Hey there readers! Sorry it's taken me so long to update. However, I am back and ready to attack this with veracity never before seen! Well…maybe not. I don't think attacking this fic would be a good idea.

Disclaimer: Nope, I still don't own it.

Author's Notes: Since everyone, save for Kurama, is human in this story I thought that I should disclose some of the ages I'll be placing the characters at to avoid confusion. Botan: 16, Yusuke: 16. Keiko: 16, Kuwabara: 16, Kurama: 16, Koenma: 25, Koenma's father, Enma: 48, Toguro (younger): 43, Karasu: 32. (These two will be included in later chapters)

And now…

"Oh no, I'm running late!"

Pink eyes widened as they glanced at the clock. 3:45; there was no way she'd be at work in fifteen minutes. Botan slammed her chemistry book shut, leapt up from the kitchen table, and quickly laced on her tennis shoes. Her lab coat sprung off the coat rack and onto her body, covering the t-shirt and jeans she'd changed into after she had gotten home from school. Once again, keys delved into the lock on the door as the blue haired girl now stood outside, and locked the door.

Bequeathed to her in the driveway; a gift from her relatives after starting her job at Libra was a dependable 1993 Mercury Tracer; it wasn't flashy, but it would get her to where she needed to go, and for that she was thankful. Especially when her job was located on the very edge of town, and there was no way she'd be able to find a bus to take her that far. She climbed in, shutting the door behind her as she started the car. A few sputtering sounds met her ears.

"Please don't die on me. Not today, please not today."

As if hearing her request, the car roared to life. Botan cheered, then backed out of the driveway, and sped off to work.

He blinked as he sat up in bed, looking around the large room, attentive for any slight sound that might have awoken him. The silence was not stirred; nothing had happened while he had slept. Strange. What on Earth could have awoken him so abruptly? A sigh snaked between the silences of the everlasting minutes. Oh well, it was probably nothing. Sheets engulfed the boy as green eyes closed themselves. Nothing had happened; time to go back to sleep.

Quick feet zipped through the hallways, their owner taking a few seconds to greet her coworkers, or halt just in time to avoid a head on collision. Up ahead was one of the main lab rooms throughout the facility, and in that room, she would find her boss. A clock in the hallway proclaimed the time as 4:15. A quick right turn, ten more steps, and she glided into the room, stopping behind her boss.

The lab room around her was fairly open, the door being the only obstacle to the snooping eye. As was to be expected, everything, save for the door frames was the typical white of a lab or hospital. Koenma had his back to her, dressed in a lab coat as all of them were, and was talking with an assistant, going over the paper he had in his hands.

"Hmm, accelerated growth of white count; average reaction time of 0.08 seconds, and vision of 20/10 in both eyes. Stunning, simply stunning; by far, I would have to say that's he's our best test subject yet. I'd like to try to inject him with that serum we developed a week ago, I'd love to see his combat abilities. Oh, hello Botan."

Both turned to bid hello to the cheery tech standing behind them. She smiled at the two of them. Hiro, the assistant, glanced down at his watch, black hair sweeping down his face as he did so.

"Botan? It's 4:15."

Ah Hiro; he meant well she knew, but she could have done without him pointing out the obvious. Now Koenma was giving her a scrutinizing look. Yay… Trying her best to laugh it off and avoid a scolding, Botan smiled.

"Well, you know…I got too into my homework, and forgot to look at the clock. It happens right?"

Koenma shook his head, but luckily, her superior was smiling. Amber eyes sparkled with amusement.

"Ah yes, being a high school student can be a little demanding. That's the one thing I don't miss: The load of homework that my teachers would dump on me each an every night."

