Fai pressed the plastic bottle to his lips, pretending to drink. He made sure some of the liquid inside got onto his chin and then made a visible show of wiping it away, while at the same time signaling to Kurogane. Kurogane grunted and glared at him.

I get it already, stop looking at me, his eyes said.

Fai grinned and put the bottle down. He was almost sure of what the substance was--his memory of chemicals was near perfect, after all his studying, and what they put in his drink was amateurish and somewhat foolish; they clearly underestimated them.

Well, that was fine. Let them go ahead and think that.

He felt the chill of unease go up his spine again, and grinned, feeling drunk with his alertness. It was near intoxicating, this alertness all the time. But Fai could not get too excited, least Kurogane catch wind of his power. It was both a blessing and a curse that Kurogane was so in tuned to others' unease. At the current moment, Fai wanted nothing to do but to knock him out. Of course, that would require him to move, and right now he was so comfortable, on two blankets (one of Kurogane's; he had yet to notice Fai took it) and with Mokona on his stomach.

Mokona was busy bouncing up and down, and when he came down on a particular ticklish spot, Fai let out a small chuckle. This only encouraged Mokona to jump higher in a greater attempt to make Fai laugh.

"Mokona make Fai giggle!" It said, its ears flopping over its eyes.

"Mokona's so cute!" Mokona gave a loud squeal when Fai poked his finger in its belly.

"Will you quit encouraging the pork bun to talk!" Kurogane said loudly. "We need to figure something out."

"Oh, do you now care about the children?"

Fai made sure to avoid Kurogane's eyes so as to not give him any way to gain command of the conversation. It was just one more thing that annoyed Kurogane to no end; Kurogane had to be in control of most everything in his life. By refusing to met his eyes, Fai was sending the simple message of "ha-ha" and "Don't you dare believe you can control me," Kurogane needed constant reminder of this; lucky, Fai was there.

"I want to get out of this world as fast as possible, and the fat bun won't leave without the stupid feather."

"I guess that means we just have to wait."

Fai could almost feel the smoldering heat of the hatred Kurogane was steaming off. "Like hell we do."

"Let's wait for Jiro to come back. Wanna a 'gr-ap'?" Fai tossed him two grapes the size of large marbles.

"They're purple."

"So?"

He tossed them back. "They're purple." He said again, as though that explained everything. "Where is the fatty?"

Kurogane bestowed the affectionate nickname onto their landlord-turned-rescuer a little while ago, after a somewhat hazard greeting. After being in almost complete darkness for a little over two hours, Kurogane, Fai and Mokona had come out of the tunnel to a bright meeting--quite literally.

It took Fai a few seconds while his sight recovered to guess at the reason he did not sense them before they came out of the tunnel. By the time the purple blots in his eyesight had lessoned to an only slightly annoying state, he knew the reason. He felt Kurogane move beside him and heard the slick sound of his sword coming out of its sheath, yet before he could warn him, a voice demanded them to get on the ground.

"Could you repeat that?" Fai said, stalling for time, already planning an escape.

"GET ON THE GROUND!"

"Make me-" Kurogane started before Fai cut him off.

"I think we should do what they say, Kuro-pipi. After all, it seems we haven't left the city at all."

"What!" Kurogane exclaimed.

Fai resisted rolling his eyes. The explanation would have to come later. Right now the more pressing matter was getting out. He gently went down onto his knees, but no further; it was to say, "There. I did what you said. But not totally."

By now, their eyes had adjusted considerably, and while Kurogane twisting his head around to see the tall buildings still looming over them, Fai stared straight ahead at their adversary, which had not only surrounded them in the time for the light to disappear fully, but also pointed various weapons at them. There were a good fourty to fifty men around them of various sizes and backgrounds, all having the same venomous looks on their faces. Their arms gripped their swords, bats, sticks, knives, and ropes until their knuckles were white, anticipating the command to attack--

"STOP! STOP! NO ONE GO FORTH! STAND STILL!"

Both Kurogane and Fai snapped up at the familiar voice. The men around them snarled and swore, but they heeded the spoken order by their leader. Another second or two, and Fai was sure their bloodlust would be too great for anyone to command. As their leader stepped out from the ranks, Kurogane gave a slight noise of surprise.

