A/N: Yo! Atlast, I reveal Syaoran's fate (even though some of you out there already know what it is) but for those who don't, you shall wait no more.

Enjoy. (And don't forget to review)

Fai's sword sliced through yet another man, felling him to the ground. There was no hesitation in his now gold-slitted, cold eyes and I wondered briefly if he had ever killed people before. The speed with which he moved left no room for retaliation on his opponents' part, but it was still unnerving to see him zip around with nothing more than flashes of pale gold appearing in front of the men before they spurted blood from gashes that appeared seemingly out of thin air.

We had several more encounters but it wasn't until we reached the end of the tunnel and took a sharp turn around a corner that we were presented with a challenge. A bright white light assaulted our eyes and I flinched in discomfort as my eyes automatically squinted to avoid looking at such a dazzling illumination. Or maybe it felt that way to me since we had just emerged from a comparatively darker place. Once I was able to see again, my gaze landed on a group of twelve men including Akira's bald apprentice.

A long streak of some dirty brown liquid, almost completely dried by now, ran along the entire length of the corridor vanishing underneath a black metal door situated at the right side of the hallway.

"Did you come for the boy, High Mage?" the apprentice drawled lazily, drawing his sword in a careless manner.

"Aww… Were we that obvious?" A feral grin appeared on Fai's lips.

"Sakura, cover my back while I deal with the guards," he added to me in a barely audible whisper. "Syaoran is just beyond that black door, once I clear a path for you, get him out of here. The apprentice is my problem." He said, his eyes not once leaving those cold black ones of the man in question.

"Don't tell me you actually believe that little girl can stand against these men?" he scoffed, drawing his sword.

"This little girl is more than capable of taking care of herself." Fai answered in the same cheerful manner, though his eyes were nothing but two frozen pits of gold. "And she's not facing them alone."

We attacked at the same time, however even with Fai's vampire speed and my help, this time it took a lot longer to reduce the men to even half of their initial number. I had to admit, these guys were far more skilled than all the previous ones we had been encountering so far put together.

I did not kill any of the men I fought, merely injuring them enough so that they were rendered unable to get back up to fight again. At one point, one of the guys I was combating managed to knock me into the thick stone wall but thankfully the blow didn't do much damage.

Fai had killed that man before I even hit the ground and immediately moved back to firing various spells and physical attacks at the minions that he was fighting. In the end after around half an hour or so, the only ones left were me, Fai and the witch's apprentice, who had been merely observing us fight and had not moved from his spot near the wall.

"Now I remember who else fought like that." He grinned at us as he walked to the middle of the hallway, blocking our path as a black barrier shimmered into existence behind him. "You stole the ninja's techniques and gave the boy's style to her."

Fai stiffened.

"He did put up a good fight you know," he said conversationally. "But in the end, he was no match for Akira-sama."

"I'll kill you," Fai growled as his nails lengthened slightly. In a flash, he was next to the apprentice, his sword at the man's throat.

"I don't think so," a blast of dark magic threw knocked Fai into the back wall.

"Fai!" I cried in alarm as his body slid down to the floor. But Fai seemed to have planned for this to happen, seeing as he grinned up at the man before raising his arm. Streams of glowing blue Celesian runes emerging from the tips of his fingers shot towards the black metal door, tearing through the shimmering shield like it was nothing at all. As soon as they made contact with its surface, the door scrunched up as though a giant hand had just crumpled a piece of paper.

His golden cat-slitted eyes flashed in my direction once. "Go!" he ordered urgently, turning his attention back to the slightly peeved magician before him.

"You're already too late High Mage." I heard a woman's chilling voice echo off the walls all around me as I rushed inside the dark room. I stumbled once, my hands quickly reaching out for something to help me steady myself.

I felt blindly along the cold walls in hopes of finding a light switch but there was no need to do so. "It's too dark in here." I mumbled. No sooner had I said that that a steady stream of blue runes zipped inside the room from the corridor outside, swirling in front of me in a tight-knit circle before shooting upwards towards the roof. They glowed and vanished leaving behind an ornate gold chandelier in their place. Numerous orbs of floating fires acted as the source as the room was suddenly enveloped in a soft luminance which then brightened to show that I was facing a wall with dark metal panels built into it.

