Author's Note: Another chapter, another deadline past…so close this time, so very close this time. To Jurei: you're right; I like writing heavy drama, desperate fics; there's something about the emotions that can be so intense. It's so very interesting. I'm still a sucker for happy endings, but I'm warning you, this will not be a 'happily ever after' story, at least, not the way it seems like it could be. Also, A big thank you to Misty Showron, pokey, little blossom, Sakura 1301, and hey. I'm so happy that my little attempt at a sci-fi fic is semi-interesting. The gaps represent sort of time flashbacks; I don't think it's that hard to get…but I'm the writer, so I can get it…never mind. =P
Disclaimer: If I own CCS, then I'll eat a pound of butter.
Slipping AwayChapter 2: Laid Bare
Syaoran settled comfortably on his couch facing Sakura laying nearly asleep on the opposite sofa, her figure bathed in the dimmed lights of the living room, face screwed up into a thoughtful look. "And that's the whole story?" Syaoran blinked despite himself, trying to process the huge amount of information laid at his feet, a mass of emotions running through him, a stinging pain in his chest, immense sympathy and above all, an overwhelming anger. Her life was beyond anything imaginable, hopeless, one she didn't deserve. But everything…it was so fantastical; would anyone help her? How could anyone believe her story?
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Sakura folded her hands over the dining table, pushing her plate into the center. "How can I start?" She sighed, her eyes pleading with Syaoran for a hint.
He shifted in his seat, to have someone like Sakura look to you for guidance, it was unnerving, knowing she depended on you for something. "Um…how about where you're from."
Sakura smiled wryly, a low mirthless laugh from her throat. "Ahh…the burning question ne? I'm from Earth, and yet I'm not." She gave a sympathetic look at Syaoran's confused expression. "Don't pout Syaoran; it's very…unbecoming." Her eyes twinkled at her correct prediction, Syaoran's face immediately tinted crimson. "I'm from Earth, my Earth, another dimension. I live in Tomoeda, just like you do, except things are…different. Each decision you ever make has an infinite number of consequences and thus countless alternate realities. I'm from just one of these 'what if' worlds."
Syaoran was about to call Sakura insane, and yet that display yesterday night…that wasn't anything of this world. "But how, how did you get here?"
Sakura replied the same enigmatic answer as the night before. "Tunneling." She thought for a while, suddenly picking up the saltshaker and unscrewing the cap. She poured the white seasoning onto the table, silencing his half protest with a cautioning finger. Spreading the white crystals into two mounds with a level layer between them, she captured his attention. "See this? These two mounds represent two worlds, any two. And this layer of white? The fabric of time and space, sounds cliché and fake, but it exists." Placing her finger from one mound and dragging it to the other, creating a shallow groove, she looked intently at Syaoran. "This is tunneling. Each world is interconnected with each other by a channel, a tunnel, sort of. This goes for all the worlds; I don't know why or how they're there, but there they are. They remain inactive and unusable like a collapsed tube unless they're somehow opened. Last year, the scientists on my world figured how to do this, to activate one of these tunnels. Essentially, the fabric of space-time is sliced open and energy put in, spreading through the tunnel inflating it large enough to allow matter to pass from one end to the next. I can control the tunnels with remote activators." Sakura pulled out a rectangular metallic disk, its iridescent surface pure like silver. "This device helps stabilize the supports for the tunnel, and to control the openings, having them open where want them to appear. I tunneled here, passing from one of these gates on my world to the one in yours."
Syaoran was trying to absorb this, without success, one question playing in his fore mind. "But why my world?"
Sakura expected this, her answer overlapping the last words of his question. "This world is one of the worlds directly connected by one tunnel to my world; it's purely by chance that this world was chosen."
"Why tunnel at all?"
"To save the other worlds. My world, home sweet home." The trace of sarcasm dripped from her tone. "It's nothing but a wasteland." She looked longingly out the balcony, her eyes alighting on the various buildings hugging the sky. "It used to look like this, green and clean, but that was over twenty years ago. When YanaCorp took control, all this disappeared, something dead and dark coming in its place. Scorched fields, starvation, more human misery than you can ever imagine."
"And YanaCorp is what?"
"A large corporation, makes lots of technology. Yana Hiroshi's the leader; his company must of owned nearly everything on the planet when I was young."
"Sounds like Microsoft," quipped Syaoran.
"Microsoft?" Syaoran chuckled lightly, shaking his head in dismissal. "Anyway, he tried to take power; the usual world domination plot I suppose. He succeeded, becoming some kind of overlord. The war was so long, the atrocities more disturbing as the years wore on, more and more people I knew disappearing into the chaos. Long story short, I've been living in a barren world of nuclear fallout for the past twenty years. I joined the resistance soon after the end, we've been fighting him for past decade, getting nowhere until recently."
"And that's why you're here? To escape?"
Sakura smiled dolefully, replying enigmatically. "There is no escape. We discovered that his scientists finally found a way to tunnel last year. I know my world is doomed; there will be no miraculous salvation for its inhabitants, but these worlds, all these innocent lives…they don't deserve to suffer by Yana's hand. And so we fought our way into his complex and stole one of his tunneling devices. We've been planning to tunnel for a year now, watching him gather his forces, the corps, preparing to invade another world. He's coming soon; I needed to warn you. Unfortunately, they found us as I was entering the gateway; they chased me through, but I closed it in time. He's probably stepping up his preparations."
