Title: The Foundling
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Kuro/Fai
Summary: Kurogane thought that he'd made peace with his past, and left it behind to travel the worlds But a summons back to his homeworld comes from the source he least expects it, and when they get there, Kurogane must face the realization that he was never at peace with himself. Not at all.

Then:

There are advantages to having a dreamseer as your sister. The empire of Nihon stretched a hundred leagues across the land, from the mountains to the sea. It often took messengers several days to cover the distance from the outer provinces to the castle at Shirasagi, and with war simmering constantly on the horizon and vile beasts prowling the edges of civilization, several days could be too late.

So Kendappa is not sorry that her little sister, Tomoyo, showed signs of the dreamseeing talent early and has been groomed for the role of Tsukuyomi ever since. The ability to see the future and predict where disaster will strike is an invaluable one for the leader of a country.

That being said, Kendappa couldn't help but wish that this warning hadn't come in the middle of the night.

Tomoyo had woken her - woken all of them - from a sound sleep, and driven the palace staff to assemble a fighting and traveling force in under an hour. Kendappa's soldiers, Souma's ninjas, and a carriage for Tomoyo to ride in all took to the road in the dark of midnight, and had pushed on ceaselessly through the hours of darkness, the road before their feet lit only by the torches they carried.

When they'd met the first demon, Kendappa had stopped doubting the truth of her sister's visions. But that didn't make her any happier to be out fighting demons in the pre-dawn gloom, nor riding through the smoking ruins that had once been a living, thriving community... There was light enough to see the bones of the buildings, outlined in glowing red light as the coals died down, but not really enough light to make out the bodies.

And Kendappa can't help but wonder, with a bitterness that seemed to draw substance from the cimmerian shade: why couldn't Tomoyo have warned them earlier, if she was going to dream of this at all? Why couldn't they have come here sooner, soon enough to do some good?

"We must hurry, Sister." Tomoyo's soft voice breaks the silence beside her. Kendappa had fallen back to ride beside the carriage, hovering protectively close despite the escort of guards and ninja around them. Tomoyo's pale face peers out of the carriage, her large dark eyes sparkling in the moving torchlight.

"Why?" Kendappa asks, and the word comes out as a croak from her smoke-roughened throat. "It's too late, the damage has been done. It's good that we managed to kill the demons before they could get free and menace one of the other provinces, but it's too late for Suwa."

"We must reach the precinct's house before it's too late," Tomoyo whispers. "Too late for him."

"Too late for who?" Kendappa frowns; the movement tightens the skin of her face, makes her feel the sticky pull of demon blood drying there. "There can't possibly be any survivors, not that close to the center of the massacre!"

"There will be one," Tomoyo says, with the weirdly unshakeable certainty that always followed one of her visions. "I saw him, in my dream. She came to me along with the dream. She spoke to me. I promised her that I would protect her child."

She? Kendappa frowns uneasily at this. Who could she have been? The lady of Suwa, whom Kendappa knows by all sources to be a competent and powerful priestess? That seems most likely, but why not just say so?

Or is it possible that Tomoyo speaks of - spoke to - of someone else entirely? Perhaps the Witch of Time and Space that Kendappa had heard about sometimes, in snippets and stories more than in truth? If that is she of whom Tomoyo spoke, then what promises had been made on behalf of Kendappa's people, and what price would they have to pay in return?

Before Kendappa can ask more, they are interrupted by a shout from the scouts ahead; she sees the men waving wildly in the circle of torchlight and kicks her horse on ahead. It can't possibly be a demon, or else that scream would have been of a very different tenor...

It is a demon. A dead one. Slain by the sword, almost hacked into pieces with a savage fury. None of her own men did this, Kendappa knows.

Which means that her sister was right; there must be another survivor of Suwa up there somewhere. Not hiding in some cellar or closet, like she'd vaguely assumed, but strong enough and berserk enough to fight a demon single-handed and win. As a subject of Nihon, as an enemy of the demons, he must surely be a powerful ally - but the sheer ferocity by which the demon corpse was torn apart leaves Kendappa uneasy.