A faint wheezing sound reached my ears, causing me to whip around as I tried to locate its source. A person was hanging from a pair of bloodied shackles in the middle of the room, blood pooling about his feet on the dirty floor. His head hung low on his chest and he was taking in quite labored gasps.

In a trance like state I stepped closer to him, stopping only a foot away from him, staring at the product of the witch's horrible torture with a mortified look on my face. Every visible inch of skin on his arms and the rest of his body was covered in bruises and black burns. His clothes were torn and bloodstained. In fact the amount of blood had turned his faded blue jeans and pale green shirt a deep maroonish brown.

"S-Syaoran?" I asked hesitantly. He did not even stir, but I waited, foolishly hoping to get a response of some sort. My vision blurred after almost a minute had passed and I still hadn't gotten a reply. The moisture in my eyes cleared the instant I blinked. A feeling of cold dread clenched its icy claws around me as I stepped closer to him. I reached out with my hand, softly brushing my fingers against his cheek.

God! He felt so cold.

"Syaoran, it's me, Sakura." I whispered, feeling something warm and wet trail down my cheek, "Wake up."

He still did not move. I lowered my hand, placing my palm beneath his chin as I raised it gently, supporting his head with my curled fingers. My breath was caught in my throat as my heart pounded wildly against my ribcage, my insides twisted and knotted themselves painfully as I took in his face; his once boyish and attractive face now nothing short of ghostly pale and gaunt, his lips dry and cracked- painted brown with dried blood, his cheeks sunken in with burns and cuts marring a bruised, papery skin stretched taut over his high cheekbones, bluish black veins visible through the almost translucent muscle.

His eyes…

His eyes were glazed over- the amber in them was clouded over by a chalky-grey color- as he stared at me unseeingly.

He'd gone blind.

Sorrow gripped my heart while rage reared its ugly head within me. What had that witch done to him?!

"Syaoran, it's me," I whispered, searching his face for signs of recognition.

Even if he couldn't see me, he should have been able to hear my voice, or feel my touch.

So why was he not responding?

Why was he so unmoving, unresponsive?

A thick trickle of crimson liquid flowed down his right arm, seeping into his already maroon shirt. My eyes retraced its path to his bleeding wrists where I saw the injured flesh and scraped skin. A sob emitted from my throat before I was even aware of it. I spied another bleeding cut in his abdomen, while two deep gashes contributed to the steadily growing pool of blood beneath his feet. I could see a third one in his upper thigh where the cloth of his jeans had been ripped to expose the flesh below.

I was distantly aware of the clashing swords right outside this cold freezing cell. Fai was still locked in a deadly battle with the bald apprentice but for me, the sound of metal clanging against metal was nothing but background noise. For now, the only sounds that I could hear were Syaoran's shallow breaths and my own quiet sobs reverberating off the walls of this room.

"Syaoran, please…" My voice cracked as I spoke. "Wake up."

Nothing…

Tearing my eyes away from his face, I looked around, searching for some means to get him down. Finally I spotted a lever in the wall on the further end of the room. With a low whirring of gears, the chain clanked as it began to move downwards, lowering Syaoran in the process when I pulled on the lever.

Once he was lowered to his knees, I let go, hurrying back to his side. I fumbled with the shackles, unlocking them by pulling a metallic pin stuck in them. Once the braces clicked open, Syaoran dropped like a stone, but I managed to catch him before his head hit the cold floor.

I gently laid him down so that his head rested on my lap as I once again let my eyes roam over his injured body. The cuts and the burns, the bruised and broken skin…

Oh God!

I tried to remember what Yukito-san had taught me about healing magic back when I was in Clow. I was supposed to take over as the High Priestess so obviously it was essential for me to have such knowledge.

Taking a deep breath, I cleared my mind of all thoughts, expanding the boundaries just enough so that I could sense Syaoran's magic. But something felt completely wrong. I knew he was in my arms yet there was nothing but emptiness and a strange void-like feeling when I tried to look at him with my mental eye.