"Well, hell, if it isn't Jiro,"

The ugly face was just as surprised to see them as they were surprised to see him. Nothing much had changed since their last encounter earlier that day (it seemed much longer to Fai. So much had happened between the hours that it felt like days). The old, thin scare looked even more ghastly in the pale light of darkness, and the oily hair was still slicked back. Carmel-colored teeth could be seen from under the tiny mustache as his mouth widened into a frown.

Jiro walked toward them slowly. Fai noticed for the first time that as he walked, his right leg would give a little more in to gravity than normal.

Fai looked up to the blunt end of the wooden wand Jiro was rudely pointing in his face. A mixture of feelings could be noted ragging battle in his eyes. Somewhere between rage and confusion, Jiro stared down at Fai, his wand arm shaking.

He licked his lips. "I am going tha ask you only once," he stated, the veins in his neck popping out, "How, and why, did you come here?"

"Well," Fai answered briskly, "That depends. Are you going to hurt us?" Jiro's lip quivered in anger, which was the reaction Fai anticipated he would receive.

Kurogane only watched the interaction, his brow at a sharp angle downward. He thankfully did not talk, allowing Fai to take control of the situation.

Jiro leaned downward toward Fai's ear, whispering harshly, "Yer want to get killed? Yer both magic users on Normal's land!"

"Users?" Fai repeated, puzzled. He knew that there were only two people that could use magic in their group, and one of them was currently captured. "I'm afraid you must be mistaken,"

Another vein popped out. "MISTAKEN! I can smell magic, and yer both reek of it!"

Fai glanced over at Kurogane, wondering if his alertness had thrown his senses off.

No, no, Jiro was definitely the one mistaken. Kurogane had no magic, he was sure of it, the only way--

"Ah!" Fai relaxed; Mokona! Of course, no wonder Jiro thought Kurogane had magic. Mokona was hidden in Kurogane's coat pocket. The white alien must be the one that was throwing off everyone's senses. Fai had not noticed it for he had been in Mokona's presence for so long. He knew that what Mokona had was not technically magic--at least, not the traditional kind--but here on this world the people had mistaken it to mean magic.

"Who sent you! Why have you come! Out with it!" Jiro was shouting when Fai returned from his mind thoughts. Jiro's wand was now uncomfortably close to Fai's nose.

"Jiro," Fai stared up into the beady eyes. "I'm afraid you have us confused. You see, we were just running away from those that were chasing us." Jiro looked into Fai's eyes for any sign of disbelief. "The men wearing all black, with the round things on their heads." he added, and was pleased when he saw a sense of recognition in Jiro's features. The wand was even removed from his face and than put safely back into a jacket pocket.

Jiro eyes swept the area side to side. "Where's the girl?" he asked.

Unsurprised at the sudden change of questions, Fai answered. "She's been captured," He had a feeling why Jiro was so interested in Sakura (besides her whoring abilities) but kept his mouth shut. Fai could not be sure how smart Jiro expected them to be about Sakura's unnatural powers. For now, he and Kurogane would have to play along. He signaled this to Kurogane, who gave a slight nod of his head.

'Thank you, fate, you gave me smart people to work with' he thought, before returning his attension to the man in front of him.

Jiro cursed. He then stood up to his full height and turned around to the men. "Get these two into the chambers!" He turned around back to Fai and Kurogane (Mokona was being very still in Kurogane's pocket), "One magic trick from either of you, and yer heads' off!" He ran his thick finger along his neck to make the point more convincing.

They had been taken away from there, and no one had said a thing, expect for a small debate about whether to blindfold them or not.

"They'll see the hideaway! We'll have to pack up and move all over again. What's to say that they aren't doing a spelly-thing right now?"

"Jiro-sama can detect these things. He'd know! Besides, they've been in the tunnel for two hours-"

'An extremely education guess,' Fai thought, hoping they would decide against the blindfolding. He had been through enough tonight, and was not keen on having to go through one more energy draining activity.

"You two! Quit blabbering! We don't need to blindfold them, anyways! Just give them a good hit."

'Darn,'. A second later, a blunt object rapped the top of his head.

