A/N: Hey everyone! Guess what?

I turned twenty one today! :D

So as a treat to all my faithful readers, I'm gonna update today instead of on Saturday.

Enjoy! Don't forget to review!

"This part of the country is quite different from the part that we had arrived in." Syaoran frowned as he looked around the barren landscape and ruined structures with crumbling buildings and dry, cracked land.

"I wonder what happened here," Fai said as he too looked around, for once, the ever-present smile missing from his features.

"Me too." Kurogane grunted, shifting the unconscious girl in his arms as observed their surroundings through narrowed eyes. "You sure this is the place?"

"Yes, the girl gave me pretty clear instructions," Fai nodded as he purposefully strode towards a building that looked like it might fall apart in even the lightest of breeze.

"No" Syaoran moaned in pain, his body twitching every now and then as sweat began to dot his brow. Kurogane stopped telling his tale and turned to look at Syaoran in concern same as Sakura who was biting her lip in worry.

"Please…" the brunette whimpered, trying to sink into the bed he lay on, "It hurts…" all of a sudden his eyes flew open as a pained scream erupted from his lips, his back arching away from the bed as he tried to reach it with both his hands though it was quite obvious that moving his broken arm was causing him greater pain. "It hurts! Stop! Sakura-hime, please stop!"

"Kid!" Kurogane lunged forward and grabbed hold of his thrashing body before the kid could cause himself further harm but that seemed to only cause him to struggle further.

"No! Please! Don't hurt me!"

"Syaoran," Sakura moved forward to help Kurogane when the brunette became impossible for Kurogane to handle alone.

As soon as her finger closed in around Syaoran's hand, his body froze as he stared at her with wide, bloodshot and fearful eyes.

"Syaoran, calm down," Sakura spoke in a soothing tone, doing her best to comfort him as she ran her thumb over his knuckles, "Everything will be alight."

"Everything… " Syaoran's breath caught in his throat as he looked at her, "will be alright?" he repeated her statement in a small yet completely lost tone, his face losing all color.

"Yes." Sakura tried to smile at him but seeing him look at her with so much fear broke her heart. Right before her eyes, the boy she loved seemed to shatter to pieces.

"Please…" he whispered, his eyes growing wild with panic as he gave her a pleading look. The look was one she had never witnessed on his face before and for a fraction of a second, Sakura found her being shatter to infinitesimal pieces as she received it. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry… Please Sakura-hime… don't hurt me."

"Syaoran," the jade-eyed girl shook her head, squeezing his hand in a reassuring gesture, "I'm not going to hurt you." But like everything else they had done so far when it came to dealing with Syaoran, the action seemed to send him into panic mode all over again.

"I-I'm sorry!" he whimpered, subtly trying to reclaim his hand at first, his tries growing more frantic as his voice grew louder when Sakura refused to let go, "I'm sorry! Please Sakura-hime… I'm sorry!" he cried struggling for all he was worth to free his hand from her grasp, tears pouring down his face as he fixed his eyes on their hands, refusing to meet her eyes.

"Syaoran-" Whatever it was that Sakura wanted to say to him, it was cut off as his body froze all over again, his already pale face going completely ashen as he stared at her hands in horror.

"N-no…" he started weakly, "I-I said I was sorry!" in a surprising display of hidden strength, he wrenched his hand free from her grip, immediately beginning to claw at his own flesh as though trying to rip off invisible parasites from his skin. "Sakura-hime! Please stop!" he begged, growing hysterical as his nails tore at barely healed cuts and scabs making them bleed anew.

Alarmed, Kurogane's hands shot out to grab hold Syaoran's unbroken arm before he could inflict further harm to himself but the boy was delirious.

"Kurogane-san! Fai-san!" he cried out, trapped in whatever nightmarish vision his hallucinating mind presented him with, "Make it stop! Please make it stop!"

The ninja had to throw his entire weight on the boy's body to somewhat restrain him but that too seemed to be doing little good. Syaoran smacked his broken arm into the ninja with enough force to make it sound a sickening crack for the second time that day. The red-eyed ninja recoiled from the boy in shock, staring at him in disbelief. The boy had him with enough force to successfully dislocate the broken bones in his arm again!

