It was already a few hours later when the boy finally returned. Byakuran was already back and seemingly a bit terrified and scarred if the frozen grin on his face were any indication. As for Tsuna, he had been unconscious when he was brought back and it relieved the older boy to see that he would not have to explain or talk about his experiences.

As soon as the man left the room, the older boy sprung up and rushed to his new friend's side. He scrutinized the body and was satisfied to see that there had been no damage done. He himself didn't get harmed physically either, but today, he was brought out to be shown what would be done to him. Needless to say it had been a hideous sight and after seeing so much, no other sane nine year-old would be walking the halls carefree.

First, he had been escorted to a room with the same heavy-looking metal door that the room he was staying in had. Inside he saw the different tools and machines, vials of liquids, and other intricate objects. While that wasn't exactly frightening, the next thing he saw was plain terrifying.

In a connected room, smartly hidden behind a fake wall, a small cluster of children were gathered. Most were crying as they watched a figure strapped on the cot with tubes connecting to his body and draining some liquid from it. Some were just watching with terrified expressions as the boy on the cot cried in pain and as his face morphed and twisted into various expressions.

Fortunately for Byakuran, he only had to endure watching this scene for two minutes as the men operating the machine pulled the tubes from the boy's body, bandaged up some wounds, and allowed him to quietly go back to the corner where all the children were huddled together in a sad attempt of feeling comforted with each other's presence.

Byakuran knew he probably wasn't supposed to be seeing this but what could he do while the man spoke to the others in lab coats? All of the children had either bandages somewhere around their body or abnormalities with their physical appearance. Byakuran took in the appearance of the boy who had just been on the cot.

The dirty blond hair and sharp eyes were normal. The scars however...

The boy had a large scar running from both his cheeks and crawling over the bridge of his nose. When he spoke, his teeth would show and Byakuran couldn't help but notice the eerie resemblance of the sharp fangs he had to that of a carnivore.

By time the man was finished, Byakuran had seen enough to want to puke. Luckily, before he could do so, the man had led the both of them to another room with another ridiculously heavy-looking metal door (honestly is this all that the place is? Just metal doors?) and the boy was severely bemused when he found no one inside as the man in the lab coat swung the door open. Before he could speculate, the man started to talk.

"I'm going to run a few... tests on you, just to make sure you are suitable for this." He motioned for the boy to go in the room as the man switched on the lights. He strapped Byakuran onto one of the cots and started preparing a large device that loomed over him and the man. As the machine whirred to life, Byakuran grew increasingly terrified. The man had on now a pair of gloves and a face mask. If the child hadn't known better, he would have mistaken him for a doctor.

The albino stared passively as the man (scientist?) maneuvered the machine over to where he was then he pulled out some small strange-looking white pads with wires attached to each and stuck them all over the child's body who was now feeling very much like a stamp album.

The pads were attached mainly to his limbs and his torso but there were also a couple on his head. For what reason, he couldn't fathom. But he had enough sense in him to know that the results wouldn't be pretty if he tried to fight or struggle especially when he only knew a few basic moves for self-defense. He had no doubt that even if the scientist couldn't incapacitate him physically, which was very unlikely, he would probably be on the receiving end of some other enormous and equally creepy device that would do it for him (with the Estraneo, he'd learned, it was all about technology).

'What is this?' thought the albino silently. the pads stuck to his skin had started glowing while he was lost in his thoughts. A sharp pain suddenly stabbed at his torso but stopped as quickly as it came.

"Hm...interesting..." the man was saying now. Byakuran looked at him dazedly. The sudden sting in his side had caused his head to start throbbing for reasons unknown but he pushed it to the back of his mind because he had to focus on what the man was muttering about.

The screen coming with the machine was faced away from him so Byakuran couldn't see what was on it, but judging from the way the man seemed to be analyzing whatever it was that was written there, it was important data, probably about himself. "It seems you are compatible after all," he suddenly said.

A wolf's grin appeared on the man's face.

"You have sky flames."

After that short test, he had been accompanied back to his 'room,' as he had grown to call it, by the same scientist to make sure he wouldn't run off to explore or anything. The metal door clanged shut with a click of the lock as Byakuran winced slightly from the loudness of it.

He remembered what the man said. "You have sky flames." he had said. Byakuran did not want to know why having those were important.

He knew his father and his friends had often talked about them. He had even received some training to learn to control his flames adequately. He recalled being told that Sky flames were the rarest and strongest of all the seven flames. He'd seen his own and he called it nothing but fire. The orange light coming from his ring had been fascinating (consequently making the boy wonder why the ring didn't melt) but he didn't feel anything special about it. Now he realized how wrong he was.

He pulled out the ring from his pocket. He had been wandering in the park when someone suddenly grabbed him. His father had always been telling him to keep it close at all times and if he was outside, he should take it off and hide it in his pocket. The albino didn't know what the deal was with the ring although he had to admit, the design was unique- a smooth oval stone flanked by a pair of wings- but other than that, he didn't know what was so special about it. He'd tried asking but he would always get the same answer; "One day, you will know." That was all he knew and all his father was willing to say.

There was something he had never seen before. The ring seemed to be glowing- just a pale orange light, nearly unnoticable but it was unmistakably there. It had never done that before and Byakuran couldn't control his flames too well so he'd only used it a few times. He would have to do more, it seemed.

He wore the ring back on his finger and concentrated. He felt the familiar pulsing of the waves as a small spark appeared, flickering into a great orange flame.

-End of chapter

I think the ending was a bit abrupt. Lol. Not much talking in this chapter I know and I'm sorry for that but I had to do this in a hurry since I'm supposed to be studying.

/whispers: (this week is actually full of tests for every day and then there's dance practice... I have 5 for a day T.T I didn't even join willingly and then after practice a while ago I had to go train for math which came as a big shock to me since I was NOT aware of that and then we have a math test and language test tomorrow and hopefully no test for home economics plz. wish us luck for our math test we DO need it tbh)

So because of this tests week thing the teachers decided to pile up homework for us for the weekend so I just decided to type this rather than waiting a couple more weeks or something because I can't get on the computer if I have homework since I get distracted easily.

Again thank you for the reviews, follows and favorites!

I think this AN has dragged on too long sorry about that.

-Mental Typist 2014.07.09