Thanks for the reviews! This one was rushed through today, so please look over it if I made any mistakes. Today (Feb. 3rd ) was my birthday, so I got a few calls while I was trying to write. Not that anyone actually stopped to see me... DAMN IT! My family took off to visit out-of-state relatives and left me here all by my little lonesome. (Growls) On the bright side, Dairy Queen is making me a YYH ice cream cake for a late party tomorrow(Or today, it IS after midnight...)! I can't believe I got out another chapter this size! Especially since I didn't start till a few hours ago and I kept getting distracted. YAY FOR ME! LOL

I own nothing. Enjoy!

The gang walked through the cave. Yoko wished he could say that they were walking silently, but that wasn't the case. Kuronue had been cheap-shotting Kairi since the second they stepped out of the last bit of light that shone in through the entrance. She wasn't afraid of the dark; Yoko knew she preferred the dark; and she had no qualms with caves, she had slept in many. She just didn't like this cave. As for why, Yoko had no clue.

The boys – both nocturnal creatures – were having a much easier time than Kairi. She had good enough night-vision from her father's side to get by, but she had a feeling that the boys were completely at home in this dungeon...

"Kuro, how far are we from the exit?" Yoko asked, trying to stop another feud from getting underway.

"Can't tell. It doesn't seem close, though." The bat closed his eyes again and used his 'radar', but he couldn't tell anything. This cave must have had a lot of twists and turns. No prob. Every cave had a few of those after all. It wasn't like it was a school hallway.

"Why do I still not like this?" Kairi asked.

"Because we're in the dark and you have no idea what could be waiting to jump out and grab you, then drag you back to its lair." The bat was still at it.

"I'd feel sorry for anything that tried," she said.

"I'd feel sorry for anything that succeeded," Kuronue remarked.

Yoko ignored the two and started to sniff the air. There was something in it that he just didn't like, though he couldn't quite pin what it was. He wandered a few feet forward, trying to see what this smell could be as the bat started taunting the girl some more. He was talking about how her little scuffle with the lizard wasn't all that grand compared to what the boys had done.

"You know, I seem to recall killing a few fire-imps myself, pally-boy."

"Not enough to matter."

"I fought just as hard as you two did, and I didn't have the luxury of a tag-team partner."

"You didn't need one. We took the frontline. All you had to do was deal with our leftovers."

"You just can't bring yourself to admit that a girl was capable of standing on the same battlefield as you, can you?"

"Psh." It looked like bat-boy didn't have an answer for that one. Truth was, he didn't have a problem with female fighters. He'd stood on the battlefield with quite a few; enemies of course, but he'd treated them just the same as he did the males. The thing was, the ones he'd faced, conducted themselves as warriors. Yoko had been thinking that if Kai was more like Mukuro or Natsume, serious and dedicated to the ways of the warriors, Kuro wouldn't have said a word. He placed women in 3 categories: First, there were ones you use for amusement. Kairi and most of the girls at their school likely fell into that one. Anything cute and "girly" usually did. The second was, simply put, the "ugly" ones. Those only came in handy if they were nurses and he was injured. Or if they were merchants or cooks, something useful to him. The third type was women like Mukuro. They were women, but they acted indifferently, so, who cared what they looked like under their clothes? He'd kick their asses just the same as any man. His dilemma, was that he'd never encountered one that he couldn't chalk up to one category or the next at first glance; or thousandth glance for that.

Kairi was just about to start in again; press the matter until he answered, when Yoko's voice came to her ears. "There's something in here. I can't tell what, but be on guard."

Both nodded to his warning, and, as if on cue, a rustling and squeaking started to sound. It was coming at them fast. Yoko and Kairi's eyes narrowed in its direction, waiting to see what was after them. Kuronue, however, folded his arms and leaned against the cave wall, smirking a little.

A big, black cloud came squeaking by them. Kuronue had expected Kairi to shriek or jump around all panicky, but no such luck. She simply stepped out of the way, barely flinching, if she did flinch.

"Friends of yours?" she asked Kuronue when the bats got past them.

"Yup. That feisty one out in front's my aunt's stepsister's brother-in-law's ex-girlfriend's cousin's love-child's nephew's sister's long lost cousin, twice removed."

"Smartassed prick."

"Shapely bitch."

"Kuro," Yoko said, breaking it up again. "What was wrong with them? They came out in quite a hurry, and in daylight hours; what scared them?" he asked, ignoring that family remark. Kuronue could sometimes sound so serious with his smart-alek comments that it was hard to tell when he was joking. Thankfully it was pretty obvious this time. If Yoko had had to judge that by his friend's tone of voice or his expression, he'd be asking why he hadn't told him about the reunion.

