Hi-hi! How's it going? Was the last chapter too boring or too confusing to you? I think it was.  If you have any questions about that though you can always email me at magic_night15@yahoo.com.  Pretty much available………unless you sorta engross me back into the new Dragon Knights book and Spirited Away.  ^_^  By then, I'm already gone………far away………into a distant land………j/k

Be prepared to be reading a really extremely short chapter.  I'm so sorry but it seems as if I sorta drowned in the pain of braces.  My teeth hurt so much *grimaces in pain*.  And uh, sorry but I'm not that great with 'battle scenes' so if it sucks………I'll go jump off a cliff………I think………and I'll make it up with an extra weird chapter………if I feel like moving………

Disclaimer: Umm, must I do this? It's just gonna kill me! Fine, the Dragon Knights characters and I guess part of the plot belong to Mineko Ohkami.  But Rath is all mine! *police come and hold out handcuffs* *run away screaming, "I'LL NEVER GIVE UP RATH! LEAVE ME ALONE!"* Fine, just let me pretend I own Rath for at least just two seconds………no? You're mean!

In The Dark

Chapter 3

Recap: Cesia went to the Dragon Lord, Lykouleon and asked him to let her to go for her parents.  He agrees to it.  To prevent Rath from finding out till too late he casts a sleeping spell on him.  Rath finds out a bit later and begs to go find Cesia and hunt yokai, but the Dragon Lord won't let him.  Meanwhile Cesia is having a *ton* of fun out there in the wilderness ^_^

***One Year Later***

Rath's worried red eyes looked out the window as he stared out into Draqueen.  'Where are you Cesia?' he thought anxiously.

Suddenly there was a loud boom in the distance, just beyond the Dragon Lord's magical shield.  All thoughts of Cesia slowly disappeared to the back of his mind along with Rune, Thatz and Draqueen.  "Yokai!" Rath snarled once he realized what was out there.  Then his eyes narrowed.  From the smoke in the air, Rath could tell that the Dragon Officers and the yokai have been at it for a while.

Rath sighed in a resigned sort of way.  No way in ten million years would anyone in Draqueen tell him where to find yokai, let alone _let_ him fight yokai, so why expect anything now?

He shook his head, as if to shake off all thoughts from his mind. Rath took the huge Dragon Sword from the wall as he also grabbed the totally oblivious Fire by the tail.

"What the hell are you doing Rath?" the furious Fire threw up multiple cue cards in rapid succession.

Rath didn't bother to answer until he ran down to the hall where he was sure no one was there.  "Shh………" Rath held a long, slender finger up to his lips.  "Sorry Fire.  To make a long story short, basically we have no time to talk cuz we've got places to go, things to do and yokai ass to kick."

Fire looked even more alarmed as Rath started racing down the hall again.  "At least let go of my tail!!!" Fire threw up a huge cue card, bolded with italics and underlined, into Rath's face.

"I will soon enough!" Rath yelled down to Fire.  "Just give me a little time!!!"

Rath abruptly screeched to a stop.  As he looked to the left, then looked to the right, Fire carefully extracted his tail from Rath's grasp and not gently clambered over his arm to his shoulder.

"Fire!" Rath admonished.  Fire just looked at Rath in some satisfied air.  Rath glared at Fire for a moment before going back to tiptoeing down the hall.

Fire enjoyed the view from Rath's head but something was bothering him.  "Why didn't you dress in drag again, like last time?" Fire threw another cue card down into Rath's face.

"FIRE!" Rath yelled, really really _really_ pissed now.  "What the hell? Just leave me alone until we find the damn yokai!"  Then he noticed what Fire had meant to ask him.  Rath's face turned into a tomato, just minus the hair ^_^ (j/k).  "I'll get you after this." he furiously whispered to Fire.

Fire gave an audible gulp.  When Rath looked away, he climbed onto his head and he nestled into Rath's hair and start sleeping.

Rath didn't know what was going on, on top of his head but he did seem to notice that it was getting hard moving around really fast without knocking Fire off his head.

Rath finally stopped when he was standing outside at the edge of the forest partly surrounding the castle.  He tentatively started walking through it.  As he went closer to the barrier, Rath could hear a multitude of voices shouting and yelling.

Rath unexpectedly stopped and Fire tumbled down from Rath's head.  Fire looked like he was about to bust but Rath just ran off towards the fighting.

