Heya! Ok, so I got up at four in the morning to work on this chapter. i was really excited to hurry the story along! Read it and review, please! I don't want any flares, as usual, but everything else is completely welcome!

I hope you guys like this chapter. In it, Izumi's black dragon and Kurogane's kudan battle against each other, and Izumi has to decide who to save, Kurogane or herself. If she saves Kuro by killing her kudan, she basically commits suicide and dies, but if she saves herself by staying out of the situation, Kurogane goes poof and dies. Alright! Begin your tests!

Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa:Resivoir Chronicles or any of its characters other than Izumi. All rights belong to CLAMP and other respective rightholders. Any people or places of my own that seem familiar are completely coincidental. Enjoy!

So now, I had a major decision to make. I could watch this battle unfold naturally and let Kurogane die, or I could figure out a way to fight my own kudan, and possibly kill myself. Neither option seemed very comforting. I was afraid to take a stand, and instead sat in a crumpled heap on the floor, afraid and confused. There seemed no way out of this one unless one of us died.

Fai put his hand on my head and ruffled my hair. "You know, there's always an easier way out of this than death. Not everyone has to save themselves by killing others." I looked into his eyes. They had that same sadness that they had in my dream. I had the feeling he was only going to speak in riddles, and I guessed that he could not give me a straight answer. I had guessed wrong. There was a lot more intelligence to Fai than I would have guessed, and he hid it well. He looked at the two dragons. "I remember very distinctly what you told me yesterday." He looked lost, as if he was pondering something.

I sobbed, and looked up. "What did I tell you?" My tears plipped onto the cement, diluting the blood on the ground and making it a watery mess. My knees were resting in the blood, but I ignored it.

"You told me," Fai continued, the lost look in his eyes fading, "That you killed many people, because of the dark magic that seemed to control you." Fai gazed into my eyes. "Dark magic…that is what it was. The way you described your magic—I can just tell that it was no ordinary magic. It is not necessarily more powerful than regular magic, but when it gets out of control, it can do unimaginable things, and nobody can stop it, not even the possessor of the magic." He picked up a pebble from the ground and rolled it around between his fingers. "Now, I don't know about you, but I can sense an awful lot of dark magic in that dragon."

I didn't understand. I couldn't understand anything. My mind had no room for words at the moment. "Yeah, so what does that have to do with anything?" I moved backwards, and leaned against the column, resting my head between my knees to help stop the headache.

"Well, that much is up for you to decide." Fai told me mysteriously. His voice obscured many secrets about himself, ones that I would have to figure out for myself. He closed his fingers around the pebble. "It may not be possible to kill your kudan without killing yourself, but I am quite sure there are other ways to take care of this situation." He tossed the pebble in the air now, caught it in his hand and then tossed it up again. "It may take a fight, or it may take some extra thinking, but you and your kudan are attached, and you have to figure out a way to break free." He threw the pebble up in the air again, but moved his hand, letting it plummet to the floor. The pebble split in half.

At this point, I realized I had stopped crying. I wiped away the tears that still clung to my face, and stood up. "I suppose you're right." I sighed. "But I do not see any way out of this at all." I said.

He stood up next to me. "Maybe not. You know, there is a reason why this dark dragon chose you to be its mistress. There is something you must have in common." He said. "There is not much time now. I believe that the two dragons are going to fight soon, and you had better do something." Fai gave me a gentle push forward.

I stumbled into the street, beside my kudan. It seemed as though the two dragons had been communicating. I looked up at the black dragon. I don't want you to do this. There doesn't need to be a fight. I said. We can resolve this without harming anyone.

"You, stay out of this!" The dragon roared, and I screamed when its tail slashed out, slamming me back into the column beside Fai. "Well," I grumbled at Fai, "That didn't seem to get me anywhere."

Fai chuckled. "Your kudan wishes to handle this battle itself. Let it, and interfere only when the situation calls for it." Fai spoke with such buoyancy that I had no choice but to trust him.

I nodded unsurely, but leaned back against the column and slid down to the floor. My heart pounded like a hammer in my chest when the two dragons took their offensive stances. Kurogane's kudan did not let Kurogane fight alongside it, just as mine had not allowed me to intervene. It seemed that both of our lives rested in the hands of our kudan, and I wasn't so worried about losing mine. Masayoshi-kun was terror-struck for a few moments, but then an inquisitive expression came over his face. "That's really strange. I've never seen kudan fight without their masters before."

I overheard Syaoran-kun ask Masayoshi-kun, "Which level do you think both of these kudan are?" Syaoran was eying the black dragon in particular. "I mean, nobody's said that they are special level…"

Masayoshi-kun pondered the question for a few moments. He never seemed to completely figure out the answer. "Well…you're right about that. I would say that they are both special level, but I can't be so sure anymore… If they're not, then I'll guess that Kurogane's kudan is first level, and that Izummi-san's kudan is…" He paused, and rethought his theory. "You know, I have no idea." He looked like he was about to cry. "I hope Izumi-san doesn't kill Kurogane!" I knew he didn't mean to hurt anyone, but I cringed at his words. What if I do kill Kurogane? Then what?

