A/N: Sorry I couldn't get this you guys sooner. Thank you for sticking with me here. I don't own YYH or any of the other trade-marked items mentioned in this story. I do own my characters. Please enjoy because I busted my ass to squeeze this chapter in with all my freaking schoolwork. Read and Review. There's an important note about updating at the bottom.

17: The Countdown Begins

"Chicken nuggets….yum….yes, can I have that with spinach on the side? Thank you, waitress Barbie…snort!" Firenzy woke up from his pummeling-induced sleep. "Hey Gantoi! Joe! Guess what kind of dream I had!" He jumped up and started running around. "I was the king of McDonalds and waitress Barbie was my wife and I was in complete control of the McNuggets…" For the first time in history, Firenzy stopped talking on his own free will.

"Guys?" He was met by even more silence. That frightened him. There was always some sort of notice going on, whether it was his own voice or not, but this quiet was scaring the shit out of him.

For about half a second.

"Guys! Come out wherever you are! I see what you are doing! You're playing hide-and-go-seek! Right?! Okay! This is like totally fun! What's even better is when there's no lights on!" He went and slammed the lights off. "Okay! Guys, I'm coming for you!"

Firenzy started to run around like a headless chicken, wondering where they could be hiding. Suddenly, he encountered a living obstacle.

"Ouch! Watch where you are going! You could have seriously hurt me."

"Gantoi?! Joe?! That doesn't sound like you! Hey! Aniya! Have you come back or something!! Great!! Now there are three people to play!!!"

Then something very hard hit him in the head. "HEY!! What was that for?! I mean, I thought we were playing a game here!"

The lights snapped back on and there, was a pink-robed lady with blue hair. "There's no one here, except for you. I'm here to bring you to Lord Doukai's complex so that you can help fight Sukeisa."

"OH COOL!!! I've always wanted to fight the bad guys!! I think that fighting the bad guys impresses the pretty ladies! Hey, you're a pretty lady! Does fighting the bad guys impress you?!"

"Yes, but you don't" Botan glared at him, "Come on. Get on the oar."

"Yay! We get to fly?! That is soooo cool!!" Botan sighed as he got on her oar and she started to fly off into the night sky, headed toward one of the many entrances to Lord Doukai's underground complex.

*****

Joe, Gantoi and Sani stopped running in a park near Kurama's house. 'Stop! The entrance is in the middle of the road.'

Joe and Gantoi look at the little dragon, clearly not believing what she said. "Are you sure it's in the middle of the road? That doesn't seem like a very logical place to a put an entrance to a secret, underground complex."

'Where would you put an entrance?'

"Anywhere but in the middle of the road… ahhh, I see." Joe nodded. "He puts these entrances in places that no one would think of as entrances, unless maybe you were a ninja turtle or something."

Sani nodded, 'Exactly. This is the exit that I managed to escape from. All you have to do is run in the middle of the road, unscrew the lid and there's a ladder there. There's also a button to push that will create an elevator thing if you can't climb the rungs of the ladder.'

Joe looked at Gantoi. "Are you going to be okay on the ladder, or do you need to push the button?"

Gantoi thought for a moment. "I should be okay on the ladder. I would suggest that I go down first in the event that I do lose my grip or something. I wouldn't want to injure anyone this far in the game." Then he thought of something else. "Sani? What if there are cars coming down the road when we're trying to get in?"

'Pray like hell there aren't any cars coming down the road.'

*****

Lord Doukai paced in his security room. Watching all of the cameras, he looked at all of the captives in their cells. Kurama was sitting quietly, staring at his hands. 'Probably trying to figure some clever way to come out of this situation alive.' Hiei was standing up, looking at his right arm. 'My, he looks furious. Maybe I should remind him of something.' Doukai turned on the intercom system that was linked to Hiei's cell.

"May I remind you Hiei that if you give any attempt to use the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, I will immediately activate the poison in your sister's veins and there is no cure. She would be dead before anyone could come to her rescue. Even your speed would not save her."

Hiei glared around the room, trying to find the source of the voice. "Hn. Do whatever you want. I don't really care."

"I'm sure Hiei, I'm sure." Lord Doukai turned off the intercom and returned in his studies of the other members that were in the cells.