Still, pushing the uneasiness and anxiety away, I focused solely on letting my own magic flood into his body. But just before it touched his skin, I met with a dark impenetrable wall of black magic which enveloped his entire body. No matter how hard I pushed or struggled against it, it never gave in.

It was only when I myself felt like I would faint if I kept at it that I decided to stop. It was no use. His unseeing eyes were staring blankly at me as he took in shallow gasps.

"You promised me you'd be fine…" I choked on a sob as I gathered him in my arms, his muscles slack in my hold. The scent of his blood, which was everywhere in this room, assaulted my nose more forcefully yet I managed to ignore it. I closed my eyes once more, feeling for some weakness in the darkness that had enshrouded him.

My mind was racing, wrought with terror and fear. I had just found him. I could not lose him again! Not like this. I pulled him even closer, supporting his lolling head against my shoulder.

Please make him be okay. My heart prayed silently. Please, let him live.

His rasping breathing seemed unbearably loud in my ear, please, don't let him die. I squeezed my eyes shut as more tears threatened to fall. My head still hurt from where I had hit the wall and my heart pounded wildly against my chest, clenching and constricting painfully.

But I pushed myself beyond my limits. I had to make it work. I had to save him.

After a lot more mental head butting against the wall of darkness, I discovered that if I focused hard enough, I could force it to move apart, like drawn curtains. I slowly but steadily poured some of my magic into his body, my heart tightening in fear when I noticed how there wasn't any of his own left in him. I knew I couldn't give him too much of mine since magical essences were different for everyone. One essence could never really replace the other.

After a couple of minutes, I let the curtains fall back, effectively cutting my connection from him. I hated doing it but the healer in me told me that this was the maximum that I could do at the moment. I watched his face expectantly, hoping that maybe now he would regain some semblance.

But he did not stir… Didn't even so much as twitch a muscle.

I pulled his body close to mine, tightening my hold on him. "You promised me… you'd be okay..." My tears were choking me, pouring down like rain, landing on his face where they mingled with his blood, trailing down the sides of his pale cheeks. "You promised me…" I repeated, burying my face his hair.

"Syaoran…" I searched for his hand, lacing my fingers with his, once I had found it. "Syaoran…" I repeated, again and again, unaware of the fact that my body was rocking back and forth as I held him to me. My tears kept falling, dropping onto his whitish skin, sliding off the sides of his cheeks, leaving trails of cleaner but burnt and bruised skin.

My eyes snapped open when I heard a weak, barely audible moan escape from Syaoran's lips.

"S-Syaoran?" I whispered hesitantly.

"She's… gone…" he whimpered weakly in reply.

I gently laid his head in my lap, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, trying to lock my gaze with his but his half-lidded sightless eyes were filled with nothing but a haze of sorrow and delirium. My heart sank at the sight of those once passionate orbs now nothing short of dead and empty, despair evident on his crunched up face.

"Syaoran," I murmured, bringing my face closer to his, fighting back my tears.

"All… my… f-ault…" he rasped in nothing more than a whisper. "Sa-ku-ra…"

My heart skipped a beat. Did he just…?

"She… die-d…"

"No!" I cried desperately. "I'm right here…. Please…" I begged, hoping that maybe my voice might make him realize the truth.

His body shivered in my arms as his eyes drifted close. I could feel him slipping away.

"Syaoran, it wasn't real! I'm still alive!"

"So-r-ry…" he breathed softly.

"No! Syaoran…" I pleaded, my hand tightening its grip around his fingers.

In an act of desperation, to make him believe, I pressed my lips against his cold, chapped ones. Tears were still trailing down my cheeks as I kissed him, the tang of blood dominating his otherwise sweet taste. I pulled back to look at him but there were still no signs of recognition on his face. Stifling a sob, I brushed my lips against his temple in a soft feathered kiss before moving back to his mouth. "It's me." I whispered hopefully when I was less than a centimeter away from his face, only to have my heart break when I got no reaction.

