Hey readers! I am, as of now, secretly on my mom's computer, and I may not have much time. I will be doing this fic side by side with my RKxVK crossover, so I beg of you be patient!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, or any of the characters. If I did I would be an x-something year old Japanese guy, but I am a 16 year old American girl, so yeah.

Author's Notes: As stated in summary, the setting is AU, so pasts may/will be altered. Read, enjoy, and please review.

What is this place?

A cage.

Is it the kind that has bars? Like an animal cage?

No. It is a different sort of 'cage'.

Is it locked?

You could say that.

Why am I in a cage?

Because you need to be

Am I bad? Did I do something wrong?

No. It is nothing you have done. It does have to do, however with what you are.

And what is that?

You are a…

Shadows swallowed the voices. Far off into the blackness of the abyss the small sound of a water droplet hitting a hard surface was heard. A chill bit deep into her body with pointed teeth. Where was she? Moreover, who…

"Did those voices belong-huh?"

Botan sat up in bed, blinking sleep and confusion out of her eyes as she surveyed her room. Off in the far corner from her bed which sat up against the north wall was a corner desk, complete with a swivel chair. On the opposite wall was a white dresser, atop that a stereo, and to the left of her bed a small closet. A bright and cheery room. No shadows, no far off sound of dripping water and no disembodied voices. She continued to wonder about her dream, for another minute before brushing it off as a side effect of the curry she'd eaten the night before. Yawning, she stretched, and swung her feet out of bed, and onto the carpet.

Five minutes later, Botan stood at the sink in her bathroom, dressed properly in her uniform, splashing water on her face to help herself wake up better, and hopefully add some vitality to it. Once again, she yawned, turned off the water faucet, and then jogged downstairs to grab her schoolbag in the kitchen. On her way through the living room, she stopped to glance at a small shelf situated to the left of the large bay window that looked into the house. Placed between a bouquet of peonies in a glass vase, and a bottle of incense was a picture of her mother and father. Her father had passed on when she was young, and her mother had died in a tragic accident ten months ago when her car skidded on a patch of black ice, causing her to slam violently into the guardrail. Now, the house she had lived in with her parents held a single occupant, but she was not one to be put down by grief. Since the night of the accident, she had become more independent, and she'd improved her culinary skills by leaps and bounds. No longer was the sound of the smoke alarm treated as typical 'dinner music'. Smiling at the memory of her first run in with deep fried tofu, Botan glanced at the clock sitting on top of the television.

"Ack! 7:45! No time for breakfast!"

With that, she raced into the kitchen, grabbed her bag from off the table, spun around, and ran for the front door, skidding to a stop before the obstacle could smack her in the face.

"Well, I'm off!"

There was a jingle in her jacket pocket as she produced a set of house keys, and unlocked the door. A cool spring morning breeze hit her full force, and she was glad she'd put on a lightweight jacket. It would tide her over until it warmed up in the afternoon. The second jingle of the morning was heard as the front door shut, and the keys once more turned in the lock. Once the keys were back in her pocket, Botan turned, and began running for school.

An exhausted Botan flopped down in her desk at exactly ten minutes to eight. Considering the fact that the distance from home to school was normally twenty five minutes, she decided she'd earned herself a gold star for the morning…and a nice bottle of water.

"Morning Botan!"

Still panting, the bluenette meekly raised her head. Keiko Yukimura, the class president was bent down over Botan's desk, smiling.

"Morning. Yeesh, I'm tired."

Keiko chuckled.

"I would say so. You practically ran a marathon to get here."

Botan weakly flexed a raised fist.

"Nike!"

The two girls laughed. Across the classroom, Yusuke Urameshi, and Kazuma Kuwabara were getting into some sort of heated debate.

"You don't just run up and randomly ask a girl that!"

"Well maybe you don't dipstick, but if I see a girl who's skinny as a rail with a double d rack, of course I'm gonna ask her if they're implants!"

It was at this time Yusuke's face met a flying pencil bag. After spouting off a few expletives, he began to look for the homing point of the offensive object. Of course when he found it, he instantly thought twice about the smart remark sitting on his tongue. Keiko was now standing straight up, angrily tapping her foot, and without so much as a word strode over to Yusuke, and yanked on his ear.

"Ow! What the-"

"I thought I told you to keep that mouth in check! Honestly, you can be so brainless!"

"Hey, it's not my fault that-"

"That you've only got enough blood to operate one head at a time Urameshi?"

"Shut up Kuwabara! Ow! Keiko let go of my ear that hurts!"

Botan giggled as she watched what she had deemed 'The Typical Morning Theater' in which Yusuke always made some smart comment, Keiko nearly yanked his ear off, and Kuwabara poked fun at Yusuke the entire time. By now, Keiko had let go of the poor boy's ear, and said boy was aiming threats at a not so scared friend.

