A/N: I am very proud to announce that this chapter is dedicated to jasmine....again. -.-' Come on, guys, I can see that you're reading it. No offense, jasmine. I really appreciate your reviews. It makes me smile every time you tell me that your enjoying the story. Thanks for your support. :D But I would like to hear if someone else is enjoying this, too. Read on!!

Disclaimer: I think I forgot this last time. Oops. This one is for both chapters then. I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Tomb Raider times two.


Chapter Twelve—As Good As Gold

The resistance to our success kept coming at us in increasing numbers and in larger packages. As we at the edge of a pool before Midas's throne, three of those monstrous gorillas tried to take our heads off. We took theirs off instead and then began memorizing our surroundings. There was a gate on either side of the room aside from the one we had entered through and a pool in the middle of the room with a gate in the bottom but it was currently barred shut. There was also a walkway up by Midas's shoulders and if we stepped to the side, we could see another closed gate behind his head.

Kurama was the first of us to approach the throne. Brushing aside a few dying vines, he scratched at the surface of one of the letters and then murmured to himself, "Midas." He was studying the rest of the statue when the rest of our group caught up to him. "The Hand of Midas?" I heard him utter and then he climbed up to where the hand was resting.

"Uh oh," I said, looking after him. "We better go get your foxy man, Christy. I think I just saw him sprout a tail."

"Pfft. I wish," said Christy and we climbed up after him.

"Alright, so what's so special about this Midas guy?" Always the curious one, Yusuke.

Kurama began, "Silenus was an old teacher to the god of revelry and drinking named Dionysus and one night he got drunk with wine. He was on his way home when he passed out in Midas's rose garden—"

"Wait a minute," I interrupted. "I thought he passed out and was taken to Midas by Phrygian peasants because Midas was their king."

Kurama smiled. "There is always more than one way to tell a story, Kat. I like the version with the rose garden better. It was said to be more extravagant and pungent than any other rose garden." Should have known that was coming. "At any rate, Midas cared for Silenus for ten days and on the eleventh day, returned him to Dionysus who was also Silenus's foster son. Dionysus offered Midas whatever reward he wanted and Midas asked for the gift that whatever he touched would turn to gold.

"You can only imagine how delighted he must have been to find out he had truly been given the gift so when he returned home, Midas set up a feast. However, the gift also became a curse when he turned his food and drink to gold. After things took a turn for the worst and he turned his own daughter to gold, Midas again went to see Dionysus and begged him to take back what had become a curse to him. Dionysus told Midas to bathe in the Pactolus River and when he did so, the power of gold left him and turn the river's sands to gold.

"Thus ended the part about his marvelous gift so the rest of the story is not important. The real question here is if this is the hand that used to contain the power of gold or if it is merely a piece of this statue now."

He put a hand to his face in thought and I decided to indulge him. "Only one way to find out."

He smiled. "Indeed." He took hold of the crystal I had tied around my neck. "May I?"

I nodded, not quite sure what he was planning on doing with it, but he only allowed the bandage wrap cord to brush the surface of the hand. The power of gold sparkled up the end of the necklace and transformed the cloth into a solid gold cord.

I grinned at Hiei. "Looks like you won't have to go to the Makai to get me a chain after all." He ignored me, his eyes also being glued to the enchanted hand; after all, Hiei had once been a thief, too.

"Trust the Midas touch!" sang Tiara.

Yusuke looked at her like she had just pulled a Kuwabara. "What was that?"

"A jingle for a car care company in America," answered Dusty.

"Here's a gold bar." Kurama had been exploring some more and, sure enough, set in the stone of the corner nearest Midas's hand was a golden bar. Upon further inspection, we found three more spaces for golden bars—one on the other side of Midas's feet and one on either side of the inscription of MIDAS.

"So we have to find three more gold bars?" asked Dusty.

"No," I corrected, recalling the puzzle from the old version of the game. "We have to find three lead bars and turn them to gold using the Hand of Midas. There's no switches down here; let's climb the throne and see if we can reach any from up there."

There was only one switch that we could reach from where we were and that was because it was set into the part of the throne behind Midas's shoulders. This opened the door on the right side of the room down on ground floor. Inside this door was a long hallway which branched after some time, either going right or straight.

We went straight first, only because we could see a room with sunlight from where we were standing. In the middle of this room was a support pillar with a golden gate around the base and behind this gate was one of the lead bars we were seeking.

"I'm guessing we're looking for something to lower that gate," said Yusuke. "There's a hall forward and to the left."

This was where we went next and the stairs inside circled around so that we were under the main support pillar. The thing had nearly fallen down it looked like, since there were massive breaks at it's base and three wooden braces were holding the pillar in place.