"But why me?"
Sakura gave him a mournful expression. "Every world has a double in another world right? I met you, my world's you, years ago. We fell in love, Kami-sama did I fall. We were married, the only thing that kept me alive in that living hell. We were working with the resistance trying to stop Yana. Syaoran…was killed, in our attack on Yanacorp. He was brave and compassionate; I figured that you'd be too. I need you to help, and I had no one else to turn to." Sakura refused to let the tears out, holding them behind an invisible barrier against her eyes.
"I…see." Syaoran felt immensely sorry for her, to have her life barely bordering on livable. "But what can I do; I'm not…him."
"You can help me; if I collapse the tunnel, the whole network will be destroyed, trapping Hiroshi on my planet." She hissed the name Hiroshi, venom in her words. "I can't collapse the tunnel without a great surge of energy; and unfortunately, I can't do it alone. I need some kind of generator, something to make my remote more powerful. If we send an energy wave strong enough through the tunnel, it may destabilize its support and send the whole maze down on itself. I think…" She broke off into a fit of coughing, her body suddenly overcome by convulsive twitches. Syraoran rushed to her side, leading her shuddering form to the living room, placing a comforting hand on her back, not knowing what else to do. Sakura reached inside her jacket immediately pulling out a vial. Once swallowing the fiery liquid, her body subsided, her breathing deep.
"Are you okay?" Syaoran had assumed that she was injured yesterday from her escape, but to happen again… "What's in that vial?"
"I'll be fine." Sakura watched his concerned eyes with a somber smile. "In the vial? My life." She continued, resigned to her fate, never breaking her gaze with Syaoran's eyes. "I'm dying." It was a simple statement, and yet powerful beyond the longest of speeches. "Yana caught me when we broke in to his headquarters. Among other tortures, he infected me…a virus, something that'll steadily get worse. There's no cure, but I escaped from his prison soon afterwards, lucky enough to take a crate of medicine with me. It'll last long enough, for my purposes anyway…"
Syraoran's head stopped spinning with jarring lurch; letting the despair seep deep into his chest. "Dying?" She couldn't die; he felt a connection with her; unbelievable as it seemed, he felt absolutely sure, that she was meant for him. And she was, in a sense, but not. "You're not going to die. We'll find a cure, there could be one on my world."
Sakura gave him a plaintive look, smiling reassuringly. "You do sound like him; never defeated. Even when you know there's no hope. Please don't grieve for me; I've already accepted this. All I have to do is complete my mission and then I can enjoy eternity with my Syaoran. There's only happiness ahead for me." She smiled brightly, expertly veiling her sadness, well practiced.
Not well enough. Anger flared in Syaoran's eyes, a burning hatred. "I help you. I'll kill Yana with my hands!"
Sakura frantically shook her head. "You can't! I'll deal with Yana, you help collapse the tunnels. I lost you before, you can't die again. Besides, I owe it to my Syaoran to do this; I promised him."
Syaoran reluctantly agreed; Sakura's flashing eyes boring into him. She wouldn't allow him; she would not change her mind. "I'll agree; only if you focus on getting well."
Sakura nodded, sinking deeper into the recesses of the couch. "I promise; I'll be fine." She meant in death; he knew. It didn't matter.
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"Think I'm crazy?" Sakura eyed Syaoran in the dimness of twilight, a flickering candle casting erratic shadows across the walls and floor.
"No. I believe you." Syaoran went silent, his thoughts immersed in watching the pale figure stare intently at him, the fluxing light dancing across her face, accentuating angles and gentle curves.
"Good. It's late, I'm not going to flood your mind with more stuff today. Why don't you tell me about yourself?"
"What?" Syaoran didn't know where to start; what could he say about himself that she didn't already know? She essentially married him. He blushed at the thought. "I don't know where to start…"
Sakura tilted her head on the cushion, screwing up her eyes. "Tell me about your family."
"Sure…I guess. There's me, my four sisters, my mother, Meiling…"
Sakura chuckled at the expression on Syaoran's face as he said Meiling's name, a cross between disgust and disbelief. "Is she clingy here too?"
Syaoran joined in with her laughter. "She's the worst; always attaching herself to you no matter how many times you tell her 'no.' Is she that bad in your world?"
Her laughter stopped short, her face unreadable for a moment before becoming serene again. "She was. She died, a year before Syaoran went." She shook away the memories, changing subjects, plastering a forced smile on her face. "How about your life? Job? Girlfriend?" Syaoran let it drop, unwilling to drudge up the painful memories.
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The living room clock showed midnight. Syaoran had gone over his whole life: his years in Hong Kong, being an engineer, moving to Tomoeda four years ago, even his favourite food. "And then…" He trailed looking up to watch Sakura, already sleeping soundly curled up in the couch. He quietly snuffed the candle, moving next to her sleeping body. Gently picking her up, he carried to his room, the thin streaks of moonlight escaping through the curtains slicing across her pallid features, a stone angel, a dying angel.
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Author's Notes: Review and tell if that was too confusing. I'm making up the science that goes with this as I go along…*shrugs* maybe it is complicated… If you're into action, then the next chapter's gonna be fun; it's a flashback to how Sakura lost her Syaoran, and breaking into Yanacorp. Oooh, I'm so excited. Happy Holidays!