A/N: I know. I know. I took a really long time to update but in my defense a LOT of stuff has happened that has distracted me from pretty much everything else and well… lets just say I'm slowly staring to get back on track though sadly, I still have a tough month ahead of me what with finals coming up in a couple of weeks and then I have my final year project defense after which I will finally be a graduate! Yay. But then I'll have to start looking for a job and think about what I want to do with my life and whatnot. *sighs* being a grown up is hard work… -_- I wish I could go back to being a carefree kid again. Anywho, enough of my ramblings. I'm sure you'd rather read the story. ;) ;)

So yeah, Enjoy~

Magic crackled in the air, coming to Sakura's defense and throwing the Handler into the wall of the house. With a cry of rage the unnamed female mage redirected the spell she had been launching at Fai and sent it the auburn haired girl's way instead. Sakura ducked out of the way of the first spell but the second spell caught her by surprise, burning her flesh and making her scream in pain as she was sent crashing into Fai. Invisible alarms started blaring all around them as the magic tripped whatever detection mechanism was in place.

Cursing under her breath, Sakura hurried to her feet, feeling Fai summon what little magic he could spare to the surface as well as the Handler and her mage got ready to face off against them.

"What the heck are you doing?" Before any of them could break the little stand-off, Yukito's sudden cry took them all by surprise.

"Stay back, Yue." The female magician seemingly warned Yukito without even so much as looking at him as she flicked her fingers through the air and a crimson spell came to life in the space before her. Sakura took note of the foreign name the woman had used. He probably went by a different name when dealing with the hunters here.

"No! Stop." He yelped, jumping over the hedge to and rushing to stand between the two pairs. "They're with me." The female magician let go of the spell upon hearing that and Sakura saw the Handler relax her stance as well. Yukito on the other hand stiffened when he heard the sound of more Hunters coming their way, "We can't be seen by anyone." He told the Handler urgently.

"What do you mea-" the female magician started but she cut off when they all heard the distinct sound of hunters yelling instructions in the distance.

The Handler whirled on her heels, unlocking the door with a quick swipe of her fingers against the keypad. "Quick," she barked, pushing the door open before grabbing hold of her charge- the unnamed female magician- and pulling her towards the hedge, "get them inside."

"Let's go." Yukito caught hold of Sakura's wrist, dragging her towards the word and motioning for Fai to do the same. The door swung shut behind them and not a second later they heard the female mage let out a blood-curdling scream. Sakura wrenched her hand from the bespectacled man's grip and turned around to race outside only to have her path blocked by Fai.

"Don't." He said through grit teeth, his expression stony and his jaw clenched, "she's covering for us."

"Wha-?" she made to push him aside as the magician outside screamed even louder, "she's being tortured!" she hissed angrily when the blond refused to budge. If possible, Fai's jaw tightened even more at the sound of the magician's screams.

"That's the cover for illegal use of magic." Yukito whispered hurriedly, looking quite green in the face as he pulled her deeper into the house. The woman's screams died and she heard the hunters say something to the Handler on the other side of the door. "They'll need a reason for the tripped alarms. She'll put the blame on her charge."

"That Handler is using her own charge to cover for us?" Sakura pulled free from Yukito's hold on her as she quickly made her way towards the paper window she had spotted from the outside. Cautiously sliding it open just a fraction of an inch she felt Fai walk up behind her. The gas lamp that was lit up right outside covered their faces in the relative darkness of the house from anyone looking in. Sakura bit her lip, watching the previously proud-looking female magician lying in a pitiful crumpled heap at the feet of her handler, the former's body shivering and trembling for the aftershocks of whatever spell had been used on her. Her Handler was talking to a group of round about ten armed hunters, her expression one of cool detachment as she eyed the magician at her feet before turning her attention to the hunters before her.

"Are you sure Madam?" one of the hunters was saying to the Handler, "We could take her away to be disciplined a little more."

"If I am in need of assistance, I would let you know myself Captain." The Handler responded coolly as she kicked the female mage in the ribs, "just because this bitch thought she might be able to take me by surprise this time around…" here she gave a cold grin that caused an invisible shudder to race down Sakura's spine. A soft crimson glow surrounded the female mage just as her Handler snapped her fingers sharply before a spark of magic raced through her entire body and she let out another deafening scream. Sakura watched on as the Handler tortured her charge for the sake of covering up their illegal use of magic before she let go of whatever spell it was that was tormenting the female magician. The woman spat in the Handler's face with a look of pure loathing and rage even though she was trembling quite badly.