Yusuke, like Hiei, looked furious. But the young spirit detective was pacing around, and periodically punching walls. 'Keiko must really mean a lot to him for him to be this affected by her capture.' Looking in on Kuwabara, Lord Doukai had to laugh. Apparently, a mouse had found it's way into his cell and Kuwabara was cowering in a corner from it. Checking quickly to make sure that Tarukon was still sitting with his arms crossed, looking straight at the camera, Lord Doukai moved on to look at Aniya.

She was sitting in her cell looking downcast. Lord Doukai chuckled. 'That's what I want to see, Aniya my dear. Absolute submission and realization that you can't do anything to prevent what is about to happen.' He turned around to see Keiko, Shiori and Yukina tied unconscious to chairs. "Nara Ska! Calisandra!"

The two women appeared. "Nara Ska, when I send for you, I want you to come to me. But it will not be likely that I will need you. I want you to maintain security." He turned to Calisandra. "And you, stupid bitch. The only reason why I keep you here because you control Nara Ska's lifeline because you stole some of Katomi's power. You are to watch over the hostages. Don't get in Nara Ska's way, don't touch any of the control panels and don't even think about leaving or disobeying my orders."

The blonde girl just nodded and backed away as quickly as possible. Lord Doukai glared at her for a moment more, as if to make sure that the words would be implanted in her brain. Then he looked at Nara Ska. "You know where I will be and you know the signal for if I need you."

She nodded and then watched as he left the room. Nara Ska looked at Calisandra and said in a whisper-like voice, "I am going patrolling. Watch the cameras. If anything happens, tell me and I will call Lord Doukai. Do not do anything else, beside watching the hostages." Then she left to search the hallways.

Calisandra sneered after her. "Don't do anything but watch the cameras and the hostages," she said, mockingly.

Sniffing disdainfully, she plopped herself into Lord Doukai's chair by the cameras. She could see Nara Ska walking down the hall toward the cells that contained the prisoners. Flicking to another camera, she could see Lord Doukai entering a chamber through a pair of doors. Intrigued, she leaned forward and tried to read the words that were on the doors. "P…o…r…por…ta….porta…porta…I? Portai? Portat? Portaf?" She trailed off, trying to figure out the last letter of the word.

She was so intrigued that she completely missed the two figures that had just left a room that Tarukon had used to escape, hours earlier….

*****

"Oh man, this is the best thing ever! I mean I can see all the little people down there! HI PEOPLE!! I wonder if they can hear me! CAN YOU HEAR ME DOWN THERE??!!" Firenzy was holding onto Botan's waist the ferry girl was finding the entrance location that Koenma had giver her. 'Come on, it should be around here somewhere. Then I can get rid of this nutcase.' Looking around, she spotted the pay phone that the others had used earlier that afternoon to get into Lord Doukai's secret underground complex.

"Okay, we're here." She said as she landed and practically hurled the annoying demon off her oar. "Now listen carefully. You need to call Papa Ginos and then you place an order for a large salad with ketchup. Understand?"

"Absolutely! This is so much fun!!" Firenzy walked over to the phone. "Hello?! Dominoes?! Can I have an extra large…sub with mustard on the side??!" Botan snapped her fingers and her oar disappeared as she huffed and grabbed the payphone.

"No. I said Papa Ginos, a salad with ketchup. Not Dominoes, a sub and mustard!" She quickly placed the correct order.

"Why, what would happen if we did something eeeeellllllllllllllllsssssssssse??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A few minutes later, there was nothing but a swinging phone that, was emitting a faint sound; "Processing your order…please hang up and try again…please hang up and try again…"

*****

"Man, I almost wish that Firenzy was here. At least there would be some noise. And he would be the first person to find the trouble. I hate waiting for trouble to come to you." Joe was looking all around in the hallway. "I think it's clear."

The trio started to move carefully down the hallway. Sani spoke softly (if that's possible to do telepathically). 'Watch out for Nara Ska. She'll be watching the hallways because Lord Doukai can't trust anyone else to do it.' Suddenly, the little dragon's head whipped around. 'I think she's coming!'

Gantoi and Joe looked at each other in panic. There were no apparent hiding spots and Gantoi would have been hard to hide on a good day in a best-case scenario. Right now, the three of them were borderline worst-case scenario and worst-case scenario gone worse.

