Disclaimer: Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, Kurama, Koenma, Botan, George and anything related to Yu Yu Hakusho are not mine. I also can't claim Nara Ska (she's my sister's) but Aniya, Sani, Sukeisa and Katomi are mine! You can't have them! HAHAHA!!!!! -.- ;

A/N: Timbles is another character from another one of my stories, so you can't him either.

Dragons in Time Part 5: Fire and Water

"Baka…of course there's more challenges! You don't think that Katomi would just give up the stone like that, do you? I thought you were getting smarter, but I guess I was wrong."

"You know something, shorty? I'm getting tired of you saying I'm stupid all the time. Can you give it a break?"

Aniya humpfed and started to walk toward some stairs that led downward. Yusuke looked confused (again.) "Hey! Aniya! Where are you going?"

"To get the stone, of course."

He looked at the stars that she was going to take and the stairs that led up to a tower. "But didn't she say that she'd be in the tower? So shouldn't we take the stairs that go up?"

Aniya shook her head. "Give her about two seconds and…" she paused, while Timbles materialized in front of her, "…and she sends her devoted Mr. Timbles to block the way." Turning to the butler apparition she said lazily, "Let me guess: fire and water? Or are you here to say that we can get to the songs right now?"

The butler bowed. "Mistress Katomi requests you complete the challenges before facing her." Then he vanished in a puff of smoke. Aniya beckoned to the rest of the group and they began to climb down the steep stairs. Kurama took the opportunity to ask about something he'd been wondering about for a while.

"Forgive me for asking, but what relation does music have with fighting?"

Aniya nearly stopped in her tracks. She slapped her forehead. "That's right! I totally forgot to explain the magic to you." She continued walking, thinking of where to begin.

"Well, magic is a different form of energy. It's not spirit, life or miko energy. It's kind of hard to explain. Have you ever heard of the magic of theater?" Seeing his funny look she took it that he hadn't, "Well, some people say that when they get on stage to sing, dance, play or perform, they can do things that they normally couldn't or wouldn't do in regular life. Like stage fighting. The swords aren't real, and they would normally get killed in a fight. But on stage, they can sword fight like a regular pirate, because even though it's staged, they find the energy to make it look like it's real, and to the actors, sometimes it does become real, in a sense. The stage, wherever it is, is like it's own little world.

"Anyway, that's the magic of theater, where, for people who have exceptional control over their own spirit energies can train their magic energy to do things, like spells or attacks. There are basically three kinds of magic: song, dance and drama. Dance is usually for fighting, where if there is music, people can fight, but the fighting is choreographed in a sense. Basically they can fight, flip sword fight like the best of them, and they can do amazing things like in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. All they have to do is train to hear silent music in their head. I don't use this to fight, but if I need some extra power I can. There are certain moves that you have to learn that you wouldn't normally learn. Moves that are based on existing dance moves.  It's like learning karate, but with music involved. It's the middle magic.

"Songs are for the small spells, such as  healing, invisibility, and minor telepathy. Songs are for weak spells that don't require much power. " She grinned, "Songs are the weakest of the three magics because even a fool can sing a song and have it work wonders. Normal humans can create emotions and make fake spells that have great effects, so how easy is it for a demon to do so? Telepathic songs normally aren't very powerful, it just makes you get caught up in the song, and then, if the song ends, you snap out too. It isn't hard to break from those trances, though.

"Drama is the last type of magic. This is for the big stuff. It takes the longest amount of time to train. As I said, anyone can learn to sing and dance. Drama and acting takes a little bit extra. Drama is for telekinesis, invisibility, controlling, and even creation. Drama takes a lot of work and can only be used in certain circumstances. You have to learn the right movements, when to use which spells. Basically, it doesn't work unless your doing it for an audience, because you have to make it part of the theater magic. If you're alone, it's really hard to do it." She smirked, "Of course, I can but that's because I trained myself. So I don't even have to do the dramatics."

Aniya looked at him, "Am I confusing you?"

Kurama shook his head. "Does Katomi know drama or dance?"

"No. She's too weak for acting, but she has something in her blood. In the human world, when a human child can do amazing things, they call them a prodigy. Demons have sort of the same thing. Katomi has a flair for music. If you've a natural talent for one of the particular branches of magic, you can do spells beyond that level. Since Katomi has some power for music and song, she can do some drama and dance spells. Mostly, her power is minor telepathy with songs, because she can trance you and unless you know how to fight back, you might not break from the trance."

"Could she use the power of the stone to increase her power?" Kurama was clearly thinking this through. "I know that you said that she couldn't use the stone, but is there some way that she could have found more power?"

They had reached the bottom of the stairs and they entered a dark room.

