A/N: So I have to say that I had no idea where this chapter was going to go. But I like how it turned out. It actually might be one of my favorites. So I hope that you all review and tell me what you think of it. Also thank you everyone that has been reading and reviewing this story. It really does make my day to read all of your reviews. Here's chapter eighteen! Who would have guessed that this story would have made it to eighteen chapters? I know I didn't...

P.S. Another thing I would like to say is that I recently went back and read all of the chapters to this story over again. Sorry, for all of the grammar mistakes. I noticed that I used 'hear' instead of 'here' once or twice and 'right' instead of 'write' :( and those are just a couple. I just want to say that I don't go back and read the chapters over before I submit them and that's why there are so many of those. I'm mostly just pointing it out because its one of my biggest pet peeves. But I do apologize if they bother you while you're reading.

I do not own Inuyasha.

Chapter Eighteen

I woke up slowly, for several minutes it was just me trying to ground myself. The room was spinning and my mind was foggy, and there was a constant, dull ringing in my ears. I noticed Rin was next to me but I couldn't focus. I closed my eyes again and tried to think. Where were we? We were in the gardens and then something… something happened. But what was it. Suddenly in my mind I could see red eyes and I could hear a cold laugh above the ringing in my ears.

My eyes snapped open and I shot up into a sitting position. We were attacked! They wanted to kidnap Rin! And the lady could make blades come out of thin air, at that memory the pain in my side and leg made itself known. I groaned and slowly became aware that Rin was talking to me, it was muffled at first but steadily became clearer.

"-cole. Nicooole are you okay?"

I put one hand to my head and used the other to push myself up into a sitting position, "Yeah," my voice cracked, "but I have a pretty bad headache."

Rin nodded, "You hit your head pretty hard when you fell." She was quiet for a moment, "I finally got your leg and side to stop bleeding."

I looked down at my leg to notice for the first time that it was wrapped with a piece of cloth. I looked down at my side it also had a piece of cloth around it, "Did you do this?" Rin nodded, how she ever got the cloth around me while I was out I will never know. "Thank you Rin, where did you learn to do this?"

Rin shrugged, "I remembered that time when we were in the woods after we jumped off the cliff and your arm was bleeding, you had me wrap it." Rin bit her lip looking worried, "I didn't have any of the ointment Lord Sesshomaru used on you, so I just wrapped it."

I pulled her into a hug, she must have been scared and she still was worried about me, "Thank you Rin, you did everything right. I'm proud of you, you did a wonderful job."

She looked at me with big eyes, "Really?"

I smiled down at her, "Really."

Rin leaned in and rested her head on my shoulder, I could feel her nodding her head better than I could see it. Poor kid. I let her have a minute, I hugged her tighter, taking the time to get ahold of myself as well. After several minutes she sat back, looking more like her normal, cheerful self. I took the opportunity to test out my leg by standing up. It hurt but it supported my weight. Good.

For the first time since I woke up I took in our surroundings. We were in a hut no bigger than ten feet by ten feet. There wasn't anything in the room, no tables, no chairs, nothing. There was door and only one window high on wall next to the door, it was just big enough to let in enough light to see by. I turned to Rin, "Did you try the door?"

Rin shook her head, "I thought about it but I was scared."

I nodded my head and started towards the door, the window was too high up to see out of. The only thing I could see out of the window was the sky, and that was enough to tell me that it was now night out. Making me wonder how long we had been here. Hesitantly I opened the door just wide enough that I could see what was on the other side. There were things surrounding the building. They looked hideous and the only conclusion that I could come to was that there were all demons. Suddenly a huge flying, snake like demon was heading right for the door. I screamed and slam the door shut. What the hell?! I stood against the door preparing for the creature to try and come inside, but nothing happened. Maybe they didn't want to come inside, maybe they only want to keep us inside…

Rin looked at me nervously, "What?"

I didn't want to worry Rin anymore than I had to, but I had no idea how we were going to get out of this situation. And Rin had a right to know, "We're surrounded by demons."

Rin didn't seem surprised, and she didn't freak out. She just nodded. Slowly I stepped away from the door. Again nothing happened, I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. I turned and looked out the window. I could see the moon, it was a crescent moon. It made me think of Sesshomaru. The thought made me feel slightly better, it also gave me an idea. "Hey, Rin, come over here."

