An hour later, Hans walked past again.
"Just so the two of you know, I put Slate down below. He'll be working there until we return tonight. I'll remove him from my services then." They nodded back, happy. Hans nodded, his gaze flickering into the buckets of water to check and see that they weren't empty.
"How about you jump back in the water for a bit?" Hans offered. "You'd feel better."
Fai shrugged. The polis below would be in a state too chaotic for its people to even bother even going to the surface any time soon. They slept during the day anyway.
"What do you think, Kuro-puu?"
"I'm staying here."
"But, you'll feel better-"
"You could just use your magic and change us back, you know. I'd feel a hell of a lot better with my legs again."
Fai smiled at him, his eye giving away a little of his anger.
"I think I'll stay too, Hans-san." Fai smiled to Hans. The man nodded, uncertain, and went back to work.
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Fai scooted up against the wall caddy-corner to Kurogane, resting his back against the cool wood. He stared into the mirrors face, seeing his reflection gazing back curiously before he looked over to the ninja.
"It's the feather, isn't it?" Kurogane muttered, pointing to the weapon.
"Yes."
Kurogane snorted, smirking. "Figures."
"Hmm?"
"Someone would have ended up going down there anyway. How long have you known that it was the feather?"
"A few days."
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Hours passed, and the sun finally set. The entire deck was washed in moonlight and shadows. Fai had fallen into another catnap, leaving Kurogane alone to sit in the darkness, only waking up to get more water every now and then. Hans appeared again, telling them that they were returning to the docks.
"Are you sure you want to go to land? Not the sea?" He asked Kurogane a final time. The ninja nodded.
"We can't go back there."
"It'll be difficult to deliver you back to my home."
"I have an idea." Fai cut in softly. "Could you bring Maecenas here, and some clothes?"
Hans pondered this. "Well, I don't see why not. But don't you have some magic of your own?"
"Yes, but I can't do the type of spell required."
Kurogane glared at Fai. Either the thin mage couldn't remember what he did while he was possessed, or he was lying. Kurogane guessed the latter.
The ship began to slow down, and finally stop. A few members of the crew jumped out to tie the craft to the dock. Hans nodded to the mermen, quickly leaving for his home. A strong wind blew him a few feet forward, and he stopped to bark orders to the crew. The masts were pulled in.
Kurogane looked up to see dark clouds stretch out across the dark sky, blotting out the moon. Fai made a worried noise in his throat, but otherwise remained silent as Hans took off for his home.
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Hans was out of breath when he arrived at his home. He burst in through the door as a bolt of lightning lit the sky. Ariel appeared, giving him a quick peck on the check.
"What is it, Hans?"
"I need two long coats; could you fetch them for me?" He wheezed. She nodded, and hurried off. Syaoran appeared at the top of the stairs.
"Boy! Go and wake the others!"
Syaoran nodded, running off. Moments later, Ariel returned with the longest coats she could find. Syaoran appeared again with Sakura, Maecenas, and Mokona. Hans took the coats, thanking Ariel and beckoning to Maecenas.
"Come with me."
The woman sighed, nodding and joining his side. Syaoran whispered something to Sakura, and went to join them.
"I'm coming too."
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The trio ran out and into the storm, quickly making it back to the ship. They climbed onto the deck, trying to not slip on the wet boards. Hans spotted the mermen, sitting out in the rain.
"Here!" He handed the coats to them. They pulled them on quickly and buttoned them to keep them from blowing around. Fai turned to Maecenas, talking loudly over the wind.
"Can you change us back?" He asked.
"Why won't you do it?" She shot at him.
"I can't!"
The woman rolled her eyes and walked over, snapping her fingers. The locket left Kurogane, returning to her hand. Before their eyes, his tail melted away, revealing his legs once again. His coat was so long though; it went to the middle of his shins as he stood. Stretching his back he almost smiled with the joy of finally having his legs back.
Maecenas snapped her fingers again, returning Fai to his normal form. He stood up, running a hand along his neck. No gills. The blond woman cleared her throat before speaking loudly.
"So, how was it?" She asked. "Did you defeat her?"
Fai and Kurogane exchanged a sour look.
"Yeah."
"Pretty much."
"So, how is everything down there? Is it better off? Is everyone happy?" She shot off one question after another, not giving them enough time to answer. An explosion of purple thunder cut her off, and everyone looked up into the sky.
