Title: Pale Horse
Spoilers: As long as you know what lives inside Ichigo, you'll be fine.
Characters: Ichigo & his hollow
Disclaimer: I can't draw very well and you'll see how crappy my writing is after you read this, so it's obvious I didn't create Bleach.
This takes place after a great tragedy has happened. I'm not creative enough to write something good, so just imagine Ichigo is in a really bad mood.
Ichigo didn't lose control to his hollow. He actually planned on handing over the reigns of his soul to the pale menace. With things turning out the way they did, he not only wanted to die, he wanted to end all reality. He was fully prepared to be the horse and he would have given his all to the job.
But, like everything else in his life, this did not go as planned. As he stood in his sideways world and told his hollow that it was his turn to be king, Ichigo watched an overwhelming joy wash over the creature's face. And then, he saw it. In the hollow's ghastly eyes, he saw stark and all-consuming sadness. It was then that he realized.
"You lied to me," Ichigo had said. This did not produce as big a smile on the hollow's part as he had expected. "You aren't the same as Zangetsu, are you?" he continued.
The hollow nodded once, never breaking eye contact with Ichigo.
"You're me, aren't you?"
Another nod.
Ichigo found himself walking toward the creature. It really was like looking into a mirror. Only now, after his heart was filled with so much hate and fear, could he really accept the hollow as himself.
"It hurts in here," the hollow said.
"I know," Ichigo replied, "it hurts outside too." And with that, he embraced the hollow, the thing he previously thought a monster, the man he now knew to be himself. As he and his hollow melted into one being, he felt like he was dissolving, but at the same time gaining something he had lost long ago. Then, when he opened his eyes – he can't remember closing them – he realized he was back outside. Back in the world he had come to hate.
Now he and the hollow spoke with one voice, "I'll soak this world in blood until I can't feel the rain anymore."
