Kurogane plucked the silver matchbox from Nixon's outstretched hand, eyeing the packaging critically as he brought it closer to his face.
"The nanites have enough juice in them to disable the inhibitors for two people," Nixon said, making Kurogane pause in his inspection of the device.
"Two?"
"Uh-huh." Nixon nodded, looking pleased with himself. "Don't worry, you won't have any trouble getting your friend out of there with these babies."
"Do you have another set of these?" Kurogane asked struggling to keep his voice level as cold dread rose to his throat. That's not going to be enough for all three.
"I didn't think you'd need more than that, so I only synthesized a dose for a single carrier. I mean, it's not like you can get the base components in a supermarket."
Kurogane glanced at Subaru sitting next to him. The younger vampire's face was set in a mask of polite interest, though he still caught the flash of worry in his eyes. Well, fuck.
"Thank you for your help, Nixon-san," Subaru said before Kurogane could speak up. Smoothing the front of his jacket, he stood up and shook the blind idiot's hand, forcing Kurogane to unfreeze his limbs and follow suit. Subaru turned to him, his expression pinched. "We must get going if we're to make it in time for our next meeting."
"Yeah." A ragged feeling curdled up in his chest, though Kurogane quickly tamped down on the panic clawing its way through his stomach. What the fuck am I supposed to do now?
His nerves sparked bright and hot and he couldn't help but grind his teeth as they stepped out of the shady bar and into the drizzling street. The sense of gloom pervading their surroundings made it hard for Kurogane to think, though he knew panicking would serve no purpose. He was only thankful that Subaru hadn't attempted to strike up a conversation with him so soon after leaving. After all, he had no idea what he'd say once the young vampire asked him the inevitable question: Who would they leave behind?
It wasn't until they were halfway to their temporary hideout that Subaru finally spoke. "I don't think Touya-san will be very happy to hear about the nanites' limitation."
Kurogane merely grunted in response, which Subaru seemed to take as an invitation to continue.
"Have you thought about what you'll say to him?"
"I have. The bastard will just have to deal with it."
"And if he doesn't?"
Tightening his grip around the tiny silver box in his fist, Kurogane felt his resolve harden. "Then I'll deal with him."
-0-
Contrary to Subaru's prediction, they didn't find out whether Touya would have been upset with the nanites' limitations. Souma had arrived at the border fence to welcome them once they'd collected Mokona from their hideout and arrived at the Scavenger base. She'd taken them directly to the underground room where the bastard had been keeping the kid and Cavahall's version of the princess. Before the alpha could open his mouth to speak, however, Mokona had hurled out of its hiding place in Kurogane's jacket pocket and bounded across the room to Syaoran's side.
"Syaoran!" The manjuu cried, reaching out with a stubby paw to pat the kid's blood-splattered cheek. The boy's skin was white as death in a stark contrast to the tears of blood sluggishly drizzling down the sides of his face, the bruise-like dark circles beneath his eyes, and his chest rattled with every pump of air forced inside through the breathing tubes. "Syaoran!"
"What the hell is that thing?" Touya demanded as he advanced on the manjuu, stopping only when Kurogane growled and stepped into his path.
"Mokona," Subaru answered when it became obvious that Kurogane wouldn't respond.
"Interesting."
"It's not up for trade," Kurogane said, correctly identifying the hungry gleam in Touya's eyes.
"Not even for your friend?" Touya cajoled.
"I'm not trading one friend for the other."
"I see."
"Syaoran is dying, Kurogane!" Mokona wailed. A heavy lump of ice settled just above his diaphragm with those words, the chill radiating outwards and making him break out into goosebumps. He had already suspected it, already having seen the kid's condition on his last visit, but hearing the manjuu confirm his fears only made it that much more real.
"Can you send him to the princess?" Kurogane asked, moving to the kid's side, noting the way his veins had become visible through the papery-skin.
"Mokona can try." And with that, the manjuu summoned its magic circle, lifting off the ground as snow white feathers sprouted from its back.
