Chapter 15
'heroes and criminals'
Len Grady yawned again and slipped off his glasses, rubbing his eyes viciously in an attempt to stay awake. It was a losing battle; he'd been picking through an endless line of stuff all day and he'd barely made a dent. The muscles in his back cramped up again in a particularly painful spasm, and he scowled at the next evidence bag waiting in line.
One emptied bottle, plastic, the label read. Presumed water container. Found: floor of ship galley.
Trash, in other words, and still they expected him to examine it. What kind of clue, he wondered, did they think he would find?
He began to unzip the bag, then looked up when the door flew open and Rino strode into the lab. Rino never entered any room quietly, and Len bit back an irritated frown.
"Progress?" he demanded.
"I don't know, about a quarter of the way through it."
"That's all?"
"I'm going as fast as I can," Len replied curtly. "Analysis takes time and this is a lot of junk that got dropped in my lab today. Can anyone explain why it's such a rush?"
"Classified," Rino recited, just like Len knew he would. "That's not your concern. You just make sure you've got a complete listing on everything from that ship and who's touched it. I've also got something else for you."
He beckoned to his underlings coming through the doorway, wheeling between them a body of a young male.
"What's that?"
"Casualty, theirs. The male who's not Kinomoto and whose fingerprints you've presumably been identifying on this evidence. Supposedly his name is Yukito Tsukishiro."
Len recognized the head of hair from the samples he'd been collecting and nodded, uncertainly.
"So what?"
"So, they want to know more about him. They want a full examination on the body."
"What? By me?"
"You are the lab technician."
Flabbergasted, Len looked from the pale and unmoving form to Rino's unyielding expression. "I've only got two hands, I can't do him and all this!"
"Finish the evidence first and then start on the body," Rino ordered crisply, looking unconcerned with Len's obvious dismay. "Promptly; we'll be waiting for the full analysis on both."
He turned on his heels and left the room as quickly as he'd arrived, his men following him out. Grouchily Len looked over the new arrival, half-wishing he could lie down and sleep as peacefully as Tsukishiro was doing. A body examination, on top of everything else – he couldn't believe they expected it all at once. What was he, a machine?
A clipboard rested on the male's chest, summarizing everything they knew about him at present. Surprisingly little: only an estimate of his age, and a note detailing he'd been found in the cockpit. Presumed cause of death: the explosion from the hull breach.
Strange. He pulled back the sheet for a better look, his trained eye roving over pale but intact flesh. There was slight bruising and plenty of residue from the explosion, but damage was minimal. Len could almost believe he really was just sleeping. He couldn't have been very close to the blast, and the lab rat wondered just how big of a cockpit that had been.
He yawned again and his musings scattered when he remembered how tired he was. Len pulled the sheet back up over the head and wheeled him into the cold room, to deal with later. Right now, he had to get back to fingerprinting.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Meilin swallowed a yawn as they turned off the main road and onto an unpaved lane, stars peeping through the trees as they zipped past. It had been one hell of a long day and she couldn't ever remember being so tired.
"Almost there," she announced with relief, looking forward to sleep. "Just a few more minutes. I can't believe we actually made it without any accidents."
"Watch it," Eric growled, from behind the wheel. "I don't care how much I had to drink, it's still safer than letting you drive. Besides, I think you've got your hands full."
Very true, and Meilin glanced at the dozing girl on her shoulder again. She'd succumbed to exhaustion since they left the city, and even in sleep there was a haggard look about her face. She'd been through some kind of trauma, that was obvious, but what it was or what it had to do with her cousin, Meilin couldn't imagine. She'd calmed down enough to give her name – Tomoyo – but other than that would only repeat that she had to get to Li.
It hadn't done any good to explain that she hadn't seen Syaoran in weeks and didn't know where he was; Tomoyo had latched herself onto Meilin's arm and refused to let go, clinging like Meilin was the only hope left in her world.
Meilin shifted slightly, but the worn-out girl only mumbled something in her sleep and hugged Meilin's arm more tightly. Bizarre, to say the least, but unless her instincts were way off, she wasn't dangerous. It wouldn't hurt anything to bring her along, and maybe once she'd had a chance to rest and eat she could start explaining things.
Provided, of course, that chance came along. Meilin stiffened when the car emerged from the trees and the luxurious beach house that was their destination hove into view, ocean glittering in the moonlight behind it. And a small sleek ship parked right next to it.
Eric whistled. "Sweet mansion, for a couple of crooks. This is it, right?"
"Yeah, this is the place. But we've got a problem."
"What else is new?" Eric sighed, coasting to a stop and killing the engine. "What's wrong?"
"That ship."
"What, it's not yours?"
"No. And it's a Remora, class LX. They're popular with bounty hunters thanks to their radar-cloaking ability and good maneuverability; they're designed to latch onto bigger ships in space for surprise attacks. Those bounty hunters that can afford the 40,000 siyong price tag, anyway."
Meilin was gently extracting herself from the sleeping Tomoyo's grip as she spoke, keeping her voice low and trying not to let any fear show. Rich bounty hunters were the really good ones, and she was already exhausted and injured.
"How do you know everything?" Eric was complaining, and then took a closer look at her face. "Hey, are you up for this? You look kinda tired."
"I'll be fine. Just stay here and watch her."
Eric studied her just a moment longer with those sharp blue eyes of his, then shrugged reluctantly and nodded. "All right. Let us know when you're through killing." He lit a cigarette and Meilin slithered out the window of their stolen car, leaving Tomoyo to rest against the door.
