A/N: Hey everyone. How's it goin? I'm back with yet another chapter, hopefully you'll find it a good read.

Enjoy!

"Kurogane!" I gasped as I shot into a sitting position only to tumble and fall down. A little dazed and confused, I raised myself using my arms; however, my injury had escaped my mind. With a startled cry of pain, I fell on my face and had the wonderful experience of sharing a kiss with the shaggy carpet.

Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I supported myself into a sitting position, this time though I was mindful of my throbbing arm. Guess the potion wore off. From the golden light pouring in through the parted curtains, I judged the time to be somewhere after noon, probably closer to evening.

I pushed my dreams out of my mind, knowing that they were all things of the past. Much more pressing matters required my attention here in the present. I tried to remember what I had seen before I had passed out on the couch.

Syaoran's thrashing form hanging from the roof, screaming at nothing but emptiness.

But there had been someone else there. Someone I couldn't see but my mind had subconsciously assigned a name to. "Kurogane…"

I had heard him yelling at Syaoran, as though he had been trying to tell him something. I thought back to the other times when I had thought I had heard his voice but had dismissed it as a figment of my imagination. In the bedroom. During my fight with the apprentice. Then there had been those small snatches of comments that I had heard during the past six months.

His spirit was still here. He was still around us.

But how?

And more importantly, why?

Why was he still here? And why had Sakura been unable to see him, she could communicate with spirits of the dead after all. And why had I not been able to sense him? It was true that I lacked the ability to talk to those who had passed away, but my magic could always pick up on their presence. So, why was Kurogane's cloaked?

Ghosts didn't have spiritual invisibility cloaks to stay undetected. Besides, why would he even want to stay hidden?

Unless…

"Sakura." I called, jumping to my feet. "Sakura, wake up." I twisted the knob to her room and entered, walking over to her curled up form on the bed. "Sakura, get up." I shook her shoulder gently.

Sleep-glazed jade eyes opened to fix me with a confused stare.

"I found Syaoran." I announced quietly.

"Where?" All traces of slumber left her instantaneously as she bolted upright into a sitting position.

"Downtown, near the western edge." I answered.

"How did you-"

"I used my magic to track down his signal," I cut her in, since I already knew what she was going to ask about. "It requires a lot of energy, but I've found him."

"Did you... did you see him?" she asked hopefully.

"It was too dark to see much." I lied at the last moment. I just couldn't bring myself to crush her small ray of hope that maybe, just maybe, he was still unharmed. That much was visible in her green orbs as they stared at me.

"Oh." She looked away, trying to hide the disappointment on her face.

"But I found something else as well." I continued after a while.

"What?" she coaxed, looking hopeful once again.

"Kurogane has not passed on."

"Not passed on?" she repeated in confusion.

"Yes," I nodded, "and he's been around for a while."

"Around us?" hesitation was evident on her face.

"Yes, it seems that way," I replied.

"The why can't I see him? or hear him?" she cocked her head to one side.

"Right now because he's with Syaoran. As for before now, I have a couple of theories."

"Like?"

"You do know that a human soul also posses energy." She nodded. "Well, Akira normally drains just the physical body of victims, but every once in a while, she drains their essence too. Without their essence, a spirit is not able to communicate, nor can it move on to the next world."

"You mean she drained Kurogane-san's essence?" she said in a mortified tone, "but, how were you able to sense him now?"

"I was tracking Syaoran using a very powerful spell and since he was nearby, it picked up on his signal as well."

"No one can ever completely drain a spirit of its essence, so he still had some spiritual energy left." I explained, seeing the perplexed expression on her face. "It's not enough to allow him to communicate with us but it's adequate enough for him to keep existing."

-0-

"Fai, what are we going to do now?" I asked quietly. My heart was racing but I managed to push all of my feelings in the back.

I was still shaken from the fact that I had killed a man. Apart from that, I was scared as hell for Syaoran. Although I no longer heard the sound of metal slicing flesh and bone alike or the sound of my own insane laughter from my dream, I knew it would take a lot of time for me to finally come to terms with what I had done. Whatever potion Fai had brewed, it helped me suppress those emotions so that I could think rationally and not look like a total wreck.

When Fai woke me up and told me about Syaoran, my heart gave a cry of joy and the guilt was pushed even deeper down. It was only a matter of time, now that we knew Syaoran's location. We were going to rescue him from the witch and everything would be okay. Syaoran would be okay in just a few hours.

Then, Fai told me about Kurogane and horror, anger and sadness were the emotions that welled up inside me. All this time, he had been stuck here, in isolation from everyone. Even if he could see us and hear us, we couldn't do the same. I couldn't do the same. We had never done anything to that witch, then why was she doing this to us?