Iridescent smoke emanated from the runic circle on the floor, curling around Kurogane's legs but otherwise leaving him whole as it rose in gentle spirals, coiling around the kid's prone body. Wherever it touched him, Syaoran dissolved into the smoke as the entire room lit up in a gentle golden glow. As the smoke reached his chest, however, the five circular scars around his heart began to glow a malevolent dark green, halting the effect of the dimensional transportation. Time crawled to a near halt, the shimmering smoke turning the same malevolent green as the scars. For a heartbeat, all of reality froze. And then an invisible bell tolled, shattering the stillness as the smoke spewed in reverse. It reached him and Kurogane hissed in pain as it burnt his flesh like acid. He tried jumping out of the runic circle, only to find himself unable to move.
The bell rang again making the air itself shudder. The golden glow of the transportation circle turned black as a heavy oppressive feeling permeated the room. Mokona let out a startled cry as dozens of thorny, eldritch vines erupted from the scars, wrapping around the kid and sinking into the ground below him. Some of the vines burst out of the ground below Kurogane's feet and the spot where Mokona hovered in the air, trapped by the acid smoke. They speared through Mokona's wings and his limbs, tearing into his very soul and the pain rendered him insensible. Outside of the circle, someone was shouting, but the sound was muffled against his ears as a sudden, inexplicable panic took hold of him.
He couldn't breathe and the world—no, reality itself—felt wrong. Everything was wrong. His lungs stung and Kurogane knew that he needed to breathe as spots began dotting his vision but he couldn't… he couldn't…
The world splintered.
Fracturing and fragmenting into sparkling shards, all of reality glittered like stars in the space between dimensions. Two dozen shards to the left, he spotted Nihon, Tomoyo kneeling in prayer at the shrine. Half a dozen down from there he saw Castle Ruval, the mage's king Ashura asleep in a magical slumber beneath a frozen lake. Above was Jade country, the way it had been when they had first set out on their journey, Sakura chained to the ground in a castle. To his left was Cavahall as it was at present, Touya, Souma and Subaru staring wide-eyed and horrified at what had become of reality. Behind the manjuu, in a shard that sparkled brightly, he could see himself, the mage, the kid, and the princess as they had been when they'd arrived at the witch's shop, drenched in rain and bargaining for a means to travel the dimensions.
Far way, gleaming in this myriad of broken existence and fractured dimensions, he saw the mage impaled on more of the eldritch vines. Their eyes met just as another gong sounded and the shards shifted. Now, where there had been Nihon before, Kurogane saw something that he had yet to experience as he spoke with the mage inside a high rise building in Piffle as Tomoyo and a dark-haired version of Masooma stood nearby. In place of Jade was the sacred underground reservoir of Clow, a young kid meeting a young princess for the very first time. The mage's companions from the gladiator tournament had taken the place of Touya, Souma and Subaru, trying to revive an unconscious mage who bled from his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. A small, black copy of the runic circle was visible beneath his body.
A fifth gong struck and the fragmented reality shuddered. The mage was yelling something, but no sound crossed the void that they currently occupied. Seemingly with great effort, the mage moved out his arm, his face contorting in pain as the vines tore through his flesh, refusing to move with him. Blue runes burned in the space his fingers crossed as a complex spell took form. Blood dribbled from his nose and eyes as he appeared to struggle with his casting. A blue aura enveloped the eldritch vines as the spell-chain shot across the void and encircled Syaoran. The spell sank into his prone body and spread outwards through the vines which began to retract.
The pain receded, and Kurogane found himself able to breathe. The void between dimensions glowed the same blue as the mage's spell as the shards came together and reality righted itself once more. Kurogane came to on the floor next to Syaoran's sickbed, coughing up blood and blinking the same from his eyes. Mokona was collapsed on top of Syaoran, its wings sluggishly shrinking as it whimpered. The blue of Fai's magic vanished, leaving behind the stench of ozone.
"What the fuck just happened?" Touya growled, eyes blown wide as he looked from Mokona to him and back to the manjuu again. "What did that thing just do?"
Mokona whimpered again, sobbing for Syaoran as it patted the kid's hollowed cheeks.
"Manjuu?" Kurogane asked. That single word felt as though gravel was sanding the insides of his throat. He needed water…
"Syaoran is stuck."