"I swear if you don't shut up, I'll mess your head up so bad, you'll be locked in a padded cell talking to your voices for a whole year!"

Voices. Ah yes, the voices of her dream. Botan put her chin in her hand as she reflected on it. There had been two of them as she recalled; the voice of a little boy, and an older more masculine voice of a man sounding in his late teens or early twenties. They had been talking about a cage. What cage? Where was this cage? And what did the older voice mean by 'You could sort of say' that it was locked? Why was the little boy even in the cage? The older voice had said it had had to do with something the boy was, but what exactly? The voices had faded before she could have made anything out.

"Earth to Botan! Your hair's on fire!"

"Huh? What?"

Yusuke rolled his eyes.

"If you're gonna sit there, and space out on us, you could give us some kind of heads up. Keiko was asking you a question."

"Oh. Sorry. What was it Keiko?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to go see a movie with the three of us tonight. Maybe it'll give you a chance to talk to that cute guy who always works at the food counter."

"Wha? Keiko!"

Now it was Kuwabara's turn for an eye roll."

"Come on Botan, you practically drooled over him the last time we were there, just go up and ask him for his phone number."

"Like it's that simple! And sorry Keiko, I'd love to go, but I have to go to work tonight, and they'll probably have me pulling a late shift"

"Oh yeah, you work at Libra don't you?"

"Libra?"

Botan opened her mouth, but was cut off by the ringing of the school bell. The sound of shuffling footsteps, and ruffling pages resounded throughout the room. A few seconds later, following a few straggling students was the homeroom teacher, Mr. Yota. His piercing predator's eyes watched the students both entering, and in the classroom hurrying to their seats.

"Did none of you hear the bell? Come on now kids; let's practice punctuality a bit shall we? Now, open your history books to page 85 and we'll begin today's lesson."

The rest of the morning passed by in an uneventful, semi-colorful blur. As Botan sat in her math class, copying down the formulas written down on the blackboard, she found her lap suddenly holding a low flying paper airplane. Glancing around behind her, she saw Yusuke looking at her intently. Botan sighed, and turned back around, unfolding the paper airplane beneath her desk. The moment the instructor's back was turned, Botan's head went down to read the message inscribed:

What the heck is Libra?

Really? He couldn't have waited until later? The paper made a few crackling noises as Botan's fist crushed it into a ball. Botan craned her head back, found Yusuke, and mouthed the word 'lunch', knowing full well she wouldn't be able to send to airplane back without getting caught. Yusuke raised an eyebrow, to which she silently replied 'Later.'

"Miss Botan, would you kindly tell us what has captured your attention at the back of the classroom?"

Crap! Twin magenta fires shot Yusuke a glare, and then put themselves out as their owner turned around in her seat.

"Oh, I just thought I saw something...odd…you know…"

"Well, focus your attention up here; the only odd things you should be seeing are numbers."

Oh yeah, she was definitely going to get Yusuke for this come lunch. Speaking of which… She thought as her gaze wandered up to the clock at the front of the room. 11:44, with only 50 seconds to go before the lunch bell.

"And if you substitute x for this number here…"

45 seconds…

"Once that's done dive by two, and you'll end up with the correct answer. Note how all the answers to the practice problem here are whole numbers. I should not see any decimals on the upcoming test."

20 seconds…

"And I think that's all we have for today, if you'll just go home and study, you should ace this checkpoint exam."

Bing! Her hands took wing as she quickly shoved books and notebooks back into her school bag, and shut it tight, and in one simple fluid motion, she was up out of her desk, and waiting with Yusuke and Kuwabara by the door for Keiko to put her last notebook up. Once said task was done, and everyone accounted for, the four went down to the cafeteria.

"Honestly Yusuke, did you have to ask me right in the middle of class?"

Botan growled, slamming her tray down on the table. A couple students from a nearby table looked up, but seeing nothing worth watching, went back to their food. Yusuke rolled his eyes, pausing before replying to open a milk carton, and take a small swig.

"Oh c'mon, I didn't yell it out in the middle of class did I?"

"Yell what out Yusuke?"

"No, but it was still a distraction!"

"You get mad at some of the smallest things."

"Getting my butt chewed in class because of your stupidity is not a small thing, thank you!"

"Botan, and Yusuke, if you two are done arguing, I want to know what's going on."

"Same here Urameshi."

Yusuke was about to reply, but Botan, having been placed atop her soapbox, cut him off.

"I'm sitting in class, paying strict attention, like I'm supposed to, when he," Botan pointed an accusing finger at Yusuke. "Tosses an airplane into my lap, asking me to tell him what Libra is. And I would have gladly done so when we were out of the classroom, but no!"

Keiko cocked an eyebrow.