"Syaoran please…" I mumbled weakly, burying my face in his hair. "Can't you tell? I'm still here…"

"Sa-ku-ra…" he gave a shuddering gasp as I felt his pulse flicker beneath my touch. His body tensed up. "So… c-old…" Something was wrong. I looked at him once again and saw how his breaths were getting even more unsteady than they already were. In my mind's eye, I saw my own lent magic beginning to fade. It was like something was leeching it out of him.

"Syaoran?" I squeezed his hand, the dread intensifying in my heart. I couldn't give him anymore, that would just worsen his condition, but even now… "Hold on. Fai is just around the corner, we'll get you out of here, just hang on."

I was so scared. More than I ever had been in my entire life. Never before had I seen Syaoran in a condition like this. So broken and lifeless. The feeling of his cold failing body in my arms terrified me.

"…free-zing…" he whimpered as his muscles began to relax.

"Don't do this." I begged, brushing my free hand against his face. "Please." I pleaded, "Stay with me!"

"Fai-san, help!" I cried desperately, looking back towards the door to see flashes of gold and blue and silver and black at the far end of the hallway. "Fai, hurry! "

"Syaoran. Hey," I shook him gently, turning my attention back towards him. "Syaoran…"

His only reply was in the form of a weak, unsteady struggle for breath.

"Fai!" I yelled once again. God! His breathing was so shallow… "Hang in there Syaoran. Don't give up now."

"…Sa-kur-a…" he croaked so softly I almost didn't hear him. "Sor…ry.. I… fai-led…" He drew in a shuddering gasp before his body fell completely limp in my arms, head rolling to one side as the air escaped from his lungs.

This can't be happening. My mind screamed at me. This can't be happening.

"Fai-san." I called out but my voice was strangely dry and raspy. "F-Fai-san help." I tried in a bit louder voice but the hoarse whisper that reached my ears was nothing more than a dry rattle.

"Syaoran!" I frantically shook his shoulders. "Syaoran, please wake up!"

"…"I clutched him tightly to myself, afraid that if I let go, he would vanish completely.

"Fai-san help!" I finally managed to shriek, reality of what had just happened sinking in.

A sharp pain stabbed inside at my heart as the world around me grew silent, devoid of all sounds and feelings. A strange emptiness enveloped my entire being. He was gone. My most important person… I had failed him… He had pulled me back from the jaws of death and yet I had let him die… The pain was too much, the emptiness threatening to snuff out my soul, everything around me felt as though it was spinning out of control, and for a moment I thought I might go mad.

I held him even closer to my body as I shook. I couldn't contain the sadness… or the pain…

"SYAORAN!"

I don't know how long I held him in my arms, shaking and sobbing, clutching his prone body but then the time came when I heard a small gasp from the door.

"No…" I did not raise my head to look at him. It did not matter anymore.

The witch was right. We'd been too late. Too late…

"No!" Fai repeated as he slumped next to me. "Syaoran-kun..." He croaked. "No…"

We failed to save him. Syaoran was…

We failed…

Fai reached for Syaoran's wrist with jerky movements, his fingers pressing against Syaoran's cold flesh, searching for something that wasn't there.

"No…" he repeated, dropping his head to Syaoran's chest.

High-pitched, mirth-filled laughter reached my ears. The deranged sound echoed off the wall all around me suppressing the emptiness inside me as a new emotion crashed over me in waves. Besides me I felt Fai stiffen.

"What are you going to do now?" she cackled. "The boy is dead High Mage." She laughed. "What will you do now?"

-0-

A/N: And there you have it. Did you like it?

Syaoran got to meet Sakura and he even got a kiss. ;) Too bad I couldn't keep him alive. Well, I could but I didn't because this was a lot more fun. Although I really hope no angry mobs come after me until I get the next chapter out, which would be in a couple of days (I got a friend to help me out with the whole writing it down thing so it was finished early.)

By the way people, it saddens me to say this but this fic is now coming to a close, one more chapter it's finished. So please please please, leave lots of reviews and help me cross 100 before it ends. I'm not asking for something that's impossible since I get over three hundred hits for this fic so I know you guys can do it.

-Nims.