A/N: I got a pretty interesting review last time but it was anonymous so I couldn't really reply to it via PM even though I prefer doing that instead of answering here but oh well. This is a response to the anon reviewer noel so you guys can all just skip on ahead to the update ;) Here goes. I know the story is confusing but that's just the way I write though I do tend to clarify stuff as the plot moves along. Some things I leave up to the readers for interpretation but mostly I do explain what's going on. The bits with them trying to help Syaoran and Fai running are the events happening in the present while them talking to a bunch of people is the past. I kinda made that clear when I put the past in italics. And I'm pretty sure I also mentioned that in one of my notes. I'm sorry if it hurt your head but I did not just 'throw 3 different stories into one and did not just even organize it.' Everything is linked together and not just randomly put in as it struck my fancy.

Damn… I'm really hungry now but then again I did end up missing dinner. Oh well, go ahead and enjoy the update while I go raid my cupboard from some hidden stash of food.

'Can you make me?' The whispering voice challenged almost smugly.

"I said shut up!" he half-snarled, half-whispered.

"…and he's actually talking, Kurogane-san." Sakura sounded absolutely ecstatic, from the tone of her voice.

'I wonder what she'll say when she realizes you can hear me.'

"Get lost."

'And go where, Fai-san?' the voice mocked in Sakura's cheery tone. 'I'm inside your head, I'm not really here. It's all you. Poor Syaoran will be so disappointed, what with you promising him you'd be fine and all.'

Before he could retort, however, Kurogane was stepping inside the room, looking just as cautious as Sakura had been earlier. Did they expect him to start screaming randomly or something?

"Mage?"

"I see you still haven't learnt my proper name, Kuro-tan."He replied, plastering on the biggest grin he could muster as he looked up to peer at the red-eyed man, though he avoided meeting his gaze. Kurogane would only have to take one look at him and know he was not okay. Clenching his fists harder in the sheets, he struggled to calm his trembling body. Something was wrong with him and if his friends found out about it…he actually had no idea what they'd do, but he knew it would not be good to let them know.

"How… how did I get back here?" he asked, trying to keep his panic at bay. He was fine. He was just fine. There was absolutely nothing wrong with him. The voice in his head would go away if he ignored it and… he was safe now. He had nothing to worry about. He was back with the people he loved and trusted.

"We came and rescued you," Kurogane grunted in his familiar manner, though Fai could detect the hint of irritation in his tone. "How else?"

'He knows something is wrong with you, Fai. 'her voice pointed out gleefully but Fai ignored it.

"Eloquent as ever, Kuro-tan." He managed to force out a laugh, just a second too late. His heartbeat sped up as he noticed the way the warrior's frown deepened. He had to pay attention to what they were saying to him.

'He knows you're lying.' The voice almost sang and it took everything he had to not tell the stupid thing to shut the hell up and leave him alone. It would go away if he didn't pay attention to it.

"Fai-san," Sakura's voice almost made him jump and he cursed himself for getting distracted.

"Hai, Sakura-chan?"

"Do you mind if I run one final checkup on you?" she asked, taking a step towards him.

"Checkup for what? I'm already healed, aren't I?" he prayed to all the deities he never truly believed in, to not let her or Kurogane notice the small tremor in his voice or the obvious fragility of his forced laughter.

"Your vampire half has healed your body almost completely," The princess nodded, taking another step and then another step and then another. Fai forced himself to remain seated. It wouldn't help his case at all if he were to bolt if she came close to him. Besides, this was Sakura. She would never hurt him… right? 'Keep telling yourself that, Fai.' He ignored the voice, focusing his attention on making his body stay still when she settled on the bed next to him. He couldn't help but flinch when she reached out with one hand. Guilt stabbed at his heart when he noticed the hurt that flashed across her face at his action as she let he limb drop in her lap. "But I still want to be sure."

"But I'm feeling just fine, Sakura-chan." Kurogane was moving closer now too and he had to bite his lip to stop from asking the warrior to keep his distance. They were coming too close. Too close.

"Mage, stop being difficult and let the princess run her tests."

'He knows you're hiding something.'

"But I…" he protested weakly, not even sure if he was answering the Japanese man or the voice in his head as Sakura spoke up again.

"Please, Fai-san, I just want to make sure you're not still hurt."

