The Moonlight Ruins

Written by: Lilacheart (I'm sure you all know that.)

This story takes place somewhere between Tokyo and Infinity. Kurogane has not yet lost his arm, Fai is a vampire, and they are all traveling with the real Syaoran. Sakura is slightly less closed off here. The story is told from Syaoran's point of view. I hope you all like it!

Chapter One

I saw the symbol below my 'feet'...seconds before I was dropped on my head.

You know, I really should come to expect this by now.

So, now that I had no idea where we were and I had a pounding headache to boot, I looked around. Mokona, who was usually on top of Sakura's head by this point, had hopped towards me. "Syaoran, are you alright!? Mokona's sorry!"

I forced a smile. It was hard to stay mad at the little guy. "I'm OK," I assured it gently, petting its head. "Don't worry about it so much."

Mokona gave me a hug. This time, I actually did smile. I lifted it up off the ground and placed it on my shoulder. "So, how do I flip from my feet to my head in a few seconds?" I wondered aloud. It let out a weary sigh as I turned to face Kurogane, Fai, and Sakura. They had fared...just about as well as I had.

"...There's something about this place that makes Mokona feel sort of funny. Mokona thinks that's what made you all land badly."

As I got to my feet, I tried to understand what it was talking about. Believe me when I say it wasn't hard. The air around the building just crackled with darkness.

"This place is trouble waiting to happen," I announced. Everyone nodded.

"Is there any purpose looking around?" Mokona asked. "Mokona does sense a feather, but...is it safe enough?"

I wish I'd said no. Damn it, I wish I'd said no. If I had any idea what I was getting the group into, I would've said no.

But I didn't know.

"It's probably worth it to explore," I sighed. Kurogane seemed to agree with me. He got to his feet and started trying to relocate his shoulder.

Fai, however, looked uneasy. "Are you sure?"

"Not really," I admitted. I stepped a couple of paces forward and held out my hand to Sakura. Her foot was twisted at a bad angle. Nodding gratefully, she took my hand, and I pulled her up.

"Are you OK?" She asked me. I nodded. "Yes, I'm fine, I've just got a bit of a headache." I looked down at her ankle. "Is it broken, twisted, or dislocated?" I asked, more than slightly worried. She twitched her foot experimentally and winced.

"...More than dislocated, less than broken. Cracked, I guess?" She suggested. I frowned. "Do you need help walking?" I offered. She shook her head quickly. "No, that's OK."

I wasn't sure about that, but I would take her word for it. I let go of her hand and took a step back, watching her carefully. She placed her foot against the ground and paced for a moment or two, cringing with every step.

"It won't heal if you walk on it, you know," Fai told her. She gave a loud sigh of resignation. "No, it won't, and it will only slow you down..."

I walked back over to her side, and she put an arm around my shoulders. I looked over at Kurogane. "Shoulder's back in place. Let's go," he said briskly. He started to look around the room.

We seemed to be inside a building. It seemed to be a fairly tall one, at that, but this was only an assumption. The walls were dull gray, and were covered in rust. I got the impression that the room, or perhaps the whole building, was unstable.

"Maybe the bad feeling just comes from this place and not the dimension?" Mokona suggested.

"I wouldn't be surprised," I muttered. The room was pretty much empty, save for a couple of dials on the walls.

I walked over to a corner, Sakura still at my side. I pressed my gloved hand against the rust on the wall. When I brought my hand back, however, I felt the pang of uneasiness inside of me grow.

"...This isn't rust. This is blood. Fairly fresh, at that," I murmured. Sakura tensed.

"We should get out of this place," Mokona whimpered with urgency. I nodded my agreement. "Yeah." I turned to face Kurogane and Fai again. "Is the door open?" I wouldn't have been even the slightest bit surprised if it weren't.

Fai walked over to the door and twitched the handle a bit. "Rusted shut. Or, it could just be dried blood, considering your discovery, Syaoran-kun."

"I'll handle this," Kurogane snapped.

I probably should've told Kurogane the safest approach was to stay quiet. Just in case something was here. I guess it wouldn't have mattered anyway. He smashed the door down.

Though I must admit, it looked rather impressive.

"Come on, let's go," Kurogane grunted, taking the lead. I glanced up at Fai, who was chuckling quietly.

"He sure seems to be in a good mood," he laughed. I smiled.

"You think so?"

"If anyone's ever up to adventure, it's Kurogane-san," Fai reminded me. As if I actually needed reminding. He signaled for us to follow as he headed out the door.

"Stay alert for any noises, alright, Princess?" I said. She nodded. "Yeah, you too."

