A/N: I figured since I might vanish for a while again, why not treat you guys and make this a triple update. I was done with this chapter quite a while back anyways so here you go. Enjoy!

He shivered, feeling her cold hands upon his bare back, the soothing warmth of healing energy flowing into his limbs. She was healing him again. He wasn't quite sure why she always did that, seeing as she always allowed the hunters to find creative ways to torment him with every single time.

"You're only making this harder upon yourself, you know," she shook her head in disappointment, her left hand gently cupping his cheek in an affectionate gesture.

"Sa-kura," his voice came out scratchy and hoarse as he lifted his freshly healed hand to touch the fingers resting against his face.

"Come on, Syaoran," she whispered, bringing her face closer to his, her auburn hair falling around them to curtain his face from any onlooker's view. "Think about it. I know you know where it is. Just tell me, and all this will end."

"It will end?" he repeated in wonder, his amber eyes glistening with hope.

"Yes, it will end," She smiled at him. "Trust me, Syaoran, everything will be alright." She told him breathily, pressing her lips against his for a kiss, yet Syaoran could feel nothing but ice.

"Try and remember it for me now." She told him caressing his hair lovingly.

He frowned in concentration for a while before the look was replaced by something akin to fear. "I-I… I'm sorry, Sakura," he pleaded, his body stiffening as her hand stilled. He helplessly watched her as her jade orbs hardened to nothing but two cold stones. "I can't."

"Well, I'm sorry, too," she said coldly as she fisted his hair roughly, pulling his head back. Leaning over his ear she hissed in a venomous tone. "Don't say I didn't give you a chance."

"N-no, Sakura," Syaoran begged, his hand reaching up to grab her wrist as he struggled weakly in her grip. "Please..."

"I think it's time for us to add something new to the mix, ne Kurogane-san, Fai-san?" she smirked, ignoring him as she looked over her shoulder at the two familiar figures that walked out of the shadows.

"I agree," Fai grinned down at him, a cruel grin playing across his features.

"What are we waiting around for?" Kurogane smirked, the evil smile sending chills down

Syaoran's spine.

"K-Kurogane-san, Fa-i-san," he rasped, "please..."

"He's all yours." Sakura announced, roughly slamming his head against the frozen tiles before climbing to her feet as she stepped away from him.

The adults advanced on him as Syaoran curled in on himself, hoping that for once, it would be enough to protect him from the pain. But as they grabbed his legs and dragged him across the chamber and down the narrow, filthy hallway, he knew it was useless.

Knowing that it would only worsen things for him if he struggled, Syaoran tried to get away from them anyway as they put manacles around his feet once they had brought him to his destination.

"Stop it, you worthless brat!" Kurogane spat as he kicked him in the ribs, leaving Syaoran wheezing for breath as his eyes watered. Before he could even understand what was happening, they were dragging him across the room. His back scraped along the floor as they hooked the chain that connected the two manacles to a hook hanging from the roof.

"You really should have just told us when you had the chance, Syaoran-kun," Fai shook his head in disappointment, in a manner quite similar to Sakura's as he approached his feet with a baton-like stick. Then without any further warning, he whipped it through the air, striking the soles of his feet with a resounding crack as Syaoran threw his head back and screamed.

-0-

Trying very hard not to let the scenes that she had just witnessed get to her, Sakura opened her eyes. Raising her hands, she noticed that they were trembling. Choking on a sob, she looked down at Syaoran, her fingers reaching for his motionless face. She traced the outline of his jaw with her forefinger, her heart clenching painfully as the screams from her vision echoed inside her mind. The screams that signified raw, unadultered pain.

His skin felt cold, like ice, and had it not been for the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of his chest, she would have been panicking about him being dead, just like last night. Even though she was exhausted from having used her magic so much, Sakura tried to clear her mind of all thoughts, pushing the phantom screams to the back as she called on her healing magic.

Like she had told Touya last night, she had not physically experienced anything that the brunette had gone through, yet thanks to her magic being in tune with the world around her, she had felt parts of it all the same.

The toxins that had been waging war on his body, even with Syaoran-san's presence there to counter its effects, were now purged from Syaoran's system. Or, well, the worst part of them were. There was still a small fraction of it that remained inside his blood but Sakura was now personally going to see to its removal.

Pulling up on the reserves hidden deep within her, Sakura set to work, trying to mend each and every single wound that she came across. Even with the numerous healing sessions she had seen him undergo in his captivity, there was still too much damage done that needed fixing.

What those hunters did was truly barbaric. Just like she had promised Touya, she had skimmed through his memories, silently thanking her brother for making her promise not to see everything since she knew now that she would not have been able to handle the full extent of it all.

At least now she knew the purpose that that foreign toxin served. It was a hallucinogen and a very powerful one at that. From the way it had affected Syaoran's body, she would even go so far so as to say that it was also addictive.

Syaoran's tormentors were all hunters, yet the drug that they regularly injected him with made him hallucinate the people he held close to his heart in their place. Which explained his fear of her and Kurogane and Syaoran-san's reaction towards the two when they pulled him out of Syaoran's body.

They apparently wanted some information from Syaoran, which the brunette seemed unable to recall for some reason. It could have been some sort of memory seal that cause him to forget the information. She would have to discuss that with the red-eyed man.

Those hunters would torture him for hours and days on end, healing him whenever he would get close to dying before repeating the whole cycle.

She had witnessed the way they had fed Syaoran and the way they had forced him to drink water. Not even animals were treated the way they had treated her beloved. What had he ever done to deserve what they did? Sakura was a very forgiving person by nature, but after seeing what she had, she knew that she would never be able to forgive those hunters. Ever. Even if their lives depended on it.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, she removed her other hand from where it had been resting over Syaoran's heart as she let the healing magic fade away. Syaoran was a very strong person, but in the end, he was a human too. He seemed to have held on for as long as he could but maybe Kurogane and Fai had been too late to save him.

