Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN INUYASHA AND I'M BROKE! I'D TO SEE YOU GET MONEY OUTTA ME!

A/n: Sorry my last chapter was short. For those of you are wondering I update my stories frequently. The latest I'll let a story sit is 3 weeks, and that'll be due to homework mostly. Thanks for the great reviews. For those of you who actually read this: Go check out "Chinese Cinderella". I just read it, and it is SO sad. It is an Autobiography about an unwanted daughter. For those of you who wanted to write a review anonymously, my sister LilsurferSango (Also has written fanfics on this site) helped me take that feature block off. If that was too confusing for you, anonymous reviewers can now review.

-Chocolatedragon15

Merrick reentered his bedroom to find Mariko still unconscious; he left the room and called upon one of his flunkies.

"Shaneal (pronounced shaw-neal), make sure the barrier stays strong enough so that Inuyasha cannot enter it. I don't think I'll have to inform you of what will happen if you were to fail me," he retorted.

"Yes master Merrick," was all Shaneal could say while trembling.

"Oh and make sure to hire some new maids, I don't believe the other two will be coming back." Merrick added with a chuckle.

He turned and left the shaky girl alone. He headed back to the room with a cool damp towel and some warm milk and stewed beef soup. As he enters he saw the girl stir in her sleep. She sat up at the aromatic smell of food.

Mariko tried to get her bearings in the shaded room. The last events that she could remember suddenly returned to her with a vengeance.

' How long have I been out? Why am in such a luxurious bed? Shouldn't I be dead by now? Where is Kagome and the others?' was all she could think of over and over. She struggled to get out of the bed and couldn't. She realized blood on the satin sheets. Something made her look at her hand, and she soon realized that blood was trickling down from a blood stained wrap around her arm. Her head pounded and her breath was short. Suddenly she realized that there was a young dark-haired young man sitting in a chair facing the bed. She went to a fighting stance, but in her weaken state and the cushiony bed made her lose her footing and she landed on her butt.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to wake you." Merrick said softly.

Mariko glared at him. The only thing she was sure of was that three demon things attacked her, they talked about some guy name Merrick, and she woke up here… wearing different clothes. "How did I get here? Who are you?"

"My name is Mark Giovanni, I am the prince of the Southern Lands." Merrick lied.

"That still doesn't explain how I wound up here." Mariko went on the offensive eyeing him guardedly.

" I was on my routine morning walk by my favorite pond when I spotted three lowly demons carrying a bag with something in it. I followed to investigate, they dumped the bag over the waterfall and I went after it. I returned home with the bag and opened it to see what they were trying to hide and I found you bound and gagged. That was two weeks ago. I have kept you company and have not left your side. The doctors said you could not make it, but what do doctors know, they make you pay top dollar to tell you your dying, when determination and hard work can get you out of any bind your in." Merrick smiled as he said this.

"Oh, and no one has visited me since?" Mariko inquired, surely if she had been missing for two weeks Inuyasha and the rest would have found her by now.

"No, just me and my servants. I checked all around in villages and no body claimed to have known you.

Mariko's gaze fell onto the floor, 'No one came?' She was having a difficult time around this new information.

"This is the first time you have been awake in weeks, I had my cook make you something just in case. You should eat, you need your strength." Merrick said tenderly.

Reluctantly, Mariko took the soup. It warmed her up and renewed her spirit and body.

The rest of the day Merrick let her sleep. Merrick was in his counseling room staring out at the trees when Jason, his most trusted ally and best missionary walked in.

Jason was still making up for his failure at Mount Fiji and was trying to win back Merrick's confidence and good graces. "What is the matter my liege?"

"Do you remember the girl Diego brought back?" Merrick asked.

"The quiet one? Yes." Jason responded.

"I have a spell that will make time in this castle go faster than usual. To her, she has been here two weeks without a word from her friends; in reality it has only been a mere day. If I can keep this up my plan will work, but I can sense the baka half-breed close. Within 100 to 200 feet I'd say. If he gets through the shield… Lets just say I'll be joining Diego very soon." Merrick replied.

"You're really worried about this guy… Inuyasha, aren't you?" Jason asked.

"On to the matter at hand, I just have to not think about it. As long as Mariko sees a 'sensitive me' she will grow more fondly of me and then I will finish her off."

In the next few days according to castle time, Mariko was up and about and "Mark" was constantly with her. He'd taken her on picnics, through a rose garden labyrinth; she'd also gotten to meet all of the help. Mariko had finally decided that she could trust Mark, and told herself that the feeling she had had in her stomach the first time they had met while she was conscious to her not knowing him.

She now found herself looking for ways to see and be with him. She would doodle his name on a papyrus paper.

Several weeks later according to palace time, Mariko was walking in the moonlight as she neared the rose labyrinth daydreaming when Mark stepped out of the dark.

"Sorry, I was just on a midnight stroll; the stars are beautiful out tonight." "Mark" informed Mariko.