The light is growing stronger now, the sky turning from black to blue as grey light begins to fill up the world. Kendappa kicks her horse to a trot, moving to the front of the column. She's not at all certain she's looking forward to meeting this boy from Tomoyo's dreams.

Now:

"Princess Tomoyo?!" For just a moment, Kurogane's mind spun wildly with distrust and confusion. Demon tricks - but no, that could not be. He of all people knew the flavor of Tomoyo's magic; it was unmistakable, despite being so out of place. He ought to have recognized it sooner, but he wasn't expecting it here of all the places in this world.

"Kurogane," Tomoyo responded. Her expression was calm, demeanor unflappable as always, but Kurogane thought he detected a hint of surprise in her voice. He heard footsteps behind him, felt the familiar presences of his companions rejoining him. "Fai-san, Syaoran-kun. Mokona. It is good to see you again."

"How did you get here?" Kurogane demanded, surprise making him rude - well, ruder than usual.

"In a carriage, Kurogane," Tomoyo said, with the dry humor that sent a pang of familiarity through him. "We could not fit it inside the cave, so it's outside; you probably passed by it in the dark."

Kurogane shook his head in amazement, moving to sheathe his sword. There was a second rock chamber through the gap in the wall, lit by glittering lanterns and torches. Kurogane could sense their presences, now, which had been masked by the thick stone - no more than humans, they lacked the power to penetrate beyond such barriers.

Not like the demon presence he could still sense, somewhere deeper in the mountain. What was much stronger - and much, much older. "Princess, you shouldn't be here unprotected," he said. "This is demon territory - it's dangerous."

"I'm well aware of that," Tomoyo responded tartly. Before Kurogane could ask the next question - why she was here - the reunion was interrupted. Members of Tomoyo's retinue, handmaidens and ninja, came towards them, demanding to know his name and purpose. Kurogane saw Souma among the crowd, and supposed that she at least had the good sense to take the best warrior in the kingdom (aside from himself) along for protection.

"Peace," Tomoyo said to the guards, holding them back with an upraised hand. "This is no stranger, but a countryman and ally. He is welcome here, and his companions."

Despite himself, Kurogane was warmed by the statement of acceptance, of inclusion.

"But how did you know to meet us here?" Syaoran wanted to know. "Even we didn't know that we were about to change worlds, let alone that we would be returning here. I thought… your visions of the future…" He ran down, his face flushing miserably as he cleared his throat. Kurogane gave him a brief scowl; he might not be a mage himself, but he knew from dealing with Fai just how personal and difficult it could be to talk about losing your magic.

"It's all right," Tomoyo assured the boy with a gentle smile to show him she was not offended. "You are correct, however; I am no longer burdened with visions of the future."

"Then how'd you know?" Kurogane asked. "That we would be here."

Tomoyo's smile faded slightly, and she gave Kurogane a look he couldn't decipher. "I didn't," she said. "There is… business of my own here, that I must attend to. Your presence is welcome here, but not anticipated."

"Nor accidental, I shouldn't think," Fai said, his lips twisting in a wry smile. "Mokona's magic is many things, but not chaotic or random. If she has brought us here in time for your errand, Princess, there must have been a reason for it."

Tomoyo considered this for a moment, her eyes slightly shadowed, and Kurogane began to feel the first stirrings of alarm. What business could she possibly be talking about? The Tsukuyomi's duties were in the heart of the empire; she was the heart of the empire, along with her sister the empress. There should be no errand that took her out here, to the fringes of the wild and into the heart of a dangerous demon's lair.

"You may be right," Tomoyo said at last. "My dear friends, I am very sorry, but I must continue my work. I still have something very important to do, and the night is slipping away. You may stay here if you wish, or accompany me."

"We'll stay with you," Kurogane said, taking the lead of spokesman for their small group with no thought.

Tomoyo smiled again, her eyes twinkling at him. "Somehow I'm not surprised," she said.

She turned and walked away, her robes swishing around her as she went; not the usual formal robes of her office, Kurogane realized, but something much simpler and plainer. More practical for traveling, or - apparently - for spelunking.

