A/N: So, anyone who doesn't read the author's note will get a rather nasty surprise in the chapter. IT'S KINDA GORY; a warning to those with weak stomachs.

O/C26: A journey down to reach the Essence. Restoring their strength with a gift from Coahtu, Misaki continues to lead the others to the dimensional center of the earth.

Yukina was still not awake and Misaki refused to let anyone else carry her, despite the offers. Time was no longer on their minds and they weren't bothered by the heat but still no one could bring themselves to talk. They walked downward in silence.

Finally, after an eternity of time that either passed or didn't, the ground flattened out, the air cool and crisp and pure. The group stopped as if of one mind and sat, just because they weren't going down any more.

In the stillness, Kurama caught something on the air and he turned his head this way and that in an attempt to make out what he heard.

It was a pulse. But not a very steady one. The heart it belonged to was weak.

"The pulse of existence." Misaki told him.

The others could hear it now that it had been pointed out.

"This is the only place in this dimension where you can hear it clearly." Each wavering beat tore through Misaki and her expression said she was somewhere far away. A pulse was meant to be strong and steady, comforting in its repetition. For one who was better attuned to heartbeats in general, this one ravaged at Misaki, putting her on edge and causing her own heartbeat to quicken in anguish.

"Down this hall is a door. We're almost there." She said shortly, hoisting Yukina to her back once more.

They came to the door, which was more of a stone rolled in front of a hole than a door. The guys rolled it away and entered the room beyond.

The chamber they walked into was pitch black, even the light from the doorway they just walked through refusing to shine into the beyond. Echoing off of the unseen walls of the huge room, the pulse never grew any steadier. And now accompanying it was a ragged breathing, haunting the air around them.

Misaki wasn't sure how much more of this heartbeat she could take. Her own pulse seemed to have taken on a life of its own, joining with the unsteady timing of the echoing one. She felt fear and alarm, her legs wanting her to run but the pulse rooting her to the ground. If there was a heartbeat out there to make her feel safe and secure, this one did the exact opposite. Who knew what lurked in the darkness of this room? The darkness so thick it was better to close one's eyes for at least that darkness was a familiar one. Her head kept turning this way and that, constantly in search of the source of her terror, but the beat the only revealing factor. She fought a heart-pumping urge to turn and run, run forever, run always, run to be safe, and to keep running. Run to die to stop running. Hopelessness, futility, you will never find the killer and you will die trying.

You are a failure. Kurama didn't hear the words spoken out loud but he turned his head to see who said it. Your mother hates you, wishes you had never been born. You are a burden to her. You think you are doing her a favor by remaining at her side? It will only make the separation harder for she is dying and will die. Your intelligence is of no use to anyone and burdens those around you.

You are nothing. Yusuke's breath came faster, more ragged, as the voice began speaking into his mind as well. You were born a punk, you will die a punk and nobody will know you are gone. You will never become strong, never be able to truly offer complete protection to those you love and they will hate you for it. Your death will be meaningless, your life wiped away and forgotten.

Forbidden. You should never have been born. You are a mistake, an insignificant blot that should have been erased long ago. Hiei's whole body was tense. Your sister would look down on you if she knew what you have become, and even now she is disappointed in you for not revealing yourself. Your existence is beyond detestable and you would do the world a favor if you rolled over and died.

Everyone hates you. You cannot keep up with them, fool. You can try all you like but you will fall and there will be no one to help you up. Kuwabara's shoulders sagged dejectedly, the weight of the words ringing true. You are weak, forever second best and any achievement you can claim as great is not even worth an ink blot of a page of history.

"Stay close." Misaki made an obscure gesture and a beam of light shone straight down on them from above. She stepped fluidly forward, the light circle around her moving as she moved. The others stayed with her.

Misaki closed her eyes and searched around for the energy signature of what she wanted. She knew that the essence would be unable to move with the light on him. And she also knew what the dark chamber meant. She had gotten a feeling while walking down the staircase and it was why she kept Yukina asleep. The girl had seen enough in her time. Misaki wished she could do the same for the others but her power was not that extensive.

They saw it when Misaki shot another beam of light down over it. There was a trail of blood leading to its feet. With sightless eyes, he turned his face towards them. When he spoke, it was with a ghastly legion's legion of tortured voices, all moaning and shrieking, sending shivers down everyone's spin.

"What...do you want...from me?"

Misaki moved closer and the others followed.

He had not eyes but sockets where eyes should have been, his mouth was sewn shut as well as his ears. Blood drenched him from head to toe and was flowing out of his feet, forming a pool around him now that he wasn't moving. Pieces of his skin hung off his frame. Blood fell from his eyes like small twin rivers and from his ears as well. Even from his pants, torn almost beyond recognition, flowed the red streams. And then there was his aura.

Every horrible act ever committed, would be committed, was thought of being committed by humanity flashed before the eyes of those who looked upon Him. The disgusting, the anguish, the tormented, depressed, there was no hope for these or any others. And without hope, there was nothing.

Misaki hardened herself, separating herself from what she saw as she had been taught, so she was able to look at him without pity or any other emotion. She laid Yukina down at the back of the circle of light they stood in. She strained to keep the light beam shining and she stepped forward from her beam to his.

She heard the sound of puking as Kuwabara emptied his stomach onto the floor. Yusuke retched, splattering the ground with what food still remained in his stomach. Hiei and Kurama could not look at him long, youkai and spirit fox vessel though they were.

The empty eye sockets turned themselves onto Misaki.

