The trees were crooked and foreboding. The mountains rose up like talons on every side as far as you could see. The clouds hung low and were an odd shade of purple-gray. The very air was demonic.

Just like they remembered.


"The final struggle will be unlike the previous bouts of pain," Kimina explained. She and Hiei stood across from each other in the shack's only other room; a small and circular area with a steepled roof. The ceiling seemed to spiral in on itself. There was a hole in the shingles that the stars could be seen through. Kimina had lit a number of candles to ward off the darkness of the night.

"You will know it when it happens." she said solemnly. Hiei didn't doubt it.

"It's close," Hiei said quietly, "Isn't it?"

Kimina nodded. "I think the next one will be the last."

Just as long as it wasn't the last of him.

"Kimina?" Hiei looked her in the eyes, "There's something I need you to relay down the mountain, if you would."

"Why tell me now?" Kimina raised a brow.

Hiei smiled weakly, "Just in case."


Wokou frowned at the figures before him, the rest of the bandit horde encircling him with various weapons at the ready.

"And why should I lead you up the mountain?" Wokou asked, scratching his beard.

The boy had his hand around the large demon's throat before the rest of the thieves could blink.

"Because if you don't, you'll get to relearn the meaning of the word 'pain'…"

Yusuke's eyes were no less threatening than his words.


"And what of your human friends?" Kimina asked, "Will you not tell them?"

"Wokou will find a way," Hiei assured her.

No sooner had the last word left his mouth did the pain begin. Kimina watched the younger demon drop to the ground.

"Good luck, child…" she whispered.

Hiei didn't hear her. He knew right away this pain was different. It was not confined to his forehead anymore. It seemed to spread out over his entire body, probing. So he probed back.

Withdrawing into your own mind is not difficult. Finding it already inhabited by another, more sinister, more powerful force than your own, will rattle a person. Or demon.

Kimina had said it best when she told Hiei the Jagan had a power of its own. It had a power, a mind, and a will. And Hiei was looking it in the eye.

Outside, in the real world, Kimina saw Hiei's spirit energy surround him in a black flame.

The battle had begun.

Between mind and body.

For survival.


"Come on, you guys! I can feel him!"

Kuwabara waved frantically from a few ledges up. Kurama and Yusuke ignored him.

"Why didn't you guys tell me?" Yusuke asked bitterly as they climbed.

"We didn't even know he was here, Yusuke," Kurama pointed out, "He never told us."

Yusuke was silent.

"It's good he's not covering his tracks very well," Kurama commented, "I suppose he didn't expect us to follow."

Silence.

"He didn't want you to worry."

"I'm worried now, ain't I?"

"Yusuke…"

"It's alright," Yusuke said, stopping on a crag and staring up the mountain ahead, "Cuz whether he expected it or not, we followed."


"Shit…" Hiei ground out through his teeth.

The Jagan's energy was mixing with Hiei's. Black and blue swirled around him as each fought for control. Small tendrils of blue, like electric currents, radiated across the floor from the little demon. And the pain had quickly turned to agony.

"Fight it, Hiei," Kimina said gently from the side, "You have to be stronger now. Your life depends on it."

'No…but theirs do…' Hiei thought even in the haze.

For the first time in his life, Hiei wanted to give up. How much simpler it would be to say, "Screw this!" and let the Jagan take him…


"Uh-oh…" Kuwabara stopped.

"What kind of 'uh-oh'?" Yusuke asked, coming up behind him.

He didn't need to ask. From their position on the mountain, looking straight up, they could see the roof of the shack. And a soft blue glow from within.

"Guys…" Kuwabara's voice drew their attention immediately, "He's losing…"

They didn't need to be told what. It didn't matter. There had to be something they could do.

As if on cue, Kuwabara's energy engulfed him.


"I…can't!" Hiei bit out finally, "I can't do it, Kimina."

Kimina didn't answer him. She simply watched sadly. She had hoped Hiei would be strong enough. As she had been.

But what she saw next astounded her.

Just when Hiei was about to give in, a new energy filled him. It was like someone had caught him when he was about to fall. A long way. And he recognized the energy. He felt Kuwabara in it. How, he didn't know, but he wasn't about to ask.

Kimina saw what Hiei could not. Swirling around amidst the black and the blue was now a deep green hue. And the more of it that appeared, the less blue there seemed to be.

Unknown to Hiei, all three of his teammates now stood on the peak below, glowing with their own energy, and their thoughts trained on him. Like beacons in the night. And through Kuwabara, Hiei felt them. Kurama's energy was a radiant crimson, like a lantern among the darker colors. And Yusuke's was gold. Bright, brilliant, and warm.

Later, Kimina would tell Hiei what she saw during the struggle. The energies of the four boys becoming one to combat the energy of the Jagan. The pure white light then completely overpowered the blue.

But Hiei would not tell her what he saw.

Images. Yusuke throwing an arm around his shoulder in Maze Castle. A first attempt at friendship. Kurama leaping over the robotic arm of one of Ichigaki's experiments. Risking his life to save Hiei. Kuwabara trying and failing to land a punch on the smaller demon, time and again.

"He cares about you, Hiei," Keiko said, "All of us do."

"I'm not going to let them lose me." Hiei said firmly.

He'd love to be able to say the last thing he saw was the phantom grins of all his friends. That he heard their laughter. It was more poetic. Had more romanticism in it. But it was a lie.

The last thing he saw before the darkness was the light.