A/N: Here's an update people. Even though I had asked for three reviews for the last chapter, I still got three for the whole story, so… Yeah.

This chapter is dedicated to There Was A Silence (who is the reason why I'm continuing this fic) and kim-onka (who even though guessed incorrectly, was someone who took out time to leave a review).

For those of you who are still wondering, the last chapter was in Fai's POV.

Now go ahead and enjoy the story.

"Just stay hidden and don't come out," the kid spoke in urgent tones as he helped the princess hide amongst the pile of wooden crates.

"Will you be okay?" she asked quietly once she had settled down in the gap he had created for her amongst the boxes. The girl sounded on the verge of tears. Well, that much was to be expected. They were running for their lives, after all.

The kid was scared as hell. I could tell. The way he was searching around the dusty heap of trash for something. But I also knew that it wasn't his own life that he feared for. It was hers. He finally spotted whatever it was in one of the dank and dark corners of the building.

"I'll be fine," despite the fear that I could see in his eyes, he still managed to give her a comforting smile.

"Just wait here for me to get back, okay?" he asked. The same caring look on his face that I had seen countless times on the face of the other kid as he had looked at his own princess, back when we were still searching for her feathers. Back when I still had to kill that bastard. Back when… I was alive.

I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself.

Even after everything that I had gone through- which included saving multiple universes from complete destructions at the hands of a deranged psychopath among other things- I had still remained a fool. I had been defeated by a bunch of newbie magic users.

Pathetic…

They had taken my body back to Nihon for burial, two days after the police had found me. I had, obviously, tagged along. The look on Tomoyo-hime's face will haunt me for the rest of my life… well, afterlife. She had looked so utterly broken. I had feared that she would fall apart right before my eyes.

But she had somehow managed to keep it together. At least in front of everyone else, she had.

My funeral had been a quiet affair. It had only been, the kid, his princess, the mage, that poor manju bun and the royal family with their guards. My ashes were buried next to my mother's.

For the entire duration of the ceremony, Sakura had been sobbing into the kid's chest- who himself had been unable to keep his tears at bay. The manju bun had been openly wailing in Tomoyo-hime's lap as she, too, had cried silently. Everyone had shed tears. Even Souma and Ameteresu.

I guess my death had affected people more than I had imagined it would.

For some reason, after I had died, I had been unable to go away or move on to whatever place it is that dead people go to. So, I had taken it upon myself to follow them around. Watch over them, even if later on I discovered that there wasn't anything I could do to help them. But still, I had followed them around. Wherever they went, I went.

Which was why, I had seen them all cry. The princess, the manju, hell even the kid. All of them, except for him.

For some reason, the mage had been the only one who had not let even a single tear escape from his eyes. The last time I had seen him cry had been when he had seen my mangled, mutilated corpse in that alleyway. He had not broken down like I had suspected him to. No. He had simply watched on with an expressionless face as they had carved my name into the tombstone.

I could still see that steely resolve to find my killers. He had not wavered in the slightest bit. Which was why I feared for the idiot.

How far was he willing to go? I had some idea of that.

But at what cost? That I did not know.

After the funeral, he had tried to return Ginryuu to Tomoyo-hime, since I was no longer there to wield it, but she had turned him down and asked him to keep it with him instead.

He had complied with her wish, sealing it into his own arm, making a promise to find the bastards who had killed me, speaking pretty much in the same manner as he had, when he had first made it.

Tomoyo-hime had blessed them all before they left Nihon after only one day's stay in my home world. The kid and mage had decided beforehand to return the princess to Clow before going back to that world with the manju bun. What they had not expected had been Sakura's outright refusal to go back till they found the ones responsible.

I had to admit, this girl was just as brave as her copy.

Months went by, as the searched tirelessly, asking around or scouting for information. Sometimes the three of them would go together as a group and sometimes it would just be the mage or the kid. They still refused to let the princess go out alone by herself.

This was something I agreed upon with the two.