Heaving a shaky sigh, he nodded his assent, trying not to let it show just how much their close proximity was affecting him. Kurogane was only four feet away and the princess was now standing right before him, her soft fingers lightly taking hold of his hand. He shuddered as her face overlapped with another's. He blinked as warm magic flooded through his body and he was looking back at Sakura once again. The fear and tension left his muscles as he let himself drown in the pleasant feeling of pure bliss, a small grin slowly forming on his lips as he found himself forgetting about everything that bothered him until there was nothing left at all. Nothing at all.

All too soon, the bliss ended and he was slammed back into harsh reality as the princess withdrew her hands with a soft smile. He felt like crying out and begging for her to not stop. He did not want that feeling to leave him just yet. He wasn't…he wasn't ready to face the…

'Run away then, Fai. You won't have to face anything that way.'

"…-san?"

"Huh?" he responded intelligently.

"I asked if everything was alright with your vision, Fai-san. I picked up on some damage to the optic nerves, but-"

"Things appear rather blurry to me at a distance of a few feet." He replied with a nod, suddenly very much aware of her small hands resting atop his own that lay uselessly in his lap.

"I was afraid of that. Don't worry though, it's not permanent but it may take a little while to heal. Even with all the blood Kurogane-san has been giving you lately, it seems that the nerves will have to heal on their own."

"That's okay, Sakura-chan, we wouldn't want Kuro-puu to die of blood loss well before his time, would we now?" He was somewhat relieved to see her smile back at him.

"Kurogane-san, could you please go and find Masooma-san and Nixon-san? And Syaoran-san as well, if you see him." The princess was suddenly addressing the ninja, "I think they would like to know that Fai-san is awake."

With an affirmative grunt, the red-eyed man was gone, leaving him alone with the princess. He was trembling again, though the princess thankfully did not say anything about it.

'She did not buy your pathetic lies.'

"Fai-san," he stiffened at the sound of her voice again as her soft fingers slowly wrapped around his hands. He remembered the time when his fingers had been broken one by one, each with an audible and sickening crack. Was she… was she going to do that too?

'Of course, who would want to touch you otherwise? That's exactly what she will do to you.' But no, Sakura was, well… she was Sakura-chan… she would never hurt him. She couldn't hurt him. She was much too kind for that. Despite all this, he had to actively stop himself from pulling his hands away. It would hurt her if he were to do that.

"You know we'll always be there for you, right?" She gave him a small smile, green eyes boring into his own as he tried to break away from her captivating gaze. He was afraid she'd be able to see what was going on inside his head. She would… "If you ever feel like there is something you need to talk about, we'll be there to listen."

With Kurogane gone from the room, it was somehow easier for him to slap on one of his well-practiced grins. It had taken him a little while to figure it out, but he had been able to produce his smiles. It was the same type of smile that he had worn oh-so-frequently during his journey with the clones on their quest to collect the other Sakura's memories. Speaking of which, he could almost detect traces of that Sakura beginning to show in this one. Could it be that…

"Fai-san?" his grin had not been reassuring enough, apparently. He'd have to work on that if he were to convince them he was perfectly fine. "Of course I know that, Sakura-chan." He smiled as his will power ran out and he gently extricated his fingers from her soft hands. He hated himself for the pained expression that flashed across her features, but he could do nothing to reassure her and so he looked away, gritting his teeth as she drawled next to his ear.

'But you never will tell them, will you, Fai-san?'

-0-

Something wasn't right, Tsubasa realized as he watched the memory with a frown. The silver-haired woman was acting far too much like her. Not like the person he had fallen in love with, but the one that had all but driven him to the brink of insanity. And he still couldn't remember all of this happening to him. True, with every memory he viewed, he would know it had truly happened and he had suffered through it, but when he tried to remember the events leading up to it all or the events that followed what he had seen in these memories, he would draw nothing more than a blank and if he ever tried to fill in that blank, he would be assaulted by massive headaches that usually ended up with him either falling unconscious or screaming in pain and causing Masooma to rush to his side and then lecture him about not forcing himself.

Things still did not make much sense to him, but everything was slowly falling into place, like the missing pieces of a very large jigsaw puzzle. Only he still had quite a lot of pieces still left to fit into place. But at least a pattern had begun to unravel. Now he just had to figure out what it all meant.

He flinched as the beginnings of another round of blinding headaches assaulted him, but a warning glance from Masooma was all it took for him to stop forcing himself to make out the pattern that was just a little out of his reach. It had already been four days since he had first started viewing his memories and while he did not enjoy watching himself get tortured by the nameless people in the same manner the ones he had once called his friends had tortured him, he was still a little glad to know that he only had a couple more days to go before he found the answers he was searching for.