Okay, he wasn't scolding her; she was in the clear. They conversed on a few bland topics for five minutes before Hiro was called over by Miaka, a lab worker twenty years Botan's senior. Apparently the copy machine was broken. Again. It wasn't the first time that Botan had noticed the oddity of a facility, filled with some of the best brains in medicinal science, could be confused by the simplicity of a copier jamming. But then again, she barely knew how to work the thing either, so who was she to judge? Koenma shook his head as Miaka drug poor Hiro off down the hall, chuckling as Hiro had to jog to keep the older woman from pulling his right arm off. A small stack of two or three papers was placed under Botan's nose as Koenma spoke to her:

"Botan, would you mind dropping these off in my office so I can review, and hopefully if I get the time, fax them later?"

The papers made a quick transfer of hands from young man to young girl. Her delicate hands folded around the important documents, fingers covering up some of the print; after all, this was information for no ordinary eye, not even she was allowed to peek. Botan smiled, candy eyes sparkling with her usual pep.

"Sure thing Koenma! Do you need anything else delivered to your office?"

"No, but after you're done, there are colonies of a bacterium being monitored in room 32-B in the west wing. I'd like you to stop by and take a look at them and mark any change. There's a chart sitting beside the sealed container they're being kept in."

Botan nodded and spun on her heel, trotting out the door, and into the main stream of workers. All around her was the buzz of the general work day. The results of one person's research, what the kids were doing at home, and a various mixture. Late afternoon sun gleamed through a window to her left as she traversed the white hallways, and zipped upstairs, making a right at the top of the column. Her eyes sought the little horizontal sign sticking out from the door that proclaimed one of the rooms to be Koenma's office. Botan soon found it; it was easy to spot with it being the only door with a wood finish rather than a coat of gray. In all reality, this was the office of Koenma's father, Enma Sr. Koenma was the assistant director; however when his father's heart condition worsened, Koenma had had to take over his father's position until he hopefully made a recovery. When the announcement was made that Enma would be moving into the hospital, the whole lab had felt it, including Botan, who at that time, had only been working at Libra for about a month. The powerful man who had founded the lab, the brains of the operation so to speak, was now gone, and the one who had felt the emptiest of all that day had been Koenma.

Normally an optimistic person like Botan, the way he had looked that day had been a startling to contrast to his usual demeanor. A cloud of sadness had hung over the young man, washing out his face with heavy rains, and tearing through his soul with cold, hallowing gales. The door squeaked a little as Botan swung it back on its hinges, revealing a medium sized room complete with white walls, dark green carpet, a sturdy oak desk, a green high backed chair, and two bookshelves flanking each side of the room complete with their own set of books, papers, etc. Botan walked behind the desk, setting the papers down front and center, pausing a moment to look at the various objects placed about. In the upper right, framed within was a picture of Koenma and his father, taken when the former was but eight. A ghost of a smile hung on the high school girl's lips as she remembered how fond Koenma was of telling the story of the photo, taken so well by another fisherman, who had been more than happy to hold the camera as little Koenma had proudly presented to his father the first fish he had ever caught.

Below the picture was a stack of documents; no doubt ranging from bills to forms, to other lab results. A few ballpoint pens lay next to the stack of around twenty-something papers. On the left sat a flat screen computer flanked by various other papers scattered helter-skelter over the left side of the desk. She took a minute to straighten them out, forming them into yet another neat stack. Poor Koenma; Botan truly had no idea how he did it. She could barely stomach having homework in more than two subjects. As soon as the papers lay neatly on the desk, she went to turn away, but not before a string of sentences caught her eye:

Results of combat test for subject #0013:

Subject is very agile, and can swiftly take down its opponents. Subject 0013 can exert pressure of up to 154lbs, and has a force punch of 30.8. However, it has a very disturbingly quality of going berserk. Hardly any of us can get near the subject without it going into frenzy; we had to use sedative just to get him out of his cage.

Cage… The word stirred something in her. There was something familiar about the way the word was being used. It was hard to put her finger on what. Her eyes continued to move as she kept on reading.

Subject 0013 is becoming hard to work with. It is questionable whether or not 0013 should be terminated…

The passage continued on, but Botan had no heart for reading. Terminated? As in killed? A tiny shudder went through her, chilling her body. There was no way the lab would kill its test subjects. Libra was the pursuit for life. Its studies in medicinal science were completely geared toward extending every natural benefit of the human populace. Involuntarily, her eyes jumped back to the page, and quickly scanned over the title, trying to avoid being tempted into reading the entire lab report.

