A/N: Here you go. Enjoy!
I felt my stomach drop as Akira moved in to attack Fai. There was no way he was going to avoid her in time. Not unless…
I rushed towards him, my sword thrusting forward. Metal pierced through flesh, spraying blood in the air. At first, I felt nothing at all, but then, all of a sudden, white hot pain exploded in my stomach and right shoulder, overwhelming me enough to make me let go of the hilt of my sword. My knees shook before my legs gave out completely; something metallic and bitter filled my mouth as I collapsed.
I heard Fai and Kurogane-san scream my name but I couldn't answer as the witch in front of me pulled out her blades, making me cough and choke on my own blood. Droplets of something dark and vile landed on my body, burning skin and flesh alike. I let out a weak cry, my vision blurring due to the enormity of the pain that I felt at that time.
"You have a habit of letting down everyone you love," I heard the witch cackle but her voice sounded oddly distant as though she was speaking from afar. It took me a few moments to realize that she was talking to Fai. "Your beloved apprentice back in Celes died screaming out for you, begging for you to save her, and if you had really wanted to, you could have gotten to her in time. It's not like I didn't leave enough clues for you. Hell, she was still alive when you found her. Too bad, the High Mage never learnt how to heal someone. Seems to like your inability is going to cause you another precious person." I could tell she was looking at me as she said that but then her body dissolved into a dark mist and spread throughout the room.
"Perhaps the princess would like to see what I showed you that other night," her voice echoed all around me. "Tell me Sakura, do you want to observe your precious boyfriend's last moments in this world?" In my current state, I had no chance of saving myself from the dark shimmering cloud of her tainted magic as it began to overwhelm me.
All of a sudden I found myself in a dimly lit room with a flickering light bulb in the middle. There was a metal table right underneath it and strapped on top of it was Syaoran. He was unharmed except for a red mark in the shape of a handprint on his cheek. Akira was standing over him, a metal clamp in one hand; she leaned next to his ear and whispered something so softly that I could not hear her.
She pulled away and gave a wide grin to Syaoran before attaching the clamp that she held in her hand to the table. There was a pause as she observed him as he squirmed and struggled, shaking like a leaf, his face drained of all color as he tried to free himself.
He looked so terrified. An emotion I had never before witnessed on his face.
Seconds ticked by before the second clamp was attached. Syaoran's back arched as electricity tore through his body, a pained scream escaping his mouth as he writhed with his eyes screwed shut. The sound was so chilling; it made all the hair on my body stand up as I gaped at the scene plaing out before me.
I could not believe this…
I could not believe I was seeing this…
I couldn't believe this had happened…
I could not believe that Syaoran…
That he…
-0-
"Die you miserable bitch!" I screamed in rage as I rushed forward, magic coursing through my veins, boosting my strength and speed, crackling in the air around me as I moved, enshrouding me in the form of a blue halo.
She parried my advances but I managed to surprise her by my newfound strength as the look of glee on her face transformed into one of pure hate and loathing. I allowed myself a satisfied smirk as Ginryuu slashed on her forearm and the wound did not heal from her tainted magic. Now that I noticed, the place where Sakura had stabbed her through the stomach still bled as well.
Before now, her wounds had always knitted themselves back together but something must have gone wrong for her. I knew I couldn't let this advantage go to waste. This might be the perfect time to destroy her once and for all. After all Sakura and Kurogane didn't have much time left.
I had cast a blood replenishing spell on Sakura so that she wouldn't bleed to death since I couldn't exactly heal her myself. I just had to keep her stable long enough to get her to a healer or a doctor or something. I had already cast numerous protection spells on Kurogane's soul to save him from disappearing like Masooma had. He would not suffer the same fate. I would not let him suffer like that.
Akira would die today.
She would die right now!
I swung my blade once more, almost landing a hit but she dodged sideways the last second. I aimed another blow but she parried, bringing both blades together to stop mine. She was burning up with anger but her strokes were still calculated and precise albeit a little bit unpredictable and wild.
She tried to push back but I twisted my sword so that our blades were locked together. We were both almost equally matched in strength. I sensed energy building up inside her body, ripples of power stirring.
"How dare you oppose me!" she shrieked, her dark eyes glazed over as the cuts kept on bleeding. Electricity crackled in the air around her and I broke away just in time to avoid getting hit by a bolt of lightning. She cast another spell and a second bolt zoomed through the air towards me. I didn't even need to call upon my magic to defend me this time seeing as my aura sensed the danger and erected a shield on its own. A grim chuckle escaped my throat at her enraged snarl as she rushed towards me.