Sakura held her breath as the Handler wiped her face before punching the female mage in the stomach causing the latter to groan in pain before curling up in a fetal position just as the Handler turned her attention back to the Hunters, "I am perfectly capable of teaching my charge gentlemen. You can leave now." Then without waiting for another response from the men, she bent to wrap her fingers around the magician's shoulder-length hair that she then used to bodily drag her towards the house."I will see you in the afternoon tomorrow." The Handler threw nonchalantly over her shoulder as she paused halfway. Fai made a noise of disgust as he reached out and slid the window close before moving towards the door as Sakura heard the unmistakable sound of the Handler dragging her charge towards the door.

"I want an explanation, now." The Handler hissed the minute she was through the door as she marched up to Yukito while Fai moved on to help the unnamed female magician to her feet before supporting her to a small couch. The woman slumped on the seat, looking pale and rather sickly as opposed to the strong person Sakura had seen outside when she had been attacked by the magician. "What is the meaning of you dragging not one but two frigging unregistered magicians to Hunter Central?" The Handler snarled as she towered over Yukito. "I used my charge as a scapegoat for a reason I don't know so it better be good."

"We have found your cousin." Yukito's reply caused the Handler to gasp and take a step back. The anger drained from her eyes as she collapsed on the sofa in a graceless heap.

"Y-You found him?" the red-eyed woman stuttered, looking at Yukito in wide-eyed disbelief. Sakura noticed the female magician push Fai away as she too sat up a little straighter, despite the sickly pallor of her skin. "Where is he?"

"Mei-chan," Yukito sighed and Sakura's gaze snapped back to the red-eyed handler. That name… Mei-chan.

"You're just a fat little Kaijuu."

"I am not. You don't have to be mean like my Onii-san."

"I am not like that jerk! And you're still a Kaijuu."

.

.

.

"Your cousin was being mean to me again Shao-lan-kun. I don't like her when she calls me a Kaijuu… I'm not a monster."

"Mei-chan is just mad that my magic doesn't like her as much as you."

"Well… maybe if she wasn't so mean, it would like her too."

"You're Li Mei-ling!" Sakura exclaimed, taking in the familiar lines of her face. It had lost its childish chubbiness that she recalled in her memories, growing sharper with age giving a little bit of a cruel edge to her features but there was no mistaking her identity. This formidable handler who did not hesitate to use her own charge as a scapegoat was the jealous girl who used to tease her endlessly with her brother, all because her cousin's magic liked Sakura more than her.

"No one has called me by that name since…" the woman frowned, squinting at Sakura as though struggling to recall where she had seen her before. The information thief watched her expression shift from confusion to realization to delight as stood back up and hesitantly approached her, "Sakura-chan?"

Sakura smiled softly in confirmation and found herself being pulled into a bone-crushing hug.

"Touya must be so delighted to have finally found you," the woman, Mei-ling breathed as she pulled away to look at her. To Sakura, it seemed as though if she was memorizing her face, afraid to have her vanish the very next second. "Speaking of which, why isn't that bastard here in person to tell me? And you say you found Xiao-lang too." She grinned, looking back at Yukito. "Well? Where is he?"

Yukito's solemn expression made her smile crumble as she looked back at Sakura worriedly.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you know about Fei Wong's latest weapon Meiling?" If the handler noticed Sakura's omission of the honorific with her name, she chose to ignore it in favor of focusing on the more pressing issue. Sakura knew it might be weird for someone so used to using the honorific system of addressing to suddenly be addressed in such a familiar or rather rude manner but having given up on the custom herself back when she lost her memories, Sakura found it a little weird herself having to add something like that to anyone's name when she addressed them. Meiling would just have to get used to her rudeness. *

"Just that it's supposed to be unstoppable," she replied as her frown deepened, "and that it was recently reacquired by one of his most trusted men. They brought it here a couple of days ago."

"The weapon is not an 'it', Miss." Fai piped up from his position beside the female magician all of a sudden.

"You are?" Meiling turned around, quirking a brow at the blond.

"My name is Yuui," the pilot offered with a slight tip of his head.

"You're the rogue that destroyed the Research Facility." The handler breathed, looking back at Sakura in shock as though wondering why in the world she was associating herself with a criminal like that.

"Moreover," Fai continued, climbing to his feet, "I am also the mage that was in-charge of Project Tsubasa."

"Why are you telling me this?" Meiling questioned sharply, "Why are you three here? Yuki, what are you guys getting at? Why isn't Touya her ? You say you've found Xiao-lang so where is he" To Sakura, the handler appeared more and more like a cornered animal with every successive question. "And why the heck are you beating around the bushes with these roundabout questions? What aren't you telling me?"

"I think you might already know the answers to some of your questions," Fai replied before either she or Yukito could speak up.

"No… That's ridiculous," the handler laughed shakily, her face losing all color as she looked at Sakura and Yukito for confirmation of her fears. "It can't be… He wouldn't… not to him… Not to Xiao-lang…"

"Fei Wong's secret weapon," Sakura nodded grimly, "It is Syaoran."