At the top of the page, in bold letters, were the words 'Phoenix Project Case 0013'.

Phoenix Project? Why did that sound familiar? Once again, she looked at the paper sitting atop the stack, looking for some kind of date that would indicate when this experiment had taken place. Near the bottom, written in a lovely flowing script was the date: 16/8/09. Eight months ago. Her mother had been alive when this had taken place. Was it possible that her mother had also participated in this project? Blue locks whipped back and forth vigorously as Botan shook her head to clear it of questions. Glancing at her wristwatch, she saw the second hand twitching past the thirty-five minute mark. The time was 4:30. Great, she'd just wasted ten minutes( not counting the five minutes it took for her to get here) standing around staring at papers on her boss's desk. Papers she really had no business looking at in all reality. Sighing, she trotted out of Koenma's office and shut the door behind her. When the latch had clicked into place, the young girl leaned back on the door, digging her hands into the pockets of her white lab coat. 'It's nothing.' She kept telling herself. 'Just words on a paper, nothing more. It has nothing to do with me, nothing at all! Although the word, no more like the phrase 'his cage' stood out-'

A ton a bricks metaphorically whacked her on the head. Her dream! The word 'cage' had definitely come up in there. Not only that, a little boy had been kept inside the cage. Maybe there was something going on here-

Botan stopped herself before she went too far. Once more she shook her head before pushing off from the door, and walking briskly back downstairs. What was on that report was not for her eyes and had nothing to do with her. That was all. Case closed.

A lovely soprano tune floated through the nearly empty lab room as Botan hummed to herself while cleaning and putting away glassware. All around her save for the sound she was producing was the silence of the early evening. Everyone, with the exception of Koenma, had either gone home or was leaving now. The sound of knuckles rapping on the door frame startled Botan, causing her to jump, and nearly drop the beaker she'd been holding. The glass object jumped and danced around on the tips of her fingers before she finally clasped it in her hands and set it down on the counter, making a clunking sound as the glass slammed on the polished black. Taking a breath to calm herself, Botan stood up straight, and turned around to face a sheepish looking Hiro, blushing a bit under his olive complexion.

"Ah… sorry about that Botan. Um, are you heading home yet?"

At that question, his whole body seemed to turn a bright pink. Small, brown mice scurried to corners of the room, before settling on the object of the inquiry. Botan smiled. Hiro was cute when he blushed; the situation reminded Botan of a nerdy schoolboy trying to get up the courage to talk to the pretty, boisterous girl in a neighboring class. Her hand reached back behind her to grab to beaker and continue with her work. Kill two birds with one stone, and all that jazz. She continued cleaning up while talking to Hiro.

"No, not yet. I still need to clean this lab area, and then I need to deliver that fax to Koenma."

She said, blindly pointing in the direction of a lab table that sat closer to the door. Three white rectangles stood out against the shiny, black surface, each with its own variant of print upon it. The cupboard doors slightly above Botan's head clapped shut as she was now finished with putting away the glassware. Her shoes made squeaking noises as she walked across the room and picked up the papers, and began to look through them, making sure she did indeed have the right fax. Once she'd gotten a lab fax and the electric bill mixed up, and had faxed the bill by mistake. That had been one giant mess trying to call not only the hospital where the bill had been faxed to, trying to explain to them that the bill had been mixed in with a pile of fax papers, and trying to call the billing agency telling the woman on the other end that they did have the bill, it was just on the other side of the prefecture, and would take some time getting back to the lab. And oh lovely it had really been when the hospital had ended up losing the electric bill! Botan hadn't been docked pay, but Koenma had given her s stern talking to, telling her that if something of this magnitude was ever to happen again, it would be her job.

While she had been busy looking over the papers in her hand, Hiro had stepped into the room. Like her, he now wore a smile on his face, albeit a tired one.