The four of them joined her procession as they continued through the dark stone tunnels of the mountain, their way lit by the gleaming torches. Shadows swung wide as they passed each cross-tunnel and niche, only to fall back into darkness as they left them behind.

At last they came to a crack in the stone that led off at a steep downwards slope, and Tomoyo stopped. "This is where he will be," she said in a quiet voice. "And this is where we may speak. I must go, but it will be a small, cramped space; there will not be room for more than one or two others."

"I'll go with you," Kurogane volunteered immediately.

Tomoyo hesitated for a moment, and Kurogane glared at her, matching his will against hers. He had absolutely no intention of letting her go anywhere in this maze undefended. Bad enough that she was here in the first place. If she could only have one bodyguard, it had damn well better be the best.

Unexpectedly, Fai broke into the conversation. "I'll go, too, if you don't mind," he said, and smiled charmingly.

This prompted a murmur of displeasure from the cortege. "Princess, let me go instead," Souma protested. "Kurogane may be one of us, but the mage is a stranger."

"Oh, I'm not so strange as all that," Fai said with a breezy smile. "Nor am I as powerless as the last time we met, Miss Souma. I have a lot of experience handling demons, you know. I'm actually quite useful to have on hand, just in case…" Fai hesitated, and his blue eyes darted over to Kurogane, to Tomoyo and then back again. "Just in case anything goes wrong," he said.

Kurogane stared hard at his lover, but Fai refused to return his gaze, keeping his eyes steadily on Tomoyo instead. What was going on here? It was one thing for Fai to want to be at Kurogane's back in a fight, but there was more to it than that. An uneasy chill spread down his spine.

This was Kurogane's homeworld, Kurogane's princess, and the demons were Kurogane's lifelong enemies. What could Fai possibly know that Kurogane didn't?

"Very well," Tomoyo said at last, and the look she exchanged with Fai did nothing to relieve his growing uneasiness. She glanced at Kurogane once more, then turned towards the stone crack. Without a word Kurogane stepped in front of her, holding out an arm to bar her way, and then went into the dark passage ahead of her.

The way was uneven, dark and rough. He heard Tomoyo's light, uncertain footsteps following behind, and then Fai's bringing up the rear, speaking a few cheerful and encouraging words as he helped her down. After a few minutes of climbing - almost crawling, some of the time - he reached the bottom of the tunnel, and dropped lightly into the chamber beneath.

Tomoyo had been right about how small it was. It was only a few paces from side to side, a perfectly symmetrical bubble of stone carved out of the mountain's heart. The walls were smooth - unnaturally so - and a pale green sourceless light suffused the chamber. There was no sign of movement, although Kurogane felt rather than heard a deep vibration coming from further below their feet.

Scuffling from the passage alerted him, and he reached up to help Tomoyo lightly to the floor. Fai dropped down a moment later, and with the three of them the chamber felt intensely crowded. Kurogane's shoulders twitched with the feeling of claustrophobia, the uneasy realization that there was hardly enough room down here to draw, let alone fight. The only good thing about the situation was that there was no room in here for any demons, either.

"Well, now what?" he said aloud.

"You are here," an unearthly voice spoke out of the darkness, and Kurogane started violently. "You are - heerrrrre."

It was a voice that put him in mind of rocks grinding together to make music. Of one of those metal boxes in Piffle world that had spoken in flat, disjointed voices, pre-recorded words strung together in ways that would never have come from a true human's mouth.

The wall of the cave heaved to the side, and they realized that it had not really been a wall at all - the rough grey surface slid aside like a door, revealing a vast cold gulf leading further into the mountain. The creature whose flank had been pressed against this space, its skin taking the texture of stone, now shifted ponderously in the darkness beyond. The light couldn't illuminate the vast space beyond, only throwing desperate shadows into the void, but it was enough for the sheer size of the creature they faced to raise the hair on the back of Kurogane's neck.