"Come this way, sirs. Quickly." Gantoi and Joe looked at the little old man in front of them and decided to follow him because they were more likely to be able to beat the crap out of a little old man than a mysterious fighter of which they knew nothing of, attack wise.

Timbles led them into a nearby hallway and told them to remain motionless. Then he walked out of the hallway and encountered Nara Ska, who just nodded and continued on her walk. She seemed to completely ignore the hallway that the three were standing in. Once she was gone, Timbles walked back into the hallway.

"Judging from your astonished faces, I assume you do not know the full purpose of this hallway. It was created as a means for servants to appear silently without warning. Those outside the hallway cannot see into it, thus, when someone walks out of it, they have the appearance of coming from nowhere, which is, apparently, a trait which many employers look for in servants."

"Thanks a lot. Who are you anyway?" Joe was looking at the wrinkled butler.

"I am Timbles, the head butler to Lord Doukai, may he rot before he even hits his grave." Timbles looked at Gantoi and Joe. Then his eyes latched on Sani. "Mistress Sani, I am glad to see that you managed to find your way to help."

The little dragon nodded. 'If you hadn't gotten me out of there, who knows what he would have done to me. These are some of Aniya's friends. They are both powerful fighters from the fighting association that Aniya used to belong to.'

"I see. I presume that you want to be able to free you friends?"

Gantoi and Joe nodded. Timbles patted his vest pocket. "I think I have the keys to the cells." Finding them he held them up. "The number on the key correlates with a number on a door. They are currently being held in cells 3, 6, 11, 14, 23 and 29. I should warn you that those occupants in cells six and eleven might attempt to attack should you open the doors. Aniya is being held in twenty-nine. I suggest you release her first."

The demons nodded and thanked the little butler, but he had disappeared as they were looking at the keys. "Weird little guy. Wonder why he's gone rebel."

"I have no idea Joe. Let's find Aniya." Gantoi smiled, "I think that we should have brought Firenzy along. Do you know how excited he would have been to have to rescue Aniya from a cell in a guarded, underground fortress?"

Joe nodded. "Yeah. I can almost hear the guy now." Then, he could hear a really faint, "YEAH!! This is the coolest thing ever!! Let's do that again! It was like super slide but more super like!!" Joe shook his head. "Just thinking about that guy is annoying. I agree, let's get Aniya and get out of here."

They walked down the halls a bit until they found cell twenty-nine. Joe pushed a little buzzer thing on the outside. "Aniya?"

"What the hell do you want, bastard?" (Clearly thinking that it was Lord Doukai).

"Is that how you greet a long-time friend?"

Aniya sat up and ran to the little buzzer thing. "Joe? What are you doing here?"

Joe grinned. "I've come to get you out. Gantoi and your little dragon buddy are here too."

"Sani?!" In a few seconds, the cell door was open and Aniya was embracing the little dragon. "Where were you? I am so sorry that I forgot about you after the demon ball!"

'That's okay. I understand. What we need to do now is get the rest of your  friends out of their cells.'

Aniya nodded. "Right. Tarukon should be the closest. His cell is on the same side as mine, but its several cells down, I think."

Gantoi nodded. "Does cell twenty-three sound right to you?" Aniya nodded in affirmation.

"Joe?" The demon looked at her. "Give me the keys for the first three cells. I think that I'd better handle opening their cells because I don't think that all of them are completely familiar with you guys and even if they were, I think they're going to lash out at anything."

Gantoi, Joe and Sani went to get Tarukon and Kuwabara out of their cells as Aniya went to release Kurama, Hiei and Yusuke. Turning down a different hallway, she found cells 3, 6 and 11. She tried three first. "Hey, who's in here?"

"Who are you? What do you want?" Aniya smiled. 'I was right. This is Kurama's cell. If it had been Yusuke's,  he would have sworn at me and if it was Hiei's, he would have blasted something in my face.'

"It's Aniya. Don't try to hurt me or anything because I'm opening the door." Moments later Kurama greeted Aniya.

"How did you escape?" He looked puzzled. "I thought Lord Doukai was the only one who had the keys to these cells. I assume you wouldn't jeopardize Yukina's health by destroying the door."

