives in the past fortnight. He remained slumped against the bed for an hour afterward, waiting for the wound to heal enough that moving it wouldn't make him want to scream.

Fai leaned back against the bed frame in exhaustion, closing his eyes as he rested his head against the mattress. A weak laugh bubbled up his throat as his body struggled to fix the damage he had inflicted as his thoughts drifted back to his family. He wondered if Kurogane and Mokona had reached Sakura yet. He'd dreamed of the princess twice more since she'd first appeared to interrupt his nightmare, though they had always been separated by the impenetrable barrier. The second time she'd appeared, Fai had realized that it was the princess's spirit, reaching out across the dream realm in an attempt to communicate with him.

Even with as little access to his magic as he had, Fai could still identify spells when they were being cast, and Sakura was most certainly using a spell to reach him. And each time she had appeared, her face only held concern for him. There was never any anger or hatred, which made Fai believe that she had yet to discover Syaoran's fate. It was the only thing that made sense. After all, as kind as she was, she loved Syaoran dearly, and Fai still expected her to hate him for stealing her beloved Syaoran.

Heh, I thought I'd outgrown my self-loathing stage, Fai thought wryly as he tentatively reached for his magic, only to discover that the pond had nearly dried out, struggling to regenerate. Don't worry, Syaoran-kun. I haven't forgotten my promise. No matter how long it takes, Iwill avenge you.

Confident that his magic would replenish by morning, Fai let his mind wander, his thoughts drifting to his teammates.

Despite the way they were treating him, Fai had been keeping an eye on both Kamui and Lupa. If for no other reason than to find something he could use to force them to work with him instead of against him. He hadn't found anything to help him, but he had made a few discoveries that had him concerned.

Three weeks had gone by since the night he'd slept with Lupa, and though he was no closer to figuring out the truth now, Fai had started noticing cracks in the mask she displayed to the world. She was always cocky and arrogant when people could see her, but more than once, Fai had caught sight of the defeated slump in her shoulders.

Being a master of façades himself, Fai could easily pick up on the flashes of fear in her eyes whenever she was called away. Judging from the way she went from a spitfire to a docile thing with just a warning from Kyle, Fai had surmised that the handler had something that he was using to blackmail Lupa with. The conversation he'd overhead between the two three weeks ago alluded to that much. Despite having spent three years in the hellhole that was The Company, Lupa's spirit hadn't broken. Kyle let her get away with a lot, though he did appear to exact compensation for the freedom he granted her during those sessions. And whatever it was that he had her do was something depraved even by handler standards.

Was it possible that she was being physically abused by Kyle? That could go a long way in explaining her erratic behavior. How she always tried to hold herself in a manner that made her appear bigger than she actually was, how she avoided being touched outside of the arena and always tried to keep others in her line of sight.

He hadn't wanted to consider it a possibility before but based on conversation with Roy at dinner, Fai was inclined to believe that Lupa might not have been in control of her actions that night. He wouldn't put it past Kyle to have drugged her, and when Fai drank her blood, the same drug got to him as well. Fai groaned, running a hand through his hair as he tugged at it in frustration.

The theory couldexplain why Fai had lost control that night. And why Lupa would have allowed things to go that far when she could barely be civil towards him most of the time. Of course, if this wasn't the first time it happened, it made sense for Lupa to be so closed off afterward. Kyle appeared to have been exploiting her weakness for as long as he'd had her.

It was quite a feat for her to have remained strong after so long. Fai had to admit that he found her quiet strength to be a rather attractive trait. She wasn't charismatic, but there was beauty in her tenaciousness. Fai pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing out noisily as he reined in his thoughts. As badly as he wanted to know what had happened that night, he couldn't keep obsessing over Lupa when he had an escape to plan.

As selfish as it made him seem, Fai was happy that Seishirou showed far more interest in Kamui. Seishirou, usually accompanied by Akira, called away the younger vampire at the oddest of times. Fai wasn't exactly certain what the duo put Kamui through while he was with them. The couple of times Fai had seen him return, Kamui had looked sickly and exhausted. Given his own experiences with Akira, Fai knew enough to guess that Kamui was being subjected to experimentation. Kamui's status as a pureblood Vampirosa ensured that he had a healing rate superior to Fai's, meaning that he could be subjected to worse experiments and still be healthy enough by the next morning to participate in their team activities. Both times that Fai had seen Kamui in such a state, the latter had gone out of his way to make things difficult for Fai, be it training or the televised matches, as though Fai had committed a great sin by catching him in his moment of weakness.

