A/N: A big thank you to Bookworm5738 for being the pop-up reminder for this story. Your reminder made me write this update a lot faster ;)
Since a lot of people have been having trouble recalling what has happened so far I'll give a quick recap of the whole thing first. Anyone who is already up to date can just skip on ahead to the start of the story.
Sakura is an information thief on the run from Fei Wang Reed's special forces known as hunters. She hitches a ride on Kurogane's ship 'Little Dragon' and meets Tomoyo, Fai and Syaoran. Syaoran has a mysterious connection to Sakura's past which is something she has no memory of. Her search for the truth leads to many revelations and shocking discoveries including finding out that her brother and his best-friend are now hunters who joined to find out the truth about Sakura- who had been kidnapped from her home some years prior to the start of this story. Along the way she also discovers the truth about Syaoran being a subject of Fei Wang's experiments just like her to create the perfect warrior. Fai's past is revealed to be also connected to theirs since he had been the one to perform the experiments on Syaoran before breaking him out of the research facility. Sakura meets Kyle while shopping with Tomoyo and he claims to be her cousin thus getting passage on board Little Dragon though he betrays them by revealing himself to be working for FWR all along. He tries to take both Sakura and Syaoran back but Fai manages to save Sakura while Syaoran is kidnapped. Now the gang is on their way to rescue Syaoran gaining some unexpected help along the way. (I know I suck at recaps but at least you all have a general gist of what's going on, right?)
And now you are all up to date. ^_^ Enjoy the next chapter.
Xing took over as the group's leader once Touya led them out of the secret tunnels to the ones that had been constructed by Fei Wang for use underneath the castle. Her magic was already a part of the system's databases, so only a tiny spark in the security checkpoints let them through without a hitch until they reached the very end of their journey. Instructing Touya to conceal the presence of the two civilians through his magic, she accessed the last barrier. Contrary to what the witch had suspected, there were no guards waiting for them inside the chambers. Perhaps the disturbance outside in the city had not been enough to warrant additional security this far down into the network of tunnels. Fei Wang was a bit of an overconfident man when it came to the extent of his own power. The bastard probably did not suspect that someone would have enough skill to get this far down. He did not seem to have learnt a lesson from all the past instances of security breaches, most of them thanks to Sakura- as the hunter now knew.
"Where is he?" Kurogane growled impatiently once they had all stepped inside and the door slid shut behind them. "I don't see the kid anywhere."
"That's because what we received was not a person." Xing answered as she approached a tank of bubbling liquid in the middle of the room. Numerous wires were going in and out of the steel base, magical runes protecting whatever was inside. For a moment or two, he saw nothing but murky green water…but then he saw it. It was small enough to be someone's eyeball, though this thing was… more or less like a three-dimensional yin-yang sphere. That was the best description he could come up with for the thing inside the tank. "I was told it was an important part of a super weapon that we had recently re-acquired, but now that I've personally looked at it…" she trailed off, her frown deepening.
"What is it?" Touya asked, casting a spell for hidden cameras inside the room. But there was nothing at all. Again, it was rather surprising that Fei would not have arranged for proper surveillance of something he considered so important.
"It would seem they've successfully managed to extract his soul." Xing informed him.
"How is that even possible?" Tomoyo questioned.
"Forbidden curses and dark magic." Touya growled. "Is there any way to get it out of there?"
"I can obtain the soul," the witch replied, "but the minute it's out of the range of those runes, this place will go under lockdown and guards will come storming in from everywhere."
"How many can there be?" Kurogane asked, pulling out his sword as his fiancé drew her weapons as well.
"Far too many for the four of us to handle." The witch responded as the ground beneath her feet lit up with a magic circle. "Touya, I hope you had something planned out for your escape from this place after you acquired the soul, because now would be the time to perform that spell. You will only have a three second window to get away."
"You're not planning on staying behind, are you?" the hunter asked in alarm. "You'll be executed for treason!" he added when he realized that the witch had indeed been planning on staying behind.
"I die either way." She replied nonchalantly as the first of the magical runes began to waver under the power of her magic. "My seal won't allow me to leave Clow without express permission from my master." She reminded him, spitting out the word 'master' like it left a foul taste in her mouth.