As we proceeded down the corridor, I could feel Mokona tensing with nervousness. I silently wondered what it was sensing. Maybe I was subconsciously noticing it as well. Actually, I think we all were. I noticed that we were all getting uncomfortable as we moved further down this building, looking for a way out. Sakura's grip around my shoulders had originally been gentle, but was tightening with every step we took. Mokona was cowering on my shoulder. Fai was fidgeting. I couldn't stop looking around. Kurogane had a hand on his sword.

And when we heard the sound of footsteps that didn't belong to us, we all snapped. Kurogane whipped out his sword, I summoned my blade with my free hand, (my other arm was supporting Sakura,) and Fai lengthened his vampire claws. Sakura cursed herself for not having a weapon of her own, and I took a moment to comfort her before focusing for the sound again.

The walls began to vibrate, the noise reverberating across the room, and I could hear the sound of crashing from a floor below. There was something banging against the floor overhead. The walls were beginning to dent.

"Kyaa!" Mokona screamed fearfully, leaping from my shoulder and disappearing into Kurogane's sleeve. "Watch it!" He yelled.

"Can you stand on your own?" I asked Sakura. She nodded, releasing my shoulders. I took step forward, my grip on the blade so firm that my knuckles were changing colors.

And when the walls eventually did break open, I still wasn't prepared.

There were about thirteen of them, each with different forms. They were drenched in blood, though I couldn't tell if it was their own, or someone else's. They were humanoid, but looked completely deranged, nonetheless. They had grey, jet black, and orange skin, which was sort of strange, but at the time, I didn't care. They all had blades, vines, bones, guns, whatever, poking out of their skin, and appeared to have a slowly altering skeletal system. Their eyes had no pupils, or anything of that sort. They were just a pure shade of either red or black.

The moment they were through, Kurogane charged and ran through one of the creatures and proceeded to hold off two more. Fai was immediately in combat with one of the...whatever they were.

My biggest concern, however, was that most of them went for Sakura.

"Raitei Shôrai!" I yelled, lightning surging from the blade and at all of the monsters swarming in our direction. Why did everything go after Sakura!? Was it because she was the only girl? Was it because her body collected memories of dimensions she went do? Or was it just plain bad luck? (...Nah, definitely not bad luck, this is SAKURA we're talking about.)

The lightning smashed through at least three of the creatures, which caused them to scream but not exactly die. Three of them caught the lightning and threw it right back at me. The other three deflected it, causing the blows to smash into the wall. The whole building began to shake, and monsters broke through the ceiling. Kurogane swore a bad word, spinning around and running towards me and Sakura.

"Syaoran-kun!" Fai yelled, as he turned to help us. "Are--"

"I think they're after the princess!" I yelled, dodging the lighting and pulling Sakura backwards with me.

"Kid, they might be after you!" Kurogane yelled. I didn't actually believe him. I couldn't imagine having anything that they wanted. Sakura had turned around and was looking for something, anything, to fight with.

I felt a 'blade' skim across my side, and let out a grunt of pain as I retaliated and tried to stab the monster in the eye. There was an unsettling feeling in the now-open wound. I desperately tried to ignore it.

Suddenly, there was a scream.

"Sakura-hime!" Instantly ignoring the battle, I turned to face her. A strange...monster, that can be best described a giant, malformed spider, had smashed a hole in the floor and now had her leg. God, was it creepy.

I broke free from the monster I was in combat with and ran towards her. I admired how she was trying to beat its face with a pipe.

The building started to crumble all around us. I guess my thought that it was fragile hadn't been merely an assumption.

"Leeeeeaaaave!" The spider creature spat. I wondered if it let its word stretch out for emphasis, or if it naturally spoke that way.

"We're not leaving without her!" I snapped, driving the sword straight through it's leg. It let out a blood curdling screech.

"We've got to get out of here!!" Fai yelled. Sakura appeared slightly shaken. "Come on, Princess, it's OK," I whispered, pulling her forward gently. She shook her head.

"Syaoran-kun, your side...!!"

I looked towards my open injury and nearly missed what she was talking about. But I definitely did finally notice it:

My blood was changing color.

I had no idea what this meant, but if I felt sick, my blood was changing color, and the room was starting to distort, which I was only noticing now, then it was a really bad sign.

"We'll worry about it later!" I gasped out. I broke into a bought of coughing, but I had no idea what I was coughing out, or choking on. I had a feeling I really didn't want to know. "Come on!"

I darted after Kurogane and Fai, Sakura limping after us, trying to keep up, as we forced our way through the monsters. The walls were falling away; even the floor crumbling behind us. I found it getting harder to breathe. There was a crash as one of the nearby walls fell in.

"We can't jump from here!" Fai called over his shoulder. "We're too high up!"