Fai understood how he must have appeared to his sire. Fai was a Hybridturned by Kamui's blood, though Kamui couldn't recall having met Fai because that was still in his future. Fai wondered if Kamui had never said anything about Cavahall in Acid Tokyo to preserve the integrity of the timeline. Kamui was like Kurogane in that they both preferred being straightforward rather than cryptic. He had probably been instructed by Yuuko not to outright tell the travelers about their future, which was probably why Kamui had never said anything. Or maybe something bad happened to Fai here in the future and— no, he mustn't think that way. Fai had sworn to get out and so he would. Kamui must not have had the patience to think up of something cryptic enough to share with their group in Tokyo. After all, if Kamui got out of The Company and reunited with his twin, then Fai must have gotten out too. He was the one with the magic to traverse dimensions, after all, and the vampire twins could not have traveled on their own to Yuuko's shop.

Fai frowned, mulling over the words in his head for a moment. The vampire twins were acquainted with Yuuko Ichihara, having acquired the means to travel through dimensions from the Time Space Witch herself and not— Eyes snapping open, Fai sat upright as it clicked. Not Watanuki-kun's shop.Yuuko's shop!

Heart racing, Fai struggled to come to terms with the startling revelation. Yuuko had passed away well over four years ago and yet, here in the future, Kamui was younger than he'd been when Fai had first met him. It shouldn't be possible to travel this far into the past, regardless of who did it. The incident during Shura and Shara was due to the resonance caused by Sakura's feather in the present and past. Without another pair of feathers to fuel it, such an event it shouldn't have been possible.

Mokona was capable of dimension traveling, not time traveling, so unless there was a strong anomaly capable of affecting reality in such a significant manner—

Fai's eyes widened as he let out an involuntary gasp. "Syaoran-kun..."

Syaoran was an anomaly. One that should not have existed after Fei Wang Reed's work was undone. And yet, his bonds with those in the realm of the living had been enough to allow him to keep on existing. The price had been for him to keep moving between worlds until he could find the means to produce a body for his father, thus ending his existence as an anomaly, for he would have had parents. Syaoran being stuck in a single world for a significant amount of time without succumbing to his fever could have done it. It could force reality to twist around itself in such a manner that his existence would not obliterate everything. The fix could not be permanent, but it made sense given everything that had happened.

Syaoran was a vampire now. It was entirely possible that contrary to what Fai had initially believed, Syaoran's vampirism had kept him alive well beyond the time limit he was originally allowed to stay in any world. And if he was alive, he was somewhere in Cavahall. And if he was still in Cavahall after all these weeks, his continued existence was fraying the threads holding together reality itself. The laws of inter-dimensional temporal entropy would begin to weaken, causing a shift between relative timelines to acquire stability. Theoretically, it was possible for the instability to reach a point where the present of one dimension would be linked to the past of another instead of the relative present of the second dimension. In short, at some point in Cavahall's future the instability could reach a point where Cavahall's present would get linked to a point in Japan's past where Yuuko was still alive and granting wishes. That could explain the reverse age difference between the two versions of his sire, Kamui, that Fai was acquainted with.

But... if such an event were to occur, it would spell disaster for all of Cavahall at best and the integrity of reality itself at worst.

"Oh, Syaoran-kun." Fai couldn't contain his hysterical chuckles as he buried his face in his uninjured hand. "I'm so glad you're alive but... this is bad. This is r-r-really bad and I'm the only one who knows about it."

Lifting his head, he glanced at his arm. It was nearly healed. He prodded at it with his uninjured hand, biting back a hiss of pain before closing his eyes as he reached inside for his magic. Now that he knew Syaoran was alive, there wasn't time to waste. He had to get out of here and find his companions. And hopefully help them save the multi-verse from complete obliteration once again.

A/N: Kurogane is learning that becoming a Lupine might not be as easy as he had initially thought it to be. Fai is being a secretly rebellious badass and he's made several important discoveries! Including what might be going on with Lupa, and why Kamui doesn't recognize him and he now knows that Syaoran is alive. And that last part might not be such a good thing in the long run. In the words of my beta 'Syaoran is going to break reality. Again.' xD unless of course Fai can get out of The Company and do something. Drop me a review and let me know what you guys think.