A/N: Thanks very much for the reviews for the last chapter. I'm glad your all so excited about it. Sorry again for making you wait so long but I promise it will be the last time for a long while. To recap what happened in the last chapter, Ren was being tortured by the leader of the aliens but when he left he was saved by a man who he had met in the cells. Pirika was beginning to lose faith in her brothers abilities but then was put at ease, short of. Now they have left Yoh's house and are beginning their trip to the cloud ship. Enjoy!

Chapter Seven: The burden of transformation

Pirika had never felt so worried as she did now.

She was staring out the window at the cloud like ship that hovered in front of the sun and she sighed. How much pain must Ren be in now? Clearly more pain then she could even imagine. They had to hurry and get to him. They had to save him from what ever was happening to him there.

Walking away from the window she opened one of his draws and found a piece of sheet paper with notes clearly written and words on it's blank side. A song by the title of 'Animal'. She had no idea Ren was a budding rock artist. She smiled brightly and read the song when a sudden knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

"Come on Pirika," came Lyserg's cheerful voice. "We're ready!"

"Alright!"

She put the paper back in the draw and hurried down stairs and met the group. They were already prepared for their journey. Alexandria sat perched on her shoulder, flexing her translucent wings. Once they were all gathered together Anna told them this would be a lot harder then they thought. They would have to be quiet, and ready for anything. They left after that, heading towards the cloud ship, quiet.

Only Alexandria broke the quiet with quiet humming, flying around Pirika's head. She was attempting to cheer up a depressed aniu girl. But is wasn't working. "Come on, Pirika-chan. Don't be sad."

"I can't help it. The closer we get to the ship the more I feel that something bad is going to happen."

"What?"

"I have no idea," she said honestly, "but there is no reason to worry, Alex. Everything will be fine."

A strange noise suddenly filled the air as a large, steel golem rose up from the ground with a hooded man on it's head. In his hand was a scythe that was a bright red with purple-pink highlights. The man laughed, pointed at them and said;

"Prepare to meet your maker."

-------

"What is your name," the man asked Ren, his green eyes flashing.

"My name is Ren. What's yours?"

The man smiled for a moment before saying, "Just call me Pyro."

They made their way quietly through white steel hallways, keeping the sounds of their foot steps to a minimum. So far the only person they had encountered was Sàix but he was in such a hurry he didn't notice them. Other then that encounter everything else was quiet. Not a soul besides Sàix came to hider their journey. They eventually reached a large door and Pyro grew a little more quiet.

He opened the door and peered inside before entering the dark room, Ren following behind. The room was pitch black but the young Shaman felt strangely at home here. He paused and tired to see anything but nothing came into view. Pyro paused and watched him; worry in his eyes but Ren didn't seem to notice. Ren found his way to the wall and touched it with his hand.

"Don't!"

"Oloth zhan tuth abbil leueth ogglin." 1

The light suddenly came on as the darkness wrapped around him. He screamed out in pain and didn't deemed to be able to move away from the shadow. When Pyro tried to help him he was pushed away by an invisible force. The young shaman was in horrible pain and the shadow seemed to be speeding up his transformation. But his ally wasn't about to let that happen.

"Powers awaken from the pits of the inferno, set free this boy born of your power! Come forth!"

Black-red flames surrounded the shadow, dispelling the shadow with in five minutes. Ren fell to the ground and Pyro went to him. The door opened and Sàix entered grinning dimly. He shook his head and said;

"Should have know you would try something like this. Fool. Now you have awaken the beast, and it's all your fault."

Pyro narrowed his eyes and growled, standing up and summoning his power. Two long katana formed in his hands, and a red glow surrounded his blades. He pointed one of his blades at Sàix and then smirked.

"I have a debt to pay to some people down there, including this boy. You can't stop me."

The man smirked, laughing darkly. "Your not going to get away from me, little Pyro. Prepare yourself."

Pyro attacked Sàix with his twin blades and he blocked with a great iron blade. Ren couldn't really see what was going on, his mind was blurred with rageful thoughts. He couldn't focus on the battle. The rage was over taking him and he would soon be lost…. Soon.

But not yet.

-------

Pirika sighed, watching the man on the steel golem. "I'm beginning to see a pattern."

The hooded man spoke directly to her, his voice calm. "Each of us have our own summon able beast. This is mine."

Anna shook her head. "Your not the only one who can summon."

"Oh you can to? Let's see it then."

Anna summoned up her Shinigamies. She had regained control of them after Hao's defeat, but she didn't have them out very often. The robed man looked at them and shrugged.

"I knew you wouldn't be impressed but that is alright," she said with her own shrug. "All that matters is that you end up before me bagging for mercy."

She waved her hands and the Shinigamies went up to attack the golem. They made rather large explosions with each attack but the golem kept healing itself. The others went to help, and attacked the man on top of the creature. The man was surprised but not caught off guard. He jumped off the monsters head and met their attack head on with one of his own.

Pirika though waited, gripping her spirit spear in her hand tightly as she studied the golem. There had to be a weakness to it, she just knew it. Horo noticed her thoughtfulness, mistaking it for fear and landed by her.

"Pirika, what's wrong? This is no time to freeze up."

"I'm not frozen," she responded. "I'm looking a for a weakness in the armor. That thing is living, so it had to have a weakness."

He watched her for a moment and nodded. "Just don't take too long."

He returned to the battle with the robed man and suddenly Pirika saw it. A small crystal on it's chest, no bigger then a golf ball. She smirked and rushed forward, her spear out before her. The beast was distracted by the others she had a chance. She struck the blue orb and it cried out. Cracks formed around the sttared jewel and went up it, spreading. The robed man jumped away from his fight and watched the golem fall. Even though she couldn't see his face, she could tell he was angry.

"You wretch! How dare you defeat my iron golem!" He then relaxed, and lowered his scythe. "But no matter. I wasn't on orders to destroy you, just distract you. Farwell, dear children."

He vanished and before anyone really had a chance to think Pirika took off running towards the ship. She didn't want the keep the Chinese Shaman waiting for too long. Anna shook her head and they all took off after the girl. Horohoro was equally if not more, frustrated then the others. His sister was foolish when it came to love. Almost as foolish as he. The thought made him smile.

"Come on guys," Pirika said as she ran, "we have to hurry!"

And Horo was sure of one thing. Love makes everyone it encounters foolish and rash.

A/N: That is the end of that chapter. I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I've been getting lots of ideas from a lot of different places. Its funny. Well, till next time!

1- "Darkness is both my friend and enemy."