"Yeah they are." Mariko responded lost in Merrick's eyes.

"How would you like to accompany me to the water fall. It's only a few meters from here." He offered.

"Sure." Mariko took lead remembering it from a "week" earlier. "I love waterfalls. When I was little there was one right by my house." She added.

Shaneal marched swiftly out of the palace with Johanna. They knew Inuyasha was somewhere in the vicinity of the castle, all that was to remain was to find him. They need to find him quickly, because if Merrick ever found out what they were about to do, even if they never found Inuyasha they would be meeting their maker.

"Oh no, we forgot about the guard at the front gate!" Johanna gasped as they neared the gate entrance.

"Don't worry, I have a plan." Shaneal said to Johanna. Shaneal then turned her attention to the guard.

"And where do you think your going on such as ghastly night?" the guard asked accusingly.

"Johanna and I are looking for a few new maids to replace the ones Master Merrick fired," Shaneal answer glaring at the guard.

"Oh no, no one is going any where tonight." The guard answered back moving closer to the gate.

"Fine then, once Master Merrick is ready to slay me for not hiring a maid, I will give him your name to for not letting me out and then we can burn together." Shaneal responded never taking her gaze off of the guard.

"Fine then, you two may pass." The guard said reluctantly.

The two young girls entered the threshold to the outside world, where they were nearly blown away. They girls spent an hour trying to brave the storm but to no avail. Finally about a mile and a half away they noticed light from the inside of a cave and they headed toward it.

Even though the wind blew wildly outside, Inuyasha could still smell or rather sense two presences. One was that of a demon, and he couldn't get a clear reading on the other.

The two girls entered the cave where the wind was a lot less intense. Inuyasha took a fighting stance along with Sango while the others just gawked at the girls.

"It's okay, they are here to help us." Khali offered in the girls' defense.

"Khali, is that you?" one of the girls called out running to hug Khali.

"Yeah it is. It feels like I haven't seen you in years." Khali answered.

" This is Shaneal, she started working for Merrick when he and I were engaged. And this is...Johanna. You just started working… 3 months ago; right?" Khali answered.

"Yeah, how did you? Oh psychic." Johanna responded.

"If she works for Merrick, how can we trust her?" Sango asked while inching her hand closer to her boomerang.

"My tribe has been working for has been working for years to bring Merrick down even when he was perceived not to be a threat. Our chief elder Jun-ling had a vision of him before she died. She had foretold of his growing hate for others, and his determination to become stronger and more powerful. She foretold his obsession with the Shikon shards. The one thing that will seal our fate if is he is to mate with someone name Jun-qing. After that he will become more powerful than Naraku, and their future son will be more powerful still. Khali and I are from the same tribe." Shanteal explained.

"Johanna is it? Where do you fit in with all of this?" Kagome asked.

"I was promised by my parents to wed Merrick. I wasn't his type, and he called it off. He promised to take care of me. Merrick is so rich and powerful, my parents didn't object to him backing out of the marriage. They moved to the east coast and I haven't heard from them since. I always thought that there was something not right about him, even though he was great to me. I soon learned why my parents feared him. He is one of the most powerful youkai I've ever seen. He needs to be stopped. Khali, have you gotten any visions about Mariko?" Johanna explained.

"No, I haven't. I don't know why though." Khali answered bewilderedly.

"It's the dome he has around the palace, it somehow blocks visions you would have had about her. You need to hurry up. The time in the palace is different than that of the rest of the world. Mariko as only been missing for five days now, in the palace it's been about 2 ½ months. She thinks you guys never came for her. Merrick is trying to convince her that he's in love with her and wants to marry her." Shaneal informed the group.

"Oh." Shippo cried.

"If he mates with her, there's no hope of getting her back, and he will have full access to anything she knows about each of you." Johanna added.

"Oh no!" Kagome cried. " Why didn't I think of this before?"

"Think of what?" Inuyasha asked.

"Mariko is only half-Japanese, she is also half-Chinese." Kagome answered.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Shippo asked.

"Well, Mariko, isn't her first name, it her middle name; she only goes by it because she thinks of herself as truly Japanese." Kagome said shaking. "Her first name is Jun-qing."

"We have to stop Merrick." Miroku said.

"I have a plan. We need to hire two new maids, because the other two disappeared. He knows what Inuyasha looks and smells like, but he does love women being maids." Johanna said.

Kagome looked over to the rock Inuyasha was perched on, he turned towards her, "NO way are you even thinking of going in there alone!" He spat at her.

"This is the only way to save Mariko in time, and besides Sango will be there." Khali offered in Kagome's defense.

"Why don't YOU go?" Inuyasha yelled.

"Because Merrick knows what I look like. As soon as Sango and Kagome get Mariko out before Mariko and Merrick mate, you can go in and fight."

At this new fact Inuyasha settled down to a low growl.

"We have to leave now, if we are gone for to long the guard will become suspicious and turn us in. Sango and Kagome, we have to leave tonight." Shaneal responded.