This world was not safe.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard the kid let out an almost inaudible sigh. He had finished arranging the wooden crates in front of the gap in such a manner that no one would be able to guess that a girl was hiding in between somewhere.

The kid cast one last worried look in the direction of those boxes before he whirled around and dashed outside. Even though I knew I would not be able to do anything at all, I still followed him.

"Be careful, kid," I warned him gruffly, knowing full well that he would not hear me.

He dashed back in the direction of the group of thugs that had been tailing them.

Midway there, he unsealed his sword and ran into a small street. The bastards came after him till they met a dead end.

The kid turned around to face them, weapon ready as he took up a stance.

The men advanced at him simultaneously, with the kid blocking the first two blows, whirling around the third, ducking under the fourth and countering the fifth. The fight was intense but it was something that I knew he could handle.

As time went by, I noticed with a grimace that the men were a lot more skilled then their outward appearance let on. Most of the time, they managed to avoid getting injured but at least they were wearing out. Unfortunately, the same was happening to the kid as well.

All of a sudden, a dark, ominous presence filled the area we were in. My heart clenched up in fear as I realized what that meant.

"Get the hell out of here kid!" I yelled urgently, praying to Kami that he would somehow hear my voice. If only for this one time. Before it was…

Too late.

"Shit." I cursed loudly, turning around to look at the newcomer.

It was a woman with pale, silvery blond tresses that went past her knees. Her eyes were the darkest shade of black, like a pair of black holes that would devour your very soul if you looked into them long enough.

Her eyes flickered for the briefest moments in my direction before she turned her hungry, voracious gaze in the kid's direction. She was advancing towards him at a slow, predatory pace and he had still not sensed her presence.

The poor kid was exhausted, I guess he shouldn't have gone for six months without getting proper sleep every once in a while. A slow smirk appeared on her face as she drew nearer and nearer.

She was just a couple of feet away from where the kid was locked in a deadly battle with one of her rather skilled swordsmen. All the others had retreated when they had sensed her presence.

"Oye, you! Witch!" I yelled, "Get away from him!" panic was clutching at my heart. This was the first time in a long while, that I had lost control like that. But this was also the first time when I was watching everything unfold yet remained unable to do anything to change it.

Even if I wanted to, I would have never been able to even touch her, let alone harm her or her minions.

All of a sudden, with an inhuman speed, she closed the distance between her and my apprentice. She whipped her right arm in his direction, which the kid was able to dodge somewhat clumsily, finally having noticed her. But the witch was more agile. And strong. She easily smashed her other arm in his back, throwing him down to the hard concrete. His sword flew from his hand and landed at my own feet.

"Come on kid, get up!" I shouted, hoping against hope that maybe this time he would be able to hear me.

He tried to pick himself up on wobbly arms but her arm had already smashed in his back once again.

Before he could regain his lost breathe, she had attacked him again. And again. And again. Her strongest minion- the one that had been fighting the kid after the others had retreated- joined in, kicking Syaoran in the ribs and stomach.

I watched on, anger burning through my veins, as they mercilessly beat the poor kid to a bloody mess. Purpling bruises covered every visible part of his skin in less than five minutes.

"Syaoran-kun!" I thanked the heavens above, having never felt so relieved and happy to hear the idiot's voice.

I whipped around to see him making his way through the witch's henchmen, who had retreated earlier.

I watched the Celesian mage fight them off using my sword. For a moment, I was shocked. He dodged and parried their attacks with such ease and skill that no one would have been able to guess that he had never used a sword to fight before now. But the way he fought now was somehow different from how he used to fight. He was more… aggressive, I guess could fit the bill.

Syaoran's pained cries made my head snap back in his direction, bringing me out of my analysis of the magician's new fighting style.

He was lying on the ground on his back, blood trickling down the side of his face. His eyes were shut tight in a grimace, since the woman had pinned him in place using her high heeled foot to push on his chest. The kid was biting his lip hard enough to draw blood as she dug it deeper in.