"That's too bad. I was hoping that you'd like to go have dinner with me sometime, or maybe grab an evening tea at a café somewhere in town."

His eyes widened as he realized what he was saying.

"I-I mean as co-workers! Not like…you know…dating. No not like that! Just two people getting off work to go have a coffee or something …right?"

Candy colored eyes that looked as sweet a jolly rancher glowed as their owner chuckled, radiating light, and the sound of tiny bells.

"Yes, I understand; and I'm sorry, I really wish I could go. How about a rain check?* I'll try to look ahead and see if I can find a loophole in my schedule. Sound good to you?"

Hiro's face exploded in a wide, goofy grin. He seemed to skip out of the room. However, the assistant remembered his manners, and turned to face the girl who had now been the one asking him a question.

"Yes, that sounds great Botan! I'll try to see if I have a blank spot in my schedule. I'll talk to you tomorrow! Good night!"

An excited hand waved over his shoulder, and not two seconds later, Hiro had disappeared down the hall. The sound of him whistling rang through the empty halls for about five minutes, bouncing off the tiled floors, and sitting soundly in her eardrums. Once again, Hiro was meaning well. He was cute, Botan had to admit that, but she wasn't sure if he was really her type. It was a shame really, she got along so well with him, but deep down she barely knew the poor guy. Going out with him at least once was the least she could do. Besides, she might actually earn herself a boyfriend after all those dull, gray years of being single!

Down the hallway, and up the stairs, her feet walked her through the west wing of the laboratory, eventually stopping her in front of Koenma's door. A note had been attached.

Botan,

It read,

What a shock! I finished all my paperwork early, so I had some time

To take off and go see my dad for once. Sorry for not being able to come down and tell you.

See you tomorrow. Have a good night and a safe trip home.

Koenma.

Great, just great. If it had been any other day, Botan would have been ecstatic that her boss had finally gotten some free time in the evening, but tonight she had desperately needed to ask him about the documents she had seen on his desk. All throughout the rest of her shift, the possible fact that Libra could be killing its test subjects kept eating at her. In the front of her mind, she knew that it was impossible, but she just couldn't rule out what had been put down in plain black and white. She sighed. Fate really sucked. The one day when she actually had a legitimate question for Koenma (heck, her job may have even depended on that question. No way was she working somewhere similar to a modern day Auschwitz!), he got free time.

Resigning herself to the fact that she would just have to wait, she slipped the lab reports underneath the door, and walked back downstairs. While she walked, her thoughts decided they would keep her company, what with her being the only one in the entire facility; or so she thought. 'Come to think of it, when Mom was alive, she never really talked about her job here very much. When she did, it was very vague. Even now, while I'm working here, I'm the lowest on the totem pole. Of course that's to be expected, I'm not only a tech, but a high school student. It's obvious they wouldn't want me involved in some of the more complicated procedures, but still I really have no idea what exactly is going on here. I need to find out.

Unaware that her feet had been on autopilot, she stopped and examined her new surroundings. White hallway that went along for a few feet before ending in a set of double doors. She looked behind her, trying to figure out how she'd gotten here; behind her was a partial wall indicating she'd turned a corner. Botan retraced her steps a bit, and peeked around, more hallways, and beyond that another turned corner. Weird, she knew the lab had other wings, but she'd primarily worked in the west wing. Could it have been possible she wandered into another area on accident? Obviously yes, and this meant…

"Oh great! I'm lost in my own workplace, and lucky me there's no one to help me out."