Her twin blades flashed, nearly making me lose my left arm but thankfully vampire speed helped me out. Her injuries still remained unable to heal and I could tell that somehow, she was tiring out. Well more than me at least.
I could sense it in the flagging pace of her blows, her parried parries were slower and she could barely avoid my strikes. I even managed to nick her right shoulder which only seemed to anger her more.
"This is my magic now!" she screeched, making me wonder just what the hell was she going on about. It was like she wasn't even talking to me anymore.
I hung back, observing her as she snarled and spat like a mad animal, talking to thin air. I sent out another fraction of my magic to help out Kurogane and Sakura, all the while waiting for Akira to make a mistake.
"He can't hold out forever!" she roared as her aura began to change a bit: the deep crimson part of it, which was stolen from one of my precious persons, began dominating over her own tainted magic.
My eyes widened in surprise as I noticed this change.
What was the meaning of this? How could Akira be losing control over her own magic? Was her mind that deteriorated that it could not even keep a hold on the power under its command?
A second aura began making its dominance known over hers as well, this time it's color a light warm shade of brown. This change surprised me just as much as the first one had.
H-how?
-0-
Syaoran was thrashing wildly against the chains from which he hung, my own pained screams were echoing in my ears however the world around me was filled with nothing but darkness, yet I could see Syaoran just fine. I had realized some time ago that I was in his memories that the witch had no doubt extracted from him before she…
He was pleading to the witch now. Pleading to to let me go, me, who wasn't even here.
Begging to spare the life of someone who had let him down. Who had let him die at the hands of that miserable witch.
A sob tore through my throat as I felt warm blood continue to flow from my open wounds. That bitch had cast a spell to hold me in place. My shoulder and abdomen were both alive with pain from my earlier struggles yet I was still frozen in place, unable to move, only observe silently as Syaoran's memories of his captivity were played out before me, from the very start.
I felt his emotions, his pain, his fears, his hopelessness, his desperation and in the end his defeat as he heard me die. I felt the will to live leave him as he allowed the witch to strip him of the only thing that was keeping him alive.
Then his world shattered, all thoughts, emotions, memories, sounds, voices, everything gone, leaving behind nothing but emptiness. There wasn't even a speck of light in this place.
-0-
In a moment of true desperation, the witch and crazy bitch lunged at me, thrusting her blades at my heart. I dodged with ease, swatting her right blade with the flat of my own while ducking under her left one with even less effort. She stumbled a bit, leaving her entire right side vulnerable to me.
This was the chance I had been waiting for. Without a second thought, I swung my sword in the beginning of a deadly arc. She regained her composure a bit earlier than I had anticipated, however she still could not avoid all of my attack, since she now sported a deep bleeding gash in side.
I grinned in satisfaction; the bitch deserved this and so much more.
"NO!" she shrieked. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A MEMORY!"
I halted in my attack, watching her twitching form in confusion. Nothing but a memory?
The two stolen auras were flaring now, battling wildly against her tainted magic as bits and pieces of it crumbled beneath their combined might.
What was going on? It was almost as if…
But no, it couldn't be possible… could it?
"I WILL STILL DESTROY YOUR MAGE!" Akira yelled as her magic blazed all of a sudden, shooting concentrated ribbons of deadly spells towards its target.
My eyes widened in fear as my own magic tried to erect a shield to block it but I was too late.
Again.
The magic hit its mark and a pained cry closely followed by the thud of a body hitting ground reached my ears.
I hadn't been aware of moving before my sword had pierced through that bitch's heart, her dark eyes glazing over as she struggled to draw breaths. I pulled my sword back, not even watching as she coughed up blood before collapsing on the ground, choking on her own blood as it made a pool around her prone form.
I was already by Sakura's side, tears streaming down my face as I cradled her frail body in my arms.
"Too… late… mage…" I heard Akira cackle weakly, "I…w-win…" before she could utter another word, my magic had blasted her face. At the same time Kurogane roared and charged at her, the satisfying sound of his fist meeting her flesh distantly reaching my ears. Everything slowed down all of sudden as I focused on my magic to heal her.
I had to do this. I couldn't let her leave me too.
Not Sakura too. She had to stay with me.
She just had to…
My azure aura filled up two gashes in her body before moving on to fill up the deep gouge-like mark Akira's last spell had left behind. For a minute, it seemed like I had finally managed to make it work.
I could save her! My heart fluttered with relief as I focused on the spells that I had memorized countless times, praying to all those gods out there to make it work for my magic this time. Just once. Please, let it work, if only for this time. I don't want to lose her too.
But when had my prayer ever been answered.
"No." I wailed and sobbed and choked at the same time as the wounds reopened, bleeding profusely, her weak pulse flickering unsteadily beneath my touch. "P-please Sakura-chan…" I begged her, once again focusing on the useless task of healing her through my magic. "Don't do this to me too."