His face contorted even further as she applied more pressure. And then I heard a sickening crack. Unable to contain his pain, he cried out.

She had #%^in snapped the kid's ribs!

I heard the snap of another rib break under the pressure as he cried out screamed yet again.

"You %^&*!" Me and the mage yelled at the same time, both of us rushing at her. Him with his sword and me with my fists alone. The mage was blocked by her apprentice, I think that's what that swordfighter was, while I simply phased right through her.

I guess in my anger I had forgotten that I can now frickin pass through things!

Never before in my life had I felt so damn helpless!

I swear, if I had been alive… Hell, even dead, if I had been given just one chance, just one single chance not to phase through things but touch something, I would have used that opportunity to make sure that &*^# woman suffered long and hard before I killed her.

Despite his pain, the kid was struggling against the witch, trying to wriggle free from her. But the witch bent down and grabbed the back of his head.

"You're not going anywhere boy!" crackled the witch, pulling his head up as she straightened, forcing his back to bend, instead.

With an enraged cry, I rushed at her one more time. Surely one of my hits would land. Not all of them would pass right through that sickening, grinning face of hers. Right?

The poor kid wailed in agony, his cry cut short by violent coughs, which forced blood out with them, painting his lips red, dribbling down his chin as he choked and gagged.

"Hama-Ryou-Jin!" I whirled around upon hearing a familiar voice cry out the name of my family's attack. When the hell did that idiot learn it?!?

The force of the attack sent the witch's apprentice flying into a wall while the mage once again rushed towards her.

"Let him go you &*%#!" Whoa! The mage had definitely acquired quite a lot of new words in his vocabulary.

"I don't think so mage." The witch smirked as a black energy barrier sprung up around her and the kid, covering the two of them in an enormous dome. Purposefully slow, she proceeded to summon similar dark magic in her hand.

"No!" he yelled in desperation, hacking at the barrier with my sword. "I am not letting you steal another important person from my life!"

The force of his blows began cracking the shield as his eyes turned to golden cat-like slits and wild blue magical sparks began erupting all around his thin frame. Wherever they touched the black energy field, a hole would appear. It seemed as though his magic was eating up her shield.

"H-how can you do that?" From her reaction, I'm guessing such a feat should have been impossible to accomplish. Why else would that grin be wiped off her face as her eyes widened in shock… and fear?

But it showed only for a split second for in the next moment, she had regained her composure, letting the magic dissipate from her hand, simultaneously letting go of the kid.

She turned her full attention on the deranged magician before her. With an expression of cold fury on her features, she began murmuring something under her breath. Soon after, rainbow colored, smoky swirls started enveloping her body. Looking at the weak semi-conscious kid at her feet, I noticed that he, too, was being covered in that smoke. To the right, her apprentice and a few minions were also coming under the influence of her transportation spell.

"Syaoran-kun!" The mage cried out as he broke yet another part of the shield using the sword and his magic.

"His death was going to be swift and painless, like that other friend's of yours," the witch's voice carried an odd hollow ring to it as her body dissolved and vanished in the smoke. "But now, I'll make sure that he suffers. And when he's dead… Well, you better watch out, mage."

And with that final warning, she vanished, along with everyone else.

Large cracks appeared in the circular dome of black magic which then shattered to millions of tiny pieces, dispersing into nothingness before they even hit the road.

With a wail of helpless agony, the magician fell to his knees, my sword clattering noisily to the ground by his side.

"I failed…" he muttered, his eyes wide in disbelief, as they flickered between their normal blue and their vampiric golden colored state. "I failed them again…"

A/N: So there you have it. Was it good? Or Bad? Drop by in the review room and let me know.

Just so you know guys, I already have the next chapter typed out and all but I'm not going to put it up here till I get at least three reviews for THIS chapter.

I'm sorry but being nice and saying pretty please doesn't seem to work anymore so yeah, I'm resorting to blackmailing now. Review or no updates!

So until I hear from you guys again… ;)

Ja ne.

~Nims.