A/N: And here you have the next chapter. Enjoy!

"Shit! Kid! Oye, wake up," Kurogane shook the prone form in his arms, his heart clenching in fear at the way Syaoran's head lolled upon his shoulder, like a rag doll. "Mage, where the hell are we?" he asked, feeling his blood boil in anger. What the hell had those bastards done to the kid? If it hadn't been for Fai's inter-dimensional transportation spell, he would have ripped them apart limb from limb after making sure that they had gotten the kid out of that place. Right now, however, was not the time to think about what he would have done to those assholes. They needed to get the kid help. His breathing was terribly shallow and his heart was barely beating. They were going to lose him if they didn't do something about it soon.

"…"

"Mage?" Kurogane looked over his shoulder only to find that the blue-eyed blond was nowhere to be seen.

"Mage!" Kurogane called out for Fai, his garnet eyes frantically searching for the man but all he spotted was the comatose manju bun lying a few feet away from him.

"Fuck." That was the word that perfectly described his current thoughts. That flash of silver he had seen a split second before being magicked out of that world was not just a trick of his eyes. They had gotten the magician. Which meant that Fai was currently-

"Kurogane-san?" he heard a gentle male voice ask and he whirled around to see the priest of Clow looking at him with a bewildered expression. "Is that Syaoran-kun?" his voice rose slightly at the end of his question as the bewilderment transformed into horror.

"Questions later, the kid needs help." Kurogane said briskly as he hurriedly got to his feet, the dying boy still in his arms as he motioned for the priest to pick up the dimension-hopping bunny.

"I-I'll inform Sakura-chan," Yukito said shakily as he murmured a few words and the air began to tingle with magic. Wordlessly, Kurogane hurried towards the castle visible in the distance. The priest had appeared from the direction of the ruins, but for some reason Kurogane felt like the princess was not there and at the castle. He was proven correct a couple of minutes later as the robed, emerald-eyed girl appeared at the steps with a worried look on her face. She inhaled sharply and bit her lip to keep herself from asking questions as she led them inside, across the entrance and down the right corridor, stopping outside a pair of double doors. Yukito helped her push them open as she instructed Kurogane to lay Syaoran down on the bed inside.

Kurogane stepped aside to let the young priestess work on him, worried eyes taking in her pale appearance as she hurriedly listed off things to the priest that she would need to treat the wounds before she focused her energy on a spell of some sort.

Several hours later, Kurogane heard her let out a relieved sigh as she turned to look at him and give him a shaky, slightly watery smile. "He's out of danger." She announced, "But his right arm needs to be reset. It has not yet healed properly but the bones have made a semi connection so we might have to…" she took in a deep breath to steady herself but Kurogane spoke before she could continue, sparing her the pain of telling him what needed to be done.

"We have to break his arm again before the bones can be set straight."

"…Yes." Sakura replied, biting her lip as tears welled up in her eyes. "I'll heal it once we bind his arm with a splint."

"Kurogane-san…" she started hesitantly as a drop of saltine water managed to slide down her cheek. Quickly, she wiped it with the back of her hand, her gaze travelling to Syaoran's unconscious form. The sight of his beaten and bruised body caused a few more tears to escape.

"How did this…" she trailed off, unsure of whether she wanted to even know what might have happened to the boy she loved, her fingers tenderly pushing his hair out of his face.

"We should finish taking care of the kid first." Kurogane told her quietly, obviously not wanting to think about whatever had happened either. The fact that the mage was not with them here worried him greatly, but he did not let it show as he took hold of Syaoran's swollen arm, a small whimper of pain escaping the unconscious teen's lips.

The crookedly healing bone cracked with an audible snap and Syaoran let out an agonized scream, his eyes snapping open as he shot upright, tears of pain trailed down his dirty face. He tried to pry his broken arm from the ninja's grip, bloody nails raking at the older man's skin as he kept screaming.