Rin looked at me quizzically but did as I said. I squatted down next to her, "I don't want to open the door again in case that thing is still there, but I want you to get on my shoulders and look out the window. Maybe you will be able to see what's going on."

Rin hesitated for a moment and then she nodded, "Okay."

I carefully helped her onto my shoulders and stood up, "What do you see?"

"We're surrounded."

I nodded even though I knew she couldn't see it, "Yeah, I knew that already. What else?"

Rin was silent for a moment, looking. Finally she said, "Kagura is out there."

"Who?"

"The lady that kidnapped us, she helps Naraku," Rin explained.

"The lady with the fan?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, do you see the kid that was with her?"

Again Rin was silent for a minute, "No I don't see her."

"Alright, do you see anything else?"

"Just that we're surrounded by trees."

I squatted down and helped Rin off of my shoulders. If we really were surrounded by trees that could mean that no one even knew that this hut was here. And if that was the case, it was very unlikely that anyone would be coming to help us. I would have to keep Rin safe, no matter what. Sesshomaru had always saved us just in the nick of time, but that was unlikely to happen here. He hadn't been at the palace. He had been looking for Naraku, he probably didn't know that we were even gone. But if what Rin said was right and that Kagura lady was helping Naraku, then we were probably bait. My stomach churned at the thought. Suddenly a wave of weakness washed over my body, and like earlier it felt like all the air left my body. I sagged and landed on my knees. I was tired, very tired. What was happening to me?

Rin ran over to me, "Nicole what's wrong?"

She sounded panicked and I wanted to tell her that I was fine, but I was too tired to even form the words. From behind me I heard the door open, and for a second I had thought that the demon from before finally decided to break in. But then I heard a voice that was quickly becoming very familiar.

"Good, Kanna still has part of your soul, you won't be much of a fight now."

What was she talking about? Someone had part of my soul? Was that even possible? I heard something clatter on the floor before she spoke again, "Food," she told us. "Can't have the human dying of starvation before Sesshomaru gets here."

I felt a jolt go through me, so Sesshomaru was going to come here. And it sure sounded like we were going to be the bait. I wanted to say something, I wanted to ask her why she was doing this. What was her reasoning? But I couldn't form those words either, and before I could even try she was gone, closing the door behind her as she went.

"Nicole?" Rin sounded so small.

I used what energy I had felt to move myself so that I was laying down. And even that had me panting for the air that I couldn't seem to get enough of. I lay there catching my breath for several minutes, when I finally felt like I could speak I told Rin to eat the food because we didn't know how long we were going to be stuck in this hut. She seemed hesitant but she ate it anyway. And soon we were both laying side by side as we fell asleep.

We stayed in the hut for several days, maybe even a week. The only thing I had to go by was the little sliver of the sky I could see out the window. But we were there so long that a day seemed like several days. Once a day Kagura would come and bring food for Rin, and right before she did I would grow weak again. That way I could never fight back. I guess that Kanna really did have part of my soul.

The sun was high in the sky when we heard a commotion outside of the hut. The demons seemed to grow restless. I held Rin up to the window to see if she could tell what was going on. All that she could see was that Kagura was watching the trees as if she were waiting for something to come out of them, and that the demons were acting more restless.

And for a few hours that was it. But then there was a noise, it was far off, deep within the forest, but it was there. Rin and I didn't quite know what to make of it, but just in case in was something bad we moved ourselves to sit as far away from the door as possible. The noise continued for several minutes. Suddenly Kagura came into the room and when she moved father inside I saw that the little girl was beside her.

"What going on?" I demanded, moving Rin behind me once again.

Kagura smiled, "Ah ah ah, we can't have that now," with that she gestured to the little girl.

The child next to Kagura never blinked, never showed any emotion, the only thing she did to even show that she had heard Kagura was raise the mirror that she had in her hands. Once again I was left breathless, I sagged to the floor trying desperately to get some air into my lungs. I strained to keep my eyes open, all I could see was something white flowing from me into the mirror. What was going on? Rin kneeled down beside me and put a hand on my shoulder, I wanted to tell her that it was okay, that everything was going to be fine. But I couldn't.

From somewhere I could hear Kagura speak, "Make sure you get all of her soul Kanna."