My silent contemplations were brought to an end when Fai spoke again.

"I'm going to bring him here."

I met his blue-eyed gaze as he gave me a small smile which did nothing to hide his sadness from me. A blue glow enveloped his body as he wrote out a spell in the air. The glowing runes shot towards the centre of the living room, spiraling in a tight-knit circle. I could feel Fai's magic saturate the air.

And somewhere in the centre of all that swirling magic, a familiar aura began to make its presence known. At first it was just a faint outline but then it grew clearer and clearer.

Even though Fai had told me not a very long time ago that Kurogane-san was stuck here, I still couldn't believe my eyes when his spirit finally materialized before us.

"K-Kurogane-san?" I questioned softly, noting the way my voice shook.

"You're both alive." He said at the same time. He met my teary-eyed stare with a shocked one, his mouth almost hanging open.

"Of course we're alive, Kuro-tan." Fai gave a cheery response, complete with an enthusiastic wave.

"The hell?" he quickly shut his mouth.

"Articulate as always I see." Fai teased him like the past six months had never even happened.

Kurogane-san was baffled and Fai knew it. "You seem confused."

"Damn right, I'm confused," he frowned in response, crossing his arms. "What the hell did you do mage?"

"Hmm…" Fai was giving him an innocent smile, fully intent on making this feel like old times. "What makes you think I did something?"

"Stop it you idiot." Kurogane-san's scowl deepened; he was still easily irritated by Fai's antics. "We don't have time for this."

"You're right Kuro-tan," he immediately sobered. "We won't be able to converse for very long."

"What do you mean?"

"When Akira killed you, she not only drained your physical magic," he explained quietly, "but your spiritual magic as well."

"Huh?"

"Spiritual magic or spiritual energy is the thing that allows spirits to communicate with the living." I decided to elaborate a bit, wiping my eyes in the process. I had to get my act together, right now was not the time or the place for me to be so torn apart. Besides, we were going rescue Syaoran very soon. "It is also the thing that allows them to move on."

"So you mean to say, the reason why I am stuck like this is because of that bitch?!"

"I am afraid so." Fai nodded. "I lent you some of my own magic and energy so that we could talk but it's not going to last forever."

"You pulled me here?" Kurogane-san's voice was quiet.

"Yes." He answered with a single nod.

"…" wordlessly Kurogane-san looked away, I noticed his fists clenching but he probably didn't realize doing that himself.

"Kurogane," Fai spoke uncertainly, staring at the ninja's spirit with a guilty look on his face. "I'm really sorry." I tried searching his face for clues as to why he was apologizing but found no answer. Was it because he felt sorry that that witch had killed Kurogane-san? Or was it something else.

Fai lowered his head and blond hair cascaded down to hide his face from view.

"It's not your fault," Kurogane-san spoke quietly as he walked over and sat down next to us. Fai kept staring at his hands, not really believing what he was being told. From his expression I knew that Kurogane-san would really have liked to hit Fai on the head like he usually did when he wanted to make a point of some sort but there was an uncertainty there as well.

I observed him out of the corner of my eye before turning around to face him completely. "Kurogane-san, Fai said you were with Syaoran…" I paused, unsure of what exactly I wanted to ask him. If I really want to know what I was about to ask him? What if his answer was something I didn't like? "How… How is he? Is he… okay?"

"You have to get to him fast," He answered in a gruff tone, looking at Fai instead of me. "The witch is using some sort drugs to mess with his mind. He thinks you're dead and the princess is there with Akira."

If he was avoiding telling me about it, I knew it was nothing good, but something inside me needed to know, forcing me to ask him once again. "Kurogane-san, how bad is his condition?"

"You can't waste any more time," he replied, the presence of his spirit beginning to fade.

"You might be stuck with us for a while longer Kuro-tan," Fai informed him sadly. "Lending my energy to you is quite tiring and I think I might have to wait until we have Syaoran back with us before I do it again."

"Why?"

"You'll have to move on, sooner or later," he replied just as Kurogane-san vanished completely, but I knew he was still there.

"Sakura," Fai looked at me with a serious expression, reminding me of the gravity of the situation. "I think it's time for us to go." I stood up at the same time as he rose to his own feet. "Summon your sword. I can't transport us directly into Syaoran's holding cell since Akira has wards around it and breaking through requires more energy than I have to spare at the moment." He said apologetically, "We'll have to fight our way in."

I wanted to assure him that it wasn't his fault but for some reason the words never escaped my mouth.

"Hai." I nodded before clapping the palms of my hands together, feeling the sensation of magic gathering there before pouring out of my hands in the form of an intense electric blue light, materializing into the silver blade of Syaoran's sword.

Fai summoned his own sword and allowed the strings of blue runes to emerge from his outstretched fingers in the form of a transportation spell.