"Use magic!" I yelled. I felt a monster sink its teeth into my shoulder, and immediately kicked backwards attempted to get the monster away from me. "Syaoran-kun!" Sakura yelled, taking the pipe and smashing the monster over the head. This served as a useful distraction. I spun around and cleaved its head off, which resulted in a rather startling display of gore.

Fai seemed reluctant as he looked between us. Sakura and I had fallen fairly far behind.

"Go!" I called after them. I didn't want them to wait for us, we would catch up. There was no use in them getting hurt.

Sakura and I were trying to barrel through some of the monsters to get by.

"Fûka Shôrai!" I yelled, a wind barrier swirling around the two of us. I had a hard time understanding what was happening. My vision was sort of cloudy, my eyes were starting to hurt. I dispersed the barrier, forcing the monsters backwards. I did so by infusing another spell in it. Kurogane and Fai were forced to jump over the ledge as a creature charged right towards them.

That spider creature was after us again, as ticked off as ever. It sunk its teeth into Sakura's leg, and I found myself actually smiling when she kicked back and broke one of its fangs. The monster fell off the ceiling and through several of the floors below as I plunged the sword into its gut. However, in the process, my sword was wrenched out of my hands.

The roof entirely collapsed at this moment.

"Get down!" I called to Sakura. There was no way either of us were getting to the exit on time. Especially since the ceiling around the exit had already fallen and sealed it off when we weren't paying attention. Desperately, I grabbed her shoulders, forced both of us to the ground, and put myself in the path of her and the falling building overhead. This was going to hurt.

****

"Syaoran-kun!! Sakura-chan!!" I yelled, my eyes widening in horror. I could see Kurogane was obviously panicked as well, though he was probably covering it better than I was.

"Damn it, kid!" He snarled, darting ahead of me towards the now completely ruined building. The whole building had been huge, and, as Kurogane, Mokona, and I had learned when we'd jumped, we'd been straight in the middle of it.

"Can you hear us!?" Mokona squeaked as we stopped by the rubble. Kurogane was trying to pick up some of the building chunks, but I knew just by looking at them, they were far to heavy. There was no way to move them all and get to the center before two had died, or worse. Fear gripped my heart, and I glanced at Mokona.

"The witch-san! If they're even alive in there, there are monster as well!" OK, now I was beyond panicked. We could not lose the two like this. We'd come too far.

"R--Right!" It nodded vigorously before projecting an image out of its head. I was amazed that Kurogane didn't object.

"Good evening," Yuuko said as she noticed us. She noted the looks on our faces and said "Something's wrong."

We nodded.

"Syaoran and Sakura---!" Mokona squeaked, turning to face the rubble.

"They're trapped under that?" She sounded only slightly surprised.

"We need to get them out. The rubble's too heavy to move quickly, and there are monsters there. Chances are, if the two survived, then the monsters did, too." I said all of this in a hurry. She nodded.

"They are alive. But they won't last long."

I tensed. "Can you do anything to help them!?" It was, surprisingly, Kurogane who technically shouted this at her.

"...Yes, I can. But there's a price."

"Name it," I murmured grimly. We couldn't let them die.

"...Your price...as soon as they're protected...you must leave."

My eyes widened in surprise. What...!?

"Leave the area?" Kurogane asked, not really understanding.

"The dimension," Yuuko clarified.

"But if we leave, we might never see them again!" Mokona wailed in despair. "Mokona can't take them out of the dimension!" She gave a solemn nod.

"Yes. I can save their lives, but you won't get to see them. Maybe ever. Maybe it will be a long time. It all depends on your fate. Maybe you're destined to meet again. Maybe, once the price is paid, you're not." She seemed sympathetic, but that didn't stop me from feeling a bit angry at her. "Make your choice. Time isn't on your side."

I glanced at Kurogane. One option guaranteed never seeing them (at least, not alive,) ever again. The other ensured their survival with...pretty much the same results. It wasn't a hard decision. It was actually extremely easy. None of us had any doubts on our choice. And at the same time, I think Kurogane, Mokona, and I all agree it was one of the hardest decisions we had to make, even though we all knew our answer.

"We'll pay. Just save them first," I said through gritted teeth. She glanced at the three of us, then nodded. "Here, take this, Mokona," I heard her mutter. Mokona spit out a small orb and handed it to me.

"Place it beside the ruins," Yuuko instructed. Nodding my head slowly, I put it down by the rubble. There was a long silence, and then the orb exploded into a silver light, which shone brightly in the darkness. I hadn't really noticed that it was late, about midnight, until the orb had lit up the whole area.

"What does the orb do?" Kurogane asked, turning to face Mokona and Yuuko.

