Chapter Three: Separate

AN: Yay! Things are finally getting started! The disclaimer is back a few chapters.

TRC: Kamui

He hated sand. The touch, the smell, everything about it. He hated worlds to which they traveled which only had sand. He found the stuff to be vile. It got into everything, and it was unclean. He preferred colder worlds, where his black clothing wasn't too hot and where he found the civilizations to be more refined and sociable.

"Great," Kamui muttered as they arrived in the new world, "more desert."

He immediately grabbed Subaru's arm so that the would not be separated by the quickly changing waves that had nearly swallowed his brother whole. The landscape was desolate. It was nothing but that awful gold for miles, except for one bizarre structure.

"Are those... wings?" Subaru asked.

"Don't tell me we already have heat stroke," Kamui complained. His brother was prone to it in places like this.

"No, look!" Subaru pointed to figures, probably people, moving around at the base of the stone ruin. They were moving towards the twins.

"Wonderful, company," Kamui pulled Subaru down the slope away from the fast approaching entourage. He had a tendency to dislike the people who lived in the desert as much as the sand.

"Don't be like that Kamui! You know we need to find a place to stay, food, water..." The younger vampire started listing off the essentials.

"We could just eat them," Kamui muttered under his breath.

Subaru started to object, but was cut off by a harsh, mangy shout. He immediately knew he would dislike the owner of the voice. It shouted, "Halt!"

"Who is that?" Subaru asked.

"How should I know?" Kamui growled.

A group of what appeared to be soldiers, poorly armed, but nonetheless, surrounded them. The man with the gravelled voice barked, "You there! Name, purpose, and world of origin."

"World of origin?" They've had visitors before, Kamui thought. Those worlds were always bothersome to deal with. They didn't take kind to strangers and almost always tried to get into your business.

Kamui squeezed his brother's arm, where he hadn't yet bother to release his hand, telling him to remain quiet. He let go, and moved so he stood between the soldiers and Subaru.

"Where are we?" He demanded.

"Not 'til you answer me, brat," the soldier snapped back.

It was Subaru's turn to stop his brother. Kamui glared at the soldier, who must have been hundreds of years younger than him, but the hand which now rested on his soldier suggested that he didn't rip off the kid's head. At least not yet.

"Kamui Kyuketsuki and my brother, from Sokoku."

"Clow Country," the man growled, clearing hoping that he would be given a reason to start a fight with the twins.

Kamui and Subaru looked at each other. 'Sakura's home?' the younger brother mouthed.

"What was that?" The man snapped. He gripped the knife on his belt.

Kamui switched to a fighting posture. He grabbed Subaru's waist, and pulled the younger vampire behind him.

The man was lucky another escort of soldiers arrived. He was about to know what the sand tasted like, and it would be the last thing he would know.

The new group of soldiers were in better shape than the rag-tag patrol group. The held up flags shaped similar to the wing ruins. They rode odd mammals with lumps on their back. Surprisingly enough, the youngest of the entourage seemed to be the leader.

"King Touya!" The man with the horrible voice and even worse attitude said, and he immediately bowed.

"Who's this? What world are you from?" The king asked.

"I'm getting tired of explaining," Kamui stated blandly. This brat is a king?

"Kyuketsuki Brothers, from a place called Sokoku," The patrol captain answered for him.

Touya smirked. He shouted, "Lead them up to the Palace."

Which turned out to be a small palace, in Kamui's opinion. The city had been on the other side of the ruins. It was entirely surrounded by walls, which meant either war or horrible storms. Neither sounded too appealing.

The twins shed their heavy cloaks part of the war there. Eventually someone had given Subaru their 'camel' for fear that he would pass out from the heat. While Kamui was thankful, it meant that he had to deal with the conversations.

"You must be from a cold place, for having such thick clothes," Touya commented.

Kamui barely nodded in response.

"Have you been travelling for long?''

Nod.

"Are you two related?"

Nod.

"Ever met anyone else who travelled between worlds?''

Nod.

It went on like that for a good time. Eventually Touya gave up and it became a very one-sided story about the history of Clow. He mention his younger sister, who had also travelled between dimensions for a while. Kamui looked back at Subaru, wondering if he had heard.

The throne room was dramatically colder than the outside. Kamui was glad for the temperature change, Subaru was already looking better. Touya left their sides and assumed his place on the throne.

Subaru bowed, thanking the king for his hospitality.

"Someone go find my Sakura," he commanded. "She'll want to meet you. Yukito as well."