Aniya shrugged, "I don't really know. It hasn't exactly been a hobby of mine to track down cruel ladies who are no threat to me. So, personally, all I know about her is what I remember."

"Then I hope you can remember how to get through Fire and Water Aniya. It would be a pity for you to come so far for a visit and then not actually see me."

Aniya looked around and found Timbles again using her spirit awareness. "Timbles, come down here! I can't see the freaking mirror if you're hanging around the ceiling all day." She waited for the butler to come to the ground, so the mirror was at eye level for Aniya, (so everyone else had to crouch to look at her). "Here me out Katomi…you don't think I can make it through these stupid obstacles of yours? Well you're wrong. I trained on these obstacles, goddammit! What do you take me for…an incompetent fool?"

Katomi laughed. "No, I know that you will do just fine my dear…" she paused to see how angry Aniya got at the use of the term "my dear". Getting the reaction she expected she continued, "I was merely concerned with the welfare of your friends. Can they get through fire?"

Yusuke whispered to Aniya, "What is this fire anyway and why is it so dark in here?"

Katomi heard him and answered, "You want to know what the fire is? Let me turn on the lights for you." Suddenly, the room they were standing in was revealed. It became obvious, even to Kuwabara, why this challenge was called fire. There was a huge lava pit in the middle of the room. It looked as long as a football field. Then, beyond the pit, was a floor that looked like it was twice the size of the lava pit. Katomi began to explain the challenge. "I'll take pity of you and explain the rules, especially since Aniya's never played with fire like this before."

Aniya turned back to the mirror. "What do you mean?! All you have to do is cross the freaking stones. You have to be fast enough because they crumble under your step. That was it."

"Aniya, Aniya, Aniya. Do you think that I would be satisfied with something that easy? This is a whole new level of playing. It'll make what you did look like hopping on rocks in a kiddy pool." She turned her attention to the whole group. "I designed this room to be a test for speed and agility. I have no doubt that some of you would be fine with it—the way it is. The goal is to get everyone across the room and out the door before the temperature rises too much. Once the heat gets beyond a certain point, it begins to boil demonic blood. Long before that, the humans would have been dead because their lungs would have been incinerated by the hot fumes. So all you have to do to get is cross the lava pit by stepping on the rocks, but you have to be careful because once you step on a rock, you have barely a second to get to another one because it crumbles. Once a rock crumbles, it's gone. The entire group needs to be on the other side of the room in order for the door to open."

Hiei sniffed disdainfully, "Sounds easy enough. I don't have time to be playing stupid games like this!" He began to run, but was stopped by a huge wall of flames. Turning around he saw Katomi laughing.

"It isn't this easy. Since I know that this group has certain abilities, I'm changing the rules. Raising the stakes, you might call it. No teleporting. If you do, the temperature will rise to its full potency almost immediately. So the demons would die instantly. Oh, and Aniya. Don't think your wings will work either. For added precaution, there will be random fireballs falling from the ceiling. Not enough to hit people doing the challenge correctly, but enough to burn off those lovely silver-white wings of yours."

"It doesn't sound so bad." Yusuke remarked. Aniya turned to glare at him. "Shut up," she hissed, this is no time to be macho spirit detective." Yusuke was about to yell at her for being a bitch when the real bitch spoke again.

"You don't think this is challenging enough? I can change that." Katomi snapped her fingers and a bunch of the stepping stone disappeared. "Okay, let me make it more for your level. You have three minutes to get across, without being burnt. There are enough rocks for everyone, but they will disappear after two minutes. So you'd better be quick about getting across. Once everyone is across, you have to break the code for the door in one minute. Everyone must be out in three minutes because at the end of the two and half minutes, the temperature will be too hot for the humans. At the end of the three minutes, every living thing will be destroyed. In three minutes the temperature will be too hot, the lava will overflow and the door will be locked. Any questions?"

The butler disappeared and a little timer appeared on the wall. "Go."

Everyone looked at everyone else. "How the hell are we supposed to do this?"

Aniya thought fast. "Have Kurama go first, he can break the code on the door. Then the baka and the Yusuke go across, so if they need to get out they can. Then Hiei and I can get across since we're the fastest." Kurama nodded and nimbly jumped across the pit, trying to touch the least amount of stones that he could. "You next baka and don't step on too many stones or I'll have to kill you." Kuwabara jumped over the stones, nearly falling in once or twice.

Aniya nodded to Yusuke who ran across. She looked at the remaining stones, then at the timer. It said there was twenty seconds left before the stones disappeared. She looked at Hiei, "Do you want to be last, or not? We have seventeen seconds."

"You go. I'll get across no problem."