Paying no mind to that however, Syaoran shot up in bed once more. His body writhing and thrashing as he screamed like someone or something was trying rip him apart from the inside. Blood was beginning to flow from the corners of his mouth as he no doubt caused enough damage to his throat to make it bleed!

Kurogane couldn't really think of any other way to make him calm down other than the one he had use a short while back. Jabbing at a pressure point, Kurogane gently caught Syaoran in his arms just as he slumped forwards.

"Fuck!" Kurogane swore violently as he crushed the unconscious boy to his chest, clenching his eyes as they started to burn. Behind him, he heard Sakura sniffle heartbrokenly. "I'll fucking kill those bastards!" he growled menacingly, his mind already coming up with creative ways to slowly and painfully kill the ones responsible for his apprentice's current condition as he refused to let go of the boy.

-0-

It took all his willpower to not let his head drop forward as he hung limply from his arms. It had already been three days since his captors had left him in that dungeon after strapping a Heretic's fork to his neck. He had seen a similar contraption being used for torture by sleep deprivation in one of the other worlds he had visited along with Kurogane and Syaoran.

Three days.

It had been three days since he had been hanging by his arms strung outwards, with the pointed tip of the fork digging into his flesh every time he tried to lower his head to alleviate the lightheadedness that he was suffering due to bloodloss. His throat felt like it was being scraped on the inside with sandpaper every time he gulped and his numbing muscles screamed in protest every time he shifted.

And this was only the third day!

Syaoran had been stuck with these people for over two months!

He knew Syaoran had an exceptionally strong spirit, but would it have been able to survive in this hellhole for over two months? Dread settled in the pit of Fai's stomach as he thought about the condition they had found Syaoran in shortly before he had sent him, Kurogane and Mokona to Clow.

Please be okay, he prayed silently just as soon as the door to his cell was thrown open.

"Ready to talk yet, Blondie?" the guard sneered at him as Fai heard his footsteps approach him.

"…" When the blue-eyed wizard stubbornly kept his jaw clenched, he heard the man chuckle darkly.

"A tough one, eh?" Fai heard the chains holding him in place sag a little as the man said this, "Let's how long you can last."

The Heretic's fork dug into the flesh, breaking skin enough to draw blood as he fell when his captors seemed to loosen the chains completely. Feeling the blood rush to his numb appendages, Fai forced himself to push his body above the ground on trembling limbs as he kept his head raised at an awkward angle to prevent further damage from the contraption around his neck.

"Do your worst." Fai hissed venomously, his voice low and threatening despite his current position. An aura of power began to surround his body, his eyes flickering to gold as he glared at the man previously sneering at him. Now however, he could see the fat guard palpitate, his skin growing chalky pale as he sensed Fai's dormant vampire abilities kick in when his magic failed to provide him with the necessary strength.

"W-What are you?" the guard stuttered a little before catching himself, but it was enough for Fai, whose strength seemed to increase every passing second.

Pushing himself into a standing position, Fai allowed a feral grin to grace his feature, making sure to expose his rather sharpened canines to the man before him as his claws elongated.

"Me?" he cocked a brow, grinning at the effect he was having on the pathetic lowly hunter standing before him, "as corny as it might sound," he said casually before his golden, cat-like slitted eyes narrowed threateningly as he ripped off the collar from around his neck, chains jingling in his wake, "I'm your worst nightmare."

The two foolish hunters never knew what hit them as Fai vanished from the air before them appearing behind them one second after the other, both bodies hitting the ground with simultaneous thuds, clearly dead.

A/N: I swear this fic has a mind of its own. I had definitely not planned on Fai breaking free so soon but it just wrote itself out and refused to be altered so *sigh* I decided to let it be.

Oh and Fai staying behind was no mere accident. He knew full well what he was getting into when he transported everyone to Clow but what might his reasons be?

Why is Syaoran reacting so badly to Sakura and Kurogane's presence? Will our favorite ninja and princess be able to figure it out in time to save him and Fai? Or will it be too late? And lastly, what of Mokona? Will the bejeweled rabbit wake up anytime soon?

I'd love to hear what you guys think might be the answers to these questions. ;)

Click on the pretty little button down there and let me know.

Oh and by the way, this chapter has not been checked by my beta so feel free to point out any mistakes you might spot in it.

~Ja