"You shouldn't have come along, then!" Touya argued. "What the hell am I-"
"You should get started on that spell now, Touya." The witch cut in, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Staying behind is the better option when it comes to survival." She added with a small smile that did little to comfort the hunter. Unable to look her in the eye, he averted his gaze to see tendrils of gold slowly ripping away the magical seals surrounding the tank, the soul inside pulsing brighter and brighter.
Knowing that Xing Hou's spell was nearing completion, Touya reluctantly began casting the spell that would create a bridge to Hong Kong. He could only hope the others had managed to create a suitable enough distraction for their arrival by now as the witch's spell began to fade. He quickly located Yukito's magical signature and used it as an anchor for the arrival site in the other world. Space began to warp around them as the last of the floating runes surrounding the tank vanished and Xing summoned the soul from the tank. The witch threw it to the hunter without missing a beat as sirens blared all around them, lights flashing in bright colors. Touya felt the lockdown shields beginning to cage his magic but the shields took three seconds too long to bar the area completely. By the time the restraining magic was in full effect, the hunter and his two civilian companions were already touching down on Hong Kong soil.
-0-
Despite the severity of the situation, a delighted whoop escaped Sakura's lips as she soared through the darkened night sky of Hong Kong with Meiling and Fai accompanying her on hoverboards acquired by the female hunter. Half way across the city, she knew Masooma was busy rallying Meilin's former charges for the uprising. Yukito was waiting for Touya near the arrival site for Mokona since that was the only place that could shield her brother's magic. It had already been decided that Touya would be using Yukito as the anchor for his spell. They had left the hunter with spare hoverboards and an aerial map of Hong Kong, detailed by Meilin for ease of access to the Hong Kong palace for the latecomers. The overcast sky lit up every now and then with random flashes of lightening, heralding the oncoming rain, the rumble of thunder lost in the vibrations of the board underneath her feat as she raced towards the familiar forest green aura.
The hunter was their lead, bypassing various security placements in the airspace, eliminating the need to slow down to manually disable such checks and risk discovery. It all had to be timed perfectly, which was something everyone had been quite dubious about considering one half of their plan depended on Touya getting to Hong Kong in one piece with the soul and on time. If he was even a minute late, everything could be thrown out of balance resulting in immediate capture and certain death for most of the people involved. And yet here they all were, launching this assault based on prayers and secretly hoping that Touya would be able to make it.
It was just as they reached the outer boundaries of the palace that the chaos began throughout the rest of the city. Several command towers were brought down in brilliant explosions of crimson and gold, cutting off the link between the tattoos that adorned the flesh of all the magical hunters and the spell that was binding them to Fei Wang's servitude. Masooma had pointed out that taking those towers out of commission would be a very bold move but it would allow pretty much all of the magicians to come over to their side. Magicians did not like having their magic bound, after all. There would be a lot more people joining the fight once that obstacle was overcome, so that had been the focus of their initial attack. Although the magicians were fewer in number, their released magic would help even the odds in the rebels' favor even if the non-magical hunters remained loyal to the Bat Lord.
"Looks like your friends have already begun, Miss Meilin."Fai commented lightly as he hopped off the hoverboard, cheeks flushed from the ride and hair messier than usual but otherwise showing no signs of having just flown to the palace walls. His eyes nearly glowed in the dark as he shot a glance towards Sakura, his grin widening in pleasure as the auburn-haired teen felt his magic suddenly flood his body, growing and growing and growing until it felt like she was looking right into the core of a blazing star.
Taking the racket going on all over Hong Kong as their cue to begin, the blond hurled a powerful blasting curse at the palace wall that created a hole nearly twenty square feet in width in the structure. Alarms and sirens began blaring, drawing the attention of pretty much every single resident towards the intruders. Meilin had already informed them that not all the guards would leave their positions unless the ruckus they caused was huge. Somewhere inside the city several of the power stations blew up, one right after another and Sakura knew their group was gaining attention. Right after liberating the magicians, their next aim had been to cripple all forms of communication, creating as much panic as possible for the hunters' command in as short a span of time as possible.