'Wait, just wait a minute Botan, try not to get too ahead of yourself. This place is pretty big right? So maybe there's a map or two that can help me out. Or…' Her thoughts trailed off as she looked back at the set of double doors that stood silently before her. Maybe those doors led outside? After all, she was on the ground floor, so it was worth a shot. With a bounce in her step, and hope possibly on the horizon, she trotted forward, pushed open the doors…

And stepped into another corridor. Definitely not what she had been expecting. A click sounded behind her, just barely above audible. Like she had been lit on fire, she whipped around, and shoved the door. It met her hand with no resistance, sailing back into empty air, even smacking against the wall behind it. Oh, good, it hadn't locked. Hang on, why was she getting so scared? So she had gotten lost in the lab, big deal. She would just find a map, or retrace her steps and get out. Except…

A cold shudder raced down her spine, making the boisterous lab tech hug her body tightly. There was just something off about this area of the lab. It was cold down here, but not in the temperature way; the chill seemed to be coming from the very place she now found herself in. Botan shivered; it was like walking right into a horror movie. The tiny ticking sound of her watch drew her attention. Just a little past seven o' clock. Outside the sun would just be starting to set, and in around five or ten minutes shadows would have encompassed the roads, swelling across the concrete surface, making it difficult for her headlights to cut through.

"Well, maybe if I keep moving I'll find a map, or an exit door."

Her voice sounded too loud, and shaky. Botan decided it would be best just to keep quiet. No sound came from her feet as she traversed down the hallway. It was as if the very ground beneath her feet had swallowed up every vibration; she couldn't even hear the buzzing of the overhead lights, which was an easily discernable sound when there was no one else in the lab.

Botan kept walking, careful not to let her eyes dart around, for fear that she would trip over something, or run into something. Which, hopefully would be a door leading out. Her hands kept clenching into fists and unclenching as she walked; a nervous habit she'd developed over the years. Right now, it was the only thing keeping her from tearing off down the hall at breakneck speed. Once again, the blue haired girl found herself face to face with yet another door. Just how many doors were there in this place anyway? Jeez, and to think of what the architect had gone through when designing this place. No, make that the construction workers who had built this place.

Like the first set she had walked through, these were also double doors, painted in the gray color common to all doors throughout the laboratory. However, unbeknownst to Botan, who was too busy deciding whether or not to try her luck and walk through them, a lock hung off a broken chain that had been looped around the door handles. Now the chain hung precariously off of the left door handle, dangling the lock like a ship dangles an anchor before it is plunged into the bottom of the ocean. Under circumstances like these, she would have noticed the lock; it was the only thing that didn't fit the surrounding area, but Botan was too involved in her predicament of trying to get the heck out to notice something as minuscule as a lock attached to a broken chain.

The hinges creaked as Botan slowly pulled the door on the right open. Expecting a rush of cool air, she was immediately shocked by the lack of evening breeze that was supposed to be hitting her full force in the face.

Yep, you guessed it folks, another hallway. The sterile white of the corridor in front of her began to blur as tears threatened to spill forth. Botan ground her teeth hard to keep from crying hysterically. She would get out of here. If worse came to worst, she would just have to retrace her steps, and wait until morning for someone to show up. Yes, she would be just fine. Relief washed over her with a wave of warmth; she had a plan, she was going to be fine. Botan was about to turn around, when, for the second time that day, something interesting caught her eye.

On each side of the long corridor, there were closed doors. No light shown out from beneath them, and perhaps the most interesting thing was the locks on each and every door, securing them fast to the wall. Maybe equipment was stored down here? 'However, if someone wanted, they could easily pick those locks, even if they are big. It looks like they're meant to keep something in.' The report she'd read earlier today came crashing back into her head.

Subject 0013 has a very disturbing quality of going berserk…

What the hell was going on? Where was she? Botan tried her best not to shake, and tentatively put a foot forward, swallowing the growing lump of fear in her throat. Each and every door seemed to stare at her as she passed, looking at her with a single window that sat near the top of the door. Allowing her, if she wanted to peek in and-

She froze. Did something just move?

Pink stared at black hard, trying to convince the erratic, frightened mind that it did not see what it thought. Silence. Nothing happened. 'I'm getting way too worked up.' She thought. When she went to turn away, she noticed something incredibly odd that caused her to whip her head back around.