At last the movement stopped, and Kurogane couldn't help but flinch back as a huge, monstrous face appeared before them instead. It was only a guess that it was the thing's face; it was broad as a barn door, the color and texture of stone, and nothing that resembled a human's features. But there were eyes, eyes as large as dinner plates that shifted and rolled as the creature moved - Kurogane counted at least three pairs, larger towards the middle and diminishing in size out towards the side. Masses of ragged, crumbled-looking lichen covered the top of the thing's head, trailing down to frame the stone-colored face. Hot gusts of fetid air rolled over them to the sound of breathing, and great stone teeth flashed almost at the bottom of their vision as it spoke.

"Humansssss," the sepulchral voice said again. Some sounds came out of that vast mouth distorted and strange, weirdly rolled R's or elongated S's, but despite that the diction of that rolling voice was more precise than Kurogane would have expected. "Humans were not always ourrrrrr enemies."

"It's a demon," Kurogane said in a low voice, barely controlled with panic. It was a stunningly obvious statement, he knew, but he had never heard one speak before. "But it's talking. How is it talking?"

"We are as old as the mountains themselves; we were here long before the humans washed up on our shorrrres," the voice rolled out over them. Kurogane couldn't tell if it was in response to his question, or some pre-rehearsed speech. "We were born out of the darknessss between the stars, in the heart of the mountains. We are the born of the old magic, formless and wild. We are chaossss."

"As hard as it may be to accept," Tomoyo said in her gentle voice, "There is truth in her words."

"Her?" Kurogane gestured towards the monstrosity, incredulous. "That thing is female?"

"Yes." Tomoyo turned her gaze back towards the face, her gaze calm. "She is the last of the great queens of the race. Those we call youkai, or demons, inhabited the land long before our ancestors came here. The oldest histories say that the first Tsukuyomi learned the art of dreamseeing from a youkai princess."

"Humans learned much from us in those days," the demon continued on. The voice was deep as a well, rough and grinding - yet now that the suggestion had been planted, somehow he couldn't help but hear the voice as somehow female, see the inhuman visage before him with the hint of an ancient old woman. "And we learned much from you. We soon had rrrreason to be glad of you humans, because you gave us the one thing we could not give oursssselves: stability. For hundreds of yearssss, our peoples lived in peace."

"Peace!" Kurogane spat, hatred and fury temporarily overriding his confusion and wariness. Fai put a hand on Kurogane's shoulder, but he shrugged it off angrily. "Bull fucking shit! Demons like this one have been attacking the outer provinces for as long as I've been alive! They live to kill, they eat what they kill - these things don't know the meaning of peace."

"Those were lesser youkai, younger and unformed," Tomoyo's implacable voice said. "This one was not among those that harried your homestead."

"She's still one of them!" Kurogane's anger flared. "Whether she personally killed and ate my countrymen or not, what does that matter? She's a demon just like the rest of them and they're vermin who don't deserve to live! Why are we standing here talking instead of killing it?!"

"My children," the demon said, and a huge breath rattled through a massive throat before she spoke on. "My children were rrrraised in your houses: you gave them human garments to shape their bodies, human wordssss to shape their tongues, human thoughts to shape their brains. In exchange, I gave you… much. Children strong and hale, magic potent, and wisdom of the old ways."

"Kuro-sama, please be calm," Fai's voice came from beside him, quiet and pleading. "Can't you see there's no need for that? She's ancient. You can feel the power guttering out of her. She's already dying."

Kurogane didn't have Fai's special vision for power, but it was easy enough to see the signs of decay. The stone-grey skin wasn't just rough, but pitted and cracked from age; it might once have been black, like the demons that had ravaged Suwa, but time had covered it with a patina of light grey as if with rime or rust. The huge, staring round eyes were filmed over with white, staring sightlessly ahead as the smaller dark eyes on the size blinked and shifted in an attempt to focus.

"I'm not sure she even sees us here," Fai said softly. "Listen. She doesn't seem to be responding to us at all, she's just talking to herself."

"But then you began to shut us out," the demon hissed. "You cast us from your homes, turned ussss from your doorrrrs. You no longer fosssstered my children in exchange for your own, you no longer shaped my children with your civilization, your expectation, your education."