But it still wasn't quite enough to get the secret weapon outside. Nodding at the blond, Sakura reached inside herself, conjuring a spell and launching it at wall that was automatically barricading itself. She was just the tiniest bit disappointed to realize that the destruction of the command towers had done nothing for the tattoo on her own shoulder. But she decided not to worry about that too much. Yuuko's counter-tattoo was still powerful enough to contain its effects. Besides, their group was pretty much on the way to starting a war in Hong Kong even if Fei Wang had not yet quite realized their intentions yet. She knew she could trust Yuuko and the girls back on Infinity to doing some serious damage to Fei Wang's network on other captive planets, adding to the chaos and confusion as much as possible. It was nearly an open declaration of war but something had to be done to contain the Bat Lord's ambitions.
Her magic caused the defensive repairs and security protocols to freeze long enough for the trio to get back on their hoverboards and zip inside. Drawing out her knives, Sakura charged the blades with her magic, cutting down those who came at her like vegetables. She did not let herself think about the lives she was taking because she knew the guilt would cripple her and that was something none of them could afford at this point. Letting her body perform the actions on autopilot, she concentrated solely on the feel of the wind rushing through her hair, letting the screams and cries and roars and the sirens all merge into the background noise. Her mind subconsciously went back to the time she had been racing with Syaoran through the rocky terrain of the planet ravaged by acid rains. She recalled the way his eyes had lit up with mirth as he had shot past her, grinning like a kid in a candy store as they had raced under, around and over various obstacles, his delighted laughter filling up the air. She found herself longing to hear that laughter one more time and it was then that she knew she would die before letting Fei Wang keep the amber-eyed brunette as a mindless slave.
-0-
Touya tried not to let the worry show on his face as the bridge to Clow closed up behind him, avoiding Yukito's eye as sheathed his sword.
"Where is he?" his bespectacled friend questioned, searching for a fourth member in their group. "Couldn't you find him?"
"We have him," Tomoyo answered for him, probably sensing his apprehension in facing his friend. Shewas perceptive enough to figure out that the witch they had left behind was someone important to the man waiting for them. "Fei Wang did something to his soul and he's…not quite the way he should be."
"I don't understand." Yukito frowned, searching the hunter's face for answers as he too seemed to sense that something was not quite right with Touya. "Did something happen?" he asked and it took everything the hunter had in him to meet his gaze and lie to his face.
"No, everything is fine. We should get to the Kaijuu before something happens." As though waiting for him to say just that, the ground shook dangerously as the sound of explosions and alarms pierced the air.
"Looks like they started without us." Kurogane grunted, his gaze travelling upwards when the roof of the decrepit place they were in started shaking and raining dust and debris on them all.
"How are we going to get to her?" he urgently asked Yukito, looking around for some sort of transport that could bring him to his little sister before he could say the word 'kaijuu'. Finding no such means of travel, he turned back towards the man.
"Meilin gave me a map to get to the rendezvous point. Grab a board," Yukito said, nodding towards the hoverboards lying near his feet, "and we can be off."
-0-
Sakura had expected Syaoran to emerge the moment the command towers went down, but it would seem that Fei Wang had figured out their intentions. Or maybe he over-estimated his hunter force's capability to subdue the small group of rebels. Or was he holding the brunette as a trump card to use at the last possible moment to turn the tide of what was, up until this point, pretty much an even fight? Whatever the reason, Sakura could feel Meilin's irritation at the Bat Lord keeping her cousin from her even now.
"Miss Meilin," Fai started once they had safely landed near a secret passage that led into the castle, "do you know where the mainframe for Fei Wang's control spell is?"
"Why do you ask?"
"What Miss Masooma said about Fai's magic being used to bind these tattoos," he responded with the slightest narrowing of his eyes, "I'm sure you can understand my reasons for wanting to put an end to it, can you not?"
"I do understand," she responded with a solemn nod as she entered a long sequence of codes into a panel disguised to look like just another stone in a long stretch of the wall, "but we need to find Syaoran. I can't waste the time to take you there."