"We need to head back! We can talk later!" Hans said.
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Sakura stared into her steaming mug of hot chocolate. She and Ariel had hastily prepared one for everyone, Mokona receiving one in a shot glass- sized mug. How or why they had a mug of that size…
The Princess sighed. Fai had been oddly silent the entire time, mimicking her act of staring into his own mug. Every now and then, Kurogane would throw a glance at Maecenas, who would stare back, confused. This went on for some time. Hans and Ariel excused themselves to get to bed during the silence.
"What is with the two of you?" She asked suddenly, eyes flashing. Fai only shrugged, Kurogane ignored her completely. Fai took a large swig of lukewarm drink, swallowing it slowly.
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Sakura yawned lightly, trying to not fall asleep. Syaoran looked at her and smiled before blushing and looking away.
"Why don't we all go to bed?" Fai asked, speaking for the first time in over an hour.
Everyone agreed and began to leave for their beds. Maecenas decided at the last moment to go back to the polis, and she slipped the locket around her neck before telling the others where was going before slipping out the doors.
Within an hour, she was back.
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The travelers fell asleep one after the other, exhausted. Maecenas crept down the hall, trying to not wake any one. She stopped outside a door, taking a silent breath in, before swinging it open and stepping in. She closed the door behind her, locking it. The sleeping occupant was fast asleep, with a book across his chest. He had fallen asleep reading up on the history of the ocean. She approached the figure, reaching out with one hand. The other was holding something. The item caught a ray of moonlight and revealed it to be a razor sharp, jagged, dagger.
She lashed out with the free hand, clamping it over his mouth. He awoke with a muffled cry and immediately tried to escape. He looked up, noticing the blade, and his gaze widened in horror. He was frozen where he lay, too surprised to move even an inch.
"Where is Fai?"
"Mmph?"
"Fai! Or Kurogane, neither of them is here. There's hell to pay, and the price is to be their heads!"
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Only twenty minutes earlier, Fai awoke from another nightmare, and left for the kitchen.
Making something will surely help clear my mind. He hoped.
Unfortunately, he didn't have all the right supplies that he needed, so he just sat there instead. His eyes began to droop after ten minutes of sitting, and he fell into a light doze.
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Kurogane had never even fallen asleep. Sensing that something was going to happen, he pretended to sleep until Syaoran was, and then hid in the shadows on the stairs at the end of the hall, by Fai's room. He quickly slipped back down the hall and into his room when the sound of another entering it reached his ears.
Pausing for a precious second to analyze the situation, he burst into the room, disarming and throwing Maecenas into a desk. Syaoran quickly leapt out of his bed, grabbing his sword from the foot of his it.
"Not now, kid!" Kurogane growled without turning around. "Leave. Go to the princess." The boy nodded, racing out as Maecenas leapt back up with a snarl and jumped at Kurogane. He knocked her away again with a shove from the side of his sword.
"You humans ruined everything!" Maecenas seethed, aiming for another attack.
Kurogane easily dodged her and readied his sword. In normal circumstances, he would've killed her already, but something seemed to be holding him back.
"Mine! He's my human!"
Kurogane recalled the words Maecenas had said in Fai's voice. Deciding to not hold back any longer, he quickly killed. "You started all of this anyway." He muttered, leaving the room. His fellow traveler's were grouped out in Sakura's room. Fai had awoken and snuck up after the struggle had already begun, and Syaoran had called him into the room. Sakura was still sleeping; a good thing, since seeing the blood on Kurogane's sword would terrify her. Fai and Syaoran stared at the weapon, with shocked expressions on their faces.
AN: I'm terribly sorry about the long wait! School and band camp were taking up all of my free time, and I'm losing interest in this story. I'll still put my best in it and finish it though! I hate unfinished stories! I also had a plot change, and rewrote about half of this chapter so I wouldn't sound like a broken record. I still like the old draft though, and put at least an hour into writing it, so I'll put it up so you can check it out. Anything that happens in it now has nothing to do with the main plot any longer though. :D
Here it is! (Starting after: "He was frozen where he lay, too surprised to move even an inch.")
"I trusted you! Everyone did!" Maecenas hissed, waving the dagger as though she was about to plunge it into his heart.