"Fine." Aniya jumped across in about ten seconds (it was a very big room.) Hiei waited for her to start running across the second part of the room. Looking at the timer, it said that he had ten seconds before all the stones disappeared. Running, he blurred over the pit just in time. He began to run across the huge floor, but he was stopped by huge flames, again. He could hear Katomi laughing. "Let's make this more interesting for you because you're the fast one. Don't touch the flames, you'll have to jump and pray there's something to land on the other side!"

Now that everyone was across the pit, the second timer began. They had sixty seconds to cross the huge floor. By this time is was also get very hot. The lava was starting to seep across the huge floor. Kurama broke the code just under thirty seconds. Yusuke and Kuwabara ran out the door because their lives depended on it. Kurama turned around and saw Aniya running toward the door. "Aniya! Where's Hiei?"

She looked behind her, and saw him surrounded by flames. "Hiei! What are you doing, we have twenty five seconds! Stop fooling around!"

Hiei looked at her. "Do you think it's my choice to be surrounded by flames? She said I can't touch the flames."

Aniya yelled back, "Since when have you obeyed rules? You're not seriously thinking that the fire will really hurt you? It's fake!"

Hiei frowned. 'I don't trust this stupid bitch. She tried to kill me before, but I think I can handle a little flames!' He went to walk through, but was thrown back. 'What the hell?' Then he heard the stupid Katomi again.

"I said jump! There's a barrier outside of the flames, you have to jump!" She laughed again. (She does a lot of laughing.)

Hiei cursed. 'Damn her.' He went to jump and managed to get over the top. Now there were three seconds for him and Aniya to run like hell for the door.

"Come on Hiei!"

"Just run, stupid bitch!"

"What did you call me?"

"RUN!"

Kurama was standing at the door, it was starting to shut. Aniya managed to flip and slide under the door. She got out of the way as the door started to close again. It was about to hit the bottom when Aniya stuck her sword under it. She yelled, "Hiei , but your sword under too!" Another katana was forced under the door. Turning, she yelled to Kuwabara. "Baka, Yusuke, grab the door and pull up!" They did and by some chance they managed to open it enough for Hiei to roll under, and for both him and Aniya to grab their swords.

The door slammed down and the group sat on the ground in various points of exhaustion. They looked around at all the doors. There were five in all, each with a different symbol."

"I see you made it past the fire pit, but how good are you at guessing games?" Katomi laughed and the butler disappeared.

"Hey come back here, bitch!" Yusuke yelled and shook a fist at where the butler had been. "You didn't explain about this!"

Aniya walked over, "Yusuke, it's okay. This one isn't so hard. We only have to guess which door to go through." He froze. "You mean it? Nice and easy? No catches? We just tell Kuwabara to find the door?" He smiled, but then his smiled disappeared when Aniya said, "Well there is one catch."

Hiei gestured to her, "Which would be…?"

Aniya squirmed, "Only one door gives off spirit energy…" "So we take that one." "…but that one brings certain death. This is the last challenge. One door will lead us to Katomi. One will lead to the lava pit, the others to various challenges. We want to take the most direct path because I've only ever heard of the other challenges."

"Is there something to help us figure out which door to go through?" Kurama wanted to know. Aniya nodded. She pointed to some words inscribed in a wall. "That's a riddle. We have to figure it out. It gives clues about the symbols on the doors. Since Katomi changes which door leads to her, we'll have to figure this out ourselves."

The group walked over to the words and read:

I tip my hat to you for coming so far,

Hopefully, I am not being a bore,

The end is near,

All you have to do is pick the right door.

Four lead to challenges,

One will bring you to me,

Figure out which one I'm behind

And that's where you'll want to be.

Despite the symbol on its face,

This challenge will bring you no peace,

Flying stone will insure

That your life will cease.

This door bears the devil

Because he lives in the flames of hell

Pick this door is speed is your thing

And you may do well.

Snakes are sly creatures

Pick this door out of whim

This door is special

Better hope that you can swim!

Everyone needs something more than air,

Especially when push comes to shove,

Behind this door you will

Fight everything you love.

There is one door with energy

Pick it in less than a breath

But go through and

You will meet instant death.

Five doors lead from this room,

One you must choose,

Pick carefully,

Unless you have nothing to lose.

Have fun!

Yusuke was looking at the clues. "Wait, but this says she's hiding behind one of the doors, but here is has four challenges and one instant death. So we have to do a challenge to get to her?!"

Aniya nodded. "She's got…"

"We know, we know…a twisted mind." She smiled.

Kurama was rereading the clues. "I think that if we go through the door with devil, we will go back to the challenge we just completed."