She smiled. "Damn straight. Gantoi, Joe and Sani are here. They've got the keys, from I don't fucking care where and they're getting Kuwabara and Tarukon. I decided that it might be better that if I got Yusuke and Hiei out because they're less likely to try to kill me than someone they might not recognize right away."

Kurama chuckled. "Understandable. Hiei and Yusuke are very quick to anger and quick to retaliate violently."

Aniya walked over the Yusuke's cell. "Stand back," she warned Kurama, "I don't know what he'll do." Opening the door, she pushed it open. A voice came from the inside:

"What the fuck?" Aniya peered around the doorframe.

"Yusuke? You ready to go or what?"

Yusuke grinned, "Let's go. I'm fucking tired of this cell anyway." Walking outside he saw Kurama, "Hey Kurama. I see you got out too. Where's everyone else?"

"Gantoi and Joe are getting the baka and Tarukon. We still have to get Hiei."

"Right." The three of them walked over to cell number six and then looked at each other.

"So who wants to open the door?" Aniya put out the question.

"I will." First Kurama pushed the buzzer and said, "Hiei? We're going to open the cell door. We'd appreciate it if you don't destroy anything or go running after Yu—" he stopped and looked at Aniya, "I mean, you know whom I am speaking of."

Aniya rolled her eyes. "My god. Do you people really think that I am that stupid? I know she's his brother, so there's no reason to go around saying you-know-who and stuff. It makes you sound like you're from Harry Potter."

Kurama opened the door and Hiei blurred out, glaring at Kurama. "Hn. Now what do we do, stupid girl?"

Aniya bit her lower lip. "We have to meet up with everyone else."

Hiei's jagan suddenly glowed beneath his bandana. "Nara Ska is coming."

Frantically looking around for a place to hide, Aniya realized that there wasn't anywhere to hide, and started to run down the hall.

"Where do you think you're going? We have to fight her!"

Aniya stopped and gave them a disgusted look. "You guys don't get it, do you? If we fight Nara Ska, she's going to send a psycho-message to Doukai to tell him that something's wrong. The only way that we can recover the hostages safely and defeat Sukeisa is if we remain undetected. You don't want your girlfriend, your mother or your sister to die, do you?"

She looked them square in the eye and then they started running toward her. Aniya was worried. 'There should be a servants passage around here somewhere! Come on….'

*****

"Be quiet! If you aren't quiet they'll find us and then there will be trouble."

"Ok!" Firenzy had to be the only person in the world who could express that much excitement and still whisper. "This is so cool! Have you ever done this before?! We could be a team! The Great Firenzy and his lovely sidekick: Girl with the Blue Hair!! That would be so wicked!!"

Botan rubbed her head for the umpteenth time that hour. 'Goodness. Does he ever shut up? I didn't think that there was anyone who could talk as much as he has in the last fifteen minutes.' Botan was so annoyed with Firenzy that she didn't notice that they had just passed a pair of doors. The only reason why they went back to them was because Firenzy had said, "Oh cool! Do you think that those doors could have led to anywhere special?! I mean, they had SECURITY written all over them!!"

Botan whirled around, "What did you just say?"

"There were these two doors that said SECURITY ROOM all over them!!"

Botan did some quick thinking, 'I know that Koenma said for us to meet with the others as soon as possible, and that's what we should do. If we go messing into other people's business, then we might just screw up the mission and I don't want to do that.' So she continued walking.

A few minutes later, she noticed it was really quiet. "Gee Firenzy, you've gotten quiet." Silence answered her. "Firenzy?" She looked around and there was no one there. "Where did he go?"

*****

Tarukon waited outside his cell with Sani as Joe and Gantoi went to go find Kuwabara. He turned to look at the little dragon on his shoulder, "Sani, wait, you are the real Sani, right?"

'Who else would I be?'

"Well the last Sani that said she was the real Sani turned out to be a poorly manufactured robot."

Sani shook her little head, 'Well, I can prove to you that I'm the real thing and not some fake.'

"How?" Tarukon looked skeptical.

She replied smugly, 'I can take the spell off of you that is preventing you from talking to Laotsu.'

Tarukon gave her a startled look, "There's a spell on me? How would you know?"