And wouldn't you know it? Once we stepped inside the small room, waiting on the other side to ambush us was a gathering of gorillas and lions. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't have been too incredibly difficult except that the room was cramped and so we could use the long-range whips or too much fire power without hitting our comrades. Dusty, Tayg, Hiei, Yusuke, and I were best suited for the job but then we also had to defend the rest of our friends.

After several minutes of dodging, shoving, and shooting, we had taken out half of the animal resistance, but most of those were cats and so the gorillas were still lumbering around trying to smash us. When one was distracted by the gunfire of Yusuke, I ran into give it a sure shot between the eyes, but that plan was flawed once Yusuke had to reload. The gorilla turned toward me and clubbed me backwards with its beefy arm.

I hit one of the wooden braces to the pillar and it broke out from beneath me. The pillar shifted and then I got an idea; most of my friends were near the hall and could take cover if the pillar gave out.

"Hiei, give me a hand!" I pointed to the brace closest to him. "Guys! Get into the hall!"

Hiei stepped closer to the brace and ducked when the gorilla swung at him again. The second brace went flying and my idea would have worked if the gorilla had not also punched the pillar and knocked a piece loose. Hiei pulled me to the side as the base exploded and the whole thing came crashing down, dropping parts of the ceiling and burying us in dust.

When the air had cleared a bit and I could sit up, I found that my team had not made it to the hall in time. I could see Kuwabara's now dirty orange hair the closest to the safe spot but no one else was there.

"Where is everybody? Sound off!"

"Hn."

"I'm okay," said Kuwabara, shaking the dust from his head.

"We're alright here," said Kurama from the corner nearest us while helping Christy stand.

"Aye, 'ere too," said Tayg once he dug Dusty out of a pile of rocks.

A mound of dust not too far from me shifted and Yusuke emerged coughing and then Tiara stood up from underneath him.

"Yeah, yeah, we're fine," said Yusuke. "But do you have to be so loud?"

"Well, here's one good thing," Dusty said, walking to us and holding the lead bar. "The pillar dropped far enough that the lead bar fell out and the animals are dead."

"Lalo?" Tiara called worriedly. The Brionian was not in his usual place on her shoulder. "Lalo?!"

She dropped to her knees and began digging through the area where she had been laying. Yusuke ran up to help her and together they kicked up a good amount of dirt before they found the alien.

Coughing a bit, he asked, "Mistress? ….Are you alright? That rock nearly hit you."

"What rock?" asked Yusuke.

"The one from the pillar. It nearly hit her head and I blocked it."

"Look at his wing, Yusuke," Tiara gasped.

I don't know much about the anatomy of bird-lion-aliens but I'm pretty sure the first finger bone in a bat-like wing isn't supposed to almost be poking out of the skin. I could be wrong but it seems Tiara also noticed it.

The Brionian squawked pitifully when Tiara picked it up and I knew Lalo probably wouldn't be flying hardly if at all for the rest of this trip.

"Can you set it, Kurama?" asked Tiara.

He nodded and bent down beside them. Carefully he stretched out the alien's wing and added a bit of pressure until the bone clicked back into place. It was the sort of sound that made me want to grind my teeth so while Kurama was splinting the wing, I started back up the stairs.

"I'm going to go see what damage was done up here. When you're done with that, meet me back at Midas's throne."

Of course, Hiei didn't follow that order and together we made our way back to the first room which was now just a pile of dirt, rubble, and ruins since we had knocked down the central support pillar and the ceiling with it.

"When we first came in, there was another hall going to the right. Let's go check it out."

That hall led us up above the disaster area and we could now make out a hall on the other side of the room. After disposing of four bats, we made our way around the ruins, using pillars, grapple hoops, ropes, and ledges alike and collecting a couple medi-packs along the way before we reached the distant door.

We crept along the hall, anticipating another ambush and, after some time, we heard a grunt. Peeking around the corner, we only saw two gorillas and since we had the element of surprise, they weren't a problem. We were now on a walkway above the Midas room and level with another switch. This one opened the door behind Midas's head.

Our way down consisted of a fountain and when we reached the ground, we found our team coming out of the door on the opposite side of the room. When we joined them, to my surprised amusement, I saw Yusuke had Lalo cradled in one arm and the other around Tiara's shoulders.

We climbed the throne again and followed the hall beyond, a soft glow coming from around a corner led us to find a small bowl of fire lighting the way. In fact, there was a bowl around every corner until we entered the next room, which was rather gloomy looking with only a few bowls of fire lighting a ledge on either side of the room and a balcony in the distance. There was a ledge in front of us that extended a bit over the water that was separating us from a way over to the balcony where the lead bar was most likely to be and in front of that ledge was a squat, circular pillar with a small hole in the middle. There was also a pillar to the right of that which had many holes going around the walkway at the base. To the left, in the distance was a pillar that we couldn't reach with what looked like golden lion heads laid into its surface. There was another identical to the one on the left nearer to the balcony but we couldn't access it without its partner.