"I think that's enough for today," Masooma said quietly just as the silver-haired woman leaned closer to the memory-him that was bound to a platform of some sort. She had been relentlessly beating him, snapping the bones in his hands one by one every time he refused to answer her questions. Her questions were another thing that puzzled him. They were very much the same questions she had demanded he answer. Was it possible that this woman had somehow turned his friends against him instead? Or maybe… those people that had tormented him had been that world's versions of his friends… but no! They knew too much.

Tsubasa's mind reeled. There was no way that Sakura could have been someone else. Had this woman been working under his friends, unknown to him? The silver-haired woman began molesting his memory self and he couldn't help but grin when the brunette in the memory bit her in retaliation to the kiss she had forced upon him. Just as she drew back with an enraged snarl, lips bloody and pulled back in an ugly expression, the memory began to fade to black.

"Masooma-san…"he said as the witch came to in her place at his bedside, "can I ask you something?" Having seen himself being beat up by those hunters for almost three days straight now, it no longer affected him in the way it had when he had seen the very first memory. Things had indeed been slowly falling into place but there were still so many things he needed to know.

"Hmm?" she responded intelligently as she blinked the tiredness away from her eyes.

"How did I meet you? How did I end up in Magihidusi?" Those were the two questions that had been at the forefront of his mind for quite some time now.

"…" For a minute, it seemed like she was not going to answer him at all as the witch looked away with a sad look on her face. Quite a few precious, breathless seconds went by before she finally spoke up, "You came here with your friends, looking for a way to return your father to his body."

"Did I ever find anything?" He asked almost eagerly, his heart skipping a beat at the thought of his father. It had been so long since he had actually thought about the purpose of his journey in the first place.

"You might have." She replied.

"What do you mean?" he leant towards her in anticipation.

"I'm not sure what you found out," she shook her head, "but whatever it was, it had gotten you pretty excited before you left for Metropolis. You kept going on about how it would only be a matter of time before they would be with you again."

"What was stopping me?"

"There was something else that you had to do first. You had promised to help out one of your companions."

"Why won't you tell me the complete truth?" He grit out in frustration. Why did this witch keep on giving such vague answers? It was obvious she knew a lot more about his time here than he did, yet every time he tried asking her, she either refused to answer at all or told him something that left his mind reeling with more questions.

"You need to go through the rest of your memories first." Masooma replied patiently, using the same words and the same tone she had already used with him every time he asked her that question.

"How many more memories do I have to see?" he exploded, "What is that you want me to see so badly that you can't answer my questions until I have seen it? Why can't you just tell me what it is?"

"Your friends were not the ones who did this to you." She said flatly.

"What?" he let out an incredulous laugh. "Why do you keep saying that?"

"There you go. Does that answer your question?" She turned back to face him, "you're not ready to hear the truth, Syaoran. After everything you have been through, no matter what I tell you, you just can't accept it. Not until…"

"Not until?"

"Not until you have seen what you need to see."

His next words were interrupted by loud knocking on the door.

"I'll be right back." She murmured quickly as she climbed to her feet and walked over to the door. As she slid it open, Syaoran caught sight of Nixon standing just on the other side of the threshold.

"Nixon, w-what are you doing here?"

"Hello, Syaoran, how are you doing today?" The man grinned as he stepped past the witch and into the room, ignoring her altogether.

"I'm… fine." He replied a little hesitantly, casting a worried glance towards the woman who looked quite upset about him being there.

"That's good to know." The Oracle nodded approvingly, "How are the memories coming along?"

"I'm starting to remember bits and pieces." Tsubasa found himself saying. "It's not enough, but it's still a start I suppose."

"That's the spirit." The raven-head grinned.

"Nixon, why are you here?" Masooma questioned firmly, stepping in front of the man with a rather defensive scowl on her face.

"He just woke up." Nixon's grin turned a little strained. Tsubasa figured that this 'he' was probably the same man that had sacrificed everything to help rescue him, though from the firm set of Nixon's jaw, the brunette found his heart sinking to the pit of his stomach. Something was definitely wrong with that person if Nixon was not happy about his friend waking up.

"He woke up?" Masooma repeated breathlessly, "I-I… Can… Can I…" she trailed off, looking back at him worriedly before her gaze travelled to Nixon's stony looking face and then back towards him.

"They want us to come see him." He nodded.