"Sakura?" Subaru asked.

"Yes, why?"

"Subaru!" A familiar voice cheered. Kamui prevented himself from rolling his eyes.

The princess ran across the throne room and gave the younger vampire a hug. They had become somewhat close after the incidents that occurred in Tokyo.

"You know each other?" Touya asked.

That time Kamui did roll his eyes. Humans.

"We met in Tokyo, the place I told you about." Sakura smiled. Great, Kamui thought, here we go again.

"This is Subaru Kyuketsuki, and his twin Kamui."

"Twins?" Yukito asked, as he joined them from the hallway. His eyes were wide.

Not human.

The thought hung in the air. No one said it out loud, but they all thought it. Kamui doubted that they were going to stay in this world much longer.

Suddenly, he tensed. Someone else had just arrived in. Another vampire. He relaxed, the smell was familiar, but not threatening.

"What's wrong Kamui?" Subaru asked, lightly placing a hand on his arm.

The older twin turned towards the royalty of Clow, particularly Sakura.

"It looks like your friends are here."

3XH: Watanuki

The deal was simple enough, it just had a lot of moving pieces. Of course, no one thought putting twelve people in a journey across dimensions would be easy. Even only four had given the Witch problems. And Watanuki knew he wasn't powerful enough to do it.

So the plan was simple: split them into four groups and have them travel with those who could already cross worlds. For that, the new shop keeper had made five agreements.

Fai would cast the initial transport spell, sending the unknowing travellers to which ever world their escorts were in. The price for his magic.

Then he, Syaoran, and Kurogane, would take three people with them while they fulfilled Syaoran's wish. That was the price for the creation of two bodies for the clones.

As part of the agreement he made with Yuuko to fulfill his wish, Fuuma would also take in three of the dragons.

In return for the continued use of his eye, Seishiro would do the same.

The last three would travel with Kamui and Subaru, the vampire twins. In exchange, they would be able to move through worlds quicker. Watanuki was fairly sure that Kamui only took the deal due to a recent close call with the hunter.

"All that's left for you to do is decide who goes where," Watanuki explained. "Kakyou will stay here with me, and act as a liaison to the Dragons."

Subaru sighed, maybe in relief. "Does he know that?"

"In order to grant a wish, he has agreed to," the shopkeeper explained.

"Soon," he continued, "all four escorts will be in two worlds, I suggest you split the dragons up based on that."

"And my price?" Subaru asked.

"You must find that out on your journey. Your price is the uncertainty that you have help, or have made it worse. It is not a cheap price, onmyoji."

"I don't doubt that this will help, the world and the humans, at least," Subaru explained. "This way, the earth has a chance to be reborn, without destroying the humans."

Watanuki nodded. "Only if the dragons do not find a way to return immediately. What you wish will be lost, if they do not stay away from Tokyo while the world changes."

Subaru sighed, this time in relief.

"Remember," the shopkeeper gave him a final warning, "Fai casts his spell at midnight."

X/1999: Kamui

The light withdrew, leaving Kamui in a position he was sure he didn't want to be in: on his back in the sand with Sorata on top of him.

He coughed, and shoved the other Dragon off of him.

"Remind me the next time we see that stupid shop assistant that I want to decapitate him," someone muttered from a ways away.

"Don't be like that, he's helping us remember?" Both voices were extremely familiar.

Kamui sat up. There was a small white stuffed animal in his lap.

Why not? He thought.

"Hiya!" It cheered.

Kamui slid backwards, away from it. He bumped into the other Dragons of Heaven.

"What the-?" Sorata began.

"I'm Mokona Modoki! Call me Mokona, okay?"

"Do we kill it?" Arashi whispered

"What is it?" Yuzuriha asked.

"'Mokona is Mokona! You'd count them one Mokona, two Mokona, then stop, because there's only two.' Or at least that's how Yuuko explained it." A thin man with wavy blonde hair in all white said. He was leaning over them holding a large staff. It wasn't a scene that belonged in the desert.

Desert? Kamui looked around, and sure enough, they had gone from a flooded Tokyo to the middle of a desert castle.

"Am I dreaming?" Karen asked standing up.

The rest of the dragons joined her.

"I wish," someone else grumbled. Under the shade of a balcony stood a man in ancient ninja armor, a kid in a cloak and a pair of goggles, a girl in a dress, and two other people standing farther back that Kamui couldn't see. The ninja had been the one speaking.

"You mean they didn't explain it to you?" The kid with the goggles asked.

