Winter: Hello everyone and welcome to the next revised chapter of Lioness. All right. I really want to get this story done, so I think I'm gonna try to update twice a week now. Hey, I said I'd try. That doesn't mean I will.

Hiei: The disclaimer stands the same from the last chapter.

Chapter Sixteen: The Guardian Part Two:

"I'm home," called Yusuke as he walked through the door to his home.

Like always the small kitchen was a mess, with half eaten food and garbage all over. Kicking a bag of cans out of his way he heard laughter from the living room also known as his mother's bedroom.

Looking through the door he saw is mother and a couple of her friend's obviously drunk. They all had beer bottles and cigarettes in their hands.

"Yusuke!" exclaimed Atsuko. "There's my boy!"

She wobbled over to Yusuke in attempt to hug him, but failed and ended up pushing all of her weight on him. Of course Yusuke wouldn't have minded if she didn't reek of alcohol and smoke.

"Hi mom," he said catching her.

All of Atsuko's friends turned to look at them.

"Hey Yusuke! Come have a beer and join us!" said one of them.

They all shouted in agreement.

"No thanks," said Yusuke helping his mother regain her balance. "I'm not in the mood to get drunk tonight."

"Aw c'mon!" said another. "Don't be a part…hic…pooper."

"Sorry," said Yusuke then went to his room.

Yusuke walked a few feet to his bed then collapsed front first onto it. He brought his arms under his pillow and turned his face to the side so he could look on into the room.

The room was small only fitting a bed and a dresser. Clothes and unused schoolbooks were scattered among the room along with other various objects you would find in a young male teen's room.

He sighed trying to ignore the noise from the living room so he could get some sleep. Yusuke used to hang out with his mother's friends drinking and smoking until the whole spirit detective business came along. In order to stay in shape he had to cut back a lot and try to quit.

So over the years he slowly did and hung out less and less with his mother and her friends.

Groaning Yusuke rolled over onto his back and starred up at the ceiling. It wasn't the people in the living room distracting him from sleeping but his guilt about Flash.

The teenage detective lay in his bed staring at the ceiling for a few hours until around midnight when he could no longer take the guilt. Getting up and grabbing his jacket he snuck out of his house.

Koenma will kill me for this. He thought to himself.

As Yusuke turned the corner he almost bumped right into Autumn, Hinote, Kurama and Kuwabara. They were wearing their jackets with a quiet expression. Without saying anything the five took in step with each other.

Throughout the whole walk to the museum none of them said anything. Arriving to the large building they noticed Hiei sitting on the front steps waiting for them.

"Shocking to see you here," said Yusuke as they walked up to him.

"I'm not here to help her," growled Hiei. "I'm here to get her ass back to the house, whether she has it or not."

"Which we all know is Hiei code for 'I actually care about Flash'," said Autumn.

Hiei jumped up with his fist ready but Kurama stepped between them and directed his friends to the back ally.

Meanwhile:

Lioness and her opponent were tiring rather quickly than they would have liked. Now stepping apart they glared at each other wishing suddenly the other would spontaneously combust.

"Your foot work is rather well," said Lioness after a moment. "Whom did you learn from?"

"The man who raised me," he answered.

"Ah I see. Well it's a bitty you won't survive."

With that said Lioness charged at the figure once again with her sword ready, but at the last second he jumped back making Lioness strike air. And so the fight continued without it progressing any further.

Unfortunately for Lioness when she brought her leg down after trying to kick him as high as she could, she miss stepped and stumbled. This left an open spot on her abdomen side for the figure to leave a minor wound.

It was at this point when Yusuke and the others rushed into the area and saw this happen. On instinct Kurama summoned his rose whip and tangled up the man's katana. Kuwabara drew his spirit sword while Yusuke held his hand ready to shoot his spirit gun.

It was Autumn, Hiei and Hinote who ran over to Lioness to make sure she wasn't badly injured.

"I'm fine! Stop crowding me goddamn it," said Lioness getting up and holding her side. Blood was able to trickle through her fingers.

"No," said Autumn now getting pale. "You're bleeding."

"Just get away," said Lioness. "You get sick when you see blood."

"Who are you?" demanded Kuwabara.

If the figure hadn't had his cloak on they would have seen him smirk. Yet instead of answering his simply disappeared, katana and all.

"What the hell?" asked Yusuke.

"Just get off of me," said Lioness. "I need to get the crystal!"

"Oh, no you don't," said Kurama coming over to them. "You need to get home before Koenma finds out about this. Hiei, you're the fastest one here."

"Why me? She can get home by herself," complained Hiei.

"Yes, but she's your charge and if she gets in trouble so do you," wised Kurama.

Hiei gave a low growl, walked over to Lioness and picked her up bridle style before running of back to her house.

Hinote sighed. "Who was that guy?"

"Well there's no need to wonder now," said Kurama. "Flash is safe and on the way back to her house. And as long as Hiei is there she won't be running off."

"Hm, I'm not so sure about that," said Yusuke. "When they go at it Flash comes out victorious at times."

"Well we better get going before a guard or someone shows up," said Kurama.

Everyone muttered in agreement and began to walk off. When Hinote and Kurama noticed that Autumn wasn't beside them they turned around.

"Autumn?"

"Huh?" she asked looking over.

"Are you coming?" asked Hinote.

"Uh, yeah," she said. "Just wait for me outside, I'll be right back."

And with that said she ran off down into the dark.

Meanwhile:

Moments later Hiei landed on the balcony to Flash's room. Lioness was still struggling to get free from the fire demon's strong grip.

"Let me go!" shouted Lioness.

Holding her strongly with one arm Hiei used his free hand to open the door. He walked inside, locked it then put Lioness down. Immediately she ran to her bedroom door but Hiei used his speed to beat her there.

She glared into his eyes before trying to turn around and run to the balcony doors but he grabbed her shoulders to restrain her.

"Let me go!" she shouted.

"Flash, shut up!" he growled. "Do you want to wake up your whole house?"

Lioness stopped yelling and slowly slid to the ground. Her wound had stopped bleeding when they arrived at the house part her pants and side had dried bloodstains.

Hiei rolled his eyes and lifted her up on to the bed then walked into her bathroom and wetted a washcloth. He came back in and began to wash the dry blood off her skin.

The next morning:

Flash slowly opened her eyes to realize she was in her room and nicely tucked into her bed. She sat up and looked around to see Autumn sitting at her computer desk drawing in her sketchbook.

Looking over she noticed Flash was awake. "Hey you're awake! How do you feel?"

"Fine I guess," answered Flash. "What happened? The last thing I remember is coming here with Hiei."

"Well when Hiei brought you here he took care of you," answered her friend. "Then this morning everyone came over to see how you were, Kurama brought herbs and he completely healed you."

Flash looked down at her side to see no trace of the wound. Looking back at Autumn she asked, "Where is everyone?"

"They're in the basement," answered Autumn. "Except Hiei, we can't find him. I wouldn't worry about it though; he comes and goes a lot."

Flash didn't say anything.

"Oh!" exclaimed Autumn reaching into her bag. "I almost forgot."

When she pulled out her hand, there was a sterling silver pendant with a clear ice crystal cut into the middle of it resting in her palm.

End Chapter:

Winter: Yahoo! I am done with this chapter, and for some reason my internet is currently down. So I must complain the father figure before I post this.

Wisdom: Winter believes that there are only going to be a few more chapters left.

Winter: Yeah, but since the story originally had like 28 chapters I might try to stretch things since the revising is moving along quickly. So anyway, please review and see ya' later kids.

::Credits start going::