"But I can't leave Syaoran on his own." Masooma was worrying her lip now. She appeared quite torn between her desire to go see the man she loved and staying by Syaoran's side and taking care of him- though he still could not understand why she tried so hard. He felt a little bad for making her worry so much about him. It had already been a couple of days since he had tried to drown himself in the bathtub and while it was still just as humiliating as it had been when he had first realized he had wet himself, Syaoran had not pulled anymore stunts after that brief talk he had with the medic in the bathroom. But she had not really trusted him to be on his own anymore after that. From the look of it, she seemed to think he might try strangling himself with the plastic tubing of his urine bag the minute she turned her back to him.

He opened his mouth to promise her that he would not try anything in her absence, but the Oracle beat her to it. "Put him to sleep then. It is important that he sees you now."

"I'm not going to force him to sleep just because you feel like it." She argued, looking rather indignant on Tsubasa's behalf.

"Well I sure as hell am not staying here to babysit your patient and you know it." The Oracle snapped as he turned on his heels and started walking away, "I only came to tell you that he woke up. Do whatever you feel like doing now." And then he was gone.

"Masooma-san-" he started but the witch cut him off, "Don't worry about that ass, Syaoran, I'm not going to use magic on you without your permission." She smiled at him, "I did promise you that, didn't I?"

She had never promised him something like that. The only thing he could ever recall being even remotely related to the use of her magic on him would have been him telling her not to use her calming spells on him back when she had forced him to view his first memory.

"It's okay." He gave her a fragile smile.

"What?" her eyes widened almost comically, as though she did not believe what he had just said.

"I said it's okay if you use your magic on me." He mumbled, looking down at his hands fisted around the blanket in his lap. "You don't trust me on my own and even though I promised you I wouldn't try anything again you're still around me every waking minute of the day. I guess my promises won't mean much to you because of what I did in the bathroom." He looked back up only to see her hands subconsciously move towards the place where Syaoran knew the scars were on her stomach. She did not seem to be aware of the action, though, as she stared right back at him, eyes wide in disbelief. Syaoran felt really bad at having pushed her to the limit that day.

He had forced her to reveal something she had not even told her precious person about until now. She had done it in a desperate bid to show him she meant him no harm, that she had been a victim of something similar once, but the significance of her actions had been lost on Tsubasa at that time. After that, there never really had been any time for him to dwell on the matter but now that he thought about it, it must have taken a lot of courage on her part to tell him about it.

She had been a victim too once and now her precious person had been subjected to something similar. He was back from their clutches and finally awake, but she could not leave his side to go visit the man she loved because of some unspoken duty she had to Tsubasa. This was the least he could do for her in return.

"You have my permission to use magic and put me to sleep for now," he said with a small nod, trying to keep the smile pasted on his face though from the expression on her own, he could tell it must not have looked very convincing. "I could use a little bit of rest. The memories I saw today have given me far too much to think about," that was only half a lie, "and I'm afraid if I tried sleeping on my own, I would end up getting nightmares again. Could you please…?"

"Oh Syaoran," her scent washed over him as she threw her arms around him in a hug- the smell a mix of something tangy and pleasant with a little bit of snow. "Thank you."He found himself missing the comfort of her embrace as she pulled away to grin at him.

"No problem, Masooma-san." He found himself smiling back and for the first time that day, his smile was genuine and not weak. Her fingers touched his temple and Syaoran felt her magic flow into his own body, a feeling of calm and tiredness overcoming him, causing him to fall backwards. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

A/N: Everyone is coming to see Fai. How do you think will he hold up when everyone is around him? Will someone realize what's wrong with Fai? Do you think he might freak out and lose control?

Tsubasa is finally beginning to make the connections and he's starting to put his trust in people again (even if it's only Masooma for the time being). How do you think he should realize the truth? Pick one of the following and leave your response in a comment since I'm too lazy to go and create a poll on my profile.

A. Tsubasa figures out the truth on his own

B. He sees Syaoran and learns the truth from his father (or Masooma and his father both)

C. He goes through all his memories and discovers the truth of what happened to him from that

Speaking of polls however, I still have that poll regarding the fic showing Fai's life with Masooma and Nixon in Celes up on my profile. Leave a vote there on whether you want me to write it or not. ;)

Btw people I have decided that apart from my 400th reviewer one other lucky reviewer will get to have a sneak peak at the fluffy chapter before I actually put it up since my bunnies decided to be difficult and came up with so much stuff the fluff required an entire chapter dedicated to it. So instead of the next chapter, the fluff is in the chapter after that. Which is why I have decided to let one random reviewer after 400 enjoy parts of it as well. ;)