Identity's Past
by AlterEthereal
Hey there guys! Sorry for not updating for so long... been having comp troubles. My poor baby was infected with 18 viruses (eek!! ) and I couldn't get online at all. -mumbles about stupid Trojans- Also, I had to work on my Speech final... 'nuff said. Anyway, I'm back and kickin' with an extra long chapter for you reviewers who had to put up with my blashpemic schedule. (-- neato word right there... ) So thank-yous go to Tramie, Vi3t BaBiI, sapphire999, and tenshi cherry blossoms for your awesome reviews! Enjoy!!
Alter-chan: i'm sane again! yippee!!
So: maybe i shouldn't have given you those fruit snacks earlier... sugar is getting to your brain...
Alter-chan: actually, the brain is made out of sugar.
So: um... somehow, i don't doubt that yours is...
Alter-chan: yep. sugar, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and several other carbon-based materials.
So: OO -runs away-
Alter-chan: fine... just leave me to do disclaimer... DISCLAIMER: I don't own CCS. I should think that you'd all know this by now, but just in case you don't, here I have repeated myself again.
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Chapter 23: Breathe
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It was a long way up, and Syaoran could see the power drain beginning to take effect on Sakura. Or was that just frustration that was causing the pretty girl to strain and grit her teeth? He couldn't be quite sure. Their speed was already terrifying, if not physically ludacris when they'd heard a loud boom resonate behind the terrace--they'd broken the sound barrier. Families were huddled together among each other, squashed between other families and crying children and frightened people trying to crowd closer to the center of the platform. They were all scared, and it wasn't hard to figure out why; under any normal circumstances, they'd all be flat as pancakes. The young Chinese warrior was the only one who wasn't shocked and apprehensive about the whole endeavor. He was used to this kind of excitement by now.
Still, watching all the families huddled together for support raised a sort of bitter feeling inside him. He'd never had the chance to be a part of a real family before. As much as the clan had offered him, as well as they'd trained him, as often as he was surrounded by people, never had he experienced the comfort of a mother or father to protect and nurture him. The nearest he'd come to having a parent was Wei, a martial arts instructor back in Hong Kong. Sure, the whole clan stood behind him as their future leader, but none of them really cared about him. Other than Wei, the only people he could say truly cared about him were Sakura and Madison. The boy's lips curled a bit in regret and sadness.
Suddenly, Syaoran felt an odd sensation. It was like his stomach was being thrown upward, evoking a nauseous feeling deep in his gut. It wasn't too serious, but it was enough to make him horrendously uncomfortable. Looking around, he noticed other people reacting to what he assumed to be the same thing.
What the hell is going on? he thought tersely, racking his brain for an answer. Inertia... we must be slowing down!
He turned back to Sakura, letting his eyes sweep over her struggling form. Her hands still gripped the long, pink staff tightly, though it seemed somewhat forced now. Her brow was furrowed, a bead of perspiration sneaking its way down near her ear. She gritted her teeth and let a quite unladylike grunt escape, but her eyes still glistened with that emerald determination that impressed Syaoran as a child. Her nobility's gonna end up killing her... and the villagers, too!
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Breathe... Sakura struggled to maintain focus. If they didn't make it out...
But they were starting to slow down. Her power well was draining fast, as was her physical power. The subtle jolting caused by the slow down was beginning to take effect, even upon her. Her vision blurred, and she began to feel like she was tipping. Gritting her teeth together, she refused to give up. I can make it! Have to...
She began to feel herself tip again, but this time, she must've really begun to tip, because a pair of firm hands caught her shoulders and stood her upright again. "Syaoran..." she muttered almost sleepily, though she couldn't quite discern who it was. She just knew it was him, despite her lack of senses.
"I told you, you idiot," she heard distantly, "your power's gonna overload!" The hands moved from her shoulders to her hands, fastening themselves over her own. She felt a warm body press against her from behind and support her, but was too tired to think of how it felt. She was, however, stricken with the urge to just curl up against that body and rest for a month or so. Have to keep going...
Suddenly, she felt a current of foreign energy pulse through her, making the cells in her body tumble and squeal with surprise. She woke up a bit, and her vision cleared slightly, enough to see the blood stains on the warrior's shirt. "Syaoran..." she mumbled again, but this time, with a considerable amount of life in her voice. "Fine... be that way..." The flow of energy increased, and eventually, Sakura noticed an increase in their speed, as well. They accelerated until, just like before, the crimson slot was visibly moving closer. It was near closed, with just enough room for them to pass through unharmed. "We have to get through," she said as forcefully as she could.