Seeing the way the blond clenched his jaw at the female hunter's response, Sakura felt a pang of sadness for the fate that had befallen the pilot's brother. She might have pushed for Meilin to help him if she had not wanted to find Syaoran just as much as she did. But they had no idea where he could be, unless…
"Meilin, take us to the mainframe." She said hurriedly, grabbing the raven-head's hand to turn her around to face Sakura even as a passage opened up in the wall behind the hunter.
"We need to find Syaoran." The hunter repeated a little angrily.
"Do you know where he is?" she shot back, noticing with satisfaction that the glare dulled just a little bit on the other woman's face."If all this ruckus has not yet forced Fei Wang to send him out, maybe an attack right at the heart of his operations will force his hand. We can bring Syaoran to us."
Sakura tried not to look too pleased when Fai softly thanked her for helping convince the hunter a short while later as they hurried through the concealed passageways.
Kaijuu, where are you three? She heard Touya's voice in her head so suddenly she nearly jumped a foot into the air. We're on the way to the palace. Why didn't Meilin give a more specific place to meet up than the palace itself? That place is huge!
Nii-san, a little warning would have been nice. She pouted back at her brother, feeling glad that he had made it back safely, even if they were all racing right into danger. We're heading to the western side of the palace. You can just follow my signal to get here. He did not reply again but she could feel his presence in her mind, probably concentrating on flying through the city. It was still reassuring to know he was there for her when she needed him.
We have his soul with us. He spoke up after a very long time, just as Sakura was about to follow Meilin into the main part of the castle. From here on out they would all have to fight their way to the mainframe.
We'll see you at the mainframe, then. She mentally grinned, ducking under the guard that came rushing at her, whirling out of the way of a second one while Meilin stabbed a third. Fai's magic crackled all over his body, shooting out in random arcs to electrocute anyone who came at the blond, no spells needed, just raw, untamed power bursting from inside of him as though he had far too much to spare.
Although the pilot was expending so much magic, he did not look anywhere near out of breath yet and she wondered not for the first time just how powerful the man was. When they reached an intersection in the passageways, Sakura felt him release another blast that took care of the ones following them and coming after them from the sides. Meilin raced ahead with a roar, sword slicing through a hunter as she dropped to the floor, skidding across the stones with her sword raised. Three hunters fell with agonized screams as their legs were cut right from their bodies.
Not wanting to be outdone when Meilin shot a smirk at her over her shoulder, Sakura summoned her knives back, jumping into the foray as bolts of magical lightening roasted hunters right and left.
-0-
Yukito explained what had happened after they had arrived on the planet, sharing what Meilin had come up with and how they were trying to create as much havoc and confusion as possible while they all flew over the city. Buildings continued to blow up random intervals, screams and sirens creating an angry cacophony that wasn't much different from nails screeching against a board. Trying to fly as high above the destruction below as possible, Touya hurriedly connected with Sakura, feeling just a bit irritated that Meilin had not thought of specifying a location less broad than the palace itself. It irked him that she had just told them to meet inside the palace and not elaborated or pointed out any possible reconnaissance locations.
Kaijuu, where are you three? He nearly yelled at her the moment a connection was established with his sister, We're on our way to the palace. Why didn't Meilin give a more specific place to meet up than the palace itself? That place is huge!
Nii-san, a little warning would have been nice. He could nearly picture her pouting in irritation, We're heading to the western side of the palace. You can just follow my signal to get here.
He was just about to tell her that they had successfully regained the brat's soul when a bullet whizzed past his ear.
"Hunters!" he yelled for the benefit of his companions who had yet to notice they were being pursued. Not even a blink of an eye later, they all had their respective weapons drawn, Tomoyo pulling a few rather impressive feats on the hoverboard as she zipped through the air towards a burly man. Kurogane shot towards a second, taking his head off in a move too fast to be seen before heading for the third. Touya and Yukito shot spells at the remainder, quickly taking care of the small party of hunters and continuing on their way to the palace. He knew Sakura would be worried about whether they had actually succeeded in doing what they had gone to Clow for, so he spoke to her again. We have his soul with us.