A while later (Fai didn't know for sure for there was no light outside to judge by) he had woken up in a moderately cozy nest in the corner of a filthy room. Kurogane was already awake by then, and Mokona hopped onto his stomach. There was some food in a small blue colored dish, along with some liquid in a green bottle. Fai was hesitant to try any of it, for the bump on his head was still quite sore. He did pretend to have a bite or two of the food, if only to help the appearance that they were being truthful. Kurogane understood the game well enough, for reasons Fai decided not to guess.

"How the heck are we still in the damn city? We were walking around for a good two hours in that tunnel!" asked Kurogane.

"Magic."

"Huh?"

"Magic, darling. The tunnel itself was not truly constructed, at least, not in the sense you're thinking, with hammers and nails and such." explained Fai, as Mokona ceased its bouncing.

"What is the point of that?"

"Oh," mused Fai, "Lot's of things, I suppose. If an enemy was chasing you, wouldn't you like to get them held up for two hours doing nothing but wasting their energy? All the while, you make your escape, and take your time going to the end of the tunnel where you're enemy is bound to come out and ambush him." He stated, very matter-of-factly.

"What's it doing in the middle of the city, then?"

"I think you'll have to ask Jiro that," Said Fai just as Jiro himself limped into the room. Mokona quickly dived under Kurogane's cloak before Jiro's beady eyes saw the Dimension creature. He gave them a sour look as he pulled up a stool and sat down on it.

"Well," Jiro breathed, after a moment of silence, "it seems yer were tellin' the truth."

"The truth?" Fai said. "Which part?"

"The girl. She's indeed been captured."

Fai and Kurogane exchanged looks. Fai let out a breath he did not know he'd been holding. Kurogane eyes averted his eyes to the floor.

Fai knew what they were both thinking. "Did you hear anything about the boy?"

"Who?"

Calm down, Fai. Calm down and wait for his answer. "The boy who was with us. His name is Syaoran."

Jiro's scare twisted as his eyebrow rose. "I haven't heard anything of the boy. Only the girl."

"Oh."

Fai sat up, putting his hand underneath his shirt for comfort. He had to remind himself of his nakedness. It was to keep from thinking about might have happened to Little Doggie. The mind truly was a dangerous thing.

Kurogane cracked his knuckles. "What is going on here? This is no ordinary volunteer militia." He grinned. "It's too organized."

If Jiro found the comment funny, his face did not show it. Nor did it show any emotion other than pure frustration. "Where are yer all from? I felt both you--" he jerked his thumb toward Fai, "--and the girl the moment you arrived in this city."

Fai opened his mouth to say something, but Kurogane cut him off. That was fine. After being silent for so long and allowing Fai to direct the situation, Kurogane needed to assert himself that, yes, he still was in control. Fai found himself somewhat grateful at the intrusion, and relaxed back onto the pillows, prepared to follow along and add in the occasional comment to make their story plausible.

"How about you tell us what your planning to do with your little army, and we'll fill you in on our situation?" Kurogane grinned. A challenge.

And from the look on Jiro's face, he took it as such. A few beats of silence passed as he considered Kurogane's offer. "All right," he said, "I'll tell ya. After all, it isn't like we'll be letting yer go now that you've found our little hideaway."

"We'll see."

For a moment, Jiro's eyes widened before he relaxed and let out a yawp of laughter. "Yer a funny one," he motioned for two men by the door to come in. One of them brought a small red box from their pocket. Jiro opened the box and took out a small cigarette. He lit one end of the cig, then took a deep breath.

"We're not simple militia. We're the Rebellion."

"The rebellion?"

"YES!" snarled Jiro before bring his voice back down. "What are ya? Fools?"

"We're travelers from a far, far away place." Fai said. "Enlighten us please."

Jiro gave them a skeptical look, but he continued.

"Fine. Since yer say yer travelers, I might as well start at tha' beginning."

Fai gave him a small smile.

"The Emperor Taro came to the throne 15 years ago, but he had really been in power for almost 20, he just did not come out from his mask till after the old Emperor died."

"How did he get to be Emperor?" Kurogane asked.

Jiro's lip snarled upwards. "No one really knows. Taro says he and his brother Saburo found the old Great One's will, specifically stating that Taro was to be his successor. There were other documents they 'found' but those have mysteriously," Jiro huffed at this part, making sure to impress how believable he thought that was, "disappeared."