Suddenly Rath burst through the bushes to see a glowing barrier separating the horde of yokai and the stubborn and filthy looking Dragon Officers

"Rath!" Rune called from behind him, the transformed water dragon following him.  "Where is Fire?" he asked.

"HERE!"  An index card fell down from a random tree.  Then down came Fire, also transformed.

"Rath?" Ruwalk came up from the other side of him, his sword drawn.

"Ruwalk, what's going on?" Rath asked, looking around.

"Yokai." Ruwalk answered grimly.  "Even though they haven't been able to get across the Dragon Lord's barrier they can make a lot of racket."

"RATH!" Afleegi's voice rang across the opening.  "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

"Hey Rath! Did you bring any food?" (Guess who?)

Then Rath spoke up, a thoughtful look on his face.  "The aura of the yokai feel familiar."

Everyone shut up.  Afleegi looked especially concerned.  "Really? From where?"

Rath frowned, concentrating on where he felt it before.  A light bulb went off and Rath snapped his fingers once he remembered.  "I don't think you've felt their aura before………but I know that Rune has."

Rune too frowned.  "Rath, you sure? I don't really remember………" Then the look of confusion on his face disappeared and his face hardened.  "Of course………"

Everyone else had the bewildered look on their faces.  "Rath! Rune!" Afleegi had a pretty alarmed look on his face.  "What is it?!"

Rath turned to him.  "The Dragon Lord fought with this demon head-on."

The moment of truth dawned to Ruwalk and Afleegi.  But Thatz………well, Thatz was another story.  "Huh?" he looked around.  "What the heck?"

Everyone except Rath facefaulted.  Rath just stared at his face very carefully and slowly waved a hand in front of it.

Thatz quickly swatted Rath's hand away.  "What are you doing?!"

Rath winked and said in a cheerful voice, "I'm your new psychiatrist! Just checking if you are healthy or not."

Afleegi slowly stepped into the conversation.  "Sorry to bust your bubble Rath, but Thatz already has a psychiatrist.  Whenever someone comes to the castle we assign them a special doctor in case something happens."

Rath looked horrified.  "What the hell? Who's my psychiatrist then?" he quickly asked.

Before Afleegi could answer Thatz jumped into Rath's face.  "Wait!" he yelled, jumping up and down.  "Is it Nadil then?" he demanded to know.

"Yes." Rune said, a grim look on his face.  "I never want to see him ever again."

Suddenly Rath's voice piped up again.  "So can I go kill them now?"

"NO!" the angry faces of Afleegi, Rune, Ruwalk and Thatz popped into his face.

Rath sweatdropped and cowered back down to his own little dusty corner.  "Hehe, I was just wondering………no need to get so angry………"

Suddenly the yokai on the other side of the barrier started howling and chanting a weird 'song'.  Everyone but Rune and Rath covered their ears in agony.

"What's wrong?" Rune asked, looking around.

Afleegi grimaced.  "The sound.  It's hurting our ears."

"Why can't we hear it then?" Rath asked, genuinely curious.  "It's just an annoying little buzz to the ear, it's not hurting us………well, at least not very much………" he added.

Thatz sorta glared at Rath and Rune.  Before he could say anything, Afleegi said, "Well, it must be that you two are somewhat immune to it."  When Rath looked at him confused, Afleegi quickly added, "Probably because you are used to fighting yokai and Rune is an elf."

The Dragon Officers slowly backed away from the barrier, shaking their heads in agony.  Unable to hold it all in, Rath grabbed the hilt of the Dragon Sword and it smoothly came sliding out.  Holding the sword in both hands, Rath leapt toward to yokai, raising the Dragon Sword to cut them up.

The yokai turned around and scurried away, but there was another surprise.  Fire slowly lowered himself from the space above them to the area before them.  Little puffs of gray smoke appeared whenever he took a breath, scaring the yokai into turning back to the barrier.

But Rath was waiting for them.  Most of the yokai were dead before they realized that they had body parts missing and the fact that they were dead.  The rest of the yokai turned right and left, trying to escape through the forest trees, but then a circle of flames surrounded all of the remaining yokai.  The circle of flames gradually became smaller and smaller, limiting the space that the yokai had.

Suddenly, they started howling and cursing over the cackle of fire burning grass and branches.

"Shydeman! What is the meaning of this?!"

"Shyrendora, help us!!!"