"Shut up and concentrate. I swear, your mouth uses up half your energy..."
The hole became almost like a beam of light as they charged into it.
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"Sakura..."
"Sakura..."
"Sakura wake up..."
"Come on, Sakura, please wake up..." The young girl's brain slowly registered the request and processed it. That's my name... She couldn't feel anything for a few moments, but finally, she felt a sharp tug on her shoulders; someone was shaking her. Too bad the rest of her body felt like lead.
She tried to communicate, to tell whoever was calling her name that she was awake, but all that spilled out of her mouth was a strangled "Nnh..."
"She's coming to..."
A heavily accented voice joined the other deep, very familiar one. "Sakura...?"
"Aah..." she managed, trying to open her heavy eyelids. At first, all she could do was make them flutter, taking a sort of awkward relief in the way her thick lashes tickled her lower lids. Suddenly, something shifted beneath her, and for the first time since she became half-conscious, she was able to discern the fact that she was lying down. But on what?
Gentle pressure was being applied to the middle of her back in several places. Fingers? Someone must be holding me... This served as a bit more motivation for her eyes, and she tried again to get them open. Once again, she only succeeded in making them flutter.
"Sakura, wake up... it's me, Syaoran..." Syaoran? I want to see Syaoran... she immediately found the willpower to raise her eyelids all the way up. Her viridian orbs were greeted by a pair of worried amber ones.
"Syaoran...?" she mumbled through half-closed lips, only then able to feel how dry and chapped they were. I need some chapstick... she noted absent-mindedly. Suddenly, the handsome face above her went from worried to ecstatic, fiery eyes brimming over with joy and relief. Before she knew it, the arms around her had tightened and pulled her into a gentle, but secure hug.
"Oh thank the gods! I thought you-... I was so scared that you might've-..." The boy's words kind of molded together, making it impossible to finish his sentences. From over the boy's shoulders, she also recognized a pair of crystalline blue eyes watching her intently. Before she could force her brain to recall whom the bearer of those eyes was, however, she was lowered from the embrace and faced back to those entrancing eyes again.
"Syaoran?" she asked again, more sure of her voice. She could now focus on the things around her, one of which happened to be the bloody boy in front of her, who was presently lifting her into a sitting position. The blood rushed to her legs, causing an extremely odd sensation, like they'd been numb for a while.
"I'm right here, Sakura. Are you alright?" the deep, soft sound radiated from the boy's lips. His voice was much calmer than it had been before, but it still sounded a bit bouncy.
"I'm..." It took the girl a moment or so to assess her condition, but eventually, she breathed, "I'm fine... I think." She watched in replenishing delight as the boy's lips formed another smile. I like that smile, she decided. "I... like that smile," she relayed as her own lips began to curve upward slightly.
The boy's smile turned into an all-out grin at her comment, and another kind face joined his, the one with the blue eyes she'd seen just moments earlier. Now, she had the chance to remember who the boy was. "Felix...?" she inquired, almost as more of a statement. The boy smiled and nodded, then took her arm gently. His turned his eyes to the other boy, who seemed to notice and glance back toward him. They exchanged a 'look' then both turned back to Sakura.
"Do you think you can stand up?" the amber-eyed boy asked, taking her other arm and still using one hand to support her back.
"Yeah, I think so," she affirmed. Now came the hard part: the moving of the legs. Bending them, they still felt a little numb, so putting weight on them was awkward. Syaoran and Felix helped to pull her to her feet, but the moment they eased up, her knees threatened to give out. "It feels... weird," she stated apprehensively, not just talking about the way her thigh-high boots weren't clinging to her any longer.
"You overdid it back in the cave. It's natural," the Bloody One responded. "You've been passed out for almost a day. I doubt standing up would be comfortable."
"Oh..." she muttered eloquently. The dark-haired boy at her other side suddenly began speaking, but for some reason, it sounded different. She knew what he was saying, though, realizing that it was the villagers' language after a moment or so. She caught something about Syaoran refusing to go anywhere unless he was sure she would be alright, which made a giggle form in her throat and escape her.
The other, meanwhile, wanted to know what was so funny, and Sakura choked out a hasty "Nothing," remembering that Syaoran liked to keep his "I-don't-care-about-anything" attitude and that he'd probably let go of her arm if she repeated what Felix had told her. As the feeling began to return to the bent twigs the boy called her legs, she tried to put one of them forward, but merely wound up swinging it ahead of her and dropping it.