-0-

"Are we just going to sit here and wait until one of the moons pulls us in?" Touya heard Kurogane grunt as he climbed to his feet from the floor and walked over to the control console. The hunter said nothing in reply because he had nothing to say.

"Well… on the bright side, at least none of the hunters can come after us," Tomoyo pointed out hopefully, "we would still have been shooting them down if the field had not caught up to us."

"I would have preferred being shot down to crashing on a lifeless rock." The red-eyed ex-captain snorted, "was getting us stranded a part of your brilliant plan?"

Touya ignored the man, choosing instead to focus his energies on trying to figure out a way to get Mokona moving before the gravitational pull made them crash on one of the moons. Maybe he could try and reroute the power from the canons blasters to the thrusters? But that would leave them defenseless against any further attacks and the shields could handle only so much. They were already operating at half capacity. A blast from one of their disabled pursuers jolted Mokona and Touya cursed under his breath.

Warning! Shields at 40%

Great, make that less than half…

Maybe if they-

"Touya, activate the cannons." Tomoyo ordered.

"The shields are the only thing currently protecting us," he replied, running a frustrated hand through his hair, "if I activate the cannons we will be like sitting ducks out here."

"The shields are going to die in a couple more hits." The medic pointed out, "I think I know of a way to get us out of this problem."

"And that's by letting down the shields?" he quirked a brow.

"No. I'd have preferred it if we could keep the shields but… just do as I say for now?"

"Not until I hear what you have in mind." He replied stubbornly, even as he silently gave the mainframe the command to power up the blasters. He'd wait to activate them until he had heard what she had in mind but if there was a possibility it could work, he wouldn't want to waste a lot of time getting out of there lest they become trapped in the gravitational pull of one of the moons.

"We can use the momentum of generated by firing blasters to get to a point where we are past Clow's freefall range. Once inside, gravity should do the rest of the work for us."

"that's… brilliant," he said tiredly, running his hand through his hair once more, "but you do realize that once we're falling we will crash into the surface and that won't really be of much help to the brat or anyone else."

"You could always try and steer us close to the place we have to get to and maybe…"

"Maybe what?"

"Oi! Quit putting her down. Unlike you, at least she came up with something." Kurogane growled angrily and Touya had to resist the urge to wring his neck. Now was not the time to act like a possessive little jealous puppy.

"You can steer the ship to crash-land us near the destination." The medic interrupted him just before he could give the captain a piece of what exactly he thought of the man, "The shields should be strong enough to keep us from blowing up at impact, right?"

Touya tried to recall the stuff about shield strengths he had gone over with Yukito before a raid once upon a time. Another blast rocked the ship and Touya felt them move a little towards Nadeshiko.

Warning! Shields at 35%

Cursing under his breath, Touya hurriedly pulled up the commands to release the cannons. If this kept up, they would all die for sure. At least this way, they would die knowing they tried.

"I hope you're right." Touya said to the medic as the seat sunk back into the vessel and the blasters controls emerged in their place. "The last blast knocked us towards Nadeshiko. Tomoyo, take the right blaster, Kurogane the left one. Fire when I tell you to. The propellers won't work until we hit the atmo so until then, you two will be steering us in the right direction."

Moving like a pair of trained troops, they both manned the cannons, following his commands perfectly, the force of the blasts slowly but surely directing them towards their initial destination. It was not the most ideal way to move but it was all that they had. "Keep firing every half minute until I tell you to stop." He directed the pair.

"Why? What are you going to do?"

"Calling in some reinforcements."

"The heck does that mean?" Touya heard Kurogane question in the distance as he closed his eyes and felt himself immediately lost in the inky blackness of space that separated the minds of magicians. Searching for one mind in particular, Touya floated around for what felt like ages but knew in fact to be no more than a few seconds back in the physical world, he latched in on the magical signature he seeked. Checking around for others in close proximity to his target and finding none, Touya sent a tiny magical ping, patiently waiting for confirmation from the other magician. He did not have to wait for long to receive the response.

"Prince Touya, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I haven't been a prince in a very long time, I still don't get why you insist on calling me that."

"Because the throne shall one day belong to you again and I wouldn't want to be sent to the gallows because I failed to give you the proper respect you deserved?"

"You and I both know Yukito would have a lot to say in that regard if that was the reason I sent you to the gallows. If I ever get the throne back that is."

"As nice as it is to talk to you again, I'm guessing the reason why it is you and not Yukito who contacted me, you need help?"

"Yeah… I'm in a bit of a pinch here."

"…what do you want from me?"

"A bit of distraction and a ride underground would be nice."

"How long will you be?"

"At the rate we're going, I'd say we'll be crashing in the desert in about fifteen clicks."

"Twenty minutes huh?"

"Give or take a few."

