A/N: I'm sooo sorry for making you guys wait. Even though it only took you guys a day and a half to review the required number of times (should I up the number, hmm? ;) ) I failed to update. But I have a very valid reason for the delay.

My laptop got confiscated. :'( So yeah, I haven't been able to write any further than chapter seven and the bunnies are killing me! Well, they were for the first couple of days, now they are just sort of thinking about going into hibernation mode. I really hope they don't.

Anyhow, I really love you guys for all the positive responses so this chapter is dedicated to all my reviewers and Miss talkstoangels77 for all her help and patience.

And now, without further ado, please go ahead and enjoy!

A distressed cry came from the direction Tomoyo had gone in and her mind quickly linked it with Syaoran. Was he having another relapse like the one she had witnessed on her first night onboard? If so would Tomoyo be able to handle him all by herself? After all, it had taken both Fai and Kurogane to hold him down the last time.

"No!" she heard him scream as she neared his cabin which was all she needed to confirm her suspicions.

"It's okay," Tomoyo was crooning gently as Sakura emerged at the doorway but before she could properly see inside the cabin, the ship lurched abruptly to the right and her startled cry added to Syaoran's cry of fear. Tomoyo climbed to her feet at the same time as Sakura who was thrown inside the room. The door slid close behind her. "Syaoran, it's me Tomoyo." She cautiously approached the boy who was currently pressing himself into the wall in the furthest corner of the room, his face chalk-white, eyes bloodshot and wild, his breath coming in short irregular pants.

"They're… They're coming…" he whispered, "They're coming…"

"No one is coming, Syaoran." Tomoyo's voice was soothing, gentle and motherly as she stepped closer to him but he just shrank even further.

The ship suddenly turned sideways, throwing all three of them against the right wall, Sakura hitting her side with enough force that she was sure there would be bruises there in the morning. Syaoran barreled right into Tomoyo, though she still heard the loud smack as his head collided rather painfully with the metal.

He gave a cry of fear tried to scramble away from Tomoyo who had acted quickly and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close to her, cradling his head against her shoulder as he struggled.

"Ssh… ssh…" she patter his head gently, running her hand through his hair in a motherly fashion, "it's okay. I'm right here. Nothing will happen to you."

"They're going to take me back…" he whimpered, weakly fighting against her.

"No they're not." The older medic told him firmly.

But before he could respond, the ship dove in a tight corkscrew, sending the three of them tumbling around the walls, the floor and the roof, Syaoran once again yelling in terror. When the ship straightened out for a while, Sakura noticed that Tomoyo still had maintained her hold on him, not once letting go of the younger male despite all the hits she took.

"Let me go!" he screamed, hitting the raven haired woman as he tried to push her away.

"Syaoran, it's me, Tomoyo," she replied in a calming tone, ignoring the fists that struck her.

"They'll take me back!" he cried hysterically, his arms and legs thrashing about wildly.

Another explosion lurched the craft, flinging them across the room, where Tomoyo ended up hitting Syaoran's bunk, her grip on him immediately loosening as she slumped down like a marionette with its strings cut loose. Sakura could see a trail of bright crimson blood, slowly making its way down her porcelain face.

She had hit her head.

"No…" he breathed, his horror easily coloring his tone as he stared at the unconscious medic with eyes wide as saucers. "No." His voice grew louder and hoarser as he screamed. "No!"

Another roll and Tomoyo's body was tossed towards Sakura who immediately grabbed the older woman's hand and pulled her towards her.

The brunette then looked over at Syaoran to see how he was holding up and noticed how badly he was trembling. His eyes were fixated on the spot Tomoyo had been laying in, a small splotch of red staining the floor and it was this that held his gaze. Sakura was at a complete loss on what to do when all of a sudden the amber-eyed male fell on his knees with a groan clutching his right forearm.

"I don't want to go back," he moaned, his eyes rolling to the back of his head, as he shivered.

A second later, Sakura could feel it. A thick, formless, colorless haze of magic permeated the room. It's aura was deadly and lethal, chilling Sakura to the bones. She gave a startled gasp as its tendrils skimmed the surface of her magical core, the touch feather light as it analyzed her magic.