"We're coming Syaoran." I whispered the words, mentally preparing myself for the fight ahead, shoving all of my other feelings back, focusing only on one thing.

Rescue Syaoran.

Everything else would just have to wait…

-0-

Unlike when we used to travel between different worlds, back when we had been searching for the other Sakura's feathers, my spell was completely undetectable. Although space and reality both were bent due to the magic, there were no visible signs to indicate the arrival of a magician who used the spell that I was using.

Just like everything else in life, there are several ways to go about when performing transportation magic. Every way has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. Advanced spells were less noisy but required more magic whereas the simpler versions were more suitable for people who liked to make flashy appearances. My current choice in the matter was quite obvious.

We arrived outside a building which was nothing out of the ordinary but I knew we were at the right place. The second my magic dissipated into the air, I was overwhelmed by the amount of tainted aura saturating the atmosphere around us. Sakura drew in a sharp breath next to me as she too registered the intensity of it.

My heart clenched as the grim realization hit me.

Akira had grown stronger…

But then again, so had I.

And I was quite confident that I could take her.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan," I whispered, scanning our surroundings before locking my gaze with hers. "We'll find him."

She gave me a nod, her jaw set in determination as she tightened her grip on the hilt of the sword in her hand.

"Let me take care of the guards, alright?" I gave her a reassuring smile before stepping around the corner of the building, swiftly moving towards the lone guard standing outside. Before the man could yell to raise an alarm, I had him pinned to the wall with my hand clamping over his mouth. He flailed his arm, I felt sparks of magic gather at the tips of his finger but before even the first specks of energy could materialize, Ginryuu had cleanly slit his throat.

I dropped the gurgling man as he choked on his own blood, not really wanting to see the light fade from his eyes. I felt a small twinge of guilt and regret, but I quickly locked those emotions away. It wasn't so hard since I had seen my share of battles back in Celes and trust me when I say this, after a while of taking lives of living beings, you learn to suppress that feeling.

Without making a sound I took hold of the now dead man's arm and pulled him out of sight, dragging his lifeless body to a dark alleyway. There was no need for Sakura to see him.

Cautiously, I moved further towards the entrance, easily doing away with any guards I came across in a manner similar to the first one. Once I was sure the coast was clear, I went back to get Sakura.

The door slid open noiselessly and we stepped inside the long corridor which was completely shrouded in darkness.

I led the way through the twisting and turning corridors, not even pausing to consider their odd layout inside the building. They seemed to stretch on and on forever, never really ending, only cutting sharply to the left and then to the right, dipping down abruptly before climbing up steeply.

Akira had used her magic to warp everything, but there wasn't much that could be done about it. I could have countered the spell but since the twisted paths weren't messing with my senses, I was easily able to navigate our way through them, leading us closer to Syaoran's location.

It was true that ever since we had entered this building, Syaoran's magical signature had dulled to almost nothingness but even though it was faint, it was still there. Which meant that I didn't have any time to waste.

After a while, the darkness in the corridors began to lessen, giving way to the weak light pouring down from the old tube lights hanging from the roof at equal intervals. We reached a fork in the tunnels; I could sense around five guards in the left tunnel while the right one was completely empty. Both tunnels led to Syaoran's location but the right one was the shorter whereas the left was longer but didn't have many guards.

"Sakura, go in the right tunnel and wait, okay?" without waiting for her reply, I sprinted down the left corridor, swiftly slashing through my first opponent before he even had the chance to raise his hand. The next one went down just as quickly. The third managed to dodge my first attack but he couldn't get away fast enough when I swung the blade around, hearing the sickening sound of flesh being cut through by metal. The fourth man let out an anguished scream as the sword made short work of him.

The fifth one managed to last a couple of seconds but he was no match for Kuro-tan's skills as I ended his life by thrusting my blade in his chest. It was almost too easy since I had managed to take them all in less than half a minute and I had not gotten hit even once.

"Let's go," I told Sakura once I went back to the fork in the tunnels.

"Fai, your eyes are gold," she whispered to me once we had crossed the felled bodies of Akira's underlings.

Gold? Well that would explain why I was able to get rid of those guards so quickly. I had subconsciously tapped into my vampire side.

"No worries Sakura," I answered, "Vampires have heightened senses."

She gave me a nod in return, telling me she understood what I had tried to convey to her. We both focused our attention on the long corridor. We had several more encounters but each time, I had taken care of the men before they or Sakura had a chance to react.

-0-

A/N: So what do you think? Will they make it on time? Or is it already too late?

Will Syaoran be saved? Will he get to meet Sakura and Fai or will Akira do something really evil before then?

Don't forget to lemme know of what you think might happen via review.

Till next time.

Ja!