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The cliffhanger revealed! What will happen?

Disclaimer: I own my demons and the witch. And the ship. (sticks tongue out)

Chapter 5 – Keiyaku

"What?"

Zuko stared as the demon turned to the open door. What in the world?

"No time," he mumbled, grabbing the prince and dragging him out of bed. Hoshi half carried, half dragged the Firebender down the hall and up the flights of stairs to the mess area. He kept checking behind them, as though to see if they were being followed.

"What is going on?" he asked as Hoshi let go of him. He was surprised to find the other two demons already here; Ookami in a pair of black pants only and Nezu in an oversized shirt and pants. Hoshi himself only wore a pair of brown pants that seemed a size too small.

"Sorano's having a lil' bit of trouble," Hoshi said.

"Little?" Nezu squeaked. "She almost bit my head off!"

"Stop beating around the bush, Hoshi," Ookami growled. He faced Zuko, a grim expression on his face. "Remember when I told you about the falling stars?" At the prince's nod, he continued. "Sorano saved one when she was thirteen. She went out alone when they started falling and caught one before it hit the ground. She didn't want it to die and neither did it. So she struck a deal with it but it wouldn't take on another form. It wanted to live inside her body."

"We heard her screamin' up a storm and ran to get her," Hoshi added, sitting on a chair. "Her body wasn't accepting the star and was tryin' to fight it. We brought her back to the ship and did as much as we could while her body accepted the star. She was out for three days straight."

"What does that have to do with this?" he asked.

A roar sounded throughout the boat.

"Well, the star she saved happened to have a dragon demon living inside of it." Zuko stared in confusion. "All stars are demons that have been banished or vanquished," Hoshi explained.

"She managed to pick a fickle one and now it won't let her go. It's taken over her body for the night. Luckily, she's put a barrier on the quarter's hallway so that it can't leave and come and eat us. Well, mainly you, Zuko. It seems to like humans." Ookami smiled grimly.

Zuko sat in a chair and tried to take in the new information. "What do we do?"

"Nothing," Hoshi mumbled. "Just sit back and relax. It'll pass by morning. She can't get near us until she takes over again. She'll probably rip your room apart though."

Nezu had curled up in an overstuffed chair, snoring lightly. The small demon wrapped his tail around him and slept on without a care in the world.

The wolf demon kicked one of the chairs, frowning when it didn't give. He hit it with his fist and grinned when it finally lied out. Grunting, he settled on it, lying on his side, his tail draped across his body.

Hoshi sat up, dozing off on his hand as he seemed to be standing watch, just incase.

He stared at the scene. Zuko couldn't believe this. These demons trusted the sorceress even if she was being controlled by a strange demon. Ookami was already snoring, his tail and ears twitching. Nezu was mumbling in his sleep and Hoshi had slipped off on his hand. His blond hair hung in his face and his ears twitched like the wolf's.

Quietly, he stood and carefully made his way around the room to where the mess area met the hall. He turned to make sure he hadn't woken any of them up and smirked. Zuko turned to walk out and stopped.

Sorano was staring at him but he could feel it wasn't her. The eyes had turned to a deep gold and she had very long fangs. Growls rumbled in her throat as she eyed him like she was measuring him up.

He backed up slowly, one hand braced on the wall. She growled again and bared the long fangs as her eyes took on a primal rage. Zuko let another thought cross his mind as he imagined himself being ripped apart by her as he now noticed the long claws on her hands.

She lunged at him.

He braced himself and brought his arm up to fend her off but he didn't feel anything land on him. Opening his eyes, he stared in surprise as she shook her head and prodded the space between the mess area and the hallway. The witch hissed as something deflected her and growled again. She threw her body against it and Zuko stared as she bounced off a barrier.

Even if she couldn't get in, she paced in front of the barrier and watched him with primal eyes. He backed away and decided the safest area was with the demons. Zuko settled himself on a chair and hoped that the barrier would stay strong until morning.

Zuko didn't know he had fallen asleep until he heard Ookami snapping awake with a grunt. He sat up in the chair, blinking and looking around the mess area. The wolf demon rolled off the chair and stretched like a dog. He gave himself a shake and stood up, popping his back out. "Mornin'," he mumbled.

The Firebender nodded and found his neck ached from the position he had slept in. The sun shone brightly through the window. He rolled his shoulders as the wolf demon strode to the hall and stopped short.

"Damn," he grumbled, squatting down besides the witch.

Hoshi startled the prince by snapping up, yawning widely. "What's happened?" he asked, disoriented.

"She broke that barrier. Don't know why she didn't come in here though," he said, moving around the sorceress.

Zuko and Hoshi joined him, staring down at her. She was curled up in a small ball, sleeping soundly. Shrugging, the demon leaned down and nudged her shoulder, smiling when she mumbled and swatted at his arm.

"She's back to bein' herself," he said with a smile. "Question is what stopped her from eating Zuko?"

Glaring, Zuko turned back to the open space and faced the demons. "There was a barrier here last night."

Both demons looked confused and Hoshi started to examine the wall. Zuko told them of what had happened last night when they had all been asleep. Ookami frowned and watched Hoshi.