The ship was spiraling once again, but she barely noticed it, her mind too occupied with the conscious prod of that strangely familiar energy. Sakura knew she had never encountered that aura before but it seemed to recognize her, wrapping itself around her slowly, almost lovingly.

A sharp stab of pain went through her right shoulder blade, making her gasp as a shrill whistling sound filled her ears and her eyes watered. It burned! Like someone was pressing a white hot poker to her flesh, branding her like one might have done to the cattle a couple of millennia back. That mark was acting up again.

She felt herself unable to draw a breath as the burning grew in intensity but all of a sudden a cool, soothing aura enveloped the spot, nullifying the effect of the magic. The magical haze caressed her magic longingly one last time before it too, withdrew.

Sakura gasped, greedily gulping down air as the world around her grew silent.

Sakura was beyond confused. Whose magic was that? She had not been able to discern any sort of ill will in that aura, despite its dangerous nature. So then, why had its touch set off the mark on her shoulder? The only magician on board was Fai. Did it belong to him? She was pretty sure she had never met the man before. But why did it feel so familiar? Like she the owner was someone she should know.

Was he, perhaps, someone from the past that she couldn't remember? Had she maybe known him before her amnesia. But if that was the case, then shouldn't he have recognized her when they met? She would have to ask him.

A dull throbbing prickled her right shoulder blade making her aware of the presence of the cursed mark on her body. For a second she tensed, but the soothing aura was still at work, keeping its excruciating effects at bay so Sakura relaxed, her eyes roaming around the cabin.

Things seemed to have calmed down so they had most probably lost the pirates. The door beeped and slid open, Kurogane appeared at the threshold, Fai right at his heels.

"What happened?" he took in the scene with narrowed eyes as he approached her, "why are they both out cold?"

"Both?" she looked past him towards Syaoran and noticed that, indeed, he had passed out on the cold floor. The blond pilot turned around and left the room.

"I'm not sure what happened to Syaoran but Tomoyo hit her head," she answered only just realizing that she was still clutching the bed frame. Hastily, she dropped her hand.

Without another word Kurogane picked up the unconscious woman and placed her on Syaoran's bed before moving over to the unmoving teen, repeating the action. Fai appeared a short while later, a first aid box in his hands.

"I'll check on Syaoran," he offered the captain, handing him a wad of cotton, some disinfectant and a roll of white sterile gauze.

While the red-eyed man tended to the injured medic, Sakura observed Fai with a light frown marring her features. He extracted a hypodermic needle from the box, filling it up with a light brown liquid. He slipped the needle under Syaoran's skin, earning nothing more than a small whimper from the teen as it was injected in his body.

Sakura noticed a small circular tattoo on the arm that younger male had been clutching before. She couldn't see it very clearly from where she stood but she took note of the single black circle, the surface of which was broken by a patch of clear skin in the shape of two long, large, mirror shaped images in the middle. They were similar to an elongated 'c' along the bottom but the top extended upwards, finishing in a point similar to the shadow of a bird's extended wing.

Her frown deepened, she was pretty sure there had been four of those 'c' like shapes a short while back, when Syaoran was having his episode. Her eyes then travelled to Fai's face. She looked at him closely. Nothing about him struck as familiar. She couldn't recall ever having met someone with hair the shade of gold like his.

But then again, she did seem to be missing quite a lot of her memories of the time before the age of sixteen. In fact, the only thing that she could remember was her name and nothing else.

The pilot sighed and placed his hand in top of the younger's head, observing him with a saddened expression. Feeling her gaze on him, the blond turned his golden eyes towards her with a questioning look.

"Have we ever met?" she decided to get it out of the way, "Before?"

"Met before now?" he repeated as something flashed behind his ochre orbs but it was gone so quickly that Sakura thought she must have imagined it. He shook his head, "No, I don't think so."

"Oh," she tried not to let her disappointment show but some of it must have leaked into her tone before Kurogane was now observing her just as closely as Fai. "Um, I think I'll head off to bed now." And before either of them could respond, she had raced out of the door.

