Chapter One-Hundred-Six
"And that's why the only things in this world are things I've seen," Syaoran concluded.
Kurogane stared at him. "So you're saying there's no way to track either of them."
Syaoran flinched, glancing down at the snow-crusted grass of Jade Country. The world had shifted twice since Kurogane had fallen into it, first to the Hanshin Republic, then to the town where Doctor Kyle had hypnotized dozens of children. Both the once-bustling city and the grim village had been devoid of inhabitants, as if everyone had dropped what they were doing and disappeared without a trace, without even leaving footprints. "I don't think so," he finally said, turning to Fai for confirmation. The magician returned his gaze with a grim look. "So far, it seems like the Other's presence changes direction every time the scenery shifts. And if he's really in control, we won't be able to reach him until he's ready for us."
Kurogane gave an exasperated sigh and leaned against one of the barren trees next to the path. "And what if he doesn't show?"
Syaoran looked up, then went still. If he doesn't show . . . Slowly, his mind grasped the ramifications of that. If the Other didn't show up, that meant Sakura wouldn't either. I might never see her again, he realized, shivering as if someone had trickled ice water down his spine.
But what better way for his clone to torture him than this? Everything he'd suffered, he'd endured because Sakura was within his reach. But if she wasn't . . . I would die, he thought. I couldn't live. I barely survived when I was away with Seishirou. I couldn't live knowing that she was a hostage, that I couldn't get to her. His arms snaked around his ribcage, as if holding his body together. His breathing grew ragged.
Long fingers curled around his upper arm, bringing him back to the present. "We'll find her," Fai said, looking at him with a sternness that had been almost absent in him during their journey. "It doesn't matter how long it takes, we'll find her."
"Well that's a given," Kurogane said, putting his hands in his pockets. "But we still have to have a plan in case the Other doesn't show up."
That's right, Syaoran told himself. I can't let the Other get into my head any more than he already is. I have to be rational.
He felt the distinct tingle of magic and glanced at Fai. Confusion flitted across the magician's face as he registered the same thing. "Are we—" Syaoran began, just as the world shifted. The trees receded into the ground, beneath the darkening snow. The earth rose up around them to form ragged, rocky walls.
"Where are we now?" Kurogane demanded.
The familiar purple plants under their feet Syaoran to make the connection. "We're in Sapphirine." In the canyon. He shivered in the unnatural cold, turning to Fai. "Can you sense anything?"
"He's close. We might be able to catch up to him," Fai said.
"Let's go."
They picked a direction and started through the linear passages of the Mist-laden canyon. Except for their footsteps, it was silent. This place is deserted, too.
"Keep close," Kurogane ordered. "The Mist is thick enough to cut with a sword."
They kept moving, never straying more than a few feet from each other. Syaoran hung back, everything about this world raising hairs on his neck. Sapphirine had been a disaster in every conceivable way except that he'd finally freed himself from Seishirou, and even that had come at a dismal price.
Nervously, he ran a hand along the hilt of the sword Kurogane had given him in Nihon.
The scene shifted, the ground moving around them as if they were traveling over it at supernatural speed. Syaoran swayed.
Suddenly, they arrived in the expansive room where he'd fought Seishirou. Automatically, he lifted his eyes to the spot where he'd fallen after his spine had snapped.
Seishirou knelt in front of his broken figure, the edges of his figure hazy, as if he was made of mist instead of flesh and bone. Like a figure from a half-forgotten dream.
Syaoran watched himself snatch his sword from the ground and drive it through Seishirou's heart, watched the blood splatter across the rocky walls, watched crimson fluid run down the hilt of the blade. Watched it all as if he was watching a play, instead of the way he remembered it.
Watching himself from a distance, just as he'd watched the Other in his nightmares.
A shudder ran down his back. I shouldn't be remembering it from this perspective, he thought. The only way I could be watching from this angle would be if . . .
If I was seeing this through someone else's eyes.
He whipped around, heart rate doubling as the ramifications of what he'd realized sunk in. The world shifted again as he turned, as if he'd truly been watching from a movie screen.
He found himself in an unfamiliar world, surrounded by churning clouds and off-white stone.
"Not your dream," someone murmured. "Not your life. Not your memories. Or so you tell yourself."
In the silence, the quiet words were menacing, deadly. The Other stepped out from behind a stone pillar, wearing the same blank look he always wore. He glanced up, surveying them with mismatched eyes.
Syaoran bristled. "Where is Sakura?"
"Gone," the Other said emptily, sliding a sword from the battered sheath at his hip. Syaoran flinched as he recognized Hien. Impossible. I saw it shatter, in my dreams.
"Surprised?" the Other asked, looking down at the blade. For a moment, Syaoran panicked, thinking his clone had somehow read his mind. Then he realized just how clearly his face must've conveyed his shock.
"You destroyed that in another world. How can you have it now?"
"Not your dream," the Other murmured again. "Mine." He looked up.
Beside him, Kurogane and Fai both tensed, each lifting their own weapons. "What do you mean, she's gone?" Kurogane demanded, in response to the Other's earlier statement.
"She's in a different dream." The scenery warped and twisted, like a heat mirage in the desert around Clow Country. Pale white boulders dotted the floor, their edges broken off and jagged, as if they'd all been smashed apart by a massive hammer. Drops of water clung to fallen pillars, slowly running down the crevices. Despite the extensive damage, Syaoran recognized the ruins of Clow.
"No," he whispered, images flickering across the backs of his eyelids. These were not the neat, intact ruins the Other had explored with Father. These were not the winged ruins of this reality, not the monument to ancient technology the Other had known.
"You know this place," the Other said, staring at the scene with a look of cool calculation. "This is where you turned back time."
"Sakura would have died if I hadn't."
"Yes."
Syaoran took a step toward the devastation, feeling as if he was walking through a wall of water. Every breath caught in his throat, his body weakening from a lack of oxygen. He could see the hazy images of his past self, reaching for Sakura as the black wings enveloped her, reaching to take a hand that was already well out of his grasp.
"Yes," the Other said again, at the moment time should've stopped. But, like the second hand of a clock, time moved inexorably forward, the wings growing, enfolding her. "She would've died. That was how it should've gone."
Fai hissed, fingernails growing impossibly longer.
"But you turned back time." Another shift in scenery. The shattered pillars rose and stood straight to support the ceiling. The chunks of rock gouged from the floor reformed in benign patterns like those Fujitaka had studied. "You turned back time and reshaped that world. Those choices rippled, affecting other worlds, triggering events that eventually led to my existence. And to hers." His fingers loosened around Hien, lips parting slightly as he watched a younger Sakura—this one unmarked by the seal of death.
Meanwhile, Syaoran stared, dumbfounded. "Hers?"
The Other blinked, face regaining the indifferent mask he'd worn for months now. "You don't know."
Know what? he wondered, gripping his sword tighter. "What don't I know?"
"That the Sakura you saw through my eyes is nothing more than a copy."
"That's impossible."
The Other's voice changed, tainted with anger. "No. The Sakura you fell in love with died that day."
Author's Notes:
I can explain. Just give me a few chapters.