"Don't know. I didn't send any signals to 'em though, so don't blame me." He growled that last little bit to Kairi, who was staring him down like a mother would her children when someone broke the window with a baseball.

"Never mind," Yoko said. "I think I know why."

They followed his line of sight to the cave in front of them. There were hissing noises coming out, and Kuro was already pulling his scythes. Kairi could see something wiggling, but her eyes wouldn't allow her to see that far; as soon as she heard the first hiss, though, she knew what it was.

"This day just keeps getting better, huh?" Kuronue said.

The crew set to killing the snakes heading their way, which only took a few minutes. They were soon walking further into the cave again, but watching their steps much more closely. They knew what those snakes were. Cobras. Not so good for a careless traveler to stumble on in the dark.

They soon saw light ahead, but it wasn't daylight. More like a torch's light. After the cautious approach, they found a large chamber in the middle of the cave. Torches lit up a few places along the wall, but Yoko knew this type of kindling. They had likely been burning for years. They looked around as best they could. There were pillars of rock jutting up from the floor all over this "room", making it difficult to tell anything.

"Yippee," Kuronue said. "Didn't your friend tell you anything about this place?"

"Suzuka didn't need to use this part of the map, remember? He disguised himself as a gardener and probably sneaked right through the castle unnoticed. He only needed the map to identify the trees in the forest beyond the rear gate."

"Remind me to kick Suzuka's-" CLANG "Hey! What was that for?" Kuronue semi-yelled at Kairi. She had sunk her dagger into the wall, just inches from his head. He turned to look, and saw a baby cobra, hanging from a tiny vine; a dagger was now sticking through it's head.

Her expression never changed; still blank and cold, yet slightly cocky. He knew that whether she said anything or not, this was going to haunt him later. He was about to resort to damage control, try to say something to ease this later, when Yoko got his attention.

"There's no way," the fox said, mostly to himself. He started to walk in the direction he was staring. Kairi followed, equally shocked by the looks of it.

Kuronue turned his head, and saw a big lump of something white. His eyes had fully adjusted to the dark earlier, and they hadn't been as quick to welcome the light from the torches yet. He walked behind the other two, and was almost to that lump before he could see the little lines in it. As soon as he got a clear view of it, he knew what it was, and found himself involuntarily taking a hard swallow. "Tell me that isn't-"

"Snake skin. And all from the same snake," Yoko said.

"He'd have to be at least -" Kuronue looked from one end to the other," 50 freakin' feet long!"

"Longer than that," Kairi said, now back to her expressionless state.

"How do you get that?"

"Because this is old," Yoko said, sniffing the air around the skin. "They shrink after a while."

"Aw, hell no! Wait, how did we miss this thing? If he's that big he can't be hard to spot. Or smell..."

"This whole chamber smells of snakes. It's impossible to pinpoint."

"I know where he is," Kairi said, getting both boy's attention. "With our luck, he'll be coiled up right in front of the nearest exit."

"Why do I not doubt that?" Kuronue said.

"Take the beaten path? Hell naw!" Kairi said, in her most sarcastic tone. "It's not on the map."

"Don't start," Yoko growled.

"You know," she continued. "Moses and the children of Israel spent 40 years wandering around. That proves that even in biblical times, men couldn't ask for directions."

"I seem to remember a certain female living in a garden paradise, and she picked an apple off the one tree she wasn't supposed to touch..." Kuronue wasn't planning to lose this one. "Instead of just talking to her man first; he might've been able to talk some sense to her."

"Yeah, the Tree of Knowledge. Which proves women got smart first, too."

"I think I want my rib back," Kuronue muttered. Even though they were talking about human things, he didn't doubt that demon women had come to be in much the same fashion. They'd probably been the ones to suggest stealing a body part from a poor, unsuspecting man, promising him a companion, only for the poor schmuck to find out that she was nothing but trouble, and would eventually meet up with a guy in snake-skin britches and get him kicked out of his home... "Besides, I think he gave up one from the side he carried his wallet."

Yoko began to growl as the fight waged on. His tail was big and bushy again. He didn't like the words "I told you so" unless he was the one saying them. He could only think of two people who had ever had the chance to say them to him, and they were Hiei and Kuronue. Kairi was not only hurting his pride, she was rubbing salt in the wound.

