Ok guys, this is my first fanfiction, so I'd rather you fine people play nice. I will have Ichigo's heritage as a *spoiler* Quincy and some other details from the manga, however, this is a sort-of AU after Orihime goes to the soul society to train with Rukia, so many things after that haven't happened. Zangetsu is still a zanpakuto not his quincy powers and Hichigo is still Hichigo... I also have not watched/read past the sword beast arc, and know most of the rest due to spoilers from friends (you know who you are...) and AMVs off Youtube... I will give you a quick rundown on what has happened.

The war with Aizen extended for three more years. The fake Karakura town battle didn't happen, instead, Aizen attacked the Soul Society when Orihime was just finishing training there and took over, (some shinigami of note died and all but a few upper seats and most lieutenants/captains survived) and Orihime was captured. The Shinigami seeked refuge in the world of the living, just as Ichigo finished vizard training. Urahara was prepared for this and his shop became a stronghold for them. The vizard and exiles (like Urahara and Isshin) were pardoned because they needed the help. Ichigo's classmates (the humans) also stayed at Urahara's shop. From this point, Hueco Mundo and The Soul Society merged and started to attack the world of the living. Ichigo formed a friendship with his hollow, and eventually the other vizards were able to as well. He also gained Muramasa as a second Zanpakuto and picked up a few high level hado spells. He and a strike force were sent to Aizen's new fortress to get back Orihime, and because this is Ichigo, got half the Espada to follow him as well. Aizen then started to be more forceful with attacking them and created more Espada with the Hogyoku. After some time Aizen attacked again, this time merging the human world with the other two, most humans died. Basically apocalypse. Gin then tried to betray Aizen when the Gotei 13 tried another attack, many of them dying. Tosen was killed now. Gin survived to be freed of all charges, as he had damaged the Hogyoku and was on their side. He died later of injuries. They didn't survive long after that, Only Ichigo and Urahara were left for the final resistance against Aizen. Ichigo has three times the reiatsu of a captain and can materialize his three little voices at will.

And here we begin the longest piece of writing I have ever attempted. I will have a very random update schedule because I suck at deadlines... I will try to update often, and reviews will help, but still, don't expect a chapter every week or something... I will be calling Hollow Ichigo Hichigo because I like it better than the others; Ogihci because I can't pronounce that, and Shiro reminds me of Momo's 'Shiro-chan'. I won't use honorifics because it sounds funny when I write them... I might use them in other pieces once I get the hang of them. I was heavily influenced by other, darker time-travel pieces for bleach, so if this seems a little similar in tone to one of them, it was not intentional. The plot bunny appeared, and so I tried my hand at writing bleach. Oh, and Hichigo and Gin will have accents, and if it's hard to read, sorry.

Pairings: Only ones I am certain I will do are KisuYoru, and at least past IchiRuki. If you can't stand these pairings turn back now! I may add others depending on where I want the finer parts of the story to go. Though, KisuYoru isn't my favorite paring, it works here, so… yeah...

Disclaimer:

If I owned Bleach I would be a male, Japanese millionaire by the name of Tite Kubo. Not a skinny, glasses wearing, mostly broke, teenage female from New England, America posting on ...

Songs used as inspiration for this story:

Castle Of Glass- Linkin Park

Lion- Hollywood Undead

Rebirthing- Skillet

Dance With the Devil- Breaking Benjamin

So Cold- Breaking Benjamin

I Will Not Bow- Breaking Benjamin

Had Enough- Breaking Benjamin

Warnings:

Dark, very dark. Swearing, Gore, Some suggestive themes, may bump up to M, depends on how confident I feel, and some (a lot of) spoilers.

Hichigo: 'Hi'

Zangetsu: 'Hi'

Muramasa: 'Hi'

Ichigo's thoughts: 'Hi'

Speaking: "Hi"

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Chapter One- Black Sun sets/ Black Sun rises

The world was cold and a desert. It was just Kisuke and him, and Aizen. Kisuk-

'Don' forget 'bout us King!'