"NADIL! AREN'T WE YOUR MOST LOYAL SUBJECTS?! ISN'T THAT WHY WE ARE SUPPOSE TO BE HERE?! THEN WHY ARE WE ABOUT TO DIE?"

There were other complaints, but Afleegi was troubled by the curse towards Nadil.  What did it mean? But now it was a bit late for anything.  The yokai were engulfed by the bright orange flames of fire.

When the yokai were all gone, Afleegi turned back to Rath, with a grim look on his face.  "Rath," He started in a menacing voice.  "What was the meaning of that?"

Rath merely glanced at Afleegi before he started the walk back to the castle.

"Rath!" Afleegi yelled.  "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to sleep!!!" was the faint reply from far away.

"Afleegi." Ruwalk came up to him.  "Shouldn't we go tell the Lord about the yokai attack?"

"Yea………" Afleegi frowned, staring in the direction that Rath went in.  "Let's go now."

*******

"Yes, they were from Nadil's army." Afleegi told the Dragon Lord Lykouleon.

"Hmm………" Lykouleon frowned.  "But isn't it lead by yokai Shydeman and Shyrendora?"

"I guess they are and were………" Afleegi replied.

"Were?" Ruwalk and the Dragon Lord asked in unison.  "What do you mean were?" the Lykouleon asked, his brows knitted.

Afleegi's forehead furrowed as he tried his best to remember.  "Oh yes!" he snapped his fingers.  "It was when Rath was burning all of them when one of the yokai started screaming to Nadil about how he was leaving them to die when they were his most loyal servants."

Lykouleon frowned.  "What is that suppose to mean? That Nadil is back again?"

"Seems like it." Afleegi looked especially concerned as he said it.

There was a long pause before Ruwalk suddenly spoke up.  "But are you _absolutely_ certain that Nadil is back again?" Lykouleon looked at him.  "I mean," Ruwalk continued.  "What if we are just worrying ourselves over nothing?"

Afleegi looked slightly abashed.  "I guess that could be true………" he trailed off.

"But we still have keep an eye out for Nadil.  Just in case." The Dragon Lord finished Afleegi's sentence.

The White and the Yellow Dragon Officer silently nodded as the Dragon Lord stared out the window towards Nadil's old castle.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Author Notes: Hey.  Sorry if I haven't updated this in a really long time *groan*.  Here's my huge explanation.  You see, I just got back from this camp in Chicago (which was 3 weeks long and they were cramming an entire year of Algebra into it.  I swear, I never wanna see anything that has to do with math anymore.).  And the things up before the chapter, I sorta typed up before I left………so it might seem a bit out of date (for instance, the braces, I got them a _long_ time ago).  If it sucks a bit………probably cuz I typed it at 3 in the morning when I should've been doing algebra.  *sigh* so that is my huge explanation.  I hope none of you people are too mad.  Cuz I'm terribly sorry!!!! Not to mention I miss all my camp friends *sob, sob*

Ok, like I said, really sorry if this is a short chapter compared to any of my others.  And this A/N might also be short too………cuz I have no A/Ns in the chapter………^_^ that I am grateful for………

Another thing regarding the fic, the characters might seem a bit OOC but like before, it might've been because I was working on it at 3 in the morning and I was also currently betaing one of my friend's Sailor Moon fics (and I might've had their character in my mind as I was working on this). *sigh* but it's great to be home again………it's a shame though………cuz camp had great internet connection………and there are two little babies at my house………and two toddlers………*shudders* omg, I think I wanna go back to camp………but of course………there was that mouse in our room………eh………mouse?! Holy shit………*jumps onto bed and starts screaming head off*………SOMEBODY SAVE ME!!!!

Oh btw, I might not be able to update as quickly (well, I never _was_ able to update quickly), but I'm working on a bunch of songfics/one-shots………hope you're happy with those………almost done with one of them………

Er………before I go entirely crazy (I'M STILL VERY SORRY FOR THAT ONE CRAZY REVIEW ABOUT THE MOUSE MIZURA AND CEL!!!)………I'll go find some mousetraps and somehow get rid of the rodents in my/my roommate's dorm………wait I don't need to………I'M HOME!!!!! Ok, before I really _do_ go crazy, I'll leave a few words before I go to the asylum………

Please R & R!!! I miss all my friends so please make me feel better!!

But if you don't review, I hope you enjoyed this chapter (most likely not cuz this chapter really does suck).

Hmm………reviewing will help me mood *hint hint*

Ciao!