Just as Yoko was ready to tag in with Kuronue, the fight and the growling came to a halt. There was a loud hissing, and they all knew what that meant. Ding ding ding. Round two!

Yoko looked up to see a monster of a cobra baring its fangs. "I'm having one of those days," he said.

"I'm having one of those lives," both of his comrades said at the same time, each quirking an eyebrow at the other when they realized what they had done.

The snake came crashing down at the fox, who dodged in the nick of time. He threw out his whip, putting a good dent in the monster, and probably going a long way to slow it down. Kuronue knew Yoko had hesitated to dodge until the last second. That way the snake wouldn't have time to figure out that he'd missed and go on the defensive.

Soon scythes were whirling and flying, as well as the whip and the daggers. The latter of the three wasn't doing much damage to the snake until Kairi had found her way to the top of one of the pillars and launched one into an eye. The snake recoiled, and it gave the boys enough time to finish it, once again employing that "you take the right, I'll take the left and we'll meet in the middle" tactic that they had used on the giant.

They made their way up to the top of the rock with Kairi. "Are you alright?" Yoko asked, not really needing an answer. She was standing, which meant she'd say she was, regardless.

"We got a problem," Kuronue said, in an actually serious tone.

"Now what?" the fox asked.

"Take a look at that hood," Kuronue said. Both of the others did as he said. Both were experienced travelers, and knew all about snakes. The color of the markings on the hood suggested that this snake was a male; there were baby cobras all over this cave, and since the species was not a-sexual...

"Where's Mama?" Kuronue asked, knowing by their looks that the other two saw what he meant. Suddenly, he felt as if he was being watched. He turned and saw another snake, even longer than "Papa", staring down at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a small alcove high in the wall. "Move, NOW!" he yelled, just as the snake came down on the pillar. The other two saw him heading up to the alcove and followed suit. Yoko shot out vines to latch onto his friend's arm and pull himself up, and Kairi had spread her wings on her way off the rock. Once inside, they looked down at the serpent.

"Well, we're out of her reach," Kuronue said.

"Unless she's the spitting variety," Yoko pointed out. To answer that, the snake opened her mouth and let out a long string of venom. Just as it was about to hit, Kairi dived in front of Kuronue.

"TSUNAMI!"

The water repelled the venom; lucky for the bat. It also angered the snake. It started lashing its tail at the side of the cave, trying to shake them down. She was much faster and much stronger the first had been.

"Anyone have any brilliant ideas?" the fox asked, not in the best of moods. He knew of a few ways to handle this thing, but he would have to burn quite a bit of energy to do it. Best not to waste it if he didn't have to. You could never tell when you would need it later. Good thing Kuwabara and Yusuke weren't here; with the way they conserved energy, they would've been dead hours ago...

"Nada," Kuronue said. "I don't think she likes us too well."

"We just killed the only man here big enough to do anything for her," Kairi said. "If I was her, I'd wanna kill us, too."

"Thank you for the insight," Yoko said, growing more annoyed by the minute. "Now can we think of a way to send her to the depths of Hell where she can be reunited with her lover?" he asked, glowering down at his two grinning teammates.

"I'm fresh out of ideas for this one," Kuronue said, barely noticing Kairi digging through that backpack. "I think she has PMS."

"Well, what a coincidence...," Kairi said in her dry, annoyed voice.

She dived down from the alcove, spreading her wings on the way. The boys just blinked at each other. They'd bail her out when she needed it, of course, but they were just going to sit the rest of this one out. They didn't know what had possessed her to go down there, but they had a feeling they were better off to let her get it out of her system...

When the snake opened it's mouth to spit its venom, she fed it a mason jar of some kind of liquid. Neither boy knew what the hell she was doing, but it was apparent she had some kind of plan. More than they had been giving her credit for...

"I hope your happy, bitch!" she said to the snake. "I was saving this for my ex!"

The boys watched her flip a switch on some small, oblong, thing in her hand, then she brought it to her mouth.

"I know there is no way in hell she's got what I think she's got," Kuronue said, shaking his head.

But, she did.

He watched her bite the end of that thing, and pull it away from her mouth, then toss it at the snake, who still had its mouth open, trying to get rid of the mason jar.

BOOM

The grenade blew, and so did whatever chemical combination that was in that jar. When the mess settled, the boys, still slightly in disbelief, came down from the alcove, and stood looking at her, wide-eyed.