"It kills anything without a soul, and will feed and take care of anything with one."

"...Those creatures we fought were soulless?" I asked. Yuuko nodded. "There are very few things in the dimension you're on that has a soul. I highly doubt anyone will come out to help those two." She glanced towards the crumbled building. I noticed that there was actually a lot of dust and ruined remains of buildings all around the area.

"How will they get out?" Mokona whimpered. I saw that it was starting to cry. I kneeled down beside it and placed a hand on its head.

"Chances are, it might take a while. The magic that surrounds them, however, should keep them protected until they do. They'll be fine, at least until they get out. Trust me. They won't suffer."

My eyes were shut now. The light had split, and a golden light was heading straight at us. I glanced curiously back at Yuuko, only opening my eyes a crack.

"That light is going to take you to a different dimension," she informed us. I nodded, done asking questions, but Kurogane obviously wasn't.

"How will they know where we are when they get out!?" He asked. I gave an extremely forced smile. And even when forced, the smile only showed that I was miserable. "They'll know," I told him. "I'm sure it will be obvious."

The light surrounded the three of us, and the picture of Yuuko faded out. I got one last glimpse of the metal and stone ruins before it faded from sight. "I'm sorry, Syaoran-kun, Sakura-chan," I whispered. "Good luck to both of you. Maybe we'll cross paths again someday."

There was a long sigh, as I heard Kurogane mutter "Damnit."

And then we were gone.

***

My eyes slowly flickered open. "S--Sakura-hime?" I murmured. I tried to move, but found I was completely closed in. My back ached, the wound in my side was still bloody. My blood, however, was a silver blue color. This was actually unnerving in itself. I realized I had Sakura in my arms. I placed a hand on her neck, feeling for a pulse. It was there. I could barely feel her breathing at all, but I noticed that this was because neither of us were really breathing. Not heavily, or normally. It was extremely cramped, and I guessed that was fine, because if we breathed too fast, we'd use up oxygen. As her eyes slid open and her gaze locked on mine, I realized that she had been conscious for a while, but she was using her energy to stay awake.

"Are you alright?" I whispered. She gave a slight nod. "Yeah."

I tried to move, to find a way out, but there was too much rubble, and I couldn't get myself, let alone the fallen building, to budge. Perhaps there'd been something on the other floors. Something much heavier to make floors higher up. The whole building clearly hadn't been made of metal. Who knew what the constructors had been thinking when they made this damned building?*

"Where are Kurogane-san and Fai-san?" I asked.

"I don't know, I've been conscious for about an hour, maybe two, and I was calling their names before you woke. I haven't heard anything from them." Her words came out as a soft whisper, but there was no mistaking the fear in her voice.

"It's going to be OK," I whispered. I wasn't confident in my own words. I guess it showed.

"...Thanks for taking the impact," she whispered.

"It's no problem. I'm sorry for not being the other Syaoran." I wasn't really kidding, either. This had been bothering me, and I saw, on multiple occasions, it bothered her, too.

"Don't apologize. Please." She pressed her face into my shoulder, coughing out some dust.

"Have any monsters shown up?" I asked.

"One did, but it withered and exploded into nothing."

I found this confusing, but I didn't press for details.

Then I noticed a silver light seeping in through some of the dust. "What's this...?" I asked. Her eyes were panicked. "I don't know."

I tensed. I suddenly realized why I wasn't having any luck moving the rocks around us. (Or, at least, one reason). I was stupid to think I could when a lot of my bones were broken. No wonder everything hurt.

The light mist didn't do anything for a while. I only noticed it's effect when I felt my grip on Sakura slacken. I attempted to let go of her, to give her more room to breathe, but found that I no longer had any control of my arm. Sakura's eyes had clouded over completely.

"Don't...let me go..." she whispered. I didn't want to, but in the end, I had no choice. I almost felt as if I was forced onto my back, and in the process, I don't recall when, I released Sakura. I couldn't move. And not just in the sense of being crushed, but at all. My mind was freaking out, my body was doing the exact opposite. Eventually, my eyes fell shut.

And that's how it went. I couldn't tell you how much time passed. But it was a while. And neither of us were ready for what faced us when we awoke.

*Who knew what the constructors had been thinking when they made this damned building? - I know what they were thinking! 'Heh, I'm so drunk...' xD I'm trying to make this story serious, but I HAD to put that somewhere.

Authors Note: I've asked a friend of mine to write Kurogane and Fai's side of things, so don't fear, they will still play a part. Anyway, if you read this story and like it, please drop a review or a PM or something so I can get opinions. Constructive criticism, ideas, and comments of any sort are welcome. If you've even bothering to read this authors note, thank you for your time xD -Lilac