His hollow who had been named Hichigo broke into his tense thoughts.

'I am pretty sure he cannot simply forget about us, much less you, Hichigo...'

'...Indeed.'

Ichigo sighed mentally and replied, 'I was speaking figuratively'

'..Yer were actually thinkin', not speakin'

'Whatever..'

Ichigo stared at the device and letter in his hands, his mismatched eyes glanced every so often at it with a mixture of sadness and anger. The letter gripped tensely in his left hand, and holding the object carefully in his left. Kisuke had become more solemn after Yoruichi died. Evidently they had been rather, well, intimate. It was probably what made him go on this suicide mission. He had set out early that morning without Ichigo and left a note along with a small device in their hideout. The note had said that he had left to go fix his mistakes and if he was not back by sundown, which was very likely to the point of certain, to use the device. He had explained that it was a time machine, designed to bring him back to before it was a hopeless struggle, but with powers and memory intact. He was to press the button once it was clear he failed. The machine could only take one, and Kisuke was not the more powerful one. He had left to make sure that Ichigo wouldn't object. He ran a hand through his past shoulder-blade hair, now streaked with a dark brown and white, due to his partner's influences. He remembered the last words to him in the letter, in fact, he had memorized them now, "Ichigo, I am sorry that you went through this and had to grow up so fast. If I don't come back, good luck in the past for a better future, and take an extra swing at Aizen for me. I am thankful to be your friend. - Kisuke"

Ichigo growled and stared out at the small window, the sun was low in the sky, not sunset yet, but a few hours from then. He heard a faint hollow roar and his hand that held the note twitched toward one of his three swords. After he had made peace with his hollow, he had fought Aizen briefly, and the Hogyoku must have affected his hollow, because Hichigo had turned into an Arrancar and he got another blade, and one of his eyes turned yellow with black sclera permanently. Ukitake had taught him some double bladed fighting, as well as Kyoraku before they...

"Stop, 'ya gonna make it rain harder, King"

He sighed and replied, 'sorry'

Hichigo replied gruffly,'s'not yer fault, it's tha' bastard with a god complex."

Ichigo's gaze hardened, Aizen... He sat in silence, his three companions thrumming with anticipation. He then looked over at the the window again, and counted to ten slowly, half hoping Kisuke would walk through the door holding Aizen's head, back to his old cheerful self. No such luck. The sunset was blood red, and the last licks of sun he would see in this future were passing out of sight. He took a deep breath, and pressed the button.

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He had lost consciousness, and had fallen backwards. Ichigo felt damp grass under him. He was in his human body again. Kisuke, that clever bastard, had done it. Zangetsu yelled at him through the link, 'SUPPRESS YOUR REIATSU ICHIGO!"

He jolted and focused in drawing his power in, then when it appeared that he had reiatsu just a little over an average human, he stopped. Ichigo looked around, he was at the river bank near where is mom died, as he reached out his senses, he felt all of his friends. Now convinced he was in the past, but not exactly certain when. He felt a little shorter, and his hair felt lighter. It was also sunset now, too. He would be coming home for the first time in 2 and a half years. For a while, he cried. Then, after he was through, Ichigo took a deep breath to prepare himself, and walked towards his house.

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Isshin Kurosaki, well actually Isshin Shiba, but it was Kurosaki now, was surprised, and just a little bit afraid. He could sense some reiatsu in his gigai, and the anomaly that had happened just ten minutes ago was thoroughly strange. He felt his sons reiatsu vanish, then it was insanely high, at least captains strength, then shot back down and stayed there. He would have ignored this five second whatever-it-was, but when his son came home, and he did his traditional Shiba-style training attack, Ichigo blocked it with out even reacting, and barely trying, much unlike that morning. He then walked right over to his sisters and hugged them briefly before walking past Isshin to his room and putting a hand on his shoulder as he went. To Ichigo and him, that was like a tackle-hug from a small, tearful child seeking comfort. It was even more startling that his footsteps were completely silent. The part that really made him pick up the phone and dial his old friend, was not that his son was no longer spilling reiatsu like a leaky faucet, but because it happened all in one day, from a loud, grumpy kid, to the demeanor of a beat up and tired war veteran.