"There's a crocodile in the water," said Christy.

"Yeah and there's also another short pillar like this one underneath the water," I supplied.

"Maybe there's a switch to raise it up on one of the ledges?" she wondered.

"Maybe but we can't get up there. That block to the one on the left can only be reached by use of the pillar over there and we can't reach that."

"Wha' about th' one on th' right?" Tayg asked.

"It's too short. The ladder to the ledge has deteriorated over time and the top of the pillar is knocked off. I'm thinking that crocodile is guarding something essential."

"I'll take care o' it," said Tayg and took his pistols to the reptile lurking in the murky water.

Once it went belly up, Kurama, Hiei and I went to explore the water and found just the lever we were looking for on the bottom of the pillar on the right. It raised it up a few necessary feet and the puzzle was as good as solved. I climbed out and walked along the ledge toward the short pillar when the end abruptly gave a couple inches meaning it was a pressure pad and that triggered what would make this room a little more complicated.

The short pillar out in front spouted flame out of its hole, fire started circling around the base of the pillar on the right and the base of the farthest left pillar, and the golden lion heads on the two left pillars stated spitting flames every few seconds. I stepped back from the heat of the nearby stout pillar and stared at the room in surprise.

Our group was silent for a minute, all staring at the room in awe before Dusty excitedly claimed, "This one is mine!"

"What?" Tayg and I both protested, but Dusty stepped out onto the ledge to get a running start.

"Shut up, I'm going."

She really did well making her way over to the pillar on the right with the circling flames. I attributed her speed and agile jumps to her leopard half and she skillfully climbed cracks in the surface of the pillar caused by the heat. She pulled a switch on the nearby ledge which brought the second short pillar up out of the water and it, too, started spouting flame. She climbed back down and once the fire passed by, she jumped to the new pillar.

From the new pillar, she could reach the first of the pillars with the flaming lion heads and she had to time when she moved so her head didn't get burnt off. She was able to reach the block and the ladder up to the second switch (which raised the pillar nearest the balcony) and then she went back to climb to the top of the pillar. This was the hard part since she sometimes had to pass directly over the flaming heads but once she made it up and did the same with the second pillar, she could reach the balcony.

After collecting the second lead bar, she took the same route back to us. When she landed on the walkway in front of us, she smirked.

"That wasn't so hard."

"No, ye're just barbecuin' yer tail," said Tayg.

Dusty looked to her backside and saw one of her spots sizzling with fire. Apparently as she had crossed the short pillar out in front, she had stepped too close to the fire. She shrieked and began frantically patting the fur.

Tayg just stepped forward and pushed her backwards into the water. Dusty rose from the depths coughing and sputtering but the fire was successfully extinguished.

"Tayg!" she scowled as she climbed back up to us. "You're supposed to protect me, not try to drown me. At least give a girl some warning!"

"Well, now that Dusty has been burnt, drenched, and is officially pissed at Tayg, I think it's time for us to leave." I directed everyone back out to the main room where we took down two gorillas and left Tayg and Dusty up by Midas's head.

"You two can finish your lover's spat up here and then wrap Dusty's tail. We'll handle the last room."

Dusty gave me a dirty look but Tayg compliantly remained with the cranky leopard while we all climbed back down to the floor in search of the last switch. It happened to be on the right side of the room and we reached it with help from a fountain—a helpful crack had been concealed by some vines.

The switch opened the only door left and as we left the main room, I called up to the couple, "Be nice, Dusty." I had a feeling Dusty was mad about something other then being pushed into some water, but whatever it was, I was sure Tayg would take it all in stride.

The last hall took us to the armory of Midas's Palace, but it was anything but organized. All the spears and other weapons were kept in barrels in the ground and for some reason, they were near blocks. On the other side of the room was a door and this was where we went first. There was a set of stairs in here but they were cut off by a gate. Lucky for us, there was a switch hidden behind a box beside the stairs and we were allowed passage up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs, we were given a view of the entire room and I realized that the blocks on the floor were pillars that would rise out of the floor since the lead bar was in an alcove across the room and there was no other way to reach it. There was a lever on the floor up here, though, and once it was pulled the blocks did indeed extend up into pillars. There were white pillars and slanted pillars and pillars with grates in the top that after they were fully extended, grew spikes. There were also paths that slid out of the walls. And for some reason I had a terrible feeling that this puzzle would be timed.

After diligently scrutinizing the room and plotting all possible routes over to the lead bar, I figured Hiei would have to be the one to do all the jumping since Dusty was gone.