"During the first few years of Taro's regime he was just settin' up his pieces. At first, there were the deaths of his major opposition, the brave ones who actually vowed to brin' him down. It was all hush hush, you see, fer no one really knew back then what he was really doing. It was simple, really, even a Normal like those outside could have seen it." He paused, his pupils dilating a bit before returning to their original size, "...at least, they should have."

"Then Emperor Taro," Jiro spat out the name, his face distorted in the aftershock of having the bitter name on his tongue, "started on one of his first programs to 'educate' the Normals--"

"When you say Normals," Fai interrupted, "--you mean Tricks, correct?"

Jiro looked at Fai with loathing, "That degradin' nickname was givin' to those poor people by Prince Saburo, the swine." He huffed again, "Tricks! Like putting salt in a blood wound. Reminding them constantly that they have no magic! That what they do are just simple tricks, simple buffoonery! It's the worst thing to be called, a Trick!"

It took a few seconds of silence to calm the man down. When he continued, his tone had changed, now vibrating a deep sadness from his stomach. "It took only a while before they started to kill off the Normals. Saburo introduced the programs to the Families, most of which supported em'."

"Normals have no magic, thus ther' thought to be sub-human." he sighed, the sadness leaking out through his lips. "Normals began to believe it, too, after a few years. The thoughts were already there, had been for at least a hundred years, so this came as no surprise."

"It was just one more thing to stain the live of Normals with."

"That's when the Rebellion started. It's made up of mostly Normals, but there are a few magicians, too."

"Like you." Kurogane said.

"Like meh." Jiro grinned (Fai cringed), "Ah'm not as powerful as yer little girlie is, but its enough."

"Why are they keeping her?"

"Don't know. She's a pretty girl, though, both in magic n' looks. They will find use for her, one way or another. We're just hoping she won't be forced to use her power. Saburo can do that to some people, ay've heard."

"What would they do with her?" Kurogane growled.

Jiro shrugged, as though the outcome didn't really concern him. "Keep her locked up, kill her, I don't know. We're waiting to hear from our 'friends'--"the scar look as ugly as ever as it was stretched into a grin,"--what exactly they're doing."

Kurogane held himself back from snorting. He found it foolish that this man believed he was in charge of anything. But he did not dare say a word against him for, no matter how silly this Jiro was, he could have them killed. "What friends?"

"High friends in high places, yessir. They be meeting all month long, going over who-knows-what. Some people aren't real happy with his Mightiness and the Prince right now, and they be showing it this month. That's why this month is going ter be the most important month ever. The people could have the moods change, and we're ready for when our friends tell us it's good."

"Good for what?"

The face that Fai swore could not improve its hideousness did just that. "Attack." He then waited a minute to let this information sink in fully before he sat back, pleased with himself. "Now I've filled my part of the bargain. You fill in yours."

Fai and Kurogane exchanged glances, wondering what to make up. Kurogane nodded toward Fai, as though saying, "You do this part. I'm done talking."

"Well..." Fai started, unsure how much he wanted to say. Jiro was too low on the power scale to care much about the authenticity of the story, but he did reveal that he had "high friends", the real people in charge of everything, which made him somewhat important (if only a little bit). If he did not believe them, then most likely he would not let anyone believe them either. Fai had to make sure he said just enough to Jiro to make him happy, but reserve the real stuff for someone who could actually help them get off this hate filled planet.

"We're travelers from a far off land." he began, "looking around for a good doctor."

Jiro sniffed. "Why you looking around for a doctor here?"

Uh oh. Mistake. Come on, Fai, think of a good reason. "One of our group was caught up in a magical explosion."

His beady eyes widened. "Explosion?"

Yes, good, good, he's buying it. "Yes, I work with different potions," Very accurate, in fact. At least this way if they thought there was something odd to his story, he could prove otherwise. "The girl, Sakura, was caught up in this explosion and I could not help her."

"Yer-You- a magic doctor?"

"Well, let's just put it this way--if I could not help her, then no one else could either. So we came here to find help."

Again he sniffed. "She seemed fine to meh. Powerful, but fine."

"She falls into a coma when she works too hard." Fai said, making sure he was adding a slight tone of authority to his voice. Jiro was buying it slowly but surely; to let up now would undo everything. "If she falls into one of these comas, she might not wake up ever again." he added gravely.

