What Kind of Man

3. The Shrine, part one

     The hard landing left Sakura winded, and in her ears she still heard the thrumming footsteps of their pursuers and the whistling of time turning in on itself. She recalled that after getting the last feather, they managed to somehow get away from the swarm of mechanized beasts that was searching for them. It was a blur, and she had had no time to process what happened. One moment she was recovering from the flood of memories and sensations that came over her every time she regained a bit of her spirit, and the next moment Syaoran was carrying her somewhere in his arms, then taking a running jump off a rooftop. Air rushed around them violently as they fell. Instinctively, she clung to his neck and saw below them the portal Mokona had opened. She shut her eyes.

Now she lay on the ground, panting. No, not quite on the ground. Syaoran lay beneath her, his arms around her still.

If it wasn't for this Syaoran, and for Fai and Kurogane, she wouldn't be here now. He would have dragged her with him through the worlds, not because he wanted to help, but because that was the will of Fei-Wong Reed. All the same, Sakura did not care. She could not help whom she loved. She loved him still. She would love him always. And she was going to bring him back, somehow.

With that in mind, she finally succeeded in opening her eyes. Syaoran groaned quietly. She could feel his wiry, hard frame struggle to take a deeper breath, yet his hands steadied her body first and he rose very slowly, gently settling her on the ground beside him.

"Princess?" he asked, his voice hoarse from the impact.

Sakura nodded weakly, signalling she was alright. Unfolding her cloak, she checked on Mokona. A small fluffy ball of white fur trembled against her chest.

"Mokona, what happened? Are you ok?" she asked

"This is a bad place..." said Mokona weakly. "Mokona couldn't do the spell properly. Something bad is going on here."

"But, there is a feather on this world?" asked Syaoran.

"There is one," confirmed Mokona. "Very close. And very far."

Sakura and Syaoran exchanged looks. What could this mean?

"Where are the others?" asked Sakura, looking around and noticing Fai and Kurogane were missing. "And... where are we?"

Based on the echoes and the earthy dampness of the air, they were in a vast, dim cave, the proportions of which they could not quite gauge. They could see well enough, but not very far. High above them was an opening in the rocky ceiling, through which a shaft of light was falling.

     They had never before exited a portal below ground, and Sakura felt disoriented. Why did Mokona say it was a bad place? And how were they going to get out? As she looked around, something nagged at her mind. She felt like she had been here before, or that perhaps she was destined to come here; she could not tell if this was merely another shadow of a memory, or a premonition. Yet, there was something familiar about the place, even if it was shrouded in darkness. Faintly, she could smell water.

"Are you alright to walk?" asked Syaoran, getting to his feet. He winced a bit, and Sakura suspected he was injured worse than he was letting on. It was strange being around him. The two Syaorans were, in a way, the same person; and yet, they were not at all the same. Ever since Tokyo, she was not sure how to behave with this Syaoran. It did not help that she only half remembered who she herself was, and, as was becoming more and more apparent, who she wasn't. And that, more that anything, held her back.

"You're injured," she told him, guessing he probably had broken a rib or two.

"I'll be fine," he said and gave her a small smile. He was strong, she knew that. Still, she cared; they all risked so much, so thoughtlessly. Soon, she knew, something irreversible will happen. She needed to be prepared for that.

Syaoran helped her up, and for a few moments they just looked around, trying to decide where to go. They listened to the sounds of the cave, let their eyes adjust to darkness, and hoped for a gut feeling to lead them in a direction. Finally Mokona spoke up.

"This way," she pointed down a passage, having settled on Sakura's shoulder. For lack of a better guide, they began making their way into the thickening gloom.

They kept close to the wall of the cave, which, after a time, narrowed into a wide corridor. For a time they walked in darkness and in silence, though both could see well enough in the dark, as all the people of Clow Country. At least, Sakura was pretty sure Syaoran too was from Clow. Her sense of self was far less fragmented now than when they embarked on this journey, when all she could remember, hazily, was her name.

And yet, there were many things she did not know still, connections she could not make. The only way to restore herself was to collect the 'feathers,' little bits and pieces of her spirit scattered across the dimensions, even if it was playing right into Fei-Wong Reed's monstrous plan. Why had he first scattered Sakura's spirit in time and space, then forced the circumstances in which the four of them would travel the universe to retrieve them? They were hardly closer to solving this mystery.

No, Sakura corrected herself, this was not entirely accurate. The fact is, they have finally managed to learn the name of their enemy, and they were taking charge of their own journey. After all, Fei-Wong Reed did not account for the four of them. Syaoran-kun was supposed to go alone, and, he was not supposed to have a soul; Yūko intervened as much as she could, forcing the hand of Fate, giving them a fighting chance. It was this chance that kept them moving forward now, that drove them to continue their mission, regardless of how crazy it was. Whether or not this was the right thing to do, they did not know, and Yūko wouldn't tell them. Sakura suspected she could not tell them, anyway, for the price they would need to pay would be too great. The most powerful being in the universe was also the most limited; Yūko's hands were tied by her responsibility to keep all time and space from unravelling at the seams. If they succeed, Sakura thought, would Yūko be free at last? And, would she want to be free? Sakura was not sure of this, either.

After walking for some time, a faint glow appeared at the end of the corridor, growing stronger as they drew near it. They tried to make as little sound as possible, moving lightly. The passage began to curve, and they crept along slowly, keeping to the shadows.

The glow ahead intensified, until they reached a great vaulted hall, cut straight into the stone, and illuminated by numerous clusters of glowing yellow orbs. The corridor they were following led them out onto the middle level of this vast space, a wide balustrade running the perimeter of the walls. Terraced ledges rose high above them and descended lower below, the last steps leading into a pool of clear water. Syaoran gasped quietly.

"What is it?" Sakura whispered. For some reason, she was loath to raise her voice.

Syaoran looked at her with a strange expression. "You don't recognize this place?" he asked, his golden-brown eyes searching her face. Sakura shook her head.

"It is just like the shrine, at the ruins," he said, his gaze fixed on the opposite wall where a kind of platform jutted further out into the air. "The temple at the ruins in Clow Country," he added, quietly. "The place where your initiation was to take place."

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A/N

If you're wondering what happened and whether or not you're still reading the same story, I hasten to reassure you -- this chapter is just told from a new POV :P Fans of Tsubasa may have a better grasp on who these new characters are, but I hope the rest of you are not totally lost either... 

As always, I want to know what you think! :)