Title: Cocoon - Departing
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Fluff, angst, self-harm
Spoilers: Indirect spoilers for Kurogane and Fai's backstories.
Summary: Four travelers arrive in a strange town surrounded by walls, where no one is able to enter or leave. With no memory of who they are or where they're going, will they be able to find a way out - or even last long enough to try?

Author's Notes:

This was written for the Kuro/Fai Canon vs. AU Olympics - I was on Team Canon. You can view all of the rest of the stories by going to http kurofai dot dreamwidth dot org slash 18333 dot html. Voting will be open until the 10th of May. Check out everyone else's stories, they're all amazing!

The wind had died down; the huge metal arms of the turbines were still as Aught passed under them. The rusty joints creaked only slightly, and it had a lonely sound, up here on the hill away from everything. Aught knew that the great windmills turned the generators and provided power to most of the town, as well as to the Old Churchhouse itself, and were therefore terribly important; but on the hillsides swept clean by the wind of all but the hardiest short grasses and low, small-leafed shrubs, she thought they seemed very lonely.

Autumn was advancing fast on the countryside; much of the grass had turned golden-tan, and the summer flowers had withered. The trees growing alongside the road were beginning to turn at their very tops, yellow and red and brown, although the branches lower down were still a full leafy green. The woods ahead, though, loomed a dark green seemingly untouched by the tides of the seasons.

She passed from the heat of the golden autumn sunlight into the cool green space under the trees - not without some trepidation, for the warnings of Fall and the others still rang loud in her head. But although the air under the trees was cool and dim, it was not dark, and once her eyes had adjusted to the crepuscular air Aught had little trouble picking her way between the trees.

She went slowly and carefully, because the footing was slippery and uncertain. Although the trees remained solidly green, the ground was covered with windfalls that rolled away dangerously underfoot; spiky brown balls from the sweetgum trees, hard pointed acorns that broke underfoot with a crunch. Aught was glad she'd brought the boots, and glad for the stiff wool of the coat when grabbing a branch to steady herself brought a brief cold shower of rain on her head and shoulders and wings.

A few minutes into the wood, though, Aught slowed to a stop, unsure. Where was she going? Fall's description of his trip into the Woods had been terse, concentrating more on warning them away from the well than providing any helpful directions for finding it. He'd said only that it was near the west end of the woods, closer to the Wall; but that still left a huge volume of the woods to search, even if she could tell one direction from another in this twilight.

There was no wind in this woods; the thick foliage blocked it out. But Aught heard the rushing of water not far away and set out towards it. This stream must feed into the same river that ran by the old churchhouse, she realized; the Woods were upstream of them. The thought made her feel oddly more secure here, in having that link back to the rest of the world.

She came out into a gap between the trees and found the stream, somewhat smaller than she had expected given the noise. The streambed lay in a deep channel between its banks, with the trees on either side sending down deep brown roots towards it. Bright glints shone of the rushing water, dark amid the slick black and grey stones of the streambed - reflections, Aught realized as she bent over it in fascination, of her own halo.

Now what? Aught glanced around, looking vainly for some form of direction; but she was alone. "Water," she said aloud; she felt somewhat foolish, but who would be here to see it? "What's in this wood?"

She was not as surprised as she should have been when the babbling stream spoke back to her. Places to play and leap and sing and dance, it said. High places and low places and fast places and deep places. Light places and dark places that have been long long forgotten.

"I'm looking for one of the… deep places," Aught said. Surely if anyone in a forest would know where to find a well, it would be the water. "An old well - near the western wall. Can you help me?"

The sound of the rushing stream filled with laughter. Of course we can help you, it said. Up the bank and through the gully and around the bend and around again and then you'll be near, it's not too far away. We can still hear the echoes sometimes although it's been dry for a long long time.

She listened to the stream as she continued to hike up along the streambank - it wasn't always easy to stay close to the brook, which twisted and dipped among the trees and didn't offer much in the way of footing. Once she slipped and splashed right down into the water - icy cold against her legs, and seeping quickly into her boots and the hem of her skirt. "Oh, sorry!" she gasped out involuntarily, as she climbed hurriedly back up the tree-roots, but the stream didn't seem to mind enough to respond.

Here, the water said at last, after she'd been hiking along the streambed for what seemed like a long time. Follow this gulley to the top of the ridge, then turn when you reach the boulder and go downhill towards the stand of willow trees and when you pass through those to the other side you'll see the well.

"Thank you," Aught said, unsure of the proper etiquette for receiving advice from a stream - but it didn't feel right to just walk away without saying anything, either. "You've been very helpful. Thanks."

You're welcome, the stream replied cheerfully, even if you are one of the children of the air we like you and we like to help people we like.

The grove of the willow trees was just where she'd been told, but Aught's footsteps slowed as she reached them, until she was almost dragging her feet. She'd come out this far, but - she could still turn around. She could still leave and go back, before it was too late, before she did something unforgiveable and ended up as badly off as Fall or Rain…

Thoughts of her friends steadied her determination to go on. She couldn't go back, not after having come all this way and accomplishing nothing! Maybe there was something up ahead that could help them, or maybe there was nothing; she might not gain anything from going forward, but she surely wouldn't gain anything from going back.

Taking a deep breath and stiffening her shoulders, Aught marched forward into the clearing ahead. There it was, just where the water told her - an old well, with moss growing thick up around the sides and the stones of the rim crumbling with age. The air of the clearing felt heavy, tingled where it touched her skin, but - Aught couldn't feel any evil, any ill intentions. Just the ancient agelessness of the woods around, and a strange aura from the scattered stones of the well, something like regrets…

Aught walked up to the edge of the well and, after a moment's hesitation, put her hands on the rim and peered down. The shaft of the well disappeared into darkness, and the light of her halo extended only a few feet below the level of the rim. "Hello?" Aught called out into the shadows below. Her voice echoed down the depth and came back up at her a few seconds later, unaltered. There was no sound or smell of water; this well was dry, indeed.

Was there something down there?

Aught strained her eyes to the limit; she thought she could make out movement, down there in the deep darkness, just like Fall had said. But it was a slow, faint movement; it didn't seem to be coming up towards her. It had been here for all this time; perhaps it couldn't leave, even if it wanted to? Perhaps it was stuck, just needing help to get out?

If she wanted to meet whatever was in the well, she would have to go down there herself.

There were rungs set into the stones of the wall, thick metal staples like the ones Rain had tried to drive into the Wall to make his escape. Moving slowly, carefully, testing each step before she made it, Aught moved her legs over the lip of the well and pushed her feet tentatively against the first rung. It seemed steady enough; and so, taking a deep gulp of air, Aught swung herself onto the ladder and began the slow and careful descent.

The last of the sunlight lay in a slanted block a few feet below the top of the well; from there, it grew rapidly darker. Aught made her way down by feel, wishing she had thought to bring a lantern with her in addition to the boots and coat. But then again, she wouldn't have had a hand free to carry the lantern or anything else.

Her groping foot met packed dirt instead of a metal rung and Aught stumbled a bit; she'd reached the bottom of the well. Slowly, carefully, Aught lowered herself to the ground, gripping the last ladder rung for confidence before she could make herself release it and turn around. She'd gotten this far and no vicious creature or evil spirit had attacked her; what more was there to be afraid of?

Her halo gave off a faint light, the only light in this dark well. Even as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, it took her a long moment to make sense of what she was seeing. Aught took a few steps over to the middle of the well and crouched down, tilting her head to study the patch of blurred whiteness that resolved itself, as she neared, into two small white objects.

One was a round, white, fuzzy creature with long ears a little like a rabbit, except the body and head were too round and smooth and a bright red gem set in the middle of the critter's forehead sparkled in the light. The creature's chest rose and fell smoothly with its breath, but it made no other movement or sound; it was asleep.

The other white thing was a feather - a big one, bigger than any bird she'd ever seen, as broad as her hand and longer than her palm to her fingers. It was a pure white, much brighter than her own grey wings, but gilded with an intricate black design.

Aught hesitated, the hairs on the back of her neck pricking up with an eerie feeling. She hadn't known what she'd expected, but… if she could have imagined anything less dangerous, anything less like Fall's description of a malicious danger lurking at the bottom of the well, she couldn't think what. She reached out a hand and, after a moment of hesitant wavering between fur and feather, picked up the feather.

For a moment there was resistance, as though the object had been glued to the ground, before she managed to lift it free. For a moment longer there was an odd sensation of distance - like holding a warm pan through a potholder, or snowball through a thick mitten - as though she were holding the feather but not actually touching it. And then there was a sound like glass breaking, somewhere nearby but also very far away, and the feather seemed to come alive in her hand.

It felt electric to the touch, warm and full of life and power, and so familiar - so much a part of her - that she couldn't think how she had ever been without it before. Pieces of you, the wind had said, and so it was little surprise when after pulsing in her hand for two or three heartbeats, the feather brightened into pure illumination and began to melt away into her skin.

As it slid back into place in her body, the memories started to come back - not just one memory but dozens of them, falling into her like raindrops in a sudden downpour. She could hear the whisper of others rushing past her, pouring through the rent in the world that her feather had made when she'd touched it, flowing past her and away into the distance, and a detached part of her knew that not all of these memories were hers. But most of her was too lost in the sudden sweep of remembrance - identity - understanding - to notice when the white rabbit-thing in the well beside her began to stir and awaken.

She knew who she was now. She was not Aught, she was not nothing; she was Princess Sakura of Clow, and she was on a journey with her four companions throughout many worlds with the aid of a great magician, the Witch of Space and Time. The three men who had been born with her were her protectors and companions, and her friends.

Visions of the worlds before this one swam through her mind; she remembered vague, sleepy recollections of a noisy place with busy, hectic streets. Buildings that rose up on either side like impenetrable cliffs, strung about with wires and clotheslines and illuminated with brilliant lights of every color. The teacher and his wife - Sorata-san, Arashi-san - and her own watchful companions, standing attentively at her bedside for that first awakening. Fai, Kurogane, Syaoran. Syaoran. Great looming figures that were more than human, shapes of birds, dragons and wolves, disappearing into the distance.

Then another world, one more familiar, with smaller buildings and quieter streets. That world had a name. Koryo, she remembered that, and a trip to the marketplace where she had played dice and won them all new clothes. A friend there, closer to her own age - straight, stark black hair and a face full of fiery determination. Chu'nyan. Chu'nyan had showed her the magic of that world, done with charms and fudas and mirrors. Going with Chu'nyan to help her friends, to defeat the evil Ryanban who'd caused so much hurt and sorrow; to break the spell of illusion that had enslaved the villagers and turn the tide of the battle in favor of Syaoran and the others.

Syaoran, standing so battered and so brave, demanding that the Ryanban surrender the feather that was not his - because this was all about the feathers, Sakura remembered that now, from start to finish it had all been about the feathers. They held her memories, fragments of a life before that first awakening in Hanshin, a life that she'd somehow forgotten - and then forgotten again, when they'd come to this strange world, and the laws of the walls and the world had demanded that they surrender all their memories in exchange for being allowed to live here in peace.

"Sakura?" A tiny voice piped up from beside her, and Sakura blinked her way out of the half-trance she'd fallen into with the weight of memories restored for her. She turned to her side and there was Mokona, the smallest and warmest and most cheerful of her companions, Mokona who had carried them faithfully from world to world. She and her kind were not allowed here and so she had been exiled, torn from their arms and forced to the bottom of this well and sealed in slumber, that she would not disturb the peace and order of this place. "Sakura, where are we? Is this a new world? Where are Kurogane and Fai and Syaoran?"

"They're not far, Moko-chan," Sakura answered, gathering the tiny creature up in her arms and hugging her to share some of her own warmth. "Everything will be all right now. Let's go find them."

He was late.

Syaoran blinked himself a wake with an urgent feeling that someone had been calling his name or that he had overslept an alarm. He was late for something, but what? His job at the library - no - he was supposed to be on the dig site right now - no, not that either - wait, where was he? This wasn't his bedroom -

And what digsite? For that matter, what job? And…

And his name was Syaoran. Not Rain. Not anything else. Or -

Syaoran jolted upright, his head swimming as all the thoughts and memories churned about inside it, seeking their proper place. He clutched his head and groaned, feeling a twinging pain through his skull, down his neck and back and arms. He was in a hospital. Again. With no memory of how he'd gotten there. Again.

This was really not a habit he wanted to get into.

He blinked at a watery vision of the sunbeam falling in through the window, golden brown dust motes floating in its path, and tried to sort things out. He was in the hospital in Gurie; he'd been here once before. The last thing he remembered before that was the Wall - he'd tried to climb it, like a fool, and it had been a complete disaster. He remembered shocking pain, and a confused babble of voices and faces - and through them all, one face stood out through the mist, upturned and anxious and with tears brimming in her wide green eyes.

Sakura!

"I have to go to her!" Syaoran said out loud, and all at once the world settled into place around him. Of course he was late, incredibly late, he'd been wasting time puttering around in this world for weeks and he still hadn't found Princess Sakura's feather!

He pulled himself free of the tangled bedsheets and stood, his hands feeling clumsy and his legs strangely shaky. How long had he been out? No matter. He had to find Sakura and deliver the feather to her. He pushed away from the hospital bedframe and slogged determinedly towards the door, the loose hospital gown flapping around him.

Syaoran made it about ten steps down the corridor before he almost collided with a nurse, coming around the corner with a clipboard in her hand. She looked as flabbergasted to see him as he was to see her, and she caught his arm with one strong hand as he listed towards the opposite wall. "Now, sweetie, what are you doing out of bed!" she said in astonishment.

"I'm fine," Syaoran gasped. "Excuse me - sorry - I have to go…"

"Not that we're not all pleased as punch to see you up and about," the nurse said, the her tone combining pleased surprise and exasperated scolding, "but you won't be going anywhere just yet. Well! I never thought I'd see it! The doctors were all sure you'd be out of things for much, much longer, you know…"

She began to steer him expertly back to bed. Syaoran resisted, but his balance was none too steady. "I really am fine," he protested. "I just need to go see my - my friend. I have to get back -"

The nurse tsked, and deposited him back on the edge of the bed. "And where exactly do you think you'll be going in those clothes?" she challenged him.

Syaoran felt his face flaming red - in his hurry to rush out of the hospital and find Princess Sakura, he hadn't even stopped to think about the fact that all he was wearing was a loose green hospital gown, totally open down the back. "Sorry, ma'am," he said meekly. "Do you, um, have a change of clothes…?"

"That little redheaded girl said she was going to get you some and bring them back," the nurse said, and rolled back his sleeve as she grasped his wrist firmly in her fingers and held up her other arm to regard her watch. "She left hours ago. Practically sleepwalking herself, she was. I have to say, sweetie, you gave everyone a scare. I'm sure all your friends up at the Church will be glad to see you up and about - let's just get you properly checked over, and then you can go on home to them, hmmm?"

"Yes, of course," Syaoran said automatically, but he was already thinking quickly ahead. Sakura had left - where had she gone? Did she have anything to do with why he suddenly remembered who he was? And - the most important question - if he remembered everything, then what about the others?

The only warning he had was a faint, faraway buzzing in his ears - not nearly enough to distract him from what he was in the middle of - before he was overwhelmed with a cascade of images. He saw as though through a dark-tinted glass the visions of a faraway country: the blue-hazed mountains, the green valleys, sun and sky glinting in reflections of the water striped by square straight rows of rice. Distant figures moved and stooped among the seedlings, their kimonos tied up above their knees and elbows as they worked, and every one of them was black-haired, dark-skinned like him.

This was his home, the home he had missed and longed for even when he couldn't remember it - the home he had lost, all in one night of blood and flame, the same flames that haunted his dreams. He had lost everything - father, mother, homeland, innocence - and then even his own princess had sent him away, chiding him for the unapologetic violence that he inflicted on those who dared to cross his wrath. It didn't matter, it didn't matter. He would return and show her the truth of who he was - when he had proven himself Kurogane, the strongest warrior not just in Nihon, but in any world.

Along with the memory of self, came the memories of others - his fellow travelers, the kids he'd been roped into protecting. The brat had been so lonely, so heartbroken standing there in the rain, forgotten by the one he cared about the most - Kurogane had professed not to care, but he wasn't a monster. And likewise the princess, when she'd awoken, confused and ailing and so obviously needing to be cared for. And the mage, with whom he'd fought back-to-back with against the Kiishim, who drove Kurogane crazy with his obnoxious nicknames and obfuscating stupidity, and -

And whose body was pressed very, very close against Kurogane's own.

Kurogane opened his eyes and found himself staring into blue ones, that pale face inches away from his own. Horrified.

They both more or less leapt backwards, scrambling to separate from each other and struggle for composure in the drafty confines of the clock tower chamber. Kurogane pulled on hems and collars, re-did the tiny buttons on his blue workman's shirt, and was very glad that his hot blush did not show much on his skin; Fai was not so lucky, his face and throat flushing a bright red as he struggled with the fastening of his own clothing. It was weird, fucking weird to have this strange double vision of the man - both the friend he had grown so close to in the past weeks and the troublesome mage who had so annoyed him on their journey, standing there with wings and a halo like a fucking bodhisattva.

Gods, had he actually just been kissing the man? - and more than kissing, halfway into his clothes, if they'd been left alone for another hour who knew what would have happened? And that was not something that Kurogane was prepared to deal with; now that he remembered who Fai was, he remembered how deeply he mistrusted him, those fake smiles and that tongue that lied so easily and smoothly. He'd lied when he told them - in Hanshin - that he'd given away his source of magic to the Witch of Time and Space; she'd pretty much said so to his face when they called on her in Koryo. If he'd lied about something so important, so fundamental, what else was he lying about?

But - and yet - he was also Fall, the more-or-less brother who'd been born into this world at the same time as Kurogane, who had struggled and learned the ways of the Haibane alongside him. Even not knowing his own name, Fai had been kind; even when he had nothing of his own, he'd been generous. When he wasn't playing the fool, he was such a good man. Why did he try to hide that?

"Well!" Fai exclaimed brightly, turning around and pasting a vacant smile on his face. He seemed to have gotten all his clothes in order and his expression under control, but there was a lingering high color in his cheeks and his blue eyes seemed brighter than usual. "That was a fun little interlude, eh, Kuro-chummy?"

Oh, so they were back to this again. Kurogane felt the angry scowl snap down over his face as though it had never left, and glared at his companion. "What the hell just happened?" he growled.

"That's a good question, Kuro-myuu!" Fai said, and brought one hand up to tap at his lips. "Obviously, something released our memories - broke through the barrier between this world and the world outside. It wasn't Syaoran-kun's attempt on the Wall, or it would have happened this morning - so something else from outside of the world must have brought our memories in with them. At a guess, I'd say that Mokona probably -"

"That's not what I meant," Kurogane interrupted. "We have our memories back, so who cares how? I meant the other thing - the -" Kurogane broke off, flustered and angry to be so. "You and me. Just now."

"Ah!" Fai said, and he turned a lazy, condescending smile on Kurogane that made the ninja want to punch it off his face. "Just a misunderstanding. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you -"

"Hold it against me?" Kurogane said, outraged.

"Well, Kuro-forceful was the one who grabbed me and started sticking his tongue where it wasn't asked for," Fai said, his eyes flashing. "But that's all right. I'm sure we can move past it and put it behind us. After all, neither of us were in our right minds at the time, right?"

Kurogane said nothing. He didn't know what the expression on his face looked like, but whatever it was, it made a little of the plastic cheerfulness on Fai's face fade away.

"I just forgot myself for a while, that's all," Fai murmured. "To think that you would ever…"

On a sudden impulse, Kurogane reached out - to do what, he wasn't sure. Put a hand on Fai's shoulder, punch him, kiss him again? It didn't matter; as soon as he moved, Fai stepped quickly back from him, and the distance stood like a stone wall between them.

Fai turned abruptly away and headed towards the stairwell leading down the tower. "I won't let it happen again, I promise," he said. "Let's go. We need to find Syaoran-kun and Sakura-chan and leave this place before anything else happens."

Kurogane kept his eyes on Fai the entire climb down the stairwell; the other man must have felt his piercing gaze, but his back was stiff and straight and he didn't turn around or slow down even once. Running away again.

Fai could make whatever threats or promises or airy excuses he liked; he couldn't make the weeks they'd spent together - growing together, learning about each other - not exist. How fucking fitting was it, Kurogane thought bitterly, that he'd learned more about his companion when Fai hadn't even known his own name, then in all the rest of the time they'd spent together?

But something had been formed between them in these weeks, something that Fai couldn't wish away and he couldn't easily break. Fai had been honest, at the last, when he'd confessed his misery and terror. And Kurogane had not lied when he'd promised to protect and support him.

He'd remember that promise, even if Fai wouldn't.

"Syaoran-kun!"

At the sound of Sakura's glad cry, Syaoran's heart lifted. The next moment his arms were full of a laughing, crying Sakura, still dressed in her faded green clothes and a dark brown wool coat. "You're all right! You're okay!"

"Y-yes, I…" Syaoran found himself blushing fiercely, and had to hem and clear his throat several times in order to speak in something approaching a normal voice. "I woke up in the hospital about an hour ago. Kurogane-san and Fai-san said that they got their memories back at the same time."

Indeed, he'd met them on the street, heading back towards the hospital even as he finally made his escape from it, dressed now in a pair of loose green pyjamas and an old pair of work boots (at least it was a step up from the paper gown.) Fall - Fai - had lost his wing covers somewhere along the line, and Syaoran had been surprised (but relieved) to see the blackness on his wings beginning to retreat, allowing pale grey feathers to show themselves again. He'd guessed right away that they'd regained their memories, too, and as soon as they greeted him as Syaoran he knew he was right. More importantly, Fai claimed to know where they could find Sakura and Mokona - and Sakura's feather, too.

He'd led them off in a hike across the fields and through the woods to an old, abandoned well; Sakura hadn't been there, but they found her recent tracks in the wet ground. The tracks had led off towards the western edge of the woods to where the trees ended before the great Wall. It was a place that Syaoran had seen mentioned a few times in the old books about the Haibane, a round clearing on a broad rise, and at the very center of the clearing was a flat stone altar flanked by two smooth granite pillars.

All the texts had insisted it was a magical place, solemn and powerful and sacred, and the anxiety Syaoran had felt at the thought of Sakura near such a dangerous place hadn't lifted until he found her there and all right. "Did your memories come back, Princess?"

"Yes! And I remembered who you are, too!" Sakura beamed at him, and Syaoran's heart thumped with a sudden wild hope. Then she blinked and looked around at all of them, from Syaoran to Kurogane to Fai. "You're my very good friends, who came to help me when all of my feathers were scattered to other worlds!"

"Oh…" Syaoran said, more than a little crushed. But it was hard to feel too disappointed when she was still holding onto his hand and smiling like that, so after a moment he did the only thing he could and smiled back. It had been a foolish idea; Sakura would never remember him, never remember their old life together. That was the price that he had paid to the Witch of Time and Space to save her life - all of their memories together.

But, he realized suddenly and for the first time, that didn't mean that they couldn't build a new life - and new memories. The past few months were proof of that, if nothing else. It was strange, looking at his companions now and trying to resolve the memories of the people he knew, from before they'd come to this world, to the friends he'd come to know while they stayed here. The two sets of images were gradually melding back together, though, as he watched the familiar habits and movements; the way Fai tossed his head back when he laughed, the subtle shift of Kurogane's muscles as his hand touched his thigh where a sword usually hung; the way Sakura distractedly pushed her hair out of her eyes, strands flying every which way in the breeze.

"Is Mokona all right as well?" Fai was saying, and he came closer and bent over to look closely at the little critter riding on Sakura's shoulder. "It would have taken something powerful to keep you sealed for all this time. Were you harmed?"

"No, just asleep," Mokona replied, and hopped from Sakura's shoulder to Fai's outstretched hands. "Sakura woke me up when she picked up her feather. I'm so mad! Sakura told me all about the fun you guys were having together, and Mokona didn't get to see any of it!"

"It's all right, you didn't miss much," Fai said blandly. Kurogane made a choking sound, but Fai didn't so much as glance in his direction. "Now, Mokona, do you think you feel strong enough to take us to the next world?"

"Mokona thinks so," the white creature replied. "There's a strong magic around this world, but it's mostly for keeping people out, not in! As long as we don't actually touch it, Mokona won't have any problems."

"Oh - but -" Sakura looked crestfallen. "Surely we can't leave just like that, can we?"

"You recovered your feather, didn't you?" Fai looked over at her, smiling. "So we have what we came for, and it's time for us to go."

"Yes, but, what about all the others back at the church?" Sakura said. "We can't leave without saying goodbye!"

"Why not?" Fai said with a tilted smile. "It's tradition, isn't it? The Day of Flight."

"Yes, that's right," Syaoran said. "At least in the books I read. They all say that when a Haibane gets ready to take his or her Day of Flight, they never tell anyone where they're going. They just get strange and restless, and give away all their precious possessions, and then leave without saying goodbye."

"Mokona wants to meet everyone too!" Mokona cried, bouncing back into Sakura's arms. "Willow, and Vivid, and Bubbles, and all the children! Mokona wants to meet all your friends!"

"Personally, I don't want to leave without having a chance to get some of my own back against whoever decided to mess with us," Kurogane commented. Fire snapped in his red eyes, the echoes of past injustice. "Whoever thinks they have the right to mess with my head and take away my memories, I have a thing or two I'd like to say to him."

"It's not like that, Kurogane-san," Syaoran found himself saying, to his own surprise. "It's - it's not a person. It's just the way this world is, the way it was made. The walls…" He hesitated, a shudder going through him at the memory of those agonizing visions. Yet, there was neither fear nor anger in that memory.

"The walls aren't alive, they don't think like a person does, but they're very strong. They have a certain task to do, and that's to take the memories of anyone who comes from the outside. It doesn't matter whether it's a Haibane like Willow or the others, or - or just travelers who are passing through, like us. As far as the Wall is concerned, they're all the same."

"Someone had to make the walls," Kurogane began to argue heatedly.

"Now, now, Kuro-bloodthirsty," Fai interrupted him, in an exaggeratedly soothing voice. "There's no need to get so upset. Whoever created the walls probably passed on long ago. And we've already spent too long in one place as it is. It's time to move on."

"Oh!" Sakura exclaimed. "Will that really be okay, do you think? I mean… our wings and… the haloes, too! They'll look awfully strange one we get to other worlds…"

"Mokona doesn't think it will be a problem!" the white creature piped up. "Those things aren't really real - Mokona can tell, because I'm the same way. They belong to this world, not any other world, and when we leave this world, they'll stay behind!"

Kurogane leaned forward towards Fai and spoke more quietly. Syaoran could only barely make out his words; he didn't think Sakura, standing further away and talking animatedly with Mokona, could hear them at all. "And you want to be far away before whoever's after you is coming after you arrives, is that it? You've remembered who it is now, haven't you?"

Fai's eyes slid uncomfortably towards the ground. "Kuro-chan, you should just forget I ever said that. I was confused at the time, I… worked myself into a panic over nothing. It's nothing you or the others need to be concerned about."

"You think I'm going to buy a load of bull like that?" Kurogane shot back. "It's not like it's hard to figure out. You don't want to stay in your own world, you want to go to as many worlds as possible, as quickly as possible. That means you're on the run. And you're strong - you have to be at least as strong as Tomoyo, to come to the Witch's world all by yourself - so whoever's after you, they have to be even stronger than you. That means trouble, trouble coming our way. And you don't think it's something we need to know?"

"All the same, I think we should leave," Fai said loudly, deliberately turning his back on Kurogane. "The magic that erases memories has been broken, at least for the present, but the longer we stay in this world the more time it has to assert its power over us. Mokona, isn't that the case?"

Mokona's ears tilted downwards. "Maybe," she said. "Mokona isn't sure. The magic is very strong."

"Better safe than sorry, I guess," Syaoran said. He was a little sad at the thought of leaving all their friends behind, but - if they went to see them now, it wouldn't be for just a quick goodbye. They'd have to explain everything, and Mokona would cause all sorts of questions, and … and…

And the Walls and all the people in this town, all devoted their existence to making sure that the Haibane stayed safe, untroubled by memories or knowledge of the outside world. Syaoran didn't know exactly why that was so important, but he was stone-certain that it was. He didn't want to do anything that would jeopardize that.

Besides - out there somewhere, in the other worlds, Sakura's feathers were still waiting.

"It's time," he declared, turning back towards Sakura and taking her hand. He held his other hand out towards Mokona, and smiled as she jumped into the crook of his arm. It was strange how much he had missed her cheerful presence, even when he couldn't remember her.

Sakura nodded, looking slightly tearful, but she adopted a brave and determined expression on her face as they looked back towards their older companions. "I'm ready," she said. "Kurogane-san? Fai-san?"

"Let's go!" Mokona cheered, and then she leapt up; the familiar golden, glowing lines of the transportation spell sprang into existence around them. Syaoran's heart lifted, and beat faster with excitement, as he wondered what sort of world they were going to find next.

"All the same," Sakura said, even as the air around them began to shimmer and warp, "I'm glad we came to this world. I'm not sorry that we stayed for so long, or that we got to meet everyone."

The golden lines converged; four faces blurred into light. Four pairs of grey wings lifted against the air - three a light ashy grey, and the fourth a dark coal grey edged with glimmering paleness. In the beam of the light that shot upwards from the stone altar those wings stretched and grew, beating tall against the air, large enough to carry their owners over the Wall and on to their next lives.

But that was not their proper gateway, and the beating of wings fell into silence as the feathers shredded and melted into the air, the wind whipped up by their passage carrying them away into the woods. Four haloes fell through the suddenly unoccupied space and thudded on the ground; their glow faded as they cooled, no more than empty rings of metal.

There they remained for all that night, and the next day, while strong winds hurried the clouds across the sky overhead. That night there was a frost, the first of the season; and when dawn came to the clearing, slanting in across the woods from the east, every leaf and blade of grass lacquered in delicate white.

Drained of their light, the rings of metal were already starting to corrode; the frost coated every ridge and bump in their surface, giving them the illusion of the white light they had once held. And that was how the other Haibane found them, wrapped up in coats and scarves and mittens, their breath huffing and steaming in the chilly dawn air.

It had been a long walk out to the wall with just the three of them; although Frost had been willing enough to help them search the woods the day before, this sudden cold snap had left him pale and ill and Willow had fussed him into bed. Viv would have been happy to stay in bed, too, but she hadn't been given that option.

"This is the place, isn't it?" Viv said, puffing as she hiked up the last of the slope. She was overheated by the walk in the morning sunlight under the heavy coat, but it was really too cold and biting to take it off.

"Yes…" Bubbles walked forward to the center of the clearing, turning her head slowly from side to side. The wooly hat she wore had earflaps on either side that were too big for her small face, making it hard to see anything not directly in front of her. "This is - the place that Rain talked about in his notes, the ones he translated from the library. This is where the Haibane go on the Day of Flight, before they leave this world forever."

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Viv said. The sun glinted off a shard of metal on the frosty ground, and she bent over and picked it up. She handled it gingerly, turning it over in her hands; it was freezing cold from lying out on the ground all night, and the metal ring felt oddly hollow, as though it would crumble away under her touch. "They've gone. They've flown the nest."

"How can we be sure that all of them made it safely, though?" Willow said, coming up behind the two of them. Instead of a hat she wore a scarf wrapped around her neck and head, making her look years older than she was. "Rain was in no condition to make it out here all on his own - he couldn't even walk by himself! And you know that Fall hasn't been well -"

Viv sighed. They'd been arguing this all the way out here; Willow had wanted to search the woods all throughout the night with flashlights, convinced that Rain or Aught must be dying in the woods out here. They'd finally managed to convince her to take a rest overnight, but she'd been up again at dawn the next morning. "Will you least believe your own eyes?" she said, stooping and picking up another one of the discarded haloes. "Look. Four of them. They've all gone, Will."

Willow took one of the haloes in her gloved hands, her dark eyes troubled. "That can't be," she said. "In all the time there have been Haibane, there's never been -"

"- four who took the Flight all at the same time?" Viv interrupted her. "You may be right, but come on. Those four were weird right from the start. When did they ever do anything according to the rules?"

Willow grimaced. "Yes, and look where that got them," she retorted. "One in trouble at his job, another sick, a third one in the hospital in a coma!"

"The nurses said he was fine," Viv said, exasperated. "He was awake and talking, walking on his own, he even checked himself out! Will you just admit that they're gone, they fixed themselves up without your help? Not everybody in the world needs you to be their mother - "

"I can't believe he's gone," Bubbles said, her voice only just too soft to be a wail. She sunk down into a crouch, arms crossed over her chest, staring down at one of the discarded haloes. "He didn't say anything. None of them said anything."

Tears threatened in her voice, and Willow and Viv exchanged a look of mutual agreement to table their argument for later. Willow crouched down next to Bubbles, smoothing a warm hand up and down her back. "They never do, Bubbles," she said gently. "Silver was the same way, do you remember? - We just woke up one morning and he was gone. It doesn't mean that he didn't care about you - it's just the way it has to be."

"Rain was…" Bubbles sniffed deeply, then swiped her eyes with the back of her mittens. "Rain knew all about this sort of thing. He was only here for a few months, and he already found out more about the Haibane, about us, than anybody else knew in the town. Why couldn't he have stayed?"

"Well, you know," Viv said, feeling awkward at inserting herself into the conversation. "Rain, uh - he left all his notes behind, didn't he? All the ones he took while he was studying at the library. And he found all those old books, and the dictionary to translate them, too. If you wanted to - you could sort of take over for him, you know? Pick up where he left off."

Bubbles' sniffling stilled; after a long moment she nodded, her long hair falling in a curtain around her face.

"I'm sure it's all right," Willow said, and the words seemed to be as much for her own benefit as for the girl's. "I - I guess they didn't need me, after all. They've gone together, so they'll be able to look after each other from now on."

"Yeah," Viv said. She looked up the sheer face of the cliff, and couldn't help but smile when she imagined what lay behind it. "They're a pretty tough bunch. I'm sure wherever they went, they can handle anything that the universe can throw at them."

"I just hope they're happy, wherever they are," Bubbles said, and she looked up to give the older girls a wan, wobbly smile. "And I - I'm glad they came here. I'm glad I got to meet them, if only for a little while."

"Yes," Willow said, and she slid her hand down Bubbles' arm to take hold of her hand and squeeze it. Viv tossed aside the decaying fragment of the halo, and came around to take Bubbles' other hand, swinging the girl to her feet. "So am I."

And I will not forget them.

~end.