"That was a lousy first step, Sakura," Syaoran announced cynically, watching as she almost buckled over and fell to the floor, the only thing keeping her from doing so, of course, being his and Felix's support.
"Thanks a lot, Syaoran," the girl replied, each syllable saturated with sarcasm. Both boys ended up with stupid grins on their faces as Sakura waddled her way around the room, pausing every once in a while to trip or stumble during her exploration of what seemed to be a small medical room. The entire place was made out of wood, but had plentiful lighting, mostly emanating from the open door opposite the cot she had woken up laying on with Syaoran's arms wrapped around her. Despite the circumstances, there was no one whose arms she'd rather be wrapped up in.
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Sakura eventually got the hang of walking about by herself, though she would have to stay away from her boots for a while. She didn't remember much about the platform, only forming it and saying she would get them out of the cave. Everything about the power drain and passing out was hazy in her memory, and some things were just gone altogether. Upon exit of the crimson hole, they had found themselves in a barren, open meadow. Sakura had muttered something about finally being out of there for good then promptly passed out, leaving Syaoran and Felix to figure out where exactly they were.
Most of the villagers had been stunned by how light it was outside, and Syaoran was forced to tell them repeatedly not to stare at the sunlight, though he knew none of them really understood, with the exception of perhaps Felix. Afterall, Syaoran had figured, Sakura had probably taught the blue-eyed boy some of her own language while she was down there learning theirs. As they traveled around in search of some landmark or maybe food or shelter, Syaoran had taken it upon himself to carry the fainted girl, only reluctantly handing her over to Felix when his arms threatened to give way and drop her.
After a long walk and a few pep talks, they had found a small town. It slightly resembled the village from the caves in size and language (Felix and his 'mother' had made headway in conversation; with the languages being so similar, they caught on relatively quickly) but with much more modern equipment. They'd been very hospitable and took care of Sakura until she woke up, at which time Syaoran was about ready to summon her cards and use them on her.
Now, she was alright, for the most part. The villagers were getting used to the daylight and to the technology and language, but were still homeless. All the people that already lived in the town were slightly dumbfounded by the way they'd all just appeared like that, led by two teenaged boys carrying a passed out girl in a cape. Nevertheless, they were kind, and charity was high, everyone finding a place to sleep somewhere. They faked a story about being tourists who survived an accident and had no place to go and succeeded in securing temporary places of residence for most of the former villagers. Now, the only problem was...
"How do we get back to Tomoeda?" Sakura asked, as soon as she realized what the chocolate-haired boy was getting at. "I mean, we can't just stay here and live as free-loaders for the rest of our lives."
Syaoran sighed and took a sip of his java, brooding over the very same thing. "I never suggested we stay here. I was just hoping you might have some kind of idea." Neither of them had any money, no passport, and no connections. They might as well have been sitting ducks. "It's been a whole three days and we still have no way out of this town, let alone out of the country and across a body of water."
"Well, we could always use one of the Sta-" Syaoran abruptly cut her off by clasping a hand over her pretty little mouth.
The Chinese boy glanced around the quiet cafe before leaning in close and mumbling, "We can't mention that here. These people don't know, remember?" He sighed and removed his hand from the pouting girl's lips before continuing. "If they found out, they might reject us and throw all the villagers out of here. Then what would they do?"
"Who said they have to know? We could just disappear, afterall."
"And you don't think people would wonder?"
"Nope. Two words: Erase Card." She said each word slowly and in a low, whispery voice, still within inches of the boy's face. The way her breath cascaded down Syaoran's skin made him struggle to keep focus.
His face tightened into a grimace. "You aren't suggesting that we erase ourselves?!" he exclaimed, though still close to a whisper.
"Noooo," Sakura scoffed and rolled her eyes, acting like her solution was the most obvious one in the world. "We'll erase ourselves from the peoples' memories. That way, they won't know we've even been here."
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Alter-chan: la dee da dee da... story's almost over, folks. next chappie is the last, i'm afraid. :'(
folks: boo hoo! -cry-
Alter-chan: but do not fear! i will make it a doozy!
folks: ok! now get out of here so that you can start working on it and we don't have to wait 2 freakin' weeks to read it!!!
Alter-chan: OO -runs off to work on next chapter-
AlterEthereal