For an inhuman beast whose mouth was not even the right shape to make all the correct sounds, Kurogane had to admit that she had a pretty good elocution.

"Without that, my children grew wild and unsightly, unbound and unforrrrmed. They became dumb, and soon reverted to our ancient nature: that of bloodshed, violence and hungerrrr."

Kurogane made an ugly, satisfied noise of agreement in his throat, and turned away. Even if Fai was right, even if he couldn't quite stomach the thought of spearing a senile old animal in its dying throes, he was still revolted by this decaying monster and her tortured inhuman whispers.

"It is too late to mend the wayssss between our people," she said, and her alien voice was weary with the sorrow of centuries. "I am old, and soon I will be no more. But I have kept my bargain with you, reader of starssss. I have sheltered your forsaken child, as you have sheltered mine."

Kurogane was the first to see the flicker out of the corner of his eye, as he was steadfastly avoiding looking at the demon herself. His head whipped around and he stared hard at the wall of the cave beside them. It was flat and unnaturally smooth, something that might have caught his notice earlier if not for the distraction of the demon; but now it began to glow with an eerie yellow-green light in the center.

The stone wall began to give way, solid rock melting away from the center as though eaten by acid. What remained was a smooth, translucent oblong of stone, half Kurogane's height tall and twice that long. An egg? Kurogane thought wildly. The damn demon was talking about children, what else could it be? A demon egg?

"Tomoyo, get back," Kurogane said sharply, stepping around her in the cramped enclosure of the cave to put himself between the other two and the egg. "If we're about to have a baby fucking demon in here, I'll take care of it. You two stay back -"

"Kurogane, no!" Tomoyo exclaimed, but he ignored her. A faint glow emanated from the translucent block, enough to outline an irregular shadow within it. Definitely an egg, or a cocoon, or whatever, and the pale calcite was melting away even as they watched. He drew his sword, intensely conscious of the limited space to swing - on the other hand, it wasn't like the creature could lunge past him without impaling itself on his blade. Not that he intended to give it the chance.

"Now I will return to the earth. Now I will returrrn what I took, many years ago. Now I die, and I leave my legacy to my lasssst, my greatest, my most beloved child."

"Kurogane, stop," Fai said, his voice tense and breathless. To Kurogane's shock, Fai actually grabbed onto his sword arm, holding him with a strength that kept him from being able to swing.

"What are you doing?" he exclaimed, trying to free his arm. "You heard her! She's about to unleash some crazy ultra-demon on us!"

"Just wait," Fai said in a low voice, staring intently at the lambent glow of the scene before him. He took a shaky breath as if to explain, but then let it out and shook his head. His hands tightened on Kurogane's arm. "Just wait," he repeated.

A dull, grinding roar began to echo through the chamber as the demon moved again, her enormous body twisting and sliding against the stone walls of the mountain. A rush of air blew through the tunnel and away as the demon sighed, and then the monstrous head shifted and disappeared from view. The voice came back one more time, faint and low and hissing, wending its way up the corridors into their ears.

"Goodbye, my son."

Then all movement ceased, echoes of scales over rock pattering through the tunnels and fading away. The only sound remaining was that of the grinding, laborious breathing of the dying creature as the last of that ancient life slowly leaked away.

As the sound of breathing faded, so too did the last of the wards that the demon's will had kept in place in the small chamber. The lurid glow of the 'egg' leached away, and as it did the translucent surface crumbled into nothing. Finally the last of the barrier dissolved into dust onto the stone floor, revealing -

A human figure curled on the ground, legs tucked up to its chest as if in slumber.

Kurogane took a half-step back, the point of his sword dipping towards the ground in uncertainty. The stranger in the egg looked like a boy, a young man in his late teens or early twenties; he had the dusky skin and ink-black hair common to Kurogane's countrymen. His chest rose and fell evenly; there were no wounds visible on his body. "What is this?" Kurogane said, uncertainty infecting his voice. Why was there a human in the heart of a demon lair? A prisoner, or some kind of sadistic demon meal saved for later…?