"Kid!" Kurogane quickly grabbed his free hand and as though someone had flipped a switch, Syaoran went limp and completely silent in his arms, though he had not lost consciousness. He gazed up at the ninja with wide, fearful, bloodshot eyes that lacked their usual luster.

"K-Kurogane-san…" he whispered hoarsely, his expression betraying nothing but desperation and terror. "Don't…"

"Don't what, kid?" the ninja asked in a tone so soft, he even surprised himself.

"Don't… don't hurt me… please…" he begged in a broken voice, resuming his earlier efforts to get away from the red-eyed man.

"What?" he almost yelped and his violent reaction only seemed to scare Syaoran even more as he screwed his eyes shut and tried to curl in on himself as though he expected to be hit any second. His thin, emaciated frame shook like a leaf, some of the bandaged cuts on his torso beginning to show flashes of red.

Noticing his distressed condition, Sakura reached out with her right hand to touch him but he only flinched in response to when her skin touched his cold flesh. "Syaoran…" she called his name, gently cradling his cheek but he only whimpered in response.

"Sakura…hime… you're here too…"

"Yes," she smiled softly even though she knew he had his eyes closed and could not see her expression.

"Please…" he whispered, his eyes still clenched tightly as tears leaked past them, "It hurts… so much… please, just stop… don't… don't hit me again…"

"What?" Sakura mirrored Kurogane's response, albeit hers was more breathless.

"Not again!" his cries grew louder as he started struggling against Kurogane's hold once more, his eyes snapping open as he struggled with the sheets and tried to scramble away from her but the ninja's hold on his broken arm kept him from moving too far, "Please! Just leave me alone!"

"Syaoran," Sakura, who had previously retracted her hand in shock, tried to touch him once more, in an attempt to calm him down but it only had the opposite effect.

"No!"

"Kid, calm down," Kurogane tightened his grip on the struggling brunette but that too, turned out to be a very bad idea.

"Leave me alone!" a surprisingly strong kick connected with Kurogane's temple and had him seeing stars for a couple of seconds. It had not been the force of the attack however but it's suddenness that had made the ninja lose his grip on Syaoran. Instead of trying to get away from them however, this time, the boy merely curled in on himself as though trying to shield his body from invisible blows. "Stop tormenting me." He cried, cradling his freshly broken arm, "kill me if you want to but please…" his voice broke, "stop showing me kindness… just so you can hurt me again…"

"Syaoran…" Sakura sniffled, hurt clearly flashing across her features at the words the chestnut haired boy had uttered but Syaoran did not register it as Kurogane grabbed his shoulder with one hand while the other moved towards his neck. Pure, unadultered terror flashed in his amber orbs as he gazed at the ninja through bloodshot eyes.

"Sleep, kid," the ninja said gruffly as he jabbed at a pressure point on his neck and Syaoran's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he lost consciousness.

"Kurogane-san…" the emerald-eyes princess sobbed quietly, as she watched the older man straighten out Syaoran's body, rearranging the sheets to cover his naked, bandaged torso, "What happened to him? Where is Fai-san? And… and what's wrong with Mokona?"

The addressed man waited until he was finished making his unconscious student as comfortable as possible before heaving a quite sigh. Not moving his garnet-eyed gaze from Syaoran's pain expression, he started speaking, his free hand subconsciously clenching into a fist as he looked at his student whimper in his sleep. "The last world we visited…"

A/N: So any ideas on what happened to Syaoran? What's wrong with Mokona and where is Fai?

Review and let me know.

And please, don't forget to vote for the fic you like the most out of these three. The poll is on my profile.

Till next time. Ja!

PS. To all my readers of 'Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles' I have re-edited and in certain parts rewritten the first five chapters as well put up a prologue for that fic, so please go check it out. The remaining chapters will be up pretty soon too. (Hopefully) I mention this here because I am not sure if you are getting alerts for those chapters since I didn't get any.