"Well, what is Libra, Botan? You've only mentioned the name, but it has to be a pretty important place if they've got you working there almost twenty-four seven."

Botan quirked an eyebrow at her best friend. She thought she'd explained this before, but of course she was so scatterbrained at times, the thought of informing Keiko about her current and future work place must have slipped her mind.

"Libra is a lab just on the outskirts of town. It's situated on top of a small hill, so you have to wind your way through various twists and turns on the main road in order to get there. They specialize mostly in medical and field research. It's a quiet place, and they've been operating for a while now. My boss, Koenma, his father started the lab in hopes that he and his colleagues, through their studies at their graduating university could find a way to perfect the human body."

Yusuke huffed over his straw.

"That sounds like science fiction to me."

Keiko chuckled.

"They said that when the idea that man could travel into space was first proposed."

It seemed that Kuwabara was highly interested. He had hung on to every word Botan had said while she explained to Yusuke and Keiko about where she worked.

"What did this guy mean by 'perfect the human body'?"

"By 'perfect', he meant that the aging process would be incredibly slowed or stopped altogether entirely, that the immune system would be strong enough to fight off any disease, and that each new generation produced would be stronger than their parents."

Keiko both figuratively and literally chewed over Botan's explanation as she took a bite of her ikameshi.

"But if the aging process were to be stopped completely, then the earth would become overcrowded."

"That's why the more sought after is the slowing of the aging process. Speaking of which, when I was little, there was this whole project that involved almost everyone at the entire lab. In fact, if I remember correctly, that wasn't too long after my mom had started working there."

"What kind of project?"

Botan shrugged, chewing a bit on her salmon roll.

"I don't know. I asked my mom, and all she said was that the lab was searching for 'really special people.' I think she meant people of peak physical condition they could test, and obtain data from."

The buzz of cafeteria chatter continued on in the background, rising and falling in pitch like a song melody. The conversation soon shifted when some boy a few tables down was heard bragging that he could fit a whole apple into his mouth without having to chew it. Bets were made between the four, Keiko and Botan winning when the boy had to be escorted to the nurse's office when the apple became stuck, and he could not get it in further nor remove it. Ten minutes later the bell rang, and getting out of the cafeteria became like trying to get through the Paris Underground. After bumping into five people, grabbing onto Keiko so she would not be lost, and squeezing through a gap that a cat couldn't even fit through, she walked into class with only two minutes to the bell, dream entirely forgotten

The lab assistant set the tray of food down on the table on the balcony, overlooking the wide expanse of hills out back of the lab.

"Good afternoon. Are you feeling well?"

The boy did not look at the assistant; instead he continued to sit in the wrought iron chair, with one hand on the red cushion beneath him, and one leg up on the railing.

"Yes, I am. Thank you for bringing in the food."

The assistant stepped back and nodded. He had short black hair that framed his face, and brown eyes that had an honest look to them even behind his glasses. He smiled. The boy was always polite; he wasn't like some of the others here, who had to have their food shoved through a small gap underneath the door. Although those the assistant could tolerate. It was the few that did nothing but stare at him when he walked into the room, eyeing him as if he was their lunch, and not what was on the tray. It made him feel uncomfortable, being stared at with eyes that were in unnatural colors of red, purple, or silver. The boy's eyes however were green, and he was always pleasant, even if he barely said anything. He was the only one the assistant could get close enough to so he could question how he was doing.

"You're welcome, but this is just simply a part of my job, you don't have to thank me. After all, someone must bring food to those here."

The boy continues to study the landscape with those emerald eyes. A light wind kicked up, smelling slightly of the town lying just a few miles away. Scarlet danced in the breeze, brushing the boy's face, and falling still when the wind had lain down.

"I suppose so."

"I'll be back later with the test results from yesterday, until then enjoy the food."

"Yes."

The assistant turned around, and walked through the open plated glass door into a large room with multiple bookshelves, each filled with volumes ranging in thickness to six inches to half on an inch. On the other side if the room was a bare wall with a door leading to a small bathroom, and in the center pushed up against the far-east wall was a simple bed with crisp white sheets. He looked about the room before coming to the one door leading out. It was more furnished then any of the other rooms in this corridor. Was it possible because of the boy's discipline? Or the fact that he was always polite with the lab workers? Shielding his eyes as the blinding light of the fluorescents on the hallway hit him; the assistant quietly closed the door behind him, and looked at the doors on his left and right. No it wasn't because they boy was well disciplined, nor was it because he was kind with the other assistants and technicians he thought as his eyes scanned over the doors. On every single one there was a large lock hanging between the edge of the door and the adjacent wall. It was because he never wanted out of his cage.

I hope you all liked it! And for those waiting for my RKxVK it is in progress. Reviews, and suggestions are welcome. Oh, and cookies. ^_^