"Explain what?" Aoki demanded. "Where are we?"

"Now I'm definitely going to take his head off."

"Shh!" It was those voices again. They belonged to the people standing farther back.

"I'm Fai, that's Sakura, Syaoran, and Kuro-Rin!"

"Kurogane!" The ninja snapped.

"Umm-" Kamui began, "We're..."

"Kamui, Arashi, Sorata, Karin, Yuzu, and Aoki!" The 'Mokona' cheered in a sing-song voice, hoping on each person as it did.

"Oh."

"White meat bun, call the witch. He should explain it."

"Okey," it cheered, "dokey!"

Suddenly a projection of a traditional Japanese shop appeared. In it was a man stringing up a bow.

"Watanuki!" He shouted, "you have a customer!"

A young man in a light blue kimono came into view.

"Who are you?" Arashi asked.

"Kimihiro Watanuki. I grant wishes."

"Great," Kamui muttered, "send us home."

"That would contradict someone else's wish."

"Who's? Where are we?" Yuzuriha shouted. She looked a little shaken up.

"You're in Clow country," Watanuki explained, "the other group is in Jade."

"What other group?" Aoki asked.

"The Dragons of the Earth. It was someone's wish to send all of you to different worlds, to see if the world could save itself without destroying humans in your absence."

"So what? We just sit here and rot in this desert? Send us home." Sorata demanded.

"It's not within my power. You must find your own way back to Tokyo."

"Great," one of the voices behind them muttered, "Another place called Tokyo."

"Kamui, shh!"

"You weren't awake in the last one! You didn't have to eat mutant worms!"

"What?" Sorata asked turning towards them.

"Do I know you?" Kamui asked.

The harsher of the voices sighed, and they stepped into the light where the Dragons could see them. They were Kamui and Subaru, except older.

I'm definitely asleep, Kamui thought.

TRC: Seishiro

He decided he disliked Jade country. It was too cold, but besides that, too boring. Syaoran and his friends had gotten rid of the only fun part about it.

Fuuma sneezed. The hunter had almost forgotten he was there.

"You're looking at me weird again."

Seishiro smirked. "They should be here soon."

"I don't get Watanuki's division of labor," Fuuma began to muse. "They have five people, we have two. Shouldn't they get twice as many people as us?"

"Who knows?"

"Apparently 'I' am in one of the groups."

"Hmm."

"You were, too," Fuuma joked, "but apparently someone named Subaru, ended up killing you."

Seishiro glared at him. "I know."

"Careful, or he might kill you, too." Fuuma laughed. "Or maybe you're more worried about Kamui?"

"I'm not worried about either," Seishiro smiled.

"At least the people here aren't going to freak out if we drop a couple of people out of the sky."

"That's true."

They were quiet for a couple more minutes.

"You're boring, Seishiro," Fuuma noted.

"I agree."

The ground began to swirl and unfold.

"If 'I'm' in this group, you get him."

"Then I get Subaru."

"Deal."

The ground peeled back to expose its travellers. Unlike the Dragons of Heaven, they were on their feet.

"This should be good," Seishiro laughed.

In the center was 'Fuuma' holding on to 'Subaru's' arm. The onmyoji face paled.

"That's unfortunate," the Hunter Fuuma said.

The other Fuuma smirked at seeing them.

"Wonderful," he said, and pulled Subaru towards Seishirou side. "Kazuki?"

The young man joined him.

"This is how we're splitting up," Fuuma explained.

"Oh, good," Seishiro's younger brother said, "We don't have to do any explaining."

"Your names?" Seishiro asked, not letting on that he knew a Subaru from his life.

"Fuuma Monou, Nataku Tojo," Fuuma said, pointing at Kazuki and himself.

"Yuto Kigai."

"Satsuki Yatoji, don't touch me."

"Kusanagi Shiyu," the military man grumbled.

"Subaru Sumeragi," he barely whispered.

"I'm Fuuma, obviously. Fuuma Ryoko."

"Seishiro Ryoko."

"You're related?" Yuto asked.

"Are we not where you're from?" Seishiro smiled.

"No," Satsuki said, a little brazenly.

"How nice," The younger brother muttered under his breath.

"So," Fuuma Monou said, "where to first?"

AN: So the introductory bit of this fanfic is finally over. From now on the chapter will be formatted a little differently. Leave your favorite spell in the reviews.

Side Note:

Kyuketsuki means Vampire

Soukou means Homeland

Ryoko means Traveler

Anything else I missed?