The house in front of her was dark and silent, no obvious signs of habitation. Meilin ignored the front door and circled around to the side entrance, the door closest to the mysterious ship. Odd really, if a bounty hunter came here in hopes of an ambush, it was certainly a stupid move to leave his ship parked out in plain sight. Maybe he didn't think anyone would be coming anytime soon… but how could anyone know about this place? She and Syaoran had taken it not more than a few months earlier.
Tentatively she tried the knob, and found the door was unlocked.
- - - - - -
Sleep was vague and insubstantial, and Li wasn't sure which blurry images were memories and which were dreams. Darkness fell around him in the house and she climbed into bed with him, pressed herself against his body because with him she felt safe. He liked the way she fit so well in his arms and he held her close, brushing his lips over her skin. She turned her face up to him and whispered against his lips.
"Don't go."
Li's eyes snapped open to see the pitch-black living room around him, with only the faint starlight coming through the window to remind him where he was. His chest hurt, and he couldn't figure out why until he realized he wasn't breathing.
He inhaled, trying to relax his muscles, but his heart was still beating fast in his chest. Something wasn't right, some sound out of place had woken him but he didn't know what it was. Soft as a whisper, a door shut somewhere in the house.
Someone's here.
Automatically adrenaline flowed into Li's body and he reached for his sword, only to remember that that wasn't an option anymore. Noiselessly he rolled off the sofa and into a wary half-crouch, reaching out with every sense he had. Only one intruder, he decided, but that one was taking extraordinary care to keep quiet. So much so that Li was sure he'd be heard if he stopped to search the unfamiliar kitchen for a weapon. Instead he moved swiftly across the room and adhered himself to the hallway wall. The intruder had entered through the side door and was very close, hesitating just around the corner and out of striking distance. Li inhaled silently, muscles coiling for action, and when he moved again Li pounced.
With no clear target to kick or punch he settled on a tackle, throwing himself at the shadowy figure and tightening his arms around the neck for a chokehold. His target reacted well and twisted, throwing him back against the wall with a speed that suggested he'd been expecting an attack. Not pausing, Li bounced off the wall and flew in again. A fist shot toward his face and he twisted to one side, automatically grasping the wrist in preparation to yank. But the thinness of the wrist startled him; his intruder was either very small or a female.
She took advantage of his hesitation to snake her leg around his ankle and sweep it back, and thus tangled they fell to the floor together. Pushing with one arm, he managed to roll down the hallway floor and pin her before she could apply an armlock. Starlight from the living room fell across her face, half-covered in long black hair, and Li's fist froze where he'd raised it.
"Meilin?"
She shook her hair free of her eyes and met his surprised gaze, expression astonished. "Syaoran?"
For one moment he only stared, speechless, and then his emotions broke in an overwhelming wave of relief. He gathered his cousin up in his arms, provoking a squeak on her part, and hugged her so close that he could feel her heart beating against his shirt.
"You have no idea how glad I am to see you," he whispered, never more sincere in his life. The sight of her familiar face was an instant balm, a promise that his life could return to normal. Maybe now he could start to forget.
"Well I'm happy to see you too," she answered, slightly muffled. "But I can't breathe."
Suddenly aware of their position, he released her and rolled to one side so she could get up. The motion reminded him of his injury, ignored in the earlier rush of adrenaline, and he winced visibly. Naturally his old training partner noticed.
"What's wrong?"
"Minor disagreement with a bounty hunter." He lifted his shirt to show the bandage on his lower ribs, just visible in the pale light, and his eyes fell on her left arm. "And what did that?"
"It's only a scratch, Syaoran, don't worry about it." She leaned away when he tried to inspect it, and he wrinkled his nose.
"Why do you smell like cigarette smoke?"
"Ah…" Her eyes skittered away from his. "I've been in a bar."
"What were you doing in a bar?"
"Never mind about where I've been," she huffed. She stood up and patted the walls until she found a light switch, throwing the living room into sharp relief. Li blinked. "Let's talk about you! Do you know how worried I've been these past few weeks? What the hell have you been doing with yourself?"
Her eyes bore accusingly into him and Li felt rather limp when he thought about his answer. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me." She held up her hand, a familiar object dangling from her fingertips, and Li stared at it uncomprehendingly. "You dropped this."
His sword amulet. The sword amulet that he'd left on the Wildflower with Sakura, it was in Meilin's hand. The sheer impossibility of it made Li's head spin, and without consciously deciding to do so he reached to take it from her. It was smooth and polished, warm in his hands, and completely real. No illusion, but this was supposed to be with Sakura. Meilin couldn't have this, she just couldn't.
"Where," he finally managed, "did you -"
A whisper of noise made them both look up. Someone Li had never expected to see again was standing in the doorway of the room, grimy and disheveled and staring at Li as if she was afraid to believe her own eyes. Stunned, Li could only move his lips in an approximation of her name before she was on him, her whole body shaking with the force of her sobs. Her arms circled him so tightly that it was difficult to breathe, let alone move, and after a few moments' shocked stillness he spoke.
"Easy, easy…" Gently he maneuvered his arms until he could grasp Tomoyo by hers, and pried her off to see her tear-streaked face. "Tomoyo? What are you doing here? Where's the ship, where's…" His voice trailed off before he could utter Sakura's name, when he saw Tomoyo's ravaged expression. In an instant she communicated the worst of it; Tomoyo was not on the Wildflower as she should be, but here, and sobbing into his arms. Therefore something very, very horrible had happened.
Cool icy fear crawled up his throat, but somehow he forced himself to speak.
"Meilin, would you excuse us?"
His cousin was watching them silently, her eyes unmistakably curious, but she knew him well enough to understand how serious it was and nodded.
"Sure thing." Suggestively she raised her eyebrows and nodded toward the patio doors, the ones that led to the back porch on the beach. Good idea, and gratefully Li led the trembling, hiccuping Tomoyo out into the night.
Meilin waited until he'd closed the doors behind them and then turned, retreating back down the hallway to the side door she'd entered. Eric was pacing by the car, but his anxious posture relaxed as soon as he saw her.
"Is everything okay? I just left her for a minute to go, um… out in the trees, and when I got back she was gone. Sorry."
"She's fine, don't worry about it." She looked at the ship again and shrugged. "It's my cousin, he's here. They're talking right now."
"Oh, he's here? That's great, right?"
"Kinda." Meilin was infinitely relieved to see her cousin safe and sound, but why did he have to come back today of all days, to this house? Gingerly she prodded the bandages around her arm again. "But now's not a good time to meet him. Come on upstairs and you can shower, change into some fresh clothes. I'll see if there's any food in the kitchen."
"Sounds okay to me." He nodded amiably and followed Meilin back into the house. She couldn't resist peeking out the back windows when she led him to the stairs, though, even if she couldn't see anything. Disappeared Syaoran, returned Syaoran, a lost sword and a returned sword, and a girl in a bathrobe that seemed to think a sorcerer thief was the answer to all her problems.
What was going on?
- - - - - - -
So much had happened, everything that she had to tell Li crowded into her mind and demanded to come first, she didn't know where to begin. And she didn't even want to, she didn't want to relive this horrible day. But she had to, it was for this reason that she'd endured so much.
He sat her carefully on one of the wooden porch chairs and shut the doors, but he didn't sit down. She could already see the dread in his eyes, he was just waiting to hear the cause.
"What happened, Tomoyo? Where's Sakura?"
Tomoyo inhaled, and let the air out with a shudder. "They found us."
"Who found you?"
"The police- government… I don't know. Just a few hours after you left, I still don't know how. They invaded the ship, they killed -" She ran out of breath and had to gulp another lungful, squeezing her robe in her fists in an effort not to cry. Li's expression hadn't changed. "Yukito, he's dead. I was so scared, and I hid. I hid in Sakura's hiding place and I could hear her- I could hear her crying." Her voice dropped to a strained whisper.
"They took her away."
Color faded from Li's face but still he didn't move. "Big Brother?"
"They took him too, I don't know- if they killed him. And they never looked for me, they brought the ship here. I knew I had to find you."
And she had found him. A one in million chance had brought her right to the only person that could ever save Sakura, and she had told her sTouya, passed on the news. Now everything would be all right.
A raspy, labored sound distracted her from her thoughts and she realized Li was wheezing for breath. He was horrified, yes, but something even worse lurked in his eyes, something Tomoyo didn't understand. He backed away from her and stumbled off the porch, before he collapsed to his knees on the sand.
"It's my fault."
"What?"
"Touya never got rid of the homing device, did he?" He raised his head to meet Tomoyo's gaze, and understanding finally hit her.
"Oh… no, he didn't. Things were a little – tense – after you left. We didn't think about it." This confirmation only doubled the revulsion in his eyes and Tomoyo shot out of her chair. "But you didn't do it! It's not your fault that that man put it on the ship, you weren't to know."
"It's because of me," Li said flatly, staring vacantly at the beach as if he hadn't heard her. "I promised to protect her and I delivered her right back to the one thing she feared more than anything. I wasn't even there to defend her."
"Li, that's not your fault," Tomoyo protested weakly. She knelt on the porch and reached to touch him on the shoulder, then squeaked and fell back when he whipped around and glared at her.
"Yes it is! I ran out on her, Tomoyo, I abandoned her!"
"Touya, he -"
"Pointed a gun at me, I know. I let a gun chase me away when she'd asked me to protect her. I left her."
Li dropped back into the sand and rested his head against one knee, concealing his face. Tomoyo felt deflated; this conversation wasn't exactly going the way she'd been expecting it to.
"But, I found you," she reminded him. "Now you know, and you can go rescue her!"
Several long seconds ticked by before he raised his head, blinking at her as if she'd uttered a string of nonsense syllables.
"Go rescue her," he repeated vacantly. "Is that what you want me to do? Go be the hero?"
"Well," she answered in a small voice, "yes."
He uttered a sharp and humorless bark of laughter and Tomoyo cringed, all of her hope wilting under his scornful gaze.
"What do you want me to do, Tomoyo? Got any idea where she is?"
"The satellite," she answered quickly. "They towed us to the satellite before they brought the ship here -"
"Got any coordinates? Specs? Any way to find it?"
Helplessly she shook her head. "I thought you could feel her, know where she is."
"No," he said curtly, "it doesn't work like that. It's a close range sort of thing." Abruptly he jumped to his feet and gestured to the night sky. "She could be anywhere up there, and there's nothing I can do for her."
The harsh words hit her directly in the chest, and Tomoyo reeled. She had to pull herself to stand with the porch railing.
"So that's it?" she whispered. "You're just giving up, you're not even going to try?"
"Didn't you hear me? I'm the one that handed her over to the police, I left her alone to face them when she trusted me to keep her safe. It's all my fault and I can't even help her!"
He stared miserably at the sky and something inside Tomoyo snapped. Without thinking, she closed the distance between them and hit him. Hit him hard, across the jaw, with an untrained punch that nevertheless knocked him back. He had to take a step back to keep from falling.
The beach was suddenly very quiet. Astonished, he traced one finger inside his lip and drew it away bloody, then looked from it to her as if he couldn't believe what she'd just done. Tomoyo couldn't believe it either. She'd just hit one of the most dangerous criminals in the system! But she raised her chin defiantly, fists clenched in fury.
"Stop it," she bit out, almost unable to recognize her own voice. "Do you have any idea what I've been through today? The hours that I spent hiding in the dark, not knowing if I was about to be blown up with the ship, crawling around under everyone's noses just to get to the city? Men pawing me in the alleyways!" Angrily she pushed him and he took another step back. "I have been through hell today but I did it for you, knew that I had to find you. I held on because I knew you were the one person that could get Sakura back!"
Again she pushed him and this time he caught her wrists, squeezing them in an iron grip to hold her still.
"Well you were wrong," he spat. "Who do you think I am, Tomoyo? Did you not hear him, back on the ship? I am a criminal, a killer, not some superhero. I steal from people." Impatiently he released her and she backed away, rubbing her sore skin. "All that money I paid your cousin? It's stolen! This house…" He waved a hand at the elegant beach house. "Its owner was a drug kingpin that crossed my path and I killed him, took it for a new hiding place. I've murdered over fifty people. You put your faith in a guy like me? You're an idiot to trust me! Stupid, naïve… idiot…"
His glare faded away and Tomoyo realized he wasn't talking to her anymore. Looking disgusted with himself, he turned and collapsed against the porch railing, bracing his forearms against it.
"I know you don't think she's stupid," Tomoyo said softly. He grunted, staring thoughtfully at his hand as he opened it and then closed it into a fist.
"The first time we spoke," he murmured, "she told me she could see the blood on my hands. She knew who I was, what I'd done, but she didn't care. She liked me anyway, and it felt really good. I told myself that I was special to her, different from everyone else, maybe even meant to find her."
But you were, Tomoyo wanted to say, but he never gave her the chance.
"And I left it all why? Because her brother told me to!"
"You had to go, he would have killed you."
Li snorted balefully. "I've had guns pointed at me before, you know. Even ones with ceruleum bullets. If I'd really wanted to, I could have done something. But I was weak, and scared. Scared that maybe I couldn't handle Sakura and the burdens she carried. She shared just a little of her pain with me and it almost broke me. I panicked and used Touya as an excuse to run. She shouldn't have trusted me. I don't know why she chose me."
He bowed his head, unkept brown hair falling forward over his eyes. Tomoyo hugged her arms to her chest and thought of Sakura, crying in her bunk and clutching his green shirt so desperately.
"None of us choose who we love, Li, I'm sure not even Sakura. We can't help ourselves, even if it hurts, even if we have to give everything of ourselves." Memories of laughing green eyes and a happy smile from long, long ago tugged at her, and she blinked away tears. "You said you loved her back. So do you, or don't you?"
He did not turn to look at her, and only the whisper of waves against the shore answered. The silence made her chest hurt, and suddenly she couldn't even stand to look at him. Without another word she turned and fled into the house.
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His world was a nightmare of perfect black, an uncaring prison that he could only feel and not see. The floor was so hard and cold, under his throbbing arm and aching body, the air chill and sterile – except for the smell of his own blood, his own sweat, his own vomit. He was the only thing that moved, that made sound, and desperately he kept whispering into the darkness though his voice had worn away like sandblasted stones in the desert.
All the keychecks, line by line, before starting ignition in the cockpit. The sequence of a tune-up, for every different cog of the ship's engine. Routine procedure for troubleshooting after a short-out. Endlessly he kept at it in spite of his parched throat and dry lips, anything to keep from falling asleep again.
Feverish hallucinations threatened. He'd seen things, in his unconsciousness, bad dreams that might very well have been glimpses into reality. He saw Sakura, ten years old and sitting cross-legged on her bed as she watched TV instead of doing her homework. So little, and still in her school uniform, hair done up in her pigtails.
Get home, run now!
He sprinted out of his school, ran as hard as he could and his whole body hurt, but he couldn't run fast enough. Strangers, men in black police gear burst into her room and she shrieked in terror. One of them scooped her up, his sister, and covered her mouth with his disgusting gloved hand.
He screamed her name, silently.
And then they left, as rapidly and efficiently as they'd come, taking Sakura with them. Their leader paused for just a moment in her room, then thoughtfully selected her doll from the bedside shelf. A perverse token of comfort from kidnapper to victim, an empty gesture to the petrified girl stolen away from her home.
Did she hug it and cry, when she woke up in a strange white room? Did she ask for her brother?
When he'd woken he was whimpering from the harsh pain in his eyes. Unable to run naturally down his face, tears were soaking his blindfold and stinging with their salt.
He could not go to sleep again, he couldn't risk experiencing that again. The present was worse, but at least he would not have to remember that upon waking up. So he started talking, reciting words into the darkness so he would not fall asleep again.
The door opened and he cut himself off, just before another splash of cold water doused him in the face.
"Time to wake up, Kinomoto."
Gratefully he licked the moisture from his lips. "Now what?" he asked as flippantly as he could, though it was marred by his dry and scratchy voice.
"I'm not in the mood for attitude, so be warned. A certain headache in D.C. has chosen today of all days to get feisty, and it worries me that he might have been in contact with information regarding this project. But of course, you don't have any friends in Congress, do you?"
"What?"
"No, I don't suppose you would. A remarkably strange coincidence, though."
Something his old informant used to say about coincidence popped into Touya's mind right then, but he chose not to say anything. Instead he remembered the phone call that had lured his tormentor away, and how he'd identified himself to the caller.
"So, your name is Smith? Really?"
"Yes," the man answered dryly, "really. But my name is the least of your concerns right now, I'd rather talk about the name of your recent passenger. If I recall correctly, we were discussing it when I was called away."
"And if I recall correctly, I said I wasn't going to give it to you."
A hand closed over his throat and pressed down, cutting off his air. "You sure you want to fight me on this, Kinomoto? Because believe me when I tell you that this is important to me, more than any of the mysteries on your ship. Something's changed about Sakura, she's behaving strangely, looking at me a little differently. I have to know if it's because of him, I have to know what he did to my Sakura!"
He yanked Touya off the floor and dragged him upright onto his knees, who had to take a few shallow breaths before he could speak.
"She's not your Sakura," he snarled.
"She is, I have made her mine and I will not tolerate any more interference with my project. Last chance, Kinomoto. Give me the name of your friend."
Touya choked a little and stiffened. "Hang on, let's get one thing straight. He is not my friend. I don't even like him, I hate him. The son of a bitch put his hands on my sister, and he only left when I threatened to shoot him."
"Then why protect him?"
"Because as much as I hate him, I hate you more. And you're not getting his name."
A hand moved to his face and he flinched, but Smith didn't strike him. Instead he gripped Touya's chin and tilted his face up.
"Are you sure you're up for this, Kinomoto? Sure you're ready to suffer for a man that we both hate?"
"You don't get it," Touya snapped, and jerked his face out of Smith's grasp, "do you? You've destroyed my ship, you've killed the man I love, you've taken away my sister – again. There isn't anything more you can do to hurt me. So go ahead, do your worst. I'm not afraid of you."
The room was deathly silent for a moment and then Smith moved, and Touya tensed in expectation. But there was only a slight rustle as his captor seated himself in the chair.
"How long has it been since you've seen your father, Kinomoto?"
Touya's breath stuck fast in his throat and he froze, unreasonably aware of his own thudding heart.
"I think it's been almost two years, am I right? Would you like to know how he's doing?"
"My father," he somehow managed to say, "didn't have anything to do with what I did for Sakura, he doesn't know anything."
"I know that, Kinomoto," Smith answered patiently, "that's why he's still alive and in his house. I let him be in the hopes that one day you'd relax enough to contact him. He's doing fairly well, I'm sure you're happy to hear, though he spends an inordinate amount of time looking up at the sky. Wondering where his children are, I'm sure."
Touya became aware, slowly, of the fact that he was shivering. He could hear his own shallow and panicked breathing, and knew Smith could hear it too.
"He begins every day with breakfast before he waters the flowers in your front garden. He stopped teaching at the university years ago, of course, but he spends the morning corresponding with his colleagues and reading their work. He usually takes the crossword when he goes to lunch -"
"Stop it," Touya demanded, or tried, though it sounded more like begging. "You leave my father alone, he doesn't have anything to do with this."
"On the contrary, your reaction says he has everything to do with this. He's getting on in years, you know. If he drops dead of a heart attack tomorrow at lunch, nobody's going to question it. Or should it be suicide? Poor man, only one left in his family, they'll say it was no surprise. Or maybe he'll just disappear like his children did -"
"Stop it! He didn't do anything wrong!"
"That doesn't concern me, the name of this man on your ship does. I only have to make a phone call, Kinomoto."
Father, the kindest, most gentle man he knew, who'd never wanted anything more than to live peacefully with his family and teach. He was already going gray in the temples the last time Touya saw him, when he hinted that the next time he disappeared it might be for good. He'd begged him not to go, said he didn't want to lose the only family he had left, but he hadn't understood how close Touya was to finding Sakura. So he turned a deaf ear, and walked out.
"I can't," Touya whispered, dully aware that tears were squeezing out of his closed eyes again. But the blindfold was already saturated and these slipped down his cheeks, hot and wet and helpless. Smith brushed at one with his thumb and Touya turned his face, burning with shame.
"I'm afraid you have to. It should be an easy choice: your father, or the stranger that had the gall to touch your sister. Who's it going to be, Kinomoto?"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Except for the small frothy waves that splashed against the sand, the ocean was smooth and flat under the night sky. Like a mirror it reflected the hundreds of stars above it, and Li didn't know how long he'd been staring at them, slouched on the sand against the porch rail. Somewhere between him and the stars was a satellite with Sakura inside it, a prisoner again in spite of everything her brother had done to keep her safe. What was the point of it all, anyway, why did she have to endure so much and then get nothing more than one short year of precious freedom?
I am not free, he could almost hear her whisper in his mind. And she was right, even living on the ship with her friends her mind was still a prisoner to forces he didn't understand. A neverending hell of too much information, a terrifying power to see the future and then accidentally destroy it – those were the burdens she suffered and cried under. It was enough to break anyone but she survived it somehow, even kept smiling. And she reached out to him, trusted him to help her.
