A/N: Hey it's naughty me... I update, go away horseback riding for a week, pull off one update and then what do you know I'm gonna have to go away for another week to go camping... (That means I'll have to miss Megaman NT Warrior Axess which makes me sad...)

Disclaimer: I don't own Card Captor Sakura seeing as Clamp hasn't given it to me yet...

Previously:

"Yes, yes, sleep well," muttered a voice off in the far distance. "Believe me, you'll need it." Tathrun smirked to himself, this would be fun. He now knew the extent of the group's powers much better. "Now I've only got one more person to worry about," he mumbled while walking over to a darkly lit room. "And then there's you," he said while looking at the unconscious form lying on the floor. "I suppose you also count, so then I should correct myself. There's the group, and then after them there's only two people to worry about."

Chapter 9: Loss of Hope

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, due to the unbearable pain from her throbbing head. She moaned lightly as she rolled over onto her back and placed her hand over her ribs. She knew that she had broken at least three of them. She sat up slowly fully realizing then what happened.

She jumped up off of the cold metal floor, suddenly not caring how badly her head and ribs hurt. It was dark and she couldn't see well, but somehow she was able to make out the form of a door on one of the walls enclosing her. She ran over, pounding on the door for all she was worth, kicking it, doing anything to escape the place she was in.

"Let me out!" she screamed and then backed up until she hit the wall opposite of the door. She flinched due to the pain she felt burning through her body but getting out of the room was more important at the moment. The she ran forwards, jumped into the air, pulled her left leg back and pushed her right leg forward and felt pain sear up it as her foot connected with the door. She fell to the floor with a loud thud, knowing that the door still stood in place.

"Fine," she said pushing a strand of her raven hair from her face and narrowing her eyes, "there's always another way to take this door down."

Off in another room a man laughed a sinister laugh, he was amused by his underling's worries. "Really, Rateren, there's no need to go and make sure the girl doesn't escape. The door is unbelievably strong, there's no way she'll get out," he said while smirking.

"Yes, Sir, if you say so," replied Rateren.

"Yes, I say so," came the harsh voice, suddenly no longer amused.

The girl smirked, her narrowed eyes flashing with a glint of satisfaction as she felt along the door frame. Clearly, clearly whoever but this room wasn't a good engineer, he, or she, put the hinges on the inside of the room, rather than outside. A pathetic mistake that would lead to her escape. It didn't matter how strong and durable the door was if she could merely just reach over and fiddle around with the hinges and get the door open that way. In a matter of minutes the door sprung free.

The girl ran silently and quickly down the long corridor. She had to make it out before they found out, if not they'd surely catch her. "If they were so worried about me they should've chained me up. Too bad that they underestimated me!" she thought to herself. "But if they did catch me I'd be too weak to fight them off in my current condition."

"Heh," she smirked as her amber eyes gleamed, she could already see outside and they still didn't discover her.

"Trying to escape are we? Tell me, how'd you get past that nice door of mine? You're the first to ever do that?" came a cold voice from up ahead. "Apparently I should have listened to Rateren and checked on you when you were making so much noise."

"Why should I answer to the likes of you," the girl spat out venomously while moving into a battle stance. She knew that there was no way she could win, but if she could make it outside then she'd at least have a chance to run for it. But she'd have to at least get past the man, who was blocking her path.

"You know you'll lose."

"Prove it!"

The two fighters' eyes locked together, each one glaring, each one not moving. Suddenly the girl jumped up, going for a drop kick. The man dodged by jumping forwards toward where the girl had been standing previously.

"You'll have to do better than that," rang his cold voice.

"Hardly," spat the girl as she landed on the ground and ran. She knew that the man expected her to stay and fight, so he didn't think that his dodge would actually lead to her escaping.

"Never show you're back to you're opponent," the man said icily.

"To attack me would only push me further on my way!" shouted the girl while running. She looked back to see the man chasing her and then turned and ran forward with all of her might.

"You won't escape me."

The girl screamed, the man was beside her now, proving that he could match and exceed her in speed.

"Why don't you just come back with me, and then maybe I'd manage to overlook your escape, hmm?"

"Never!" His cold voice echoed through the girl's head, making her dizzy and her head pound even more than what it already was. She had known from the beginning that she'd never actually pull off escaping, but somehow some spark of hope had entered her mind. Somehow she had imagined a way, but now she saw her last glimmer of hope leaving.

The man slowed slightly, victory would again be his. He let himself stay behind the girl for a few minutes, and then jumped on her, tackling her to the ground.

The girl hit the ground hard. "Get... off... of... me..." she managed to say between deep breaths.

"Why? We were lucky to first get you, and now we can't let you go, my precious child."

"I'm not a child!" the girl screamed, though it only hurt her to scream, and she felt pain searing through her whole body, pain that until this moment she had tried not to concentrate on and to forget.

"After how kind I've been to you, is this all that I get?" His cold voice pierced through the girl, it's coldness ringing through her head.

"Just say you're sorry and I might be somewhat as forgiving as I was before."

"No, no, no!" the girl sobbed. Her body hurt, her mind had been taunted with enough, she couldn't help but cry.

"Isn't it a matter of pride, no crying in front of the person who causes you the pain?"

She yet again heard his piercing cold voice and only felt herself sobbing more. Whatever glimmer of hope that she'd seen before was now completely gone. "Why, Tathrun, why come after me? It's not me you really want? You're just going to use me!" she sobbed.

"So you know my name, do you? Let's just put it this way, in order to get what I want, I need you. Do you really think I just put you in that room for no reason, or acted like I did earlier to my underling for no reason. I knew you'd try to escape, I knew you'd try to hope, but I just diminished that hope and caught you, making me the victor." Tathrun was almost pleased to see his cold voice working on the girl. He was always cold, everything sounding somewhat nice or like a lunatic was an act. He did know what the girl was going to do, said he'd underestimated her to give her even more hope for him to crush.

"You're a cruel person, if you're even that," said the girl venomously.

"Now it's you're turn to answer me girl, and I've got a question. Back when we first fought, I told you my name, but you never told me yours. So tell me, what's your name, or need I tell you."

"My name is of no concern to the likes of you!" the girl shouted angrily, she knew that yet again the ninja was toying with her, and now that she really did have no hope in finishing her escape.

"Meiling," said his icy cold voice.

The girl shuddered, hearing her voice said like that, it was scary, very scary. The ninja's voice, icily calling her name, toying with her like she was nothing! Her body fell limp, she was defeated. She felt the ninja pick her up and carry her back to that dark hell that she just escaped from.

A/N: I'll try for my next chapter to be longer but I'm not sure when that'll be. I'm leaving to go camping tomorrow, so I may or may not pull off another update due to a busy schedule before then. Anyways review!

(Also when I said "dark hell" I'm using that to describe the place, aka for anyone wondering it's not Hell the place...)