Disclaimer: I do not own BLEACH.

Fallen

Chapter I

· Rising Threat ·


I watched helplessly as he thrashed and twisted on the murky surface.

I could only watch as his hands clawed mercilessly at the ground beneath his body and listen to his cries as they echoed throughout the isolated underground.

Several shinigami surrounded him, all of them keeping a safe distance away. I glared holes into their backs.

A penetrating scream caused him to throw his head back. He pushed himself off the ground only to have his right arm give out. He fell on the ground with a harsh thud and twisted to roll onto his side, clutching his burning wrist. His eyes squeezed shut and he panted heavily.

He screamed again.


"I wish I could help you…" Whispered Rukia as she watched him pant and groan from afar. Her fingers touched the cool glass that separated her from the man she loved and needed to comfort. He threw himself on his back and snapped his head towards her direction, his breathing was heavy and sweat dripped off his face. Another scream and his spine arched into the air. She clenched her small hands into fists against the barrier.

Ichigo…

She felt a large hand fall onto her shoulder.

"Renji."

The said man didn't look surprised at her tone. He knew she stayed in the twelfth division all day and all night since they had brought Ichigo in. He knew that she was scared that Mayuri would put him under the knife for his own research, despite the order not to even open the cell. She had been extremely protective. But it had also tired her out.

"Your brother has ordered me to take you home."

"I'm not-"

She was interrupted by another scream. Her heart clenched as he growled like an animal and twitched on the cold floor.

"Yes, you are. Guards are gonna to on watch twenty-four seven, come on." He expected her to follow him out.

She didn't move from her position.

He sighed. "Rukia, only captains have permission to enter the cell or stay here for over forty-eight hours. Yamamoto-sou taicho is aware of Kurostuchi, that's the reason of the Patrol Corps supervising the area."

"I know, Renji. I just… wish to stay here."

"This is the detainment sector, vice-captains are not allowed here for over a day." He softly tugged on her shoulder. With a sigh, Rukia pushed herself off the glass and with one last look at strong-willed man she whispered, "I love you."

"Let's go."


"The lab results show no brain trauma or serious physical damage. He is not in any life-threatening condition but he has been same state for two and a half days. His movements have now gradually decreased and he is now only restrained by the kido binds." A man with a white lab coat looked at the papers in his hand as he spoke smoothly. "Our scientists do not know how the venom entered into the blood stream but it is not lethal, otherwise he would have been long dead."

"When will he wake up?"

"We predict that he will finally wake in two or three days. For now he is in a slight coma."

Yamamoto's face was stern, hard. This was the fourth victim of whoever or whatever attacked in six days. The former three had not made it.

"Do know whether it is contagious?" Soi Fon asked.

"We highly doubt that it could spread to other shinigami. The situation has been caused by unusual attack or poison from the enemy. So far, none of the twelfth division members have shown similar symptoms to Kurosaki Ichigo."

"Is there any other information?"

"No, we are still collecting data. Do not worry, he will not be harmed," the scientist's gaze turned to Rukia, who was standing behind Ukitake. The woman had stayed by the cell, stubbornly preventing him to go into the operation lab, and had been particularly protective of the orange-haired man within the eerie room. Rukia caught him with an unreadable expression but glared at him coldly. He frowned as he was dismissed.

"Very well. Anything we learn from this incident shall be informed at the next meeting. This does not mean that you are to slack of your duties. I expect you to be present at the next meeting. Dismissed."

Rukia could hear the murmuring of captains and vice-captains as they made their way out of the hall. The shinigami had brought Ichigo from a fight in the world of the living. A group of unidentified people had decided to go on a killing rampage in the south of Hokkaido and travelling through the Tohoku prefecture to Tokyo. Unfortunately, Sereitei had yet to find out their current location. They moved fast. Since the first attack in Hokkaido, there were sixteen killings altogether and one victim who had, by some miracle, survived. The said victim was Ichigo…

"Kuchiki-san? Are you alright?" Rukia jumped slightly as a soft voice broke her out of her reverie.

"Hinamori-san! Yes, of course. Why do you ask?" Rukia turned look at her friend.

"You look tired." She would of grinned at the tone Hinamori used, as if she had explained the most obvious thing in Soul Society, if only she was in the mood.

"I'm fine, no worries." Momo didn't look convinced. The brown haired lieutenant bit her lower lip

"Are you sure? I honestly think you should get some rest, Kuchiki-san…"

"You're starting to sound like Renji or Nii-sama, you know."

Momo rolled her eyes. "You have friends who care, Kuchiki-san," her tone softened, "Kurosaki-kun will be fine." She placed a comforting hand on the smaller woman's shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. Rukia's gaze shifted angrily to the floor as she clenched her fists. She suddenly burst out.

"Why does everybody say that? How can you be so sure? How do you know he'll be the same when- if- he wakes up, huh?!" Her violet eyes were burning.

"Kuchiki-san!" Her head snapped up at the sound of Hinamori's kind voice being raised several octaves higher, and it being directed at her. "You have to believe in him! What good will negative thinking like that do? What Kurosaki-kun say? I know you are stressed, but seriously…" Her determined eyes bore into Rukia's wide ones. A ghost of a smile appeared on the raven-haired shinigami but it disappeared just as quickly.

'Geez, midget. I thought you had a bit more faith in me. Did you honestly think something like that bring me down? Psh, Dumbass…"

That would be something Ichigo would say if he saw her right now. A nervous wreck. Then he would smirk and tell her it was okay…

"You're right. I shouldn't be thinking about the bad things, Hinamori-san. It's definitely not like me, thanks." The raven haired woman gave out a small smile.

The other girl grinned. "You're welcome."


