Authors note: Thank you all of you for your reviews, I am so sorry for not updating for so long, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the previous ones.

Disclaimers: None od ths characters belong to me except for those I created.

The attack:

Riyo's pov

I sat at my quiet sanctuary on the highest floor of the audience seats, and stared into the large, empty and quiet theatre. Something bad was going to happen soon, I knew it. There is evil heading towards the western lands, and I knew that I did not have the ability to stop it.

"Riyo, what's the matter? You have seemed rather disturbed since your faint from the last performance, are you not feeling well?" Maki asked concern shown clearly on her face as she walked up to me. I just smiled briefly at her, and continued with my starings at the stage.

"Maki, if I ever leave here, don't tell anyone that you ever knew me. Don't ask, just promise me." I said softly, turning around and staring at her. She stared at me with a puzzled look, looking for an answer as to why I was saying something like this.

I avoided her stare and sighed inwardly to myself. What was wrong with me! I turned to Maki and said, "Never mind, when that day comes you will understand what that means, for now, just take it that I did not say anything at all. I'm alright, do not worry, just feeling a little depressed."

I continued to stare at the stage, ignoring my surroundings completely, and soon Maki left me to my own thoughts to go back to her work. I was feeling uneasy, danger was coming, and I felt helpless towards it. The helpless feeling was going to kill me. The feeling that something was going to happen to the people I care for and all I could do was sit and stare into open space.

Normal pov

A few days had passed since Kobaru's warnings to Sesshoumaru, however there was still no movement from the enemy, and things had quietened down. Not that the security in the castle had gone down, security was tight and Rin was in good hands, being protected round the clock, and never let out of sight. However, Kiso still had not found the demon that was behind this, and was becoming rather desperate to find him before things got out of hand.

Sesshoumaru's pov

Rin went about her usual life. I did not tell her that she was in danger, just told her that the soldiers were doing their annual drills earlier. Rin, being like Rin, however seemed to understand and realise that something was wrong, and had been looking rather worried this few days, hardly running out to pick flowers and smiling less then usual. It has been rather irritating this few days, if that demon was going to attack, could he attack now, this very moment, at least I could get rid of this riddance faster, and let things go back to it's normal state, without all this tension and everyone going around in pairs with their weapons.

"If you really want it that way, sure." An eerie voice suddenly came out behind me. I turned around, my sword drawn, surprised that someone could sneak up behind me without me noticing. Hoever, all I saw was a dark figure smirking at me before disappearing.

I was going to kill someone; they were guards that were supposed to be guarding the entrance. How did that guy come in! I swore softly to myself as I started to run towards Rin's room as fast as I could, startling people along the way, as well as alerting the guards who had already failed in their job.

Normal pov

Sesshoumaru pushed open the door of Rin's room, and started to curse even more. He was too late! All he saw was the figure with his claws against the vein in Rin's neck, as he was about to stop him, it turned at smiled at him, and then disappeared. Sesshoumaru continued to curse silently to himself and tried to sniff out where the intruder had gone, however, to his surprise, there was no trace of the intruder, no smell, no demonic aura, nothing, nothing at all.

Sesshoumaru was about to try his luck and try to chase after the figure when Rin fainted. Luckily for her, Sesshoumaru caught her just before her head hit the ground. Hearing the commotion, Jaken finally decided that there was something wrong, and ran in to the room. He saw Rin lying in Sesshoumaru's hands.

"Get a healer! Faster!" Jaken screamed out loud and one of the startled servants turned and ran as fast as he could for the healer before her lord started to go on a killing spree and kill anyone in sight.

"Get Kobaru, here, now, and Kiso too." Sesshoumaru instructed calming down slightly, before putting Rin on her bed.

The healers soon arrived and started to try and find out what was wrong with Rin. Everybody was chased out of the room, so when Kobaru and Kiso arrived, all there saw was Sesshoumaru leaning on the wall looking like he was very calm, however, his aura was another matter. Servants were avoiding this corridor except for Jaken who was pacing to and fro, without seeming to realise that the figure near him was on the verge of killing something, namely a small green toad looking demon who had a ridiculous looking hat and had a brain the size of a pea.

"My lord, it happened didn't it? The enemy attacked right?" Kobaru asked, kneeling to his lord. Sesshoumaru glanced at him, with the look of I'm going to kill someone and it might be you on his face. Kiso slammed his fist on the wall, muttering to himself how useless he was.

"Yes, do not state the obvious, and may I ask who neglected his responsibilities to allow this to happen?" Sesshoumaru asked sarcastically, staring at Kobaru and his son, his irritation increasing.

"Please, my lord now is not the time to blame someone, we have all tried our best, the enemy was more deadly and quicker than we thought. We underestimated it. Now we can only try our best to safe Lady Rin." Kobaru said, trying to appease Sesshoumaru and solve the problem at the same time.

Just then, one of the healers came out. "How is her ladyship?" Kiso asked anxiously, grabbing the sleeve of the healer. Kobaru put his hand on Kiso's shoulder and shook his head, and Kiso relaxed his grip on the healer, enough for him to breathe and talk without dying from the lack of oxygen.

"We…" The healer stuttered, not daring to go on in fear of the three dangerous demons surrounding him. Sesshoumaru gave the healer the death glance which spoke something to the effect of talk now and die later or don't talk and die now, and the two powerful and irritated demons on each side of him helped illustrate his point quite effectively.

"Well… my lords, well… that is… the poison that was given to Lady Rin… well… you see… it is a fatal poison… that was lost a long time ago due to the extinction of the plant that was the main component of this poison. The plant when extinct when the western undergrounds collapsed… so… we do not know how it surfaced again… and… the poison… the poison… when hits the main vein of the victim, is a lost case for the victim, she would be as good as dead… and… the… worst thing… about this… is… that the antidote has long been lost…" Great, now his giving me a history on this poison, how nice, I might as well just go and look up the whole profile of this poison in the history texts in my library! Sesshoumaru thought to himself rolling his eyes up towards the ceiling exasperated to the point of irritation, as the healer finished his sentence looking rather relieved to still be alive.

"And what is the cure than?" Kiso asked anxiously.

"My lord… currently there is no cure, as the antidote has been lost… and the demon hit the… the… main vein on L...a…d…y R…i…n." The healer said stuttering nervously, fearing for his life even more, as he felt Kiso's demonic aura rise higher then what was deemed possible.

"If I used tenseiga on her after she died, would it save her?" Sesshoumaru asked the healer.

"Well my lord…, you see…, you have already used tenseiga on Lady Rin before…, so it is uncertain whether it would work on her…, and besides even if you managed to revive her…, she could die again…, as the poison would still be in her body." The healer said very nervously. By this time he was getting really scared, for his life and that of his family. The three very intimidating demons in front of him seemed to threaten to want to take his life any moment soon, and he was starting to say his last minute prayers.

Luckily for him, a certain toad saved him. "Lord Sesshoumaru, I have an idea, why not look for the descendents of the western undergrounds people. Might be one of them would have the talent to heal lady Rin, after all their lady had that talent before, might others have to." Jaken said excitedly, praising himself at how smart he was and now Sesshoumaru would stop hitting him.

Unluckily for both the healer and Jaken, more for the healer, as his hope of being saved was dashed; Jaken was a terribly stupid creature, for all three demons and the demon stared at his "incredulous" idea. Looking for one of the descendents was utterly impossible, as there were close to extinct, and their line was so spread out, even I they found a descendent, Rin would be dead by that time, besides, their blood was too diluted to be of any use even if one with that power was found. They were basically humans with a very long life.

Jaken stared up, and once again gave them hope that maybe he was not so stupid. "No my lords, I remember something about someone, I'm sure it's very important," Jaken said, thinking hard for what he had forgotten. Unfortunately for him, four rocks hit him on the head at the same time, causing him to be unconscious, and thus blocking his train of thoughts to his memories.

After the practically useless conversation with Jaken, the three demons and one human tried to come up with something (technically the human trying to come up with something to save his life.).

Jaken however woke up from his unconsciousness. "No my lords, thanks to your blow, I remembered something. I met this demon, but she wasn't really a demon, I couldn't tell…" Four rocks again hit this very pitiful toad and glared at him to speed up his story.

"Anyway, a few years back I met this demon like person, she had a very familiar smell, now that I think back, she had the smell of the western undergrounds people, she must be a descendent of them. She also had the smell of poison on her, might be she really has the similar power to the lady of the western undergrounds! I remember…"

Flashback

"Lord Sesshoumaru! Where are you? Why have your abandoned your humble loyal servant!" I said shouting for my lord. I walked around the place in hope of finding Lords Sesshoumaru, when a dancer came up to me.

She asked me, "Do you know where the nearest city with a dancing hall is?" I stared at her disdainfully as she was rather dirty. Observing how she looked, how dare someone of such a low position ask the most loyal of Sesshoumaru's servant a question? What adolescent.

"How would you not know, the nearest city is to the west, where the Great Lord Sesshoumaru, Lord of all lands, Glory of the Morning, Lord of the Lights live. You ignorant country bum, not knowing where the great, wonderful, marvellous, most brilliant, most handsome, most gorgeous, most suave, most best demon lives." I said, thinking how Lord Sesshoumaru would be so proud of me to educate his people about his greatness, how nice of me to be so nice to someone of such a low class. However, that rude person was gone before I finished, how ungrateful of her, to run away from my teachings.

End of flashback

"… After that I found you my lord, and forgot about her." Jaken said, finishing his story.

"Well…" Sesshoumaru said, goose bumps rising from all the praise he got from the male toad demon. He was beginning to doubt the sexual interest that his subordinate had and made a point to remember not to let Jaken within touching distance of him, or not to tell Jaken when he bathe, and most certainly not let Jaken any where near his things or into his room.

After giving everybody a shock of seeing their great lord shudder, Sesshoumaru continued. "Now, that is something, do you know where she is now?" Sesshoumaru asked, getting interested in this person, his hopes raised for a possibility that there was a cure for Rin, though still creeped out by Jakens overwhelming show of "loyalty" towards him.

"Well no…" said Jaken, and before Jaken could finish his sentence, he was knocked unconscious by four rocks from four rather irritated individuals (namely two demons, one taiyoukai and one human), at the lack of sense in a certain toad to say such things of high hopes only to dash their hopes with such senseless words that were too "indescribable".

"My lord, there is a high possibility of chance that you might find her in this very city and most probably in the dancers hall judging from what Jaken had said," Kobaru said, pondering over the new information given, slightly distracted. Interesting, might be the line of the western undergrounds did not get extinct he thought to himself, smirking slightly, at that thought. Remembering the times when Sesshoumaru got irritated with a certain lady from the western undergrounds. How interesting it would be if that certain lady survived. However, it came to him that she could not have survived this whole ordeal.

"Then what are you waiting for, go find her and bring her here." Sesshoumaru barked at Kobaru irritated at the sudden senselessness that seemed to hit all his subordinates.

Kobaru jumped out of his thoughts and rushed to do his job, find this dancer, if she really was one, and if she really was there, and bring her back to the castle. He could also ask her some questions, might be the lady might have survived the whole ordeal. Might be……

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