Did she see something besides all that blood?
A door opened and shut behind him, and Meilin propped her elbows on the railing over his head, standing directly behind him.
"You just going to sit out here and stare at the ocean all night?"
"Probably the only thing I can do right," he mumbled, and turned his face up. "How is she?"
"Tired, I'd say. I gave her a change of clothes and told her to go shower; hopefully she'll feel better once she's clean and had something to eat. Oh, and she really hates you."
"She's right to," Li sighed. "She thought I would do something for her, but it turns out I can't. I hate me too."
"Uh-huh. Can I ask yet what this is all about?"
"It's complicated."
"I'd guessed that."
"I met a girl."
He could see her shocked expression in his mind, without needing to turn around. Li had never been one to bother with girls.
"You mean Tomoyo?"
"No, not her, her cousin. Her name's…" He hesitated, not sure if he could bring himself to say it aloud right now, but Meilin spared him.
"Sakura?"
He turned his face up sharply. "How did you know?"
"Tomoyo said it a couple times in her sleep, in the drive out here." When Li dropped his gaze back to the water and didn't speak, she vaulted smoothly over the rail and dropped to the sand beside him. He didn't look. "This girl, you really liked her?"
"I fell in love with her."
The quiet lap-lap of the waves were all that filled the silence, for several long seconds. "I see."
"Because she was special," Li elaborated, still talking to the ocean. "Is special, I mean, there's just something about her. When she looked at me I felt more like a person than a criminal, for the first time in years. She treated me like a hero, she trusted me to take care of her."
"She loves you too?"
"I think so. Did love, anyway."
"So where is she now?"
"Gone. Because I didn't take care of her, I ran out on her. Like any good thief would do when things get a little scary." He placed a hand over his ribs and felt the bandages under his shirt. "What are we really, Meilin? Sneaking around, living outside the law, telling ourselves it's okay because we're searching for some 'truth'. Are we heroes, or criminals?"
Meilin dropped her eyes to the sand between them, absently tracing her fingers through it, and gave the question some serious thought.
"I think sometimes we have to be the one so we can be the other," she finally answered. "And if this girl's half as perceptive as she sounds like she is, she knows it too."
Li blinked and met his cousin's serious eyes, looking at her as if he were seeing her for the first time. "When did you get so wise?"
"When you weren't paying attention," she answered without missing a beat, wry smile tugging at her lips. He found himself automatically smiling in response, and sat up straighter with a sudden urge to hug her in gratitude. But in doing so his gaze fell to the sand, her careless fingertips still tracing through the fine grains.
Memories clicked and the realization hit him so hard in the chest he almost gasped; unconsciously he placed a hand over his hammering heart. Meilin noticed, and squinted curiously.
"What is it?"
"Pencil."
"Huh?"
"Pencil, pen, something! Got one?"
Baffled, she shook her head and Li scrambled to his feet. He couldn't get inside the house fast enough and impatiently he rifled through living room's lamp table drawers, finding nothing.
"Syaoran, what -"
"Don't just stand there, find a pen! Now!" She jumped and scurried over to her purse, upending its contents over a table. A tube of lipstick rolled away from the pile and he snatched it.
"Hey!"
Li ignored her and left the house as quickly as he'd entered it, a nonplussed Meilin trailing him around the porch edge to the side wall. The knives were still there, stabbing the wooden planks everywhere but the knothole and gleaming silver in the pale moonlight.
"Hey, those are my kunai!"
"Shh."
Now that he looked, he could see it so clearly. Why hadn't he noticed before? Too caught up with his own selfish misery?
Heart still beating fast, he drew an oily red line from one tiny knife to another. He didn't have to think, or strain his mind to remember. The symbol she'd drawn in the sand that day sprung easily to his fingertips; each blade was a point where the sun's rays met the inner and outer circles, or the points of the crescent moon.
"Hey, what's that mean?" Meilin asked, surprised.
"It's her," he whispered. "She was asking me to come and find her, and I didn't even see it. She wants me to rescue her."
He turned around, staring numbly at his bewildered cousin. "She thinks I can."
"Then can't you?"
"I want to," he admitted. "I want to go and save her so bad it hurts, I love her. But I can't, I don't know how. I don't have any way of finding the satellite."
"Satellite?" She stiffened, and an odd look filtered into her eyes.
"Yes, satellite. I told you it was complicated, but this girl, well…" He nodded to the picture on the wall and exhaled in a sigh. "I found Project Clow."
"So did I."
- - - - - - -
Mouth open, Li watched the pages of information scroll past the screen, detailing exhaustively the phantom satellite that he'd thought impossible to find just minutes earlier.
"See?" Meilin boasted. "It's all right there: the schematics, orbital track, coordinates – everything." A file tag in the upper right corner of the monitor labeled the entire thing as Clow; there couldn't be any doubt this was it. Ceruleum had gone into almost every layer of construction; the small space station was lined from top to bottom with it, a laboratory designed for magic.
And Sakura was the experiment sitting inside.
"It's all here," he echoed dazedly, "this is where she is. This- this is it." Without warning he leapt on Meilin with a joyful shout, swept her off her feet and whirled around. His beautiful, wonderful cousin had just handed him the key to rescue Sakura. It wasn't over after all! "I love you!"
He planted an exuberant kiss on both her cheeks, then looked up at the sound of Tomoyo entering the room. She looked pale still, but clean and a little more collected now that she was wearing clothes again. Li pounced on her and she squeaked, but all he did was take her face gently between his hands, holding her gaze steady.
"What -"
"You were right," he stated simply. "I know how to find her, and I'm going to get her."
Tomoyo stared at him in stunned silence, as if she couldn't quite comprehend what he'd just said. He was about to repeat himself when her lips parted, wan hope filtering into her violet eyes.
"Really?"
"I swear it." The sheer determination in him must have communicated itself to her, and she smiled. He'd never taken the time to notice the beauty of her genuine smiles; all the weariness and despair melted away and she glowed. Thanking him in the only way she knew how, she fell against his chest and embraced him. The first time she'd done that, after a similar promise, he hadn't dared to return the gesture. This time, however, he circled her in his arms and patted her back. This time he knew he'd keep the promise.
"But how?" she asked breathlessly, when they'd parted.
"It doesn't matter how- wait." Li's mind finally caught up with him and a little of his elation cooled off. He directed a curious look at his cousin, who cringed. "Yes, it does. Meilin, where did you get those plans?"
"Just stumbled across them," she replied evasively, then winced under his impatient glare. "In a Senator's office."
"You broke into a Congressional office?" he reiterated, pitch rising with every syllable. "That is so the opposite of staying put and not causing any trouble!"
"Like you've been sitting quietly in a corner," she retorted, hands on hips. "I don't think you're in any position to talk."
"That," he assured her, "is different. I'm already on everyone's Most Wanted list, but your face is still safe. And I don't want you risking that for no good reason." He pointed a commanding finger at her and she bristled, lifting her chin in defiance.
"I did have a good reason, I -"
"Hey," Eric interposed cheerfully, "what's going on?"
Li whipped around at the new voice and conversation ground to a halt; no one spoke. The abrupt and uncomfortable silence was finally broken by Meilin.
"Eric, I thought you were going to take a nap." Subtly she tried to move between the two men but Li stepped to one side, keeping Eric in clear view. The blonde shrugged.
"Yeah, but the shower woke me up some. And I could hear voices talking, still." He plucked at his clean shirt – Li's shirt – and grinned at him with a confident air. "Hi. You must be the cousin."
"Meilin, who the hell is this?"
"Just a friend," she answered lightly, "that I helped out some today."
"Nice to meet you too," Eric grumbled, looking wounded, and shifted his gaze to Meilin. "What, didn't you tell him?"
"Tell me what?" Li asked dangerously, and Meilin took a step back toward Eric.
"Now, Syaoran, don't get angry -"
"Don't get angry about what?"
"Oh this one's touchy," Eric complained, to a sensibly silent Tomoyo. He fished out yet another cigarette and lit up. "For some big-time outlaw, I kinda thought he'd be bigger too."
Li's glare smoldered and Meilin cringed in expectation. In a blur of motion, swift breeze lifting Eric's hair off his brow, Li's sword sliced the cigarette cleanly off just above his fingers.
"Don't," Li ordered coldly, "smoke in here." Rapping his sword impatiently against one leg, he turned his attention back to Meilin. "Answers, now."
His cousin crossed her arms, looking huffy. "You don't have to be so nasty about it. Eric is a friend, he's on our side. He voted against the XP-314 bill."
"Bill, what bill?"
"You know perfectly well what bill, Syaoran, I told you all about it. The one Senator Pindexter is pushing, for mandatory ceruleum bracelets." Vaguely he remembered her saying something about it, not long before he left, but like most sorcerers Li didn't pay much attention to politics.
"He's a Senator?" Li choked, when the significance of what she'd said finally hit him. "You brought a politician into my home?"
"It is not just your home," Meilin snapped in defense. "I took out the henchmen and wrestled the private bodyguard to the ground so you could attack the mob boss, it's just as much my home as yours."
Li stewed, but she had a point. He turned his attention back on Eric, fixing him with a scathing glare. "Have you touched my cousin?"
Face still rather pale from Li's attack, Eric pointed helplessly to Meilin. "She kissed me first."
"It was to save his life," Meilin protested, when he looked at her.
"That's all?"
"Hey!"
"Shut up. You've already caused Meilin to risk her life today, right?" He looked from the bandage wrapped around her upper arm to Eric again, who cringed.
"Well -"
Li advanced and Eric took a step back.
"And you're how old?"
"Twenty-six -"
"And she's just nineteen. So I want to know, have you in any way touched her in an inappropriate manner…"
"Um -"
"Especially under the influence of the alcohol that I can still smell on you?"
Eric backed into the wall, looking as if he didn't know whether to watch Li's face or the sword still smacking restlessly against his leg. A quiet giggle from Tomoyo distracted Li into looking up.
"What?"
"I was just thinking that you remind me a little of Touya with- well, you."
Damn it.
Li snarled and poked a finger at Eric's chest. "She just saved your life."
"And I really do appreciate it."
"Syaoran," Meilin warned, "I mean it, leave him alone. Don't you have other things to worry about right now?"
"Yeah, Syaoran, don't you have other things to worry about?"
Li glowered. "Call me Li," he suggested, in a tone of voice that implied it was not a suggestion at all.
Eric smirked, just a little. "Call me Senator."
Li favored him with one more good glare before he turned back to Meilin. "So, why is he here now?"