'Sukeisa is trying to keep the silver dragon from communicating with you so he removed the last of your dracon powers.'

He smiled but shook his head, "You have it completely mixed up. Aniya is the one with the dracon powers, not me. She's the own that Sukeisa took the power away from."

Sani looked him square in the eye. 'You really are dense, aren't you? I mean, I thought you were pretty smart, but Kuwabara must have been wearing off on you or something.'

"I'm not dense." He stared at the ceiling in exasperation. "I wish that someone would explain everything for once. It really does get tiring when you people just pop out of nowhere and say, 'Are you stupid?' or my favorite is 'Isn't it obvious?' If it was obvious, then I would know about it, obviously!"

Digesting this and then thinking about it, Sani replied. 'Okay, you want the full truth? Then let me lift the spell so that Laotsu can tell you everything. He will be able to explain it better than I can.'

Tarukon sighed. There was nothing else to do but to trust that the little dragon wouldn't do anything harmful to him. "Alright. You can lift the spell. But if you try and funny mind-controlling business, I will personally destroy you once I get free from your control."

Sani laughed and then set to work about lifting the strong spell that Sukeisa had put on the young man.

*****

Gantoi and Joe were heading over to Kuwabara's cell when they suddenly felt strange. "Joe, does that feel like, Aniya to you?"

Joe was shivering, "Yeah. Kinda of like when she was the Black Dragon and you could tell right away it was her, even if she wasn't making any noise, because she could send out this cold feeling."

"Do you think that she might be in trouble?"

Joe stopped in his tracks. "Considering that she just released the three most dangerous members of the Spirit detective team and their cells were in the middle of Nara Ska's patrol, I would say that it is likely that she's in trouble, but maybe she isn't."

Four blurs ran past, two black, one red and one green. Gantoi stared at Joe. "I think that that is our cue to follow them or stop them. Which would you prefer?"

"I think I'll run with them until we can figure out what they're running from."

"I think that's what they're running from."

Nara Ska came into view. She glared at the two demons with red eyes. "What are you doing here?" she whispered. "Who are you?"

Gantoi and Joe looked at each other. "We came…on a tour…and we got lost…where is the exit?"

Gantoi looked at Joe as if the four-eyed demon had gone crazy. Then he got the message: they needed to stall for as long as they could so that Aniya and her friends could get away.

"Tour? There are no tours here, and there are no exits. At least not for trespassers."

Joe and Gantoi braced themselves into fight mode. They both thought in unison, 'Thank god that Firenzy isn't here. If he was, he'd be screwing something up.'

Suddenly, Nara Ska turned around and ran in the opposite direction. Gantoi and Joe looked at each other with puzzled expressions. "What do you suppose made her go away?"

Joe shrugged. "My only guess is that Lord Doukai has screwed up big time or one of his underlings has." Then both demons turned to run to catch up with Aniya.

*****

"PortaA? Portab? Portac? Portad?…" Calisandra was still there, staring at the television screen with the doors on it.

"How about Portal?!!"

Calisandra whirled around to see a demon behind her with flaming red hair. "Who are you?"

"Hey! You're a pretty lady! I think I've seen you somewhere?! Haven't I?! I mean, weren't you at the demon ball or something?!"

The blonde rubbed her head. "Headache….I  remember you. The little twerp who wouldn't leave me alone."

"Why wouldn't I leave you alone?! You were pretty and you're boyfriend had just dumped you for Aniya!!"

Calisandra glared at him. "Taru-kun did not dump me. He was…merely distracted by that bitch!"

"You, know, I always thought that ladies were supposed to be nice and kind!! But obviously…they were absolutely right!!"

She sweat-dropped and stood up. "Get out of here. You're not supposed to be in here."

"Really??! But this says Security Room on the door!! Are you sure that I'm not supposed to be in here??! I'd make a great security guard!!"

Calisandra smirked. "Like you could even find the brains to be a security guard."

Firenzy frowned at her, "You know, for a pretty lady, you're not really that smart!! Or pretty for that matter!! In fact, I know tons of ladies that are prettier and smarter and nicer and funnier than you! I wonder why you didn't turn out like them?! I mean, such a pretty face and such an ugly personality and everything—"

"SHUT UP YOU LITTLE SON-OF-A-BITCH!!!" Calisandra slapped him across the face. "YOU DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. YOU'RE SO STUPID!!!"