Yusuke nodded, "And we definitely know she's not there. Chances she's not behind the door with instant death either."

Aniya agreed, "It's not her style. She likes to actually meet you face to face. Instant death isn't her. If I remember, there are four challenges. (well duh) They all revolved around the four elements: fire, water, air and earth. The fire challenge is the one with the lava pit. Air is the one where things are made from the air, and you have to fight them when they take on certain forms." "Like what?" "Hmm…for Yusuke, the air might look like Kayko. Kuwabara might have to fight an imaginary Yukina. Kurama…your mom maybe. Of course, these look-a-likes are so convincing that you have trouble fighting them. Eventually you lose the heart to live because you cannot fight them."

"I don't think we want to fight that one."

"Very good, Captain Obvious! I think this makes a record: two in one day?"

"Shut up shorty."

"You're not worth it." Aniya turned to the group again. "The earth challenge isn't easy. There are millions of rocks in there that explode on contact. Of course, they are all focused to gravitate on anything bigger than themselves. So of course, if you walk into this room, all the rocks immediately go for you and become bombs the minute they touch you."

"Wait, earlier, when you talked to Katomi you mentioned fire and water. We've been through fire, why did you say water?"

Aniya stared at Kurama as if he had just gotten her a birthday present (or she would have looked that way if she'd ever gotten a present before and knew what getting a present actually meant). "Oh, I totally forgot! Katomi always hides behind the water door because the water challenge is the only one where you have to find another door that leads to her. All you have to do is kill the giant water snake first." She smiled. "Easy."

Hiei was bored at this point, "So, which door is the water door?"

Kurama walked around. "The one with the devil is the lava pit, because that's fire and the poem says the devil lives in the flames of fire. This one is emitting spirit energy, so that's the only one that could be instant death. There are only three doors left. One with a weird circle sign on it…?"

Aniya smiled, "That's the peace sign from the sixty's. That would be the rock challenge, if you look at the poem."

Kurama continued. "This one has a coffee cup?"

She giggled. "The poem says  'Everyone needs something more than air,/ Especially when push comes to shove,' that would be the air challenge. Have you ever heard of people who have an addiction to coffee? They need it to survive, quote unquote. Katomi is creative sometimes."

Kurama turned to the last door. "This one has a snake on it. I take it that this is the water challenge, reason being that the water challenge is to fight a giant water snake?"

Aniya nodded. "Let's go." Kuwabara barged into the door—and nearly fell into the huge pool. Yusuke came up behind him. "I take it, we have to swim down to the door?" She nodded, "You can only fight the snake under the water." She looked at the group. "I can put the snake to sleep with one of the controlling spells, but it'll wipe out all my energy."

Kurama shook his head. "Allow me to kill the snake." The group stared at him as he made his way to the edge of the pool and dived in. He treaded water while he spoke to them. "It goes needless to say, come quickly because I do not how long the door will stay open with the water pressure." Everyone nodded.

Yusuke pushed Kuwabara in and then jumped in himself. Hiei dove in. Aniya smiled and back into a gymnastics position. Then, flipping twice, she back flipped into the pool, neatly closing the door behind her with a spell. She surfaced, along with the other group members, except for Kurama. Suddenly, a big green thing swept by her, followed quickly by Kurama. She dove under.

'This is harder than I thought,' Kurama was thinking. 'Oh well, I'll just get out rose whip.' Pulling out the whip, he tried to flick it, but it was having problems moving underwater. He dodged the snake's attacks. Then he saw Aniya swimming down toward him. She grabbed his hand and gestured for him to use the whip again. With a bit of extra energy from her, he was able to gather enough force to whip the snake. It's head fell away from its body. That's when the whirlpool started. Aniya pulled Kurama back up to the surface.

"Everyone, follow me! Don't get caught in the whirl pool." Aniya dove again and swam down to the bottom of the large pool, avoiding the tunnel that had just opened, that was causing a whirlpool. She pulled on the door in the wall at the bottom and pushed the baka and the detective inside. Kurama and Hiei swam in and she pulled the door shut, pushing the little red button on the outside.

The water drained out of the little hallway that they were sitting in. Aniya counted silently to five. "Five…four…three…two…one…" "Congrats on making it through the challenges. I'm afraid the Aniya isn't quite done. Aniya, you know where to go. If you want the stone, I hope you didn't lose your breath swimming." Katomi's voice shrunk so that only Aniya could hear her. "Anything you can do, I can do better."

The group looked for the mirror and finding none, they looked at Aniya.

"What's that mean?"

"It means, baka, that she's ready for the final showdown."

A/N: How was it? Let me know how I'm doing. Or I'll send the evil giraffe on you. J/k, but please review.