"I don't see any of her marks when she does a spell," Hoshi mused, rubbing his head.

"That's weird, even for this ship," the wolf demon muttered. "Then again, this thing has surprised us. Maybe it doesn't like death."

"Or fed off his fear," the other demon guessed.

While the two guessed theories, Zuko stared at the wall and gave it a pat.

Maybe this thing was alive.

The day began as normal as any day on this weird ship. Zuko chewed on a strip of bacon as he stifled a yawn. Hoshi was already on deck steering the ship and Nezu had taken the duty of watering the plants downstairs. He did want to see the arboretum, mostly because he wanted to find out how trees survived in this ship. The prince just couldn't find any other stairs that would lead down into the bottom floor.

Sorano was passed out in her room after Hoshi had carried her to bed. She'd be out for the entire day almost so anything they needed was to be done by hand and without magic. Hoshi had explained though that the finding spell would still work because it had been already done. Though that did mean that the dishes had to be hand washed since the dishwashing table was fueled from Sorano.

Zuko took his plate down the two flights of stairs to the kitchen and almost hesitated. The prince of the Fire Nation, scrubbing dishes like a peasant. His uncle would never let him live it down.

He watched as Ookami took the leftovers from last night and basically reheated them and arranged them in a different manner before dumping them in a stew. "Don't worry. It won't kill you," he muttered.

That he took as his cue and left the wolf demon to his work. Zuko wandered around the ship, blinking as he came across the quarters. He hadn't been down here mostly because of the fact that he didn't want to see what had happened to his room. Now it seemed curiosity had overcome him.

The door had been ripped off of its hinges and was thrown haphazardly in the middle of the floor. There were deep scratches in the wood around the doorframe and the metal was dented. When he took a look inside, he found feathers from the pillow and bed everywhere. The bed itself was in half and he couldn't find any remains of the pillow. A leg from the nightstand was actually embedded in the wall. The desk had been ripped apart and the basin was smashed on the floor. His shirt, however, was in one piece still and that surprised him more than anything. He grabbed it and pulled it on even if it was dirty.

Deciding that he would wait until Sorano could fix it, he made his way to the deck once again. It seemed to be the only place he could sit and think.

"Your room's a mess, isn't it?" Hoshi asked as soon as he climbed up the stairs.

Zuko frowned at him and took his spot on the top stair. "She left my shirt alone."

"Yeah, we haven't figured that out yet," the demon said, thinking. "Something must've been goin' through her mind," he mumbled.

He stared at the finding spell, nodding as the demon was steering straight towards his uncle. "How does one break a contract?"

"Hm?" Hoshi mumbled, looking down at him. "Break the contract?" The demon rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, first you have to understand what the contract calls for. For example, the demon receives something of the person while the person receives something of the demon. To break that, you'd need to return both items to their proper owners." He gave the wheel a turn. "Why do you want to know?"

"Why haven't you helped the witch with her contract?" he asked, glancing at the demon.

"First, neither she nor the demon can say anything about the contract, especially how to break it. She can leave subtle clues and all but she can't say that they are clues. Second, we've been tryin' but we haven't been able to put the clues together. We would have broken it, believe me. That demon's a bastard." Hoshi sighed and gave him a look. "You want to help break the contract?"

"I never said that," Zuko defended but the demon smiled.

"Didn't have to. Let me tell you something though, don't be fallin' and pinin' for her. I've seen quite a few boys get their hearts broken by her," he said. "Love isn't in that demon's vocabulary and won't let her. Just be careful," the demon finished.

"I would never!" he yelled, glaring at the demon while he grinned.

"Just sayin'," he laughed, waving his hand. "Ookami's got the list of clues in his room if you want to look at it. Maybe you'll have better luck than us."

He couldn't believe this room. It looked like a cave he had seen before. The door was even like the mouth of a cave and he finally understood what the window was for. Sorano had magicked the side of the ship to let sunlight in at dawn and it seemed to be Ookami's alarm. The back of the "cave room" had a pallet on the ground with a couple of keepsakes around it.

Ookami leaned down and fished around under the pallet and pulled out a well used piece of parchment. He handed it to the prince and smoothed his bed down.

"This is it?" he asked, looking up at the wolf demon.

"That's all we've managed to get in thirteen years," he replied gruffly. "Now get out of here."

Zuko left the demon and took the roll of parchment up to the mess area which would be empty enough for him to think in. His room was tempting but the mess in it was what drove him off.

He now sat on the chair that seemed to be his as no one else sat in it but him. The parchment was laid out on the table and he was trying to piece together the words written on it. Zuko had no idea why he was doing this. Maybe it was because he needed something to obsess over. He couldn't go after the Avatar on this ship so he might as well put his mind to work on something.

'Four, fire, deity, banish, star, doll, water, blossom or cherry, earth, air, love, magic'

Thinking, he tried to put several words together but ended up becoming more confused. He had managed to put the four elements together but didn't know what that meant. The others had written several guesses on the parchment but hadn't managed to connect anything besides the four elements. The rest was a bunch of meaningless jumble.

This was going to take a long time.