Firenzy gave her a death glare. "What the hell was that for??! I was just saying that you have a really ugly personality!!" She slapped him again. "See what I mean??! If you didn't have  an ugly personality, you wouldn't slap me all the time!! And I am NOT stupid!!"

"Are too."

"If you ask me, I think you're the one that's stupid because you're the one that's acting like the little baby that you are!! I can't stand people like you!! People who think that they are so cool but in reality they totally suck!!"

Calisandra clenched her fists. "Take that back!!"

"Nope!!" Firenzy grinned despite the two red slap marks on his cheeks. " I bet you're so stupid that you would starve if you got lost in a supermarket!!"

"Yeah? Well at least I'm not stupid enough to tell you the secret word that'll put the hostages back where they were!"

A light bulb shined in his head. "Really??! I bet you're too stupid to remember what the word even is!!"

Calisandra grinned evilly. "No! I do too know the word!! I'd have to be stupid like you to forget a word like 'Astoria'! You're probably the only one who'd be stupid enough to forget it!"

Firenzy smiled and said in the calmest voice that he'd ever spoken in, "Well, at least I wasn't stupid enough to be tricked into using the word against my will."

Calisandra's mouth clanged open. "What do you mean?" Firenzy pointed. The girl  turned around and gasped when she saw that the captives were gone. "Where did they go?" She ran over to the chairs that had held the hostages only moments before.

Sensing someone was coming, Firenzy hid in the background as Nara Ska stormed in. "What do you think you were doing, foolish girl?!" Nara Ska asked furiously in her small voice. "Now you have ruined everything for Lord Sukeisa!"

"Don't you mean Lord Doukai?" Nara Ska glared at her.

"My master told me what to do if this happened. You have made too many mistakes and we cannot allow it to continue if the master is to get his power. I have no choice but to commit seppuku."

Calisandra's mouth tried to sound out the word. "Seppuku? I've never heard of that before. Sounds unpleasant though."

Nara Ska's own mouth tugged into a smile. "Believe me it won't  be. Especially for you."

"What do you mean?" Calisandra started to back away as Nara Ska advanced on her.

"Seppuku is an old ritual of the samurai. If they are captured, they were to commit suicide and die with honor, rather than remain a prisoner."

"Yeah, so you're going to commit suicide because I've screwed up. Whoop-di-freaking-do."

"But, in order for me to die, you must die first."

"WHAT??!" At this point, Calisandra turned to run, but Nara Ska had whipped out one of her flying ninja starts. Hitting Calisandra in the back of the head, both of the young women disappeared in a flash of smoke.

Firenzy stuck his head out from behind the chair that he was hiding behind. He heard a voice behind him. "Good work Firenzy. That killed three birds with one stone! Not only were you able to defeat Nara Ska and Calisandra, but you were able to return Keiko, Yukina and Kurama's mother back to their homes."

Firenzy remembered something. "What about the poison?! Aren't they going to die??! And what if he decides to go after them again!! They're just going to get hurt all over again!!"

Botan thought about this and then answer. "But Sukeisa is the only one who is left. Katomi is dead, Calisandra and Nara Ska are gone for good. No one knows where that creepy butler man is. There is no one to go after them. If Aniya and the others defeat him, then they won't have to worry anymore."

Firenzy seemed happy with this. "Soooo…we get to fight the bad guys right??! I mean, that would be so cool!! I want to be the one to kill Sukeisa in the end!!"

Alarmed, Botan decided to take a quick course of action. 'There is no way that I am letting this idiot get in the way of the fight. What do I do?' She caught a glimpse of one of the security cameras. "Hey, Firenzy, how would you like to play "Rescue" instead?"

"Really??! Who do I get to rescue??!"

A smile formed on Botan's lips. "Kuwabara."

A/N: I know. It's long. I had to end it at some point or it'd run into the final battle. Sorry if people wanted Calisandra to stick around. Face it, she was too stupid to survive for the whole story. As for Nara Ska, let me just say that history tends to repeat itself. Next time: the final showdown. Probably.