"Alright, here's the best route. It's kind of like an 's' but I think it's the best series of jumps for not having powers anymore. Forward then left—careful of the spikes—and back-jump to the slant which will take you to the path. Keep moving right to the other side of the room with the paths and then travel left again until about the middle. You see that while pillar with the chink in the side? Jump from that one to the lead bar."

It's a good thing I liked to do Sudokus and other mind challenging puzzles at school. I didn't necessarily like math-related things but it sure helped with figuring out just how far Hiei could jump and what path he should take. In a matter of minutes, the third lead bar was ours.


~DUSTY'S POV~

"Well 'r' ye mad 'cause I got ye all wet?" Tayg asked.

"Nope," I answered shortly.

"Then wha', Dusty?" he asked, growing tired of getting the cold shoulder.

"You tell me. How come you've been ignoring me ever since I helped out in Damocles?" I demanded.

He gave me a blank stare for a second and then laughed a hearty Irish laugh. "Is tha' it then?" I raised my eyebrows, trying to figure out why that was funny. "I 'aven't been ignorin' ya, jus' waitin' fer th' right time. I've been thinkin' a lot 'bout how ye've been kinda growin' up more on this trip and it only makes me like ya more. I dinna think ye liked t' be open wi' these things." He grinned. "If ye wanted me t' kiss ye righ' in front o' ever'one ye should 'ave jus' said so."

"Oh, well, I…." I stumbled, looking up at the grinning fairy. "Shut up." He laughed again and took out a medi-pack to wrap my tail. As he wrapped up the scorched skin and smoothed the bandage, he occasionally bumped my butt, too.

"You're doing that on purpose," I accused.

"Nah, tha' was an accident. This is on purpose." He smacked my rump and plopped down, leaning against the back of the throne. I did, too, frowning and slouching enough that my tail wouldn't get squished up against the stone.

"Whadda ya wanna do now?" Tayg asked.

"I don't know. I'd ask you the same thing but I don't think you're used to thinking without alcohol in your system."

"At least I can hold my liquor."

"Hey!"

He grinned and I playfully punched his arm. He punched me back so I pushed him a bit and he pushed me back a little harder. I shoved him sideways and he pushed me completely onto my side. I sprung back up and tackled him to the ground, getting him in a headlock.

"Oh, what now?"

He laughed lightly from the lack of air he was getting and then reached around and pinched the inside of my thigh really hard.

"Ow!" My grip loosened and he flipped me over, twisting an arm behind my back. "Cheater!"

He had never stopped laughing, but now he did and released me so I could roll over underneath him.

"'S not cheating, lass. When ye're born in th' Makai, ya learn t' do wha'ever it takes t' survive."

"Why'd you get serious all of a sudden? We were having fun!"

He shrugged. "Le's start th' fun again then."

"Okay."

That's when I leaned up on my elbows and kissed him on the lips. He pulled me out from under himself and brought me closer, kissing more passionately until my new fangs got in the way and I accidentally bit his lip. From then on, he just kept to short smooches, teasing me like the evil little Irishman he was….

The sound of gorillas being slaughtered was the disappointing end to our fun time.


~KAT'S POV~

As we entered the throne room again, we saw Dusty and her Guardian had climbed down to sit in Midas's lap. Faint traces of familiar smells were in the areas.

"Can you smell that?" I whispered to my Guardian.

"Hn."

"I guess they made up and then made out."

I grinned and waved them down to Midas's hand where Dusty, Hiei, and I each took our turns laying our lead bar on the hand to turn them to gold. Then we placed them in the empty spots around the bottom of the throne and the bars on the gate in the pool pulled back so that the gate would slide open.

Once again we were forced to navigate the underground tunnels looking for a place to surface into the next level. What we found was a small room with a box blocking a doorway. On the other side, a rat was squeaking for freedom but we took care of him. The box was used in the adjoining room to reach a switch which opened a trapdoor in the floor.

We disposed of two more rats in the room below and then we walked out into tall, square room—not nearly as tall as Saint Francis Folly but just as deadly. We were standing on a broken bridge and there was a revolving switch to our left. On the right side of the room was another broken walkway and the exit doorway. The only problem? We were separated from it by the vast emptiness of the room, the only point of interest being the pool far below. I already knew that this was The Cistern so we would have to raise and lower the water level according to what the puzzle required.

And, of course, there was another annoyance. An echoing Frenchman's voice laughed, "Don't worry, Lara. The water is quite refreshing."


A/N: So then, I'll need at least one review before I'll update again. Also, I'm starting college classes again on Monday so I can't say for sure how often this story will be updated. I will try to make sure I have time to post one chapter a week, but I'm not making any promises. School sucks. Big time. But you guys already know that, I'm sure. Anyway....

Please Review!!

~Kateracks