"He voted against Pindexter's bill, and Pindexter tried to have him killed," she explained. "I just… interfered, a little. I thought we might find something useful in his office, so we broke in this afternoon. That's where I found your satellite plans." She raised her eyebrows meaningfully. "And Pindexter is Tyrinthian."
"The federal base," Li realized aloud.
"Yeah. I think he took a bunch of kickbacks in the form of ceruleum and handed it over to someone else in exchange for helping him get the Sorcery Acts passed, who then built the satellite for your girlfriend. I just don't know who that someone is."
Li dropped his eyes, seeing for just a moment a shadowy presence that lurked over all them. Faceless, untraceable, pulling the strings of the universe. Faceless, except to just one girl.
"Monster," he muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing." He looked up to Tomoyo, watching him quietly, waiting for him to make good on his promise. "I have to go."
"Now?"
"Now." He pretended not to see Eric's visible relief and brushed past him, striding down the hallway to the staircase. Like any good crime lord, the previous owner of this house kept an impressive arsenal of weapons, and Li had found his secret stash not long after moving in. He felt for the tiny lever, then opened a whole section of the wall. Several guns and knives lined the space inside and he could hear Tomoyo's startled gasp.
"Syaoran, I know it's important, but is this really a good time? You've been injured -"
"Had all day to rest. It's fine."
"Have you eaten?"
"I'll be fine," he said crisply. He didn't look up as he selected a pair of slim daggers and slid them into each boot.
"Will a few hours really make a difference?"
"It's already been more than a few hours." A tinge of nausea threatened when he remembered that place, seen through Sakura's eyes. There was something unfinished there, waiting for her. He didn't know how much time he had, and the thought of it made him sweat. It had to be now.
"Um, I think Touya said something about sneaking in through the air duct system, up top," Tomoyo offered timidly. He shook his head and opened a small box. Rows of small pocket explosives greeted him and he selected a handful.
"No. If that's how he got in, then they'll have fixed it. I can use the Remora, fly right into their docking facility before they know I'm there."
"Just going to walk through the front door?" Meilin asked skeptically.
"That's right."
"The Remora may have a radar damper but you're still visible, Syaoran. They'll be shooting at you before you're out of the docking bay."
"Then," he finished loading the automatic and popped the cartridge into place, "I will move faster than the bullets."
Li strapped on a holster belt and secured two guns and a pair of extra cartridges to it. That was enough; no sense in weighing himself down. Meilin had recognized the futility in argument and nodded, though not happily.
"I want you to come back."
"I'll come back," he promised. "She wouldn't ask me to do this if I couldn't."
He had the disk, his weapons, and his cause; there was nothing more to do but head outside, both females still trailing him.
"I want you to stay here and out of trouble, Meilin, and I really mean it. I don't know how long this will take or what's going to happen. And take care of her," he added in a lower voice, nodding to Tomoyo. "She's been through a lot."
"I know. I will."
"Don't let that politician touch you, either."
Meilin sighed and nodded again. They hugged, tightly, and with another nod to Tomoyo he turned to the waiting ship.
"Wait," Tomoyo said impulsively, and he stopped in his tracks. "If Touya- if he's still alive… will you rescue him too?"
Li did not turn around, but he turned his face just enough for Tomoyo to see the edge of his scowl.
"I'll think about it."
It was the last thing he said before hopping lightly into the cockpit of the small ship, and kicking the engine to life. More stealthy than most ships, it roared only quietly before it lifted off the sand and streaked over the starlit ocean. Both girls followed it with their eyes as it angled upward, until it was no longer possible to distinguish it from the night sky, and Meilin draped a comforting arm around Tomoyo's shoulders.
"It'll be okay. He always comes back."
Eric was browsing for something to eat in the kitchen when he heard them all leave the house, and stayed where he was in order to let them have a little privacy for their goodbyes. Plus he didn't feel like risking eye contact with Meilin's cousin again, once was more than enough.
He found a rose-apple and wiped it with his sleeve, then wandered back into the living room. A ship's engine rumbled outside and Eric yawned, wondering just what time in the morning it was. Sunrise couldn't be too far off. Maybe now they could all have a chance to sleep.
More to keep himself awake until Meilin returned than anything else, Eric picked up the remote and turned on the TV.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Whimpering softly, Sakura pressed her hands hopefully against the thick window as if she could push right through. Sunshine was right there, on the other side, warm Sunshine that she could only see and not feel. It wasn't ever enough to look, for Sakura, she desperately needed to touch, confirm the reality with her fingertips. Frustrated, she banged harder.
"No, Sakura," the Monster admonished, "not now. You've been rather naughty since you returned, and you know I don't like that. When you remember how to behave properly, I might let you inside."
Sunshine snarled at the Monster and scraped his claws over the floor, but it didn't bother him. He only smiled, because he knew Sunshine was his prisoner too.
"He's been very lonely without you, Sakura," he murmured, stroking her hair possessively. "Just think, he might have had a friend to talk to if you hadn't ruined everything the second time. But you killed it, and I was so angry."
She remembered.
"But I know you won't do anything like that again, I'm sure you learned your lesson the last time. We're not far, you know. Not far at all."
No, not from the edge, though even she couldn't see what lay beyond it. Sakura nodded, busy tracing her finger across the transparent barrier, drawing what she knew of the picture.
And then she winked.
Sunshine winked back.
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Disclaimer: I do not own these characters