Hey everyone, sorry this chapter is a wee bit short, it just kind of ended itself perfectly all on it's onesie. Enjoy.

Disclaimer - I am sad to announce that anything to do with Yu Yu Hakusho is not from my imagination or lack of drawing skills. Rights to the epicness that is Yu Yu Hakusho go to others.

Chapter 2

Hikari blinked slowing several times before realizing it was dark all around her and there was no light to see with. After a short mental inventory she understood that her body not only had no intention of moving, but couldn't move. She was dirty and bloody and tired, so damned tired. They hadn't won information from her yet, the Spirit World's detective agency was not betrayed . . . yet. She scrambled to keep her mental barrier in place. "I can't stay awake. . . fucking blood loss". . . Hikari feared for the time lapses in her memory, how long had she blacked out this time? Would the next time be her last?

Hiei had kept quiet after giving his report to the group, and had followed the team through the portal to Makai in similar silence. He was preoccupied with trying to in touch with Hikari's mind again – an endeavor that was taking far more effort than he thought it would. He would touch her mind briefly only to have it slip away again. Each touch flooded Hiei with Hikari's emotion and her pain. He still heard her singing, but since he only touched her for a moment he had no way of knowing how coherent the song was, only that it was a different song then before, and maybe more than one song. There was so much emotion in her mind voice that it wavered and hiccupped even in the small parts he heard. Hiei shivered at the touch of so much feeling from a mind he knew as well as his own. What the hell were they doing to her?

Hiei was so lost in his endeavor that he didn't realize someone was trying to talk to him until he felt someone shaking his arm. Carefully he pulled his mind from Hikari's and looked around him to see Kurama standing over him. "Anything yet?" Kurama asked, guessing correctly what Hiei had been doing.

Rather than denying it, Hiei sighed deeply and replied, "Nothing that will get us closer to finding her. She still has some sort of mental barrier up with the singing, but now it feels wrong somehow, It's too emotional and too everywhere at once."

"So what do you think that change means?" Kurama asked his friend, now still holding Hiei's arm but now is a supportive way.

"It means she is breaking" Hiei whispered, his voice quivering, " and we have to hurry".

"We will my friend, don't give up yet" Kurama replied encouragingly before calling to the others, "Time is running out, we have to move now!"

"Right!" Yusuke and Kuwabara replied together.

"Shrimp, any update?" Yusuke called to Hiei.

Hiei ignored him. After a few minutes of silence Kurama filled in, "learning we are running out of time was the update."

"Oh, okay" Yusuke said, unsure how to act in such a somber mood.

Without another word the team took off running at full pace. They raced across Makai to its outer limits towards Demon City. The red sky stormed and rippled as they crossed through mountains and forests and wastelands.

Hikari- Dark. . . everything is so dark. Cold. . . I must be crazy. . . already. I thought. . . I thought I felt him, his mind touch mine. . . impossible. Never again. Just. . . dreaming. . .

After a day and a half of straight pursuit they all acknowledged they had to take a break to preserve their strength. "We will be no good to Hikari if we are too exhausted to free her when we get there" Kurama announced, resigned and sullen.

"Well how much longer do we have to go" Kuwabara gasped, still out of breath from running.

"We have an hour, maybe two at most to go before we reach Demon City. We are fair enough from its territory that it should be safe to sleep here for a few hours. If we rest now for a , we will be able to press on to Demon City and launch our rescue mission at almost fill strength" Kurama explained.

"I don't like it" Yusuke said, "but I don't have a better idea, so resting it is."

"Hiei?" Kurama asked, looking at his fire demon friend.

"Hn" Hiei responded, and walked towards the forest in search of a tree to rest on.

Hiei found a quiet tree by himself and spent the time in the concentrated search for Hikari that he couldn't do while traveling. By this point he had revived his pathway to her mind, and found it more quickly than ever. When he arrived at the end of her purple tunnel he was assaulted by emotions and thoughts, screams and sobs, pleads and agony. Hiei gritted his teeth as he tried to sort through everything, realizing with his own fear that her mental wall had been shattered and this was the flood it had been holding back. "What I've done". . ."Lies". . ."Ten thousand promises, ten thousand ways to lose". . . *break down*. . . "Going to die". . . "completely alone". . . *shaking*. . ."the sacrifice of hiding in the light". . ."useless" . . . "traitor". . .*cold*. . . "him. . . pushed me way". . . *scream*. . . "gone". . . "so much blood". . . "pain". . . "Let me go!". . . "powerless". . . *sick*. . . "lost". . . *lonely*. . . *fear*. . . *sorrow*. . . "h.i.e.i.". . . "NO!". . .*numb*. . .

It was too much to bear. Hiei pulled out of Hikari's mind with so much force that he fell out of his tree, thudding to the ground miserably. Hearing the noise of Hiei's fall the others rushed over from where they had been sleeping. Hiei buried his head in his arms feeling hot tears stinging his eyes. Before anyone could speak Hiei's red eyes found Kurama's green ones as he whispered, "We're out of time."