She prayed with all her heart that she could reverse the damage done to her beloved. A wave of exhaustion rolled over her body and she slumped forwards, landing vertically across his torso as she passed out from over-exertion.

That morning, she had told everyone not to disturb her while she was working on Syaoran and for once, Touya had acquiesced without a sound, stopping by long enough to remind her of her deal with him.

Kurogane had nodded his head in acknowledgement, casting a worried glance at the two before leaving the room, telling her that he would wait right outside. She woke to the pleasant sound of birds chirping happily on the railing of the balcony outside the window, the sun peeping merrily through the partially parted curtains, casting a soft golden glow inside the room.

Realizing the position she was in, Sakura blushed, pushing herself away from Syaoran, wincing as her back cracked painfully. Heaving a sigh, she set about rearranging the bed, pulling the sheet over Syaoran's body and moving over to the window to pull the curtains away completely.

When she turned around, she noticed that Syaoran was finally awake and staring at the ceiling above him.

"Syaoran?" she called hesitantly, approaching his bedside, "H-how are you feeling?" She had been working diligently on him, so she hoped he wouldn't be in pain any longer or not a lot of pain. There were still bandages wrapped around parts of his exposed skin but the many scars, cuts and bruises that had been painting his sun-kissed skin before were now no more.

She knew it wasn't much, but it was still better than what he must have been suffering before.

"Syaoran?" She repeated, feeling dread settle in the pit of her stomach when he did not answer. Scared of what she might see, she stopped next to his bed, hesitant to meet his eyes. After all that he had been through, he had every right to not want to talk to her. After all, it had been her own face and body that had tormented him for so long, her own mocking voice that had taunted him for being useless. Why would he want to trust her after all that?

"Syaoran," she forced herself to look at his face, hoping to meet his eye when he would look in her direction, "that person wasn't me." She wrung her hands in front of her in a nervous manner, "I'd never do something like that to you. I love you, Syaoran. You know I could never hurt you, right?"

Funnily enough, he did not move his head. He didn't even so much as twitch a muscle.

"Syaoran, I'm sorry." She pleaded, "I know you probably hate me for it, but please, believe me, that girl wasn't me."

Yet Syaoran refused to look at her.

"Syaoran," she felt tears of desperation stream down her cheeks. "Syaoran, please, I'm sorry for what she did." Her cries seemed to fall on deaf ears when he didn't even so much as blink. He was breathing, though, and his skin had felt warm when she had woken up not five minutes ago, so he was still alive.

But the way he was staring, it scared Sakura. Heart beating frantically against her ribcage, she approached his head side, finally taking a good look at his face in the morning sunlight.

What she saw made her stagger back in shock, tripping and falling over the rug placed on the floor.

"K-Kurogane-san." She whispered, her whole body trembling at what she had just seen. "Kuro-Kurogane-san." She called again, hoping, praying to the gods above that it had just been a trick of the light. That what she had seen wasn't it at all. It couldn't be, right?

"K-Kurogane-san!" she cried hysterically, hearing the door to the room burst open as the ninja raced inside, sword drawn in an offensive stance as his eyes canned the room for some hidden enemies.

He had been prepared to defend the princess from unknown assassins, but he had definitely, not in a million years, prepared himself for the sight that met his eyes. The princess was on the floor in hysterics, tears freely flowing down her cheeks and for one heart-stopping second, he thought that something had happened to the kid. But when he turned his gaze in the direction of the kid's bed, he saw him lying there, motionless as ever.

He remembered what the princess had been doing before he had entered the room, so he directed his attention at her for the moment. She must have seen something that had sent her into a panic attack. He just had no idea how correct that hunch was.

"Oye! Oye, Hime!" he grabbed her shoulders, shaking her a little roughly as he tried to bring the girl back to her senses. "What happened? What did you see?" He knew it wasn't a smart idea to let her see his memories, but they had to know what happened to the kid. "Hime."

As soon as he stopped shaking her, she crumbled in his arms, falling against his chest as she began to sob brokenly.

"H-his eyes…" she whispered into his shirt, "His eyes..." she repeated again and again, her voice rising in volume as Yukito rushed inside the room not a few seconds later. He must have felt the princess's distress through her erratic magical aura.

"What happened?" he asked, hurrying over to the girl, who seemed to have gone into shock as she kept on repeating the same phrase over and over again. "What did she see?"

Ignoring the High Priest's question for now, he handed the girl over to him as he climbed to his feet, wondering what the heck was wrong with the kid's eyes that the princess had gotten so worked up over.

As he approached the bed, he noticed that the brunette's eyes were open and he was staring at the ceiling.

"Kid?" he questioned softly. He thought it a little strange to see that the kid did not even twitch a muscle. Something was wrong.

"H-his eyes…" Ignoring the princess repeating the same phrase over and over again in the background, Kurogane caught his first glimpse of Syaoran's face and felt the blood drain from his own.

"H-his eyes…" He heard Sakura cry in the distance, finally managing to put to words what his mind was only now beginning to register. The life and shine that they once held, the defiant light that shone through that intense amber gaze, even when he was scared out of his wits… It was gone… All of it was gone, leaving behind nothing but a hollow, glazed brown.

"…so empty."

A/N: I know. I know, you guys probably hate me for doing this to him but I swear it'll get better. Eventually. Maybe. ^_^;

I hope you enjoyed reading it though. Tell me what you think and feel free to ask any questions you might have. Till next time.

-Nims