Tomoyo brushed past him, and it was a measure of Kurogane's uneasiness that he was not able to stop her until she was already stooping to kneel beside the boy's head. As she reached out towards him, protective urges reasserted themselves. "Tsukuyomi, don't!" he said urgently, taking a step forward and reaching out towards her. "He could be dangerous, he could be a demon in disguise -"

"He's not a demon, Kurogane," Tomoyo said, her voice preternaturally calm. "The legends tell us of human babies stolen from their cribs by demons, to raise them as their own in the underworld. They would exchange the human babes for children of their own, enchanted to resemble the humans they replaced in form but not in spirit."

"What?"

Kurogane couldn't process what she'd said; that made no sense. Everyone knew demons would carry babies off to eat them, but what was this bullshit about leaving demon children in their place? That was complete nonsense, that was impossible…

He stared at Tomoyo, willing her to make some kind of sense again; but her eyes weren't on him, she was gazing intently on the figure before her, slowly beginning to stir towards wakefulness.

"It was to find him and bring him home that I came here today," Tomoyo said softly. "When the Mother died, our contract was completed, and I knew he would be returned to us. I did not know that you would be here this day as well. If I could have, I would have spared you from seeing this, but I suppose it was inevitable that you would find out someday."

"Find out what?" Kurogane's voice broke, and he clamped down on it with ruthless self control. "Tsukuyomi - Tomoyo - what are you talking about?"

She glanced up at him for a moment, and her deep violet eyes were brimming over with compassion and sorrow. She said nothing, but returned her gaze a moment later to the still figure before her.

His were shaking, he realized. He barely felt his lover press tightly against his side, sharing warmth and steadiness as Fai's hand closed over his and squeezed. Without Fai's silent support, he could never have taken the stumbling step forward, far enough to see the face of the boy lying on the stone floor.

The face that was identical to his own.

The boy - the demon, the not-Kurogane - shifted on the stone floor, a terribly familiar-looking expression of disgruntlement flitting over his features. He was not as young as Kurogane had first thought; he'd been misled by the young man's height, several inches shorter than even Fai. He took a deep breath, and his eyes fluttered open, staring unseeingly at the stone ceiling above.

His eyes were brown.

"This is Suwa no You-ou, son and heir of the house of Suwa," Tomoyo said quietly, raising one soft white hand to touch his brow. "He was taken from his home years ago, when the demon mother came upon him alone and undefended in the burning ruins of Suwa and stole him away. She drove the other demons - her other children - away from him, and brought him here to lay him in an enchanted sleep in the manner of her kind."

She looked back up at him, pinning him in place - all six and a half feet of him, inhumanly strong, driven ever since that day with insatiable bloodlust and love for destruction - and her violet eyes met his red ones.

"And you, Kurogane, are the changeling child she left in his place."

Soon:

The sun rises and lights up the mountain face in an unforgiving haze of pale gold, and yet it does nothing to warm the icy stone slopes or the curling wisps of cold fog that cling to its surface. The guards who'd been left to watch over the carriage, to watch over the entrance to the cave, nonetheless greet dawn's light with profound relief.

At length the group that had disappeared into the mountainside returns, their faces solemn and grave. Princess Tomoyo, her escorts and servants; Souma, her soldiers and ninja; and a handful of others, too. They carry between them a litter, supporting a stranger who had not been with them when they went down into the caves with them last night. It takes some time to get him loaded into the bed of the carriage, which was brought here against the rough and uneven slopes for just that purpose.

It takes yet more time for the whole procession to reverse itself, for the horses to be readied and the carriage wheels unfrozen and the princess tucked back into her careful protected envelope - but by the time they set off again, moving at a slow crawl over the steep mountainside, the sun has still not yet warmed the frozen stone. They move slowly, solemn and reverent, like a funeral train.

Not until they are almost out of sight among the trees do three other figures finally emerge from the mouth of the cave, and set themselves with heavy hearts and heavy steps to follow.

tbc.

Author's Notes: This story isn't completed by any means, but I'm going to be taking a break from it for a bit while I work on the Harlequin challenge going on over at the kurofai community on Dreamwidth. Stay tuned.