"Bitch," she stated, in a rather funny sounding way, then she spit out the pin. She turned and walked to the rear of the chamber without another word. The boys were temporarily incapable of words. When they did recover, Kuronue said, "See? This is why no woman should ever be elected into the highest office of a country with nuclear capabilities. I would not want THAT sitting next to that little red button all month long, if you know what I mean."

Yoko just nodded, eyes still a little wider than they should be, and started to follow the girl. He never knew PMS could be so lethal...

It wasn't long until they reached the next part of the cave. It was another chamber of sorts, but this one wasn't lit. A few steps in, there was a loud boom behind them. They turned to see that a rock had slid down, blocking their way back to the "snake room". Yoko shrugged and walked a little further in, but he felt something tickling his face. He plucked a seed from his hair and a second later, there was a lamp weed on the ground. There were webs everywhere.

Kairi looked at them and immediately, that GI Jane attitude was gone. "Tell you what, you boys handle this, aaaaand I'm gonna go back and play with the snakes."

She started to turn and walk, but Kuronue grabbed her elbow and pulled her back. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"I think I dropped something back there. Be back in a little while." She started to pull away and take another step toward the sealed door, but a tarantula-looking spider was standing in her way.

"Eek!"

She squeaked and jumped behind Kuronue, peeking out from behind his shoulder.

"What the?" Kuronue started to snicker.

"Don't start!" she said.

"You just dived in to a battle with a snake that makes an Anaconda look like a worm, and you're afraid of that?" he asked, looking down at the spider that was barely bigger than a ping-pong ball.

"I don't like spiders," she stated bluntly, trying to get a little dignity back into her voice. That faded when the spider took a sudden step toward the person she was hiding behind. She made another squeaking gasp, and both boys were laughing. "What? NO girl likes spiders! What kinda butch-bitch do you think I am?" They were laughing harder, and harder still when it took another step, and she made another small jump. "Would you just shut up and kill it!"

Kuronue stopped himself from laughing, and put on the cockiest smirk Yoko had ever known of him to wear, then slowly stepped on the spider, making sure Kairi heard the splat. He never turned that smirk away from her through the whole process. The look he was giving her was saying "See? This is how us big-boys kill little-bitty spiders. Take notes."

When the bat came back, smiling wide, so did the girl's attitude. "Boy, don't you even give me that look!"

"Might wanna keep that in check, darlin'," he said. He pointed to the ground behind her, where Yoko had shown him that a bigger spider was standing, not 10 inches from her foot.

She looked down and froze. The spider took a step toward her, and she shrieked, diving into Kuronue's arms bridal-style, and hanging onto his neck for dear life.

Yoko was stifling his laughter as best he could, but that wasn't much help given the circumstances. "I think this is a Kodak moment," he managed to say.

Kuronue was holding up much better in the laughing department. He was happy with his cocky smirk, which had turned into a cocky smile. He considered dropping her right next to the spider, but he figured that this was probably much more degrading.

"Yoko, what do you think we should do? Should we kill it?"

"YES!"

"I don't know Kuronue," the fox replied, in an equally taunting voice. "Maybe we could keep him for a pet."

"Alright boys, joke's over," Kairi said.

"Oh? Then I guess you wouldn't mind going back down there," Kuronue smirked. He moved his arms quick, acting like he was going to drop her, and she locked a death-grip on his neck, making them laugh even harder.

Yoko squashed the spider, more interested in making good time than torturing Kairi. They'd have enough to rub her nose in for years anyway. Just as she was about to come down from her "safe haven", a few more spiders showed up. Yoko squashed those, but there were more, and then more. And they seemed to be getting bigger every time a new wave of them came.

Kairi cringed when Kuronue, now looking serious, put her down and went to help Yoko. The spiders went from the size of a dinner plate to the size of a chihuahua, and now they were about the size of saint bernards. Kuronue remembered that "I've seen Gremlins 2, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings" statement from before they came in; he could practically hear her giving another "I told you so" speech already. The thoughts were shoved from his mind when he caught a glimpse of something moving above them.

"Yoko. Look. Up."

The fox did, and he saw a spider as big as a Mack truck descending on a web that looked as thick as a steel cable. "Remind me, Kuronue. How did I get talked into this?"

"You volunteered, so don't blame me!" he said, dodging a blast of web from the big spider. Kairi was behind him, so he turned to see if she'd been hit.

Nope.

Not even close.

Every time one of those other spiders got near her, she was GONE! That was the fastest he'd seen her moving since they started. At least there were no worries about her getting too close. Now to deal with the other problems.