She didn't know why but she felt frustrated and let down. It wasn't like she had been hoping to suddenly find the answers, right? Besides, there was still that code she had to crack. The one her associate had promised held some of the answers to what she was looking for.

Her shoulder pulsed, once again getting uncomfortably warm but she ignored it, letting the door slide close behind her before pulling her t-shirt off. Standing in a midriff undershirt and a pair of loose pajama's she walked over to the window that let her see the sky outside. Her pale refection stared back at her, the front of the right shoulder an angry red color. Pulling at the straps of her shirt, she scrutinized the mark.

A set of seven black pairs of wings outlined by a black circle were overlapped by a white circle, which was outlined twice in black. The outer circle had four pairs of interlocking stems branching out from the two sides with a much longer more complex, solitary black shaft extending downwards. While the wings pulsated and gave off a dull red glow, the overlying symbol glow a pale blue its tendrils flowing like water, completely covering the wings.

Slowly, both the glows dulled out and the symbols reverted back to their original form. Breathing hard, Sakura stumbled backwards till her knees collided with the bed and she fell backwards.

Outside, she heard quite footsteps in the corridor outside, telling her that the others were now going back to their own rooms. Feeling troubled by the sudden activation of the curse mark, she turned on her side, but, like always, sleep did not come easily to her.

A/N: So, there you have it. What do you think?

Sakura: *sighs in relief* You didn't blow up the ship.

Me: Blow up the ship? Nah. It's way too early for that. First I gotta kill off Kuro-dead, then get Syaoran kidnapped, then have him get tortured while you and Fai try to desperately search for him, then Syaoran has to go insane and then-

Fai: Um, I think you've got the wrong story.

Me: *surprised* I have?

Tomoyo: Yeah. Kurogane died in 'Dead'. You better not kill him here or…

Me: *frowns* I thought you were out cold.

Tomoyo: I woke up when I heard you mention killing Kurogane.

Me: Oh.

Fai: And besides, Syaoran is already insane in this one.

Me: Right you are, Fai dearest.

Fai: *yelps and hides behind Sakura* She's giving me that crazy-lady look again.

Sakura: *ignores him* What exactly happened to Syaoran?

Me: That I shall reveal in the next update. But before that, I want ten reviews!

Everyone: *glares*

Me: *steps back* okay. Okay, um… how about nine?

Everyone: *still glaring*

Me: alright… eight?

Everyone: *glares some more*

Me: Seven! That's final. And your evil glares won't work on me cuz I'm… I'm eviler.

Tomoyo: *sweatdrops* uh… Nims. There is no such word as eviler.

Me: *sticks out tongue* It is now.

Sakura: *facepalms* And she called me a kid.

Me: Yeah, well being mature all the time sucks. *sticks out tongue at Sakura* so there.

Fai: *shakes head* I can't believe she's twenty.

Kuro-escaped: I can safely say the same for you what with the way you normally act Mage.

Fai: But I'm older than her.

Kuro-not-paying-attention-to-me: Exactly.

Fai: And what- *interrupted by a delighted squeal*

Tomoyo: *exclaims* Digicam!

Me: *grins* That's right! *dances* I got a brand new DSC-W330! ~And I'm on cloud nine.

Mokona: Since Nims is too busy fawning over the digicam with Tomoyo, it is up to me to tell Mokona to end this A/N. Nims promises to try her level best to update as soon as her demands-

Fai: *sniffles* Meanie.

Kuro-still-not-noticing-Nims: *looks at Sakura* See what I mean?

Sakura: *sweatdrops* Yeah.

Fai: H- *interrupted by Mokona*

Mokona: *clears throat loudly* Anyway! As Mokona was saying as soon as Nims's demands are fulfilled, she will update.

Sakura: though thanks to her laptop, still not with her all the time, there might be a small delay.

Mokona: But she hopes that you will be able to forgive her for that since the circumstances are not in her control.

Nims: That will be all. I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have as long as the answers are not spoilers for the upcoming chapters. Till next time.

Ciao!