"That might not be a bad thing," Jiro responded, "--if Saburo gets a hold of her, it'd be better if she died."

"No, it wouldn't." Fai said. "She can not die here. Not in this city." Not on this planet, he wanted to add. Instead he leaned in, whispering, "Her power is usual, to say the least. It can not be left alone. It must be--" he paused, looking into Jiro's eyes.

The pupils were widening. At the current moment, he could find no deception. Had Fai used his powers, he was sure he'd be able to see Jiro's true form, but as it was, he would not dare.

"What?" Jiro asked. "What must it be?"

"Sealed." Fai felt a strange chill go down his back as he said this. This part of the lie was not easy to tell, but it was the best that he could come up with. A brief image of Chi and Ashura illuminated in his mind, their faces outlined in a thin white line. He could feel their presence in him, radiating within his bones, still weak, but there.

He shivered a small bit, praying his voice would not falter. Stop that Fai, he thought, stop that right now. Concentrate on what in front of you.

Jiro was deep in thought. His grin had long vanished since Fai began the fable. He had turned a sausage-like finger up to his temple, pressing it in.

He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a deep voice from the doorway. "Jiro-sama, we have received an update from our 'friend'. We have also intercepted some e-notes from one of the detention centers in Government Tower number 7,"

Jiro spun around. "Is the update from Chuu?"

The man nodded, and Jiro put a hand on his knee and pushed himself up. He snapped his leg quickly in front of him to hurry to the doorway, despite his limp. Before he left, he gave one last look, filled with deep foreboding feeling, to Fai and Kurogane. Then he was gone.

Kurogane and Fai waited patiently for over an hour as they listened to the sounds outside their little room. There were several minutes of shuffling feet, and of the guard outside the door, supposedly watching them to make sure they did not escape, talking with his fellow mates. It was another half hour before everything had quieted down.

"It's safe now." Kurogane whispered, digging Mokona out of his pocket ("Mokona couldn't breathe!" it hiccupped). "The guard's breathing has been deep and steady for a half hour. He's in deep sleep now."

Fai nodded, "So, what do you think?"

"Jiro's an idiot."

"Besides that."

Kurogane's brows went into a dip. "They're preparing for an attack any day now. We can probably sneak by them and get the kids, if they're still alive by then."

"I'm sure Sakura's fine. The people on this world don't have such a loathing for her because of her magic. Plus she's a woman. They won't kill her for a while. She's too good for them not to use." Fai paused, wondering how he should go about the next question. "And Syaoran?" It was best to be blunt.

"He might be dead by then." Though the words were heartbreaking to say, Kurogane's voice did not waver once as he spoke them. Instead each word was said fully, each syllable pronounced with a deep understanding, and Fai knew Kurogane was feeling as sick as he was.

Feeling it was best to turn away from the subject of death, Fai turned to the subject of Jiro. "He's a strange man. Throughout the whole conversation he was using two different accents."

"So what?"

"He was trying to sound educated. He kept on switching up words, like 'yer' and 'you'."

"Who gives a shit?" Kurogane had learned this term on one of the other dimensions and was rather fond of it.

The corners of Fai's lips turned upwards. "It means, as long as we appeal to his 'educated' side, he'll let us do anything. As long as he is not smart enough to realize it."

"If that happens, I'll knock him out."

"You're a brute, aren't you." Fai cocked his eyebrow up in amusement. "All big bones and muscles, right?"

Kurogane did not speak to him for the rest of the time, expect once to reclaim his pillow that was under Fai's ribs. "You got two seconds before I slice your arm off."

"Good night, Kuro-wuggy."

As Fai's body called to sleep to claim it, Fai's mind whirled over the past events, examining every detail possible. The images of Chi and Ashura still glowed in his mind's eyes.

He put his hand under his shirt on his bare back for comfort, shaking slightly when all he felt was cold skin. It was easier now, reminding himself the mark was gone. Though the feeling of nakedness did not leave, nor did he doubt it would ever leave.

'Troubled dreams plague thy somber slumber tonight, young knight,' the line of a long forgotten song whispered within him. 'Sleep well, Fai' he thought, ignoring the irony in that statement.