"You said we. Yukito is with you too? Is he okay? Why didn't he-"

"No he's not with me and yes, hopefully he's okay. I've got two civvies with me."

"What's going on Touya?"

"Some really precious cargo was moved into the facility recently, right?"

"Please tell me you're not going after it."

"That is exactly what we are after."

"I hope you realize if I die helping you out, I'm coming back to haunt you."

"Well, just remember to wear something sexy before you die then."

"And have your crazy girlfriend exorcise me? No thank you."

He felt distant jolts toss about his body in the physical realm and realized they were hitting the atmosphere. Knowing that time was running out, he started drawing away.

"I'll see you real soon. We're hitting the atmo so I need to get going."

"Send me a signal when you get here."

Blearily he opened his eyes, taking in the sight of burning air on the other side of the viewscreen.

"Tomoyo, Kurogane, turn the blasters at one eighty degrees and fire a steady beam." He ordered, hurriedly routing power to the ships rudders and rotors, "We need to lose some velocity before I steer."

The pair did as told, Touya watching the speed monitor with bated breath. They were still in free fall but thanks to the fire, they had slowed down a fraction. Knowing it was the best he could hope for, Touya carefully directed the ships trajectory towards the ruins right outside of Clow's capital.

"Okay, cut the beams." He threw over his shoulder, keeping one eye on the speedometer while the other was glued to the controls as he started pulling up commands for the shields, sending backup power to the shield generators to strengthen their final product. Unfortunately for them, one of the patrollers seemed to have gotten the same idea as them because the sky suddenly lit up with narrowly missed blaster shots from their pursuers. Cussing violently under his breath, Touya tried to keep the ship from spiraling out of control, hoping against hope that the chasers would keep in missing their ship because once he pulled up the shields, He would not have any way to steer Mokona anymore.

The rudders needed a steady stream of air blowing through them to adjust the ship's path without the engines functional. Luck however, it seemed was not completely on their side as one of the blasts hit a little too close for comfort, sending Mokona into an uncontrollable spin. Tomoyo let out a surprised scream as the ship whirled about its own axis. Touya thought he saw one of the ship's wings fly off out of the rear view but it could have been just a trick of his eye as they spun and spun and spun. He did catch an explosion in the sky for a brief moment as the view-screen kept showing the sky and the quickly closing up desert horizon in swift cycles. At a drop of only about hundred feet from the ground, Touya threw the shield generator on in full blast, crossing his fingers and praying to all the spirits of the world that his sister had not had to experience as scary a landing as this.

Touya hit his head against some part of the ship that came loose from its fixture in the steel frame of the ship as his world dissolved into inky nothingness moments before they hit the ground with a bone shattering blast. A mighty shower of sand and debris was flying everywhere, visible from miles away.

A cloaked figure cursed under its breath, having seen the show from the top of the outer wall of Capital City. Clenching their fists, the person lowered their head and hurriedly turned away, descending the stairs that lead back into the city. Only half a minute later, guards and hunters were rushing from all parts of the city towards the walls where a series of explosions had started sending the citizens and its supposed protectors in a state of frenzied panic.

A/N: It's not beta'd so if you spot any mistakes feel free to point them out. I'm sorry to leave you all hanging on such a major cliffie here (a-gain!) but things are definitely going to pick up the pace from here. I think it will be about five more chapters before the end so yeah, we're nearing the final, epic battle with the whole race against time scenario added to the mix. How many of you are saddened to hear this story is about to end? I know I am. It has been really fun writing this story. It's been about two years since I started working on this. Actually, it's been one year and eleven months. When I started out with this fic, I never imagined it would receive such a positive response from you guys but I'm glad you stuck with me till now, putting up with my stupid mistakes in un-beta'd chapters and long delays between updates when I hit blocks. I appreciate each and every one of you guys for sticking with me and I hope you'll have enough patience to put up with my delays and mistakes for a little longer.

Thinking about the past has put me in a nostalgic mood for some reason. *sighs* What were your favorite parts in this story? You know the part that you read and you went 'Oh My God!' or… something like that ^_^; I personally loved the three chapters revealing Yuui's past the most out of everything but I'm a little biased towards him anyways. I would absolutely love to hear from you guys because seriously people, this story is about to draw to an end and with my university life coming to an end as well… it's kinda like I feel like everything is drawing to a close but! A new chapter will soon begin and I'm hopeful it will turn out to be fun.

Well this has turned out to be a really long A/N so I'll put an end to it now but before I say 'until next time' I'd just like to say that to all THE VAMPIRE DIARIES fans out there I'm putting up a crossover oneshot for that one with TRC. It's titled 'How I met Mr. Flourite.' so feel free to check it out. ;) ;)

*I'm not really sure but I think it is considered rude to address someone without an honorific in the Japanese culture without having their explicit permission unless you are really close with them, right?