We'll see you at the mainframe then. She replied, making Touya wonder where that was located. But he decided they could always just beat up a hunter once they were inside to get directions for the place if something hindered him from following his Kaijuu's magic which was lit up like a beacon or that of the blond pilot who at full power was nearly as strong as Yuuko Ichihara herself. It would be impossible to miss that even if he was for some reason unable to find the Kaijuu.
-0-
It nearly took half an hour of fighting and getting past other hunters before the trio finally made it to the mainframe. She grew a little alarmed despite herself when she spotted a strange expression on the blonde's face as they stopped outside a pair of elaborately engraved doors. They opened up to a ballroom once upon a time, she could recall, having gone there as a child with Syaoran in what felt like another life. It really could not be her childhood in this one. That innocent, giggling girl was worlds apart from the cold-blooded killer she was now.
"We're here." Meilin panted, the sweat beading her brow mingling with the blood that slowly leaked from a nearly-clotted cut on her forehead. She must have gotten it in one of Fai's magical explosions. "It's through those doors. Do you have a plan of some sort?" she turned to the two of them, turning her attention solely to Fai when Sakura looked at him. He moved towards the doors in a slow, trance-like state, his eyes glazed and bloodshot. The magic that had been crackling all over his body had retreated so deeply, Sakura wasn't able to detect it unless she concentrated very hard.
"He's still in pain." She heard the blond murmur. "You can hear the screams too, right?" Apart from the far-off sounds of combat, Sakura could hear nothing. Meilin's look told her that neither did she.
"There's no one screaming," she said hesitantly, reaching out to touch the blond on his shoulder, immediately drawing back with a gasp when her head momentarily filled up with the screams of someone in agonizing pain. Eyes wide, she looked at the blond as though he was a being from an entirely different world. She had trouble drawing in her next breath as her gaze travelled to the palm of her own hand before returning to the blonde's back.
"I have to set this right," he mumbled, the magic that had become nearly nonexistent suddenly snapping to the surface in a blast even more powerful than the one that he had released at the palace walls. Sakura couldn't help but shriek in surprise and duck for cover as debris flew towards her and Meilin. By the time she looked up, the blond was stepping over the threshold of the destroyed doors. Inside, a brilliant blue orb nearly the size of a two-man transporter ship hovered a couple of feet off the ground, hundreds of wires connecting it to the consoles lining the entirety of the once-magnificent ballroom. A glow matching the orb surrounded the blonde's entire body as he drew closer to what was powering the mainframe. Tendrils of magic much like the auroras that lit up the skies above Clow reached out for him, pulling him closer and closer, his body rising off the ground as he got pulled inside the ball.
Slowly, his arms spread out as the wires that were connected to the orb suddenly shot towards him, piercing his body nearly enough times to be fatal. She nearly ran towards him when Meilin caught her arm.
"He knows what he's doing." The older woman warned, "Don't try to help him or you might get him killed." Biting her lip, she worriedly looked at the blond as energy began zipping through the wires to and from the control panels, using the blond's body as a conductive medium. Only a heartbeat later, the pilot opened his mouth to let out a scream so loud it nearly shattered her eardrums.
"You should not be here." Said a chilling voice, piercing through the screams despite being so soft.
Sakura froze where she was when she sensed the deadly aura belonging to the speaker, gasping when tendrils of a thick haze of magic began to caress her magic in thin tendrils. Next to her, Meilin turned white as a sheet as she turned around to face the newcomer. Sakura could still hear Fai screaming in the background, but suddenly her own blood was pounding too loudly inside her ears. A small cry escaped her lips when a sharp stab of pain went through her right shoulder, eyes watering as an invisible, white-hot poker pressed to her flesh. Clutching at her shoulder as the tattoo activated once more, she dropped to her knees, distantly picking up on Meilin's voice calling out her attacker's name.
"Syaoran…" she whimpered the same time as the brunette's cousin spoke.
A/N: And that's it for now. I'm trying to get the next chapter finished soon but my plunnies are on a strike for now. Drop me lots of reviews to help me bribe the stupid things into coming back to work. :3