A cheery voice answered on the other line,"Helloooo?... This is the Urahara Shoten-"

"Cut the crap Kisuke, have you seen my son around?"

There was a brief silence on the line, then he replied in a less cheery tone, "No. Why do you ask? Do you think Aiz-"

Isshin sighed. "I... don't know. He's... acting differently... This morning before school he was was his loud, normal self... Now he came home, and it's like... I don't know..."

Kisuke sighed, and Isshin could almost hear him smirk and his fan open and wave around.

"How about you and the kids come over and i'll see for myself, ne? Its been ages since i've seen them."

Isshin smiled a little, "How about we come over the day after tomorrow?"

"Fine with me! Yoruichi is supposed to be here by then, too."

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Ichigo closed the door to his room and looked at the calendar as he fought keep his breathing steady. He knew it would be hard to see people who he saw die or dead, but not this much. At least he didn't break down completely. They were his family for hell's sake! He shuddered and remembered back;

'Toshiro had went ahead, already in his complete bankai(1) the second he heard Aizen broke through the barrier at their camp. Ichigo was still too preoccupied with a particularly nasty arrancar to be able to go ahead. By the time he got through, ice and blood were everywhere. Toshiro, had collapsed in a pool of blood, possibly dead. Karin shielding Yuzu, despite the fact she could barely stand and her zanpakuto was broken. He was just in time to see the sword flash, he was just too late...'

'King, ya all right there? Its downpouring...'

'sorry guys'

'It's Aizensfault, not yours, we will have our revenge'

He was not exactly sure when Zangetsu, the levelheaded one, started to truly hate Aizen, but it was definitely apparent after his dad was personally killed by him that at least the other two wanted him dead, if not when Renji and Chad died... He shook himself, no, he had to stay strong and plan how to get rid of Aizen, who was at the very least one and a half times the power of a captain when Urahara was a captain, much less once Rukia would appear. Which would be... He looked at the calendar. It was one year, exactly before she jumped through his window. He remembered the date, and the time, 8:01 pm. He sighed, time to start planning how to take down the bastard that killed so many...

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School was stressful. Most of his friends didn't know him well, and he had watched a few personally die. He took a deep calming breath and followed his dad and sisters. When his dad had said they were going to visit a friend of his, he knew he had been a little too suspicious. He really didn't want to see Kisuke this early on, if he was even a fraction as good at sensing reiatsu as he was in the old timeline he had to be careful. As he approached the Shoten, he told Hichigo to hide. He grumbled a little about it, but did as he was told. The door opened, and Kisuke Urahara, in all his eccentric glory appeared. Ichigo masked his emotions in a way that would make Byakuya proud. Urahara whipped his fan open and cheerily sang out a greeting, "Helloooo Isshin! You and your kids look like you are doing well! Welcome to my humble shop!"

Karin had a 'are you serious?' look on her face and Yuzu smiled and replied, "Thank you Mr. Um-?"

He flourished his fan and gestured with his cane, "Kisuke Urahara at your service! Now why don't you come inside?"

They walked in, and just as Ichigo suspected, he carefully watched him. Ichigo stared back, feeling Kisuke's reiatsu scanning him as he pulled his reiatsu further in. Urahara looked surprised for a moment, but he smiled and closed the door behind them. They sat down and had tea courtesy of Tessai, who was probably keeping the two kids out of the way. Nothing else happened of note for a while, just everyone being themselves, until a familiar black cat slinked in. Ichigo tensed a little, but forced himself to relax, which was caught by Yoruichi, who used to be a captain of the Stealth squad for a reason. She looked at Kisuke, who took the hint and exclaimed loudly, "Why look who's here! My favorite kitty cat's home!"

Isshