Pure Chance?

Summary:

When Kurogane, Tomoyo-hime's bodyguard (on vacation), saves Fai (a practicing mage) from thugs while patrolling the city, both are forced to flee the country by unknown enemies. Prince Syaoran is imprisoned after being framed for WitchQueenYuko's death. He escapes and befriends Sakura and Mokona of the beast tribe. Who is after our heroes? Is Yuko really dead? What is the powersource? And why are their pursuers after Fai's corpse?! Fai/Kuro/Tomo, Saku/Syao +more Fantasy/Romance/Adventure (note: Dark themes later on)

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Prologue. (About 7 years before the events of the main story line)

The sun struggled to rise over the edge of the horizon, as an old man stood in the doorway of his shop and sighed. Hours would pass before any customers came, but for some reason he had woken early. He tapped his foot slowly. There must have been some reason he had woken up. He winced sightly. His bones had been aching with same dull pain they got just before something happened and his bones were rarely wrong. Something important was going to happen and he had to see it.

A sudden sound of rapid footsteps and heavy breathing began to echo through the street. A young man with golden hair bolted past, paused, then ran back and quickly pushed the old man back inside the building.

"Please, you can't go outside. If you're caught watching, they'll kill you!" The man whispered franticly as the old man stared in shock. Sapphire blue eyes glanced backwards nervously. The blonde was shaking in fear.

"You never saw me. I wasn't here. Don't go out until the sun rises, Ok?" He ordered as he jumped back, closed the door and ran off. The old man sat frozen beside the door as loud, stomping sounds boomed past. Then everything, aside of the man's slow breathing, fell silent.

A few moments later, the old man quietly walked up the staircase to the shop's second floor and cautiously glanced down at the street from behind a curtain.

The street was silent. Only the mist moved. It all seemed so normal.

He edged away from the window and sat by a wooden desk. He then grabbed a quill and began to write. Somebody had to be told about what had just happened. Somebody who would know what it meant and what to do about it.

The old man placed the letter in an envelope and sealed it with a stamp of hot wax. He then went back downstairs and made himself a cup of tea.

His granddaughter would know. The Sight would tell her what to do. He stared at the tea longingly. Maybe it was time to visit them; to see how they were doing. Yes, he would do that. But first; the letter.

Hours later, the old man dropped off the letter at the post office; went home and began to pack his bags. It was time to see his granddaughter again.

To see Nadeshiko.

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Fai swallowed down a gasp of panic. He had lost a lot of ground when he'd stopped to help that old man. He sighed mentally. He should have just ignored the man and left him to his own fate.

But he couldn't just leave someone to die. Not when it would have been his fault.

Heavy footsteps seemed to echo from all around him. Fai glanced back and felt himself turn pale.

Dark, faceless soldiers followed only a few metres behind. Despite taking slow, heavy steps, the soldiers moved remarkably fast. More seemed to materialise out of the mist behind him.

"It's useless to try and run, Fai-san."A cold amused sounding voice called out from behind him.

Fai looked around for an escape route. There! A side-alley! He leapt over a fence and ran towards it, as soldiers continued to appear out of the mist.

"Kusanagi-san, Hikaru-san and Kazuki-chan have already been caught, and it's only a matter of time before Nataku-san returns to Kazuki's side."

Fai tried to ignore the man's voice as he ducked into the alleyway. The man seeing Fai's reaction smiled dryly and continued.

"If you continue to run, you know they'll force me to hurt you again. It might even be worse than the last time." Fai flinched, and ran faster.

"What do you hope to achieve by doing this? There's nothing out there for the likes of us. You're only delaying the inevitable this way."

'It's better than doing what you people want.' Thought Fai angrily.

He took another glance back. Even in the narrow alley, soldiers still managed to follow him.'Damn,'thought Fai wearily. 'Too many to try to fight, plus 'him' back there.' A screech from above interrupted his thoughts.

Fai groaned. 'They brought onibirds too?! Well...there goes the roof escape...'

The alley suddenly ended and Fai found himself running though an empty plaza. Fai felt a drop of sweat trickle down the back of his neck.

The only path that didn't lead back towards the tower was across the bridge. The bridge that had no cover from the air; that had railings only a metre tall, and had the chance of falling from a 300foot drop onto the jagged rocks below.

Unfortunately, it was also the only choice if he wanted to escape. Heart pounding, Fai ran towards it. Onibirds screeched in triumph as Fai ran out from under the protection of the plaza's sunshades. He ducked swiftly as the birds lashed down at him with their scythe-like talons.

'I have to get to the city gates. Past there, the powersource can't reach...'

A sudden slash of pain across his back made Fai gasp and drop to the ground. Blood splattered behind him. Weakly, he pulled himself to his knees. Fai tried not to scream in agony as the onibird's claw-poison surged through his veins.

The birds screeched again as a loud whistle cut through the air. Fai turned. The man's midnight-blue eyes regarded him coldly.

"I told you that you were only delaying the inevitable. If you had just given up earlier, you wouldn't have suffered so much. You're lucky I thought to call the birds back before they could give you any more damage."

Fai looked around. Soldiers blocked both sides of the bridge, while onibirds flew above then. Fai slowly got to his feet and smiled cheerfully.

"Sorry, Kyle-sensei, but it seemed worth it at the time."

Kyle suddenly lunged towards the blonde. Fai, who knew this coming, dodged sideways and ran to the bridge railing. He glanced back over the edge and felt his stomach churn. 'Was it hopeless after all?'

Kyle looked at the blonde's uneasy face and laughed. His eyes narrowed.

"You're not going to jump. After all, you didn't get killed back at the G9-lab, now did you...Yuui?"

Fai flinched as if he'd been punched; his eyes filled with shock.

"Did you really think we didn't realise that you took your brother's place? Oh well, it doesn't really matter which one of you we used. After all, both of you were genetically identical. Though," Kyle added with a thin smile," it does seem a bit cruel to sacrifice his life to save yours. You even went so far as to take his name. Tell me, did you even tell him he was going to die?"

Fai's voice was soft. "I didn't know." Kyle looked at him sceptically."You didn't? I find that hard to believe."

The blonde smiled sadly. "He insisted that we should trade spots for a while. It was meant to be a game. A game only we could play..."Fai choked back a sob of grief.

Kyle sighed and looked at him sympathetically. "Even if it was a game, it still resulted in his death." Fai looked away.

After a few moments of silence, Kyle continued, his voice was soft. "Do you still have that dream of yours? The one that you both came up with?"

Fai looked up startled. "How do you know about that?!"

Kyle smiled wryly. "You'd be surprised what you can learn by just keeping your ears open. I simply overheard you two talking and decided to listen in." He raised his hands defensively as Fai stared in shock.

"Don't worry, I didn't tell a soul what I heard. After all, I didn't need to. It was simply a fairytale two children told each other, to help get to sleep at night. It was hardly a threat." Kyle snorted in amusement as Fai's face flushed red.

"You really thought it was possible, didn't you? For humans to sympathise with our kind?" Kyle looked at Fai in stunned disbelief. "Even Kamui-kun would know better that to try something like that. Was that how you convinced the others to escape? All of that work...for a child's bed-time story?! What a waste of effort! The humans have hated our kind since the dawn of creation. They're not going to stop just because you ask them nicely."

Kyle grinned in triumph then took a step backwards as he glanced at the blonde's face. Fai glared at the older man with pure hatred. He then jumped backwards onto the bridge's thin, stone railings. Fai felt cold as wind buffeted against him. Kyle's face was filled with horror.

"You can't be serious! Not even a pureblood can survive a fall from this height! You don't really want to die, do you?!"

Kyle's blood froze as Fai began to grin manically.

"Do I want to die? I don't know. Not really. It sounds sort of painful. But it might be fun out here. If I fall, I'll fly like a bird before I crash. See?"

Fai lent backwards towards the edge and listened as Kyle groaned. His smile grew wider.

"I'll never be used as a play-thing or as a lab-rat again. Freedom by death, or return to the tower! Death doesn't seem that bad, does it?"

The onibirds and the dark soldiers milled about in confusion, while their master stared at the blonde in horror. Fai, though still smiling outwardly; was shocked at how much he'd really meant it. Death was better than going back.

Kyle made a desperate attempt to reason with the madman.

"This is not a joke, Fai-san. You don't have the wings and even if you did it's impossible to summon them inside the city. If you fall here, you die."

"I know." Fai's face was eerily calm. Inside, he wondered if he looked as scared as he felt. He glanced over the edge. 'Yep. Definitely scary.' He sighed. Not that he had much choice.

He turned to Kyle and smiled gently. "Goodbye, Kyle-sensei."

He stepped over the edge and felt his mind go blank as air rushed around him.

........... . . . .

So he was going to float freely and painlessly through the air; until he came to a very fatal and sudden stop on the ground below.

It could have been worse.

He could have died from pain after the tower guards had finished punishing him. Or been killed in an experiment like the real Fai had.

What was there to live for anyway? Goals? People who would miss him? He didn't have any ambitions, and who would care if he died.

He had nothing to live for.

...Except for the dream.

To make friends with humans. People who would like him for who he was, despite the fact he wasn't human.

Fai smiled sadly. A childhood dream that he and Fai had invented, to stop the loneliness of being taken from their mother and placed in the tower by the village's humans. It was simple and unrealistic, but it was something they wished for, with all of their hearts.

He still wanted it. He still wanted that dream to come true. It had to.

Fai forced his eyes open. The ground rushed up towards him. He had a few seconds before he hit the ground; he couldn't afford to waste them.

"I won't die! I have to love someone before I die!"Fai shouted as he stretched his arms out wide. "Please," Fai whispered pleadingly, "Please let me summon my wings. Just this one time. Please."

A sudden feeling of warmth spread through Fai's body. Fai quickly shut his eyes and willed his new wings to move. Instantly the sound of rushing air stopped and was replaced by the sound of slow, heavy wing-beats.

Fai opened his eyes slowly and stared. A pair of long, glowing wings held him in the air. Fai gasped; he had feathers! He glanced down. Only a hundred feet below him, jagged rocks pointed towards the sky. Fai shuddered with relief; he'd flown too close to death for comfort.

He flew up to the bridge. Kyle stared in amazement as the blonde glided past.

"Say goodbye to the others for me, Kyle-sensei!" Fai waved at him cheerfully.

Kyle suddenly snapped back to reality and ordered the onibirds to attack. The onibirds screeched as Fai quickly dropped into a dive and flew over the city gates towards the sun that had finally risen into the sky.

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The onibirds and dark soldiers watched as their master grabbed a phone from his pocket. He quickly dialled in a number.

"What is it, Kyle? You were given orders not to call unless you saw a servant of the Witch." Kyle tried not to shudder at his superior's icy voice.

"I'm sorry Sir, but No. 035 has escaped over the city perimeter."

"The others managed to catch Numbers #639, #041 and #781 soon after the breakout, and #779 turned himself in a few minutes ago." The superior's tone made Kyle flinch instinctively. "How did he escape from you?!

"He summoned wings within the city, Sir."

"That is impossible. #035 is unable to call wings, even within the W.S-lab."

"But the wings that he just called were white and feathered!"

The other end of the phone was silent.

"I am well aware of the fact that him being both a pure-blood and being well within the powersource's range makes this sound unbelievable but if you need proof, just check the onibird's visual records." Kyle pleaded desperately. He gripped the phone tightly. If the superior didn't believe him...

"I shall check, but first: What direction is he heading in?" The superior's voice now seemed more curious than angry. Kyle sighed silently in relief.

"He was last seen flying over the eastern wall. Unfortunately, he was too far from the powersource for the onibirds or the ganks to follow. Should I attempt to pursue him?"

"No. It's more important to remain hidden. We cannot not allow the Witch to get wind of our plans. Besides, your report disturbs me. Fei-Wong must be informed. Return to the tower immediately!"

Kyle bowed his head. "As you wish, Sir."