Though I hadn't heard the official announcement, the battle had started. The white dragon did not look afraid, even when it stared death (quite literally) in the face. My kudan not only did not look afraid, but it looked smug, as if there was no hope for its opponent. I wanted so badly to rush into the middle of the two and kill my kudan, but that would be committing suicide on my part. Yeah…maybe I would hold back on that plan. The action began. Kurogane's silvery-white dragon slashed its tail, but my dragon easily and effortlessly dodged the feeble attack.

I bit my lip, drawing blood and only adding to the puddle of it on the ground. Pain was no concern of mine anymore; I was numb with anticipation and worry. It was my kudan's turn to attack, which worried me most. The black dragon rose up on its hind legs, making it even taller than it was before. It blocked the sun, and the world was dark for the few moments it did. My kudan inhaled, and exhaled what I was sure would be fire, the element of most traditional dragons in Chinese folklore. But what it breathed was not fire; it was a pool of black. I gasped. What the hell? What is that? And then I realized what it was. Magic. Dark magic.

The black air cleared away, and suddenly both Kurogane and his kudan were on the floor. Kurogane was writhing in pain, and I could see a hole in his shirt, and burned on his skin was a black mark. It was spreading across his torso at an incredible speed, and burning away his shirt as it spread. At that moment, my kudan and I became one, and I could see me towering over Kurogane's dragon, which also had the mark. I quickly snapped back to my own form, and watched as my kudan took one of its sharp talons and prepared to puncture the center of the mark on the white dragon's body. For some strange reason, I knew exactly what would happen when it did. I realized that my kudan had chosen to curse Kurogane with the one thing worse than death: black magic. When that black seal is broken, the curse will settle upon him… I had to do something.

"Stop!" I shouted, so that everyone could hear. It wouldn't matter, anyway. The larger dragon looked up. "Please don't do that!" I begged, dropping to my knees and clasping my hands together.

"Mistress, I do not understand." My kudan responded. "This man…he injured you. I am here to protect you." The black dragon responded. I looked over at Kurogane, and could see the life draining from him as the mark spread. I had to hurry this up.

"So maybe he did injure me, and I am very upset about that. But he doesn't have to serve as a slave to dark magic! Nobody should have to." I said, finding the strength in my voice and bringing it out. "It's a terrible thing! And…" I remembered what Fai had told me. "…there is a reason this dark dragon chose you to be its mistress. There is something you must have in common." I hesitated before speaking again. "And I would know, because I know how it feels to be cursed with it. I know how it feels to want to kill and to hurt people to make yourself feel better, and it's not a nice feeling!" More tears. "Kurogane doesn't deserve to be cursed with it. Nobody does, not even you."

I could see the muscles in the dragon's body tense. "Mistress, I am only doing my job." The dragon would not listen. "Stay out of this and let me finish him off before he harms you again."

"He won't harm me again!" I shouted. "You are cursed with dark magic, too. I know that." My voice was softer. "There are other ways out of things other than harming others. Dark magic can make you do terrible things, but sometimes, you have to just fight the urge. Kurogane doesn't have to be cursed with dark magic to be sorry. He just has to tell me he is."

"Mistress…"

"Killing someone out of habit just shows that you are weak, that you cannot resist the temptation. But you can be as strong and as kind as anyone else in the whole world. Your first step is to let this dragon go." I pointed to Kurogane's kudan. To my great surprise, the black dragon did as he was told. It let go of the smaller dragon, and released the mark from it. The white dragon slowly began to stir back to life, and I could see Kurogane waking as well. "It wasn't that hard, was it?" I asked the dragon.

"No". My kudan replied. He bowed. "I am at your full disposal, mistress."

I shook my head, stroking the dragon's snout. "No, you're not." I smiled at the shocked expression on the dragon's face. "Because I'm letting you free. You decide what you want to do with your life. Don't let your magic get in the way of that." I was crying. Again. I felt guilty for telling him all of this, for I wouldn't be able to decide what I wanted to do with my life without my magic getting in the way.

"Mistress…I thank you." The dragon rose up again, and spread its enormous black wings, releasing from its throat a roar, one that didn't frighten us, but one that made us all feel as though this dragon was a valiant warrior who had come to save us all. "My best wishes to you four travelers, and may you find all of the missing feathers." I was surprised that he knew about the feathers, but then again, he probably knew about everything we talked about. The dragon gave the ground a tremendous push with its hind legs to push it off of the ground, and I watched as it flew higher and higher in the sky, getting smaller and smaller as it went.

I walked back to the group. Kurogane was rubbing his head, wondering what happened, but he seemed perfectly fine to me. Syaoran and Masayoshi-kun wore expressions of amazement on their faces. Fai only smiled discreetly, and said, "You did it."

I never got a chance to respond, because an overwhelming dizziness came over me, and I fell back into the column. The whole world was spinning around in circles, and my limbs became weak. I crumpled to the floor. Everything was blurry. I could barely make out Masayoshi-kun's voice. "She's been without a kudan for too long! If she doesn't have one, then she might die!"

"What?!" Fai yelled. He immediately fell to my side. "She can't die!" He exclaimed. I didn't get why I couldn't die, or why I even mattered in the least to him. Everything was getting darker, and the world slowly sank back into place. In the last few seconds before I blacked out, the only thing I saw were those eyes. Those bright, icy blue eyes that seemed to call out, sadness.That's the end of chapter nine! Whew! Time goes by fast, doesn't it? Anyways, NO FLARES but constructive criticism and any other comments are welcome. Hope you liked reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!