Yoko started slinging seeds everywhere. Then he released an amount of energy that Kuronue envied. The fox had been getting stronger since he'd been sidelined, damn it.

Carnivorous plants shot out everywhere, devouring the smaller spiders. That left the big 'un.

Yoko shot vines out at its legs, which it batted away. This gave Kuronue time to act, though. He shot into the air over its head, throwing a scythe at its back as he did. He was rather surprised by the clang he heard.

"A shell?" Kuronue said. 'Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!...'

Yoko saw how this was going to go. It raised up, and he saw that its undersides were unprotected. He launched a rose dart, and the creature screamed. After that, it had learned its lesson. It had no intention of exposing its soft belly again. Yoko cracked his whip at it, trying to make it rear up, but no dice. It reared up a little, but not enough for a hit. It was mostly dodging to the sides. If they wanted this done, they would have to do it from both sides simultaneously.

"Kairi!" the fox yelled, but she wasn't going for it. He could practically hear her saying "Screw you. Better you than me!"

"What good would she do?" Kuronue asked. The girl would probably faint if she got close to the thing.

"She has a whip. She's no good with it as a weapon, but she knows how to make noise with it! That's all I need!"

"Kai, get your round-ass over here and fight with the rest of us or I'm gonna drag you over here and throw you into its web!"

"You can't, asshole! You're too busy with it!"

"If I give you to it, it'll be too busy chowing down to worry about Yoko and I getting away!"

"You wouldn't!"

"Try me!" Kuronue didn't think this was going to work, and he was right. She wasn't buying the threat. He needed something a little more creative. He spotted one of the Saint Bernard-sized spiders hiding from the plants and got an idea. He threw his scythe at an angle, causing it to wrap around it, then flung it in Kairi's direction. To say the least, it didn't take her long to come out of that corner.

"YOU BASTARD!"

"Glad you could join us," he smiled.

"Get that whip and help me!" Yoko commanded. She already had it in hand. That's how she'd been fending them off so far. Just a plain old rawhide whip. Not good for much except scaring animals. Kuronue, even in the midst of battle, could think of a few other uses, and he was going to give her pure hell about it ( and a few other things ) as soon as this was over.

Yoko cracked his whip on one side of the spider's "feet", and Kairi mirrored him on the other. After a few rounds of this, they had it backed to the wall, though the girl had been a little less thrilled about following it than the fox had been. When it was out of room to back up, it had no choice but to raise up, and Kuronue handled it. He threw both scythes, hooking one in either side of its midsection, then shot into the air, ripping them upward by the chains.

The boys looked pleased with the outcome, and were walking calmly to the door, when they noticed that the girl was near fainting. Instead of the sensitive route, Kuronue stalked over to her, threw her over his shoulder, and joined Yoko again.

"Put. Me. Down!"

"Zip it, woman."

"WOMAN? Since when do you get the right to call me-" SLAP " OW! You PRICK!" she screamed, when she felt that hand slapping her vinyl-clad bottom. The sound of that slap echoed in the cave, almost loud enough to drown out the sound of Yoko's chortling.

"Will that shut you up, or do you want another?" Kuronue asked.

"I've killed for less, you winged-rat-bastard!" SLAP "OW! You. Are. DEAD!"

"What I wouldn't give for a camera right now," Yoko chuckled, causing Kuronue to laugh a little, too.

"Scratch that. You're BOTH dead!"

"Not much incentive for me to put you down, huh?" Kuronue teased. This was the most fun he'd had since this trip started. "Hey, Yoko, you see that?" he said, sounding serious, but Kairi couldn't see him winking and mouthing words to the fox.

"Not another spider!" Yoko gasped, grinning from ear to pointed ear.

"What?" Kairi squeaked. Both boys started laughing again. The tables just got turned on the little battle that started back at Genkai's, and they were aiming to keep it in their favor from here on out.

After some more teasing, they reached the end of the cave. They went on along the mountain path, and ended up overlooking the garden's gate. Well, the boys were overlooking it. Kairi was still slung over Kuronue's shoulder.

"Well, how do we get past them?" Kuronue asked, looking at the guards.

"I was thinking of putting them to sleep," Yoko said.

Whatever they were going to do, they'd have to drop the girl to do it. And Kuronue dreaded that more than walking through the black gates of Hell...

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned... Poor boys... Anyway, you know the drill. REVIEW! If nothing else, take pity on a poor writer who spent her 22nd B-day all alone :-( Reviews make great presents you know! The first person to tell me happy birthday was one of my readers LOL I was in shock! But I was happy all day for it:o)