Orihime, Uryu and Chad grew increasingly uneasy as they sat in silence at Urahara's Shoten. The tea they had been offered remained untouched as they waited for Yoruichi to show up with any news from Soul Society. Renji, who had been sent on a mission before the meeting sat next to Chad. Isshin and Urahara sat with them.

"Oh come on! There's no use in being all scowly like my idiotic son!" Isshin beamed as four different coloured head shot up. "He's gonna be fine, he's papa's boy!"

"Whoever said I was thinking of that moron?" Ishida, who was holding Orihime's hand raised an annoyed brow. Just sitting with the man irritated him.

"I never said thaaaat!" Isshin grinned as he waved his index finger two centimetres from the Quincy's face.

'Remain calm, Uryu. Remain calm.' He felt veins threatening to pop in his head as Isshin ranted about idiotic things. 'Keep yourself calm. Composed, just keep it cool…' Several minutes passed and he felt his sanity slipping away as the crazy man continued to talk endlessly… until…

"….maybe he has some special feelings towards Ichigo, ne? Too bad, though, ICHIGO IS ALREADY TAKEN! Sorry, Ishida, he's not gay-"

Ishida lost it.

"Don't you have any respect! I'M MARRIED!"

Isshin grinned.

"Uryu…" Orihime said softly as she placed her hand on her husbands arm. She leaned in to give a peck on the cheek to calm him down.

Uryu leaned back, "I have no idea how Kurosaki keeps up with him without actually killing him..." He closed his eyes to settle down. Orihime smiled and massaged his arm. At that moment Yoruichi stepped into the room.

Renji, who had been sniggering and receiving glares form Ishida immediately spoke up. "Any news?"

Yoruichi shook her head as she sat down beside Urahara. "He's calmed down with his thrashing and they reduced the restraint to simple kido binds. He should be waking soon."

"But he's going to be alright, right?" Orihime asked with concern showing in her gray eyes.

"We will find out once he's woken up."

All four of them sighed.


Rukia twirled the white-gold band on her finger. She smiled every time she looked at it. It had perfectly cut diamonds encircling it like pebbles, the colour of them changing from crystal clear to a beautiful shade of light blue towards the largest diamond in the middle, it had violet highlights in it.

She had decided to finish any new paperwork, whish wasn't much considering that she always completed straight away it whenever she found any on her desk. As she was going through another list of equipment for the division, she paused to admire the ring, she smiled again.

Then her thoughts immediately went to Ichigo. Her brows creased in worry as she remembered the way he twitched and hissed when she had last visited him. She was given permission from her captain to go to the cell the next day.

The problem was that she wanted to go now.

Apparently, they were still trying to figure out what had caused Ichigo's condition. All they knew was that he came in touch with the same venom that had caused all the other deaths. They desperately tried to keep him alive as he survived longer that the other shinigami, so that they could solve the mysterious case of the attacks and possibly put an end to them.

It had all started when Ichigo along with Rukia and Renji had been sent on another mission to find any tracks in an area where three unseated shinigami had been killed. They came across a small house in the woods with a young couple living in it.

All three of them were surprised to find out that the couple were spiritually aware. The woman had slightly a paler complexion than her husband. She had waist length dark red hair (darker than Renji's) and wise dark blue eyes. She was very slim, almost skinny, and was a few inches taller than Rukia. She had a kind but cautious expression on her face.

Her husband was large and very muscular, he looked like he could pick up a tonne without a sweat. He had dirty blonde hair cut very short and his emerald eyes held looked as though they held many secrets. He lightly scratched his goatee.

"We haven't had any visitors for a while. How can we help?" Asked the woman.

Renji temporarily speechless from the casual tine of her voice. "…You… uh… You're not… surprised by us?"

The woman blinked. "Oh, well, there has been quite a few shinigami running around here lately. Although, we haven't seen any higher ranks before…" She said eyeing the three of them.

All three of them raised their eyebrows.

She laughed lightly. "My apologies, we have not introduced ourselves, my name is Emma Takuya and this is my husband Mike Takuya." They all shook hands but Ichigo couldn't help but ask.

"Those names-"

"Both of us are from England." Mike explained vaguely.

"Oh."

"Well, anyways. Whactha doing here?" He asked.

"We are here to investigate and hopefully find any clues as of where the killers of the recent shinigami that had been sent here are currently located." Rukia said, since the two idiots she was with were in a train of thought. "Have you seen anything strange around this area?"

Emma look didn't look surprised "Killings?" Rukia nodded and the woman looked at her husband.

"We've only seen footsteps in the depths of the forest, it could have been anyone." Mike shrugged, "however, the other day, when Emma and I were taking a walk in the evening, we heard scream coming from the east…."

And that was where they started searching. They spent a week there and on the last day, Ichigo was nearly killed. They had been with Inoue, Ishida and Chad at the time where they ended up underground in the subway. Inoue attempted healing him but Ichigo shoved her away like an animal, although she didn't know where to heal. That's when the other shinigami arrived for back up but were too late.

The group didn't know who it was because none of the enemies had shown their face and were too fast for either of them to catch one.

Rukia's eyes started to close slowly, she glanced at the clock and her eyes widened. She stood up from her desk and set the papers aside.

Although she wasn't looking forward to sleeping alone again, her body desperately needed some rest.

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A/N

So how was that, folks? Like it? Hate it?

I got the inspiration for this story when I was watching a scene from Twilight (damn, I got hooked) and started making lots of scenarios in my head of Bella and Edward with their positions switched. Two days later I found myself typing madly at my laptop, I needed the idea out of my head.

I liked the start of this chap but I feel as though it became rushed towards the end. Sorry for any mistakes, I don't have a beta and I proof read by myself.

PLEASE REVIEW! YOUR OPINION MATTERS!! IT GETS MY MOTIVATION RUNNING =]