My soul? My soul! This girl was taking my soul! I thought back to the first day that Rin and I had been stuck in this place. Kagura had said that Kanna still had part of my soul. And now they were taking the rest of it. Slowly I felt the rest of my soul drain from my body. I felt dead, but I was awake. It was horrible.

Kagura laughed, "A soulless person is just as good as a dead person." Kagura held her fan up, "Dance of the Dead!" Suddenly I felt my body stand up, but I had no control over it. Kagura laughed again, "Good."

"Nicole?" Rin voice sounded so small and I had no way to comfort her. I couldn't even look at her, I was looking at Kagura.

Kagura reached behind her and took out a blade, she handed it to me and I took it. I wanted to stab her with it but I couldn't. She flicked her fan again and suddenly I was holding Rin in front of me with the blade to her throat. Rin let out a squeak, and I wanted to scream. No! No this can't be happening! They can't make me hurt Rin. But I couldn't make myself drop the blade. Kagura grinned, "Now we're already for Lord Sesshomaru, when he gets here."

As if on cue we heard a commotion outside. The demons were howling with such force that it shook the hut. And I could hear voices. Not just one or two, but several. Then a familiar voice shouted louder than all of the others, "Wind Scar!" and again the hut trembled.

Kagura grinned, "Its show time." Kagura made her exit, or entrance judging from the point of view, by blowing the door off of the hut. The commotion stopped momentarily.

Outside I could hear them yelling back and forth, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. Rin squirmed in my arms, and I wanted to tell her to be careful and that the blade might cut her if she moved too much, but nothing came out. She moved her head to look at me as well as she could in her position. "Nicole please don't do this," She begged. I didn't respond I couldn't. And once Rin realized that I wasn't going to respond she started crying. I could feel her tears landing on my arm and the thought that I made her cry made me want to vomit.

Suddenly the yelling outside paused, and I was moving, carrying Rin with the blade still at her throat. I tried to fight it but it was worthless. Then I was standing outside next to Kagura staring at Inuyasha and his gang, and Sesshomaru. The look of shock and betrayal on their faces made me wish I were dead. Slowly I realized that Kagura was talking, "Oh come on now, surely you all aren't as shocked as you seem. I mean really, does it surprise you that much?" Kagura laughed, "Oh, it does. Of course Nicole is one of Naraku's incarnations. She was sent to gain all of your trust, to weasel her way into your home. And she did a good job of it too." Kagura smiled as she spun her tale. "Tsk, tsk Sesshomaru really I had expected more suspicion from you. But I guess the part where Nicole saved Rin from a bear demon was pretty convincing, wasn't it? It never even crossed your mind that it was staged did it? No, and then you just let her into your home and left her with Rin. And you even fell for the 'lost princess' bit. Honestly I thought it was going to take more convincing than it did, but what can I say? I underestimated Nicole."

For a moment everyone stood in silence, just staring at me. I wanted to scream, to yell, to tell them that it was a lie. That everything that she was saying was a lie. But no words came out, I felt tears well up in my eyes but they never spilled over. But I wanted to cry, hell I wanted to die in that very moment. The way Sesshomaru was looking at me, his face was as blank as the day that I first met him. And that was the most tragic part of all, because after everything that we had been through he had finally started to look at me different. Now there were no feelings in those eyes. They were just blank.

Kagura's smile grew wider, "And my favorite part, did you really think that Nicole loved you? I mean, any of you?" Kagura let that statement sit for a moment. She had said it like it pertained to everyone, but really it was directed at Sesshomaru and Rin. NO! Again, I wanted to scream, and tell them that I did love them. That I do love them. But again no words came out, but more tears filled my eyes. Kagura turned to me, "Nicole. Finish her."

I felt my hand moving before I even registered what Kagura said. I was moving the knife to cut Rin's throat. No, please no. Help me. Help her! Sesshomaru stop me! And like he could read my mind. He raced forward. Ripping Rin from my hands and setting her down somewhere safe. His eyes were red, and finally I could see the hurt in them. The betrayal. But most of all, the unleashed fury. He pushed me down, his hands around my throat, growling. Panic surged through me and I wanted to claw at his hands, I wanted to be able to breath. But I didn't move, I couldn't. I could hear his claws sizzling next to my ear. And I could feel a familiar burn start on my neck, and I knew. I knew that Sesshomaru was going to kill me.