Her only response was an unsteady intake of breath.
-0-
There was an explosion of pain. I felt it hit me in the back before it spread all over my body, eating away at me like acid. I cried out, writhing weakly as it intensified. I couldn't breathe. Oh God! It hurt so much.
I was falling… falling… the world was blurring around me as sounds reached my ears. My senses were a jumbled mess, a haze of pain and sound and colors. I could feel the energy leave my body as blood flew freely from my wounds.
Something warm filled me up for a fraction of a second, dulling the pain, almost healing me but then it was gone, leaving behind nothing but the pain..
Was this how Syaoran felt, I wondered weakly as my brain started to shut down.
-0-
"Oye mage! Don't do anything stupid." I heard Kurogane's anxious voice growl a warning as I set my jaw and took in a deep breath. There was only one thing I could do now.
I closed my eyes and let go. Let go off all the magic that clung to me.
"Don't leave," I whispered into her ear as I divided it into thee portions. One part, slightly larger, I guided into Sakura's body while the other two parts I sent shooting at Kurogane.
"Find Syaoran-kun and pass half of it on to him," I instructed as I focused my attention back to Sakura. Her magic was opposing mine so I had to force it in; this was the only way left.
"What are you doing you dumb mage?"
"Keeping my promises." I answered simply before letting the smallest part of magic left behind in my body get to work, casting the necessary spells.
I felt my runes wrap themselves around Syaoran's cold body, encircle Kurogane's ghostly form and spin around me and Sakura. I felt the metallic taste of my blood in my mouth and soon enough I began coughing it up as I forcefully used my remaining magic to cast a strong enough transportation spell.
"Idiot, don't kill yourself." Kurogane snarled.
"I'm trying to save Sakura here Kurgz, keep it down." Rainbow colored smoke began appearing all around us.
-0-
Something foreign was forcing its way into my body.
Magic. It was magic, my half-dead brain concluded with some difficulty after a while.
Fai's magic.
What… What was he doing?
I felt it pull me back into my body.
"Don't leave…" I heard his distant voice beg as more of his magic entered my system.
I found it harder to hold on to reality but then I felt someone was with me. Someone who was always there for me and made me feel safe and loved at the same time. It was the feeling that permeated the castle air whenever Syaoran was around.
Sakura.
Hearing his voice whisper my name I turned slowly, a smile threatening to break out on my face as tears spilled down my cheeks.
Syaoran…
-0-
I focused on our destination as the transportation spell activated. Another fit of coughing made me double over, blood dribbling down my chin as dark spots danced merrily in my vision.
"Oye! Idiot! Don't force yourself." Kurogane's voice managed to break through but I paid it no mind. There were so many things that I needed to explain to him and Sakura but there wasn't much time for the latter. If I hadn't done what I had been doing just then, I would have lost her too and honestly I don't think I would have the will power to keep on living if she died.
The wisps of multicolored smoke began to dissolve our bodies, initiating our transportation to the city's central hospital. Sakura needed professional assistance, seeing as my magic could help her only so far. I had already used up more than half of my magic in my fight against Akira when I had let it boost my powers by releasing it and then I had given two thirds of my magic to Kurogane because the amount of magic needed to assist a soul to cross over was quite large and since Kurogane wasn't the only soul that needed assistance crossing over…
I knew that Syaoran was still stuck in this realm too. After all Akira always drained her victim off their spiritual energy and without that energy, they were stranded in the world of the living. Just like Masooma and Kurogane, Syaoran was no exception to this case as well.
My suspicions of him still being here were confirmed when that second aura had flared up to fight Akira. Syaoran was still here. And he needed help.
The spell that I had performed to stabilize Sakura enough for transportation was something that was forbidden for use since it involved transferring all save for a very minute amount of the caster's magic into the other person's body to save their life. I wasn't going to have any for myself either way so I had decided to help out all three of them since I was about to die anyway.
Well, under normal circumstances I might just have ended up in a coma or something till my magic recovered but now I had used up the very last bits of it to transport us all to the hospital. As the dark crumbling cell and Akira's lifeless body was replaced by a sterile white hallway and bright fluorescent lights, I felt a wave of dizziness crash over me, seconds later I was lying on the floor, looking up at the spinning ceiling as hurried footsteps approached us.
I saw a pair of worried amber-colored eyes before I was swallowed by darkness.
A/N: So how was it people? Akira is finally dead but she still managed to do quite a lot of damage. Will Sakura survive? What about Fai? And let's not forget Kurogane.
Tell me what you think.
-Nims.