"D-do you know who I am?" she asked, her voice wavering once before she steeled it. Her strength, even as fake as Misaki knew it to be, was a strong hold on which the guys could steady themselves. Tentatively, Misaki began to reach into their minds with any remaining concentration that she could spare for them. It was not much, but they desired an escape, so with a slight prodding from her, their minds brought forth the brightest shining memory that they could conjure and latched onto it to preserve their sanity.

After a moment, the Jagan Eye joined its strength with hers and the collective group was able to shake off the worst of what they were experiencing and look upon Him as he was before them.

The sightless eyes considered her for a moment but didn't answer. Finally he spoke, agony pouring from the voices which came from deep within him and around him, "Why have you come here, you least of all?"

"I ask you a question of which only you hold the answer."

"Answer?" what was the essence's laughter came out as cries of pain, "You embody...your own answer. How are we...to know who you are? We only know ourselves...we do not know anyone else. Have you lost yourself and come to us...to try and find it?"

"And yet I know who you are." Misaki spoke clearly, "You cannot refuse me."

The world stood still and the pulse stumbled unmistakably in the air.

"Why have you come here...Arenai Ansatsusha?" he moaned.

Misaki nodded, hearing his recognition of her, "I seek myself. I seek salvation for your world."

"You seek...what all others may never find and what is impossible to grant for there is only doom."

"Can you give me what I need?"

The essence did not answer at first. And its head turned as if to consider a voice only it could hear.

"The rhythm is disrupted...the dancers cannot dance without the rhythm...which has left us. And yet you ask for that restoration. Impossibilities."

Misaki's brain tried to translate his cryptic words. Rhythm could mean a lot of things. It could have to do with the pulse. It could also be referring to Misaki herself. She knew her molecules could not 'dance' because she had lost part of herself. Yes. That made sense.

"You have lost the rhythm." He spoke once more, "Its ways are ancient and lost... and yet you ask for it to return."

"The pulse...why is the pulse faltering?" Misaki demanded.

The essence's bloody rings considered her again, "One has come...who should not be. The balance...will demand sacrifice." He listened to the voice no one could hear once more, "And to answer that, a second who should not exist now resides in the heart of man…But…"

He began to move forward, slowly as if in great pain. Misaki knew that he should not be able to do so and yet he drew closer, step by step. It was then that they saw one leg was broken. The darkly stained shin bone was sticking up in plain sight and he walked on that foot's ankle.

"And light shall not die, for the world in its desperation clings to the light and feeds its existence, interceding and satiating Death each time it comes. But still it will return, its appetite is growing and soon it will have what it needs, balance for the realm in which it has power…" The voices were driven into a frenzy and they could not make out any comprehensible words until, "IT WILL CONSUME."

His head fell to the side, lolling with its ear on his shoulder. It was broken, hanging on only by a sliver of skin. His fractured vertebrae stuck out from his neck where the head had been. His bloodied hand lifted from his side, fingers in constant involuntary movement as he reached for Misaki, grasping onto her bare, newer arm.

His breath smelled of decay and decomposition and he now stared with sightless, soulless eyes directly into Misaki's soul and she could not look away, frozen in place. Had she been in control of her body, she would have screamed until her voice gave out and covered her ears with her hands to shut out the agonizing voices.

"You are missing pieces," he whispered, the voices all echoing even when he was quieter. Misaki shivered desperately under his touch, his blood dripping down her arm and off her fingers.

"The balance...will demand sacrifice." His voice sounded hesitant, as if he did not want to do what the unheard voice commanded. Finally, he covered her face with his other hand and this time Misaki screamed aloud, writhing under his palm and scratching at it and she struggled to gain freedom.

The others seemed to be frozen in time, looks of horror on their faces, their eyes would not blink, but their minds stopped comprehending what happened.

Misaki dropped to her knees, her head forced up by the hand that held it. Her screaming echoed through the cavern as blood gushed down her hair and neck, down her shoulders to her tank top which caught hold of the blood and soaked it in. And then when the shirt could hold no more, the blood continued down her waist, streaking the orange legs of the kimono with rivers of red.

The essence released her, the screaming turned to heaves of breath and laughter, evil laughter bounced off the walls tenfold in a legion's different voices. His mouth strained at the bonds which covered them with the laughter.

She sagged down, the back of her hands resting on the floor, her mind severed from her body, wandering somewhere among space and stars even though her eyes stared unblinking through his parted fingers.

The laughter stopped abruptly and the ragged pulse beat twice in the deafening silence.

With speed something in his condition should not have been able to manage, he grabbed her arm again, but this time he ripped it away, the muscles and bones visibly tearing apart. He tugged one last time and pulled the arm free.

Misaki's body shrieked, but she did not know what was going on; Misaki's other hand grasped desperately at the bone and flesh as if to stuff it back into place, her own blood mingling with His.

"The world demands it. The balance must be tipped in favor of that which it so desperately desires to have control. We must do as they have asked, but be warned…" The voices came together to speak again, barely holding another frenzy of emotions at bay.

He crushed the arm easily in his palm; the bone inside cracked sickeningly and the arm disappeared. The essence snatched up her grasping hand, slamming his other fingers into her bloody shoulder socket.

The essence lifted her arm into the air and spoke rapidly, all of the voices saying the same thing at different times. But the words were too jumbled to make out what he said.

There was a crackling of light that burst from his fingers into her body and Misaki threw her head back, her eyes and mouth open and white light streaming out of them.

The light in his hand streamed over the both of them, blocking the two from view. The first move that they made since the essence started, the gang seemed to return to the present to put an arm in front of their eyes to block the blinding light.

Misaki felt her feet leave the ground and the light flowed over her body, covering her, forming to her flawlessly.

"May your Light never waver Arienai Ansatsusha."

-lotsm