"We thought that you could save us, the polis! You only made it worse! Now, everyone is in danger! This is your entire fault! And you know it, don't you? You can sense the darkness." He dagger hand shook, and her captive shied back an inch into his pillow before lashing out with a foot and hitting her on her left shoulder blade. His foot got caught up in the fabric of the bed sheets, making his attack a waste of time. It did distract her though, making her angrier.
Maecenas swung the dagger down, aiming for his pale throat. Fai pulled the book up as a shield, and the blade became embedded in it. The tip of it, having penetrated the book, lightly scratched across his neck, but healed over almost instantly. The woman madly pulled her weapon out, aiming and stabbing at him multiple times, all the while keeping one hand firmly over his mouth. Fai kept blocking, finally jamming the weapon in his book and flinging it away. She growled and with lightning fast reflexes, grabbed him by the neck and dragged him over to the book. She left go of her death grip on his face, putting a foot on the book as a brace and pulling her dagger out, flicking bits of paper off with a twitch of her wrist.
Should I fight back? Do I deserve this? Do I even care?
"I should have left you when I found you in that damn shop!" She growled, sensing weakness. She snapped a hand from his throat to his mouth. They were both standing, Maecenas with her back to the dying fire, and Fai trapped in front of her with the blade at his throat.
A crash and rough yell sounded, and a large chunk of the door skidded to a stop at Fai's feet. He looked up to see Kurogane charging into the room. Maecenas also noticed, it was impossible to not see him, and she deftly swiped the dagger across Fai's throat. Blood blossomed across his neck as she dropped him, leaping to the window and crashing through it to the ground below as the mage fell in a heap to the cold floor. Kurogane didn't bother to see if the woman survived.
"Fai!" Syaoran ran in, Kurogane already had the mage up in his arms. The boy glanced over the bed, out the window. He was unable to see out it, and instead looked back to the bed. The small table next to the head had fallen over in the scuffle. The mirror had fallen off from the top of that, where Fai had placed it before going to bed earlier. It now had a piece of door burrowed into its face.
"Is Fai-san…?" Syaoran asked, cautiously walking up to the two men. The mage was barely conscious, his pale hands around his throat in a weak attempt to stop the blood flow. Kurogane could only shake his head at the boy.
Fai opened his eye and looked up at Kurogane. He smiled softly.
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"No! You're not going that easily!" The ninja growled, shaking the man and causing one of the hands to slip and fall away from his neck. The exposed flesh caused Kurogane's eyes to widen.
The long gash was quickly shrinking, closing up, before his eyes. A moment passed, and it was gone, completely healed. Fai took the other hand away, using it to stand back up.
"Who said I was going anywhere?" He smiled again at Kurogane and Syaoran, now more sadly. His neck, hands, and the front of his shirt were stained crimson. Against his pale skin and hair, it made him look almost like a ghost.
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Kurogane rose to his feet, approaching Fai and punching him roughly in the shoulder.
"Don't scare the shit out of me like that again." He growled. Fai looked over to Syaoran, noticing that the boy's face was still pale with shock.
"Syaoran-kun?" He asked worriedly, taking a step towards him.
"I-I'm fine, Fai-san." He stuttered out. Looking around again, his brown eyes fell on the mirror. He picked it up, shaking the loose glass off.
He was surprised to find that behind the sharp glass, there was a hollow. He gently pried more glass off before shoving his hand in slowly. His arm was in up to his elbow before he hit the back and something soft. Wrapping his hand around the prize, he pulled his arm back out.
"It's a feather." He said, holding the plume up for the others to see. A small knock came from what was left of the door, and the rest of the occupants in the house entered. Hans gaped at the ruined door before noticing the others and gaping at them.
"What happened here? A bloodbath?" He finally cried out in exasperation. Syaoran quickly excused himself, returning minutes later, stating quietly that Maecenas must have miss-judged her jump. The "stupid fish" had landed in a heap, the dagger piercing and killing her.
Syaoran held out the feather to Sakura, who received it and fell into a sleep, caught by the boy before she hit the ground.
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Mokona called Yuuko the next morning. Fai had spent the night in Kurogane and Syaoron's room, sleeping on a pallet on the floor.
ANX2: How was it? I stopped it there, since I had writer's block at the time.