"What do you mean the kid is stuck?"
"Syaoran is entangled with Cavahall's reality now," the creature sobbed. "If Mokona tries to send him to Sakura again, what just happen might happen again. Mokona can't send Syaoran anywhere."
"I thought you said Syaoran was dying here." Touya directed the question at Kurogane, finally getting the hint that Mokona wouldn't be answering him.
"He is, but the Manjuu will need the mage's help to send him away."
"The hybrid in the tournament? How will he be able to help?" Souma quirked a brow.
"Fai stopped Mokona's transportation circle just now when it got stuck because of Syaoran."
"All we saw was a weird light show."
Light show? Did they not see anything because they weren't stuck inside Mokona's spell like me? But how the hell did the mage appear in that place?
"Kurogane, we need Fai," Mokona said.
"We need an answer," Touya said. "What the hell was all that?"
"The manjuu just told you." Kurogane grunted, picking the dimension hopper up from Syaoran's chest and handing it over to Subaru. "Guard it with your life while I get your brother. And you," he turned to Touya, narrowing his eyes at the annoyed alpha, "show me the tunnel entrance to the arena."
"Remember our deal about Lupa or you won't see the kid again, Kuanos." Touya added as he gestured for Souma to approach.
Kurogane avoided looking at Subaru as he grunted an affirmative.
Souma transported them to an underground mine, a half-collapsed tunnel leading into the darkness before them. Collecting the holomap of the cave system that Touya held out for him, Kurogane wished that he'd had a chance to drink some water before he stepped into the darkness. Calling on his Lupine vision to guide the way, he tried not to think about what the hell he would do when he finally reached the mage. Just who the hell would he leave behind?
-0-
Fai choked on the blood filling his lungs, turning over on his hands and knees as he vomited it all. Greedily drawing in air, he squeezed his eyes shut and trembled from the phantom pains still wracking his body as the fatigue from his intense spell-casting assaulted him. It was a soul-deep weariness that left him wishing for a cool dark room to sleep in until it no longer felt like his spirit would crumble to dust and leave his body a lifeless husk.
"What the fuck was that?" Madiha demanded, sounding terrified. Her question reminded him of what he had been trying to convince her of, when he'd been assaulted by the spell that reeked of decay and something putrid. It had carried a hint of Mokona's magic, though it hadn't been until Fai had found himself drifting in the space between dimensions with fragments of reality glittering all around him that he'd realized what had happened. Mokona, Kurogane and Syaoran were all trapped in the same decaying magic, far out of his reach, Mokona's dimensional transportation spell morphing and mutating into the abomination that had fractured the world.
It had taken everything Fai had in him to sever Mokona's spell before it could mutate out of control. He had tried to warn them against trying it again, though he didn't think they'd heard him. Even so, Mokona must have realized what had happened, and it was smart enough not to try something of that nature again. But even, time was running out and he really needed Madiha to agree and let him go through with the surgery. He needed to get rid of these blocks in his brain.
"I'm going to die if I don't get the blockage out of my head," Fai rasped, refraining from adding that so would they. If they waited too long, it wouldn't matter if Fai managed to make it to Syaoran. He would be so deeply entangled with Cavahall that even Fai wouldn't be able to send him away. And if it got to that stage, all of reality would implode, taking everyone with it.
"I-I… I didn't think the blockage was actively killing you." Madiha sounded shaken as Fai tried to get the trembling in his limbs under control. Having to force his astral projection to move actively against the decaying magic had hurt. It still hurt.
"We're running out of time," he said, sitting on his knees as he wiped the blood out of his eyes. His whole face felt sticky with it.
"You really think Strigoi performing this surgery on you is the best solution?"
"Given our p-present circumstances? Yes, I do."
Madiha gave him an unreadable look, then gave a terse nod as she reached into her hip pouch and withdrew the injection containing the chimera venom they'd collected earlier. "All right. Let's do this."
Ignoring the tightening in his chest at the thought of something going awry, Fai accepted the injection and summoned the laser scalpel from his pocket dimension. "L-Let's begin."