There at the bottom of the door, four inches in diameter, was a small slat. The kind that people would use to slide something through to the other side. What was that there for? Botan shook her head, deciding she didn't want to find our, and began walking at a much more brisk pace down the empty (or seemingly empty) corridor. The walk turned into a run when she could stand it no longer. The place was creepy; she had to get out of here fast. The run turned into a sprint when the hallway stretched on, almost like it was never ending. Tears that had been held in reserve finally began to wash up, and tumble down her cheeks. It was like a nightmare. As she ran, Botan told herself that if she managed to get out of here one hundred percent okay, she would consider asking Koenma for a day off tomorrow.

Not paying attention to her immediate surroundings, Botan ran head first into another door. Glancing down, she saw this one was unlocked. Thanking, and at the same time praying to whatever god or gods that were kind enough to be listening, she opened it up, and walking straight into one of the strangest rooms she'd ever seen.

It didn't fit with the rest of the area; it seemed to…normal. Like it was an office or something, but then again, she wondered as her eyes settled on the queen bed set in the middle, what office would have a bed in it? Did someone live here? To the right of the bed sat a nightstand, and on that were a couple books; Botan was close enough to notice the titles: Jigsaw Man and Skeleton Crew by Gord Rollo and Stephen King. A gentle breeze stirred her hair. Her eyes widened. A breeze meant outside, outside meant freedom, freedom meant being able to go home. Quickly and quietly, she shut the door behind her, and began running in the direction of the breeze. Her feet took her through a glass door…out onto a balcony? When had she climbed stairs? Simple: She hadn't, but as she mentally retraced her steps, her feet seemed to remember going up a set of stairs, just not her mind.

'I was so busy thinking I didn't even realize I'd walked up another staircase! No wonder I've been having such a hard time finding a way out! Botan wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh at herself for her own stupidity, sigh in relief, or be afraid at the fact that she would have to walk down that dreaded hallway again. As she contemplated her options, a cough to her left sounded, making Botan nearly jump out of her skin. She turned her whole body to where the offending sound had come from. Sitting in a chair, holding a book in his hands, and looking at her curiously was a boy about her age with long red hair, and emerald green eyes. Boy and girl continued to look at each other as said girl took deep breaths, trying to calm down. The boy smiled at her. Botan, unsure of what to do, continued to stare. The response to her continuous stare was a small chuckle. Something in the back of her mind told her it would be okay to relax, so relax she did. She joined the boy, giving him a smile herself.

"I'm sorry, did I disturb you?"

Perfect white teeth flashed as he smiled back. Green eyes glittered with amusement.

"No, no it's fine. But…how did you get in here? I've never seen you before."

Never seen her before? What did that mean? He looked no older than her, so maybe he lived there? That was impossible though. Libra was a laboratory, not a hotel, no one lived there.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what you mean."

Confusion replaced curiosity as the boy put a finger to his chin.

"Well, the only person that comes by here is an assistant with black hair, brown eyes, and glasses."

"Hiro? Are you talking about Hiro?"

"Yes, do you know him?"

Hiro had been here before? Multiple times? Who was this person? How did he know Hiro? Too many questions were circulating in Botan's head, a fog of befuddlement was threatening to push away coherent thought. She ignored it and answered the question.

"Yes, I know him, but how do you? I mean who are you?"

Now he really looked confused. Those green eyes looked her over, as if he was trying to decide whether or not she was some kind of alien. Botan waited patiently for an answer. What came out of the boy's mouth was shocking to say the least.

"My name is Kurama. Forgive me if I seem shocked, but I'm just confused. You see, I thought you knew about Project Phoenix."

"Project Phoenix?"

Was he subject 0013? If he was, she'd made a very bad move. Unfortunately, she was trapped, not only in a dead end, but also on the second floor. Way to go Botan. She gulped a little. This guy now had her full attention, not that she liked hearing what came out of his moth next.

"Yes. Project Phoenix was a lab operation organized ten years ago that abducted demons and used and still uses them as test subjects. I am one of those test subjects."

Sorry to leave it on a cliffhanger, I promise to update promptly! I'm just glad I got over the spell of writer's block I had in the earlier part in the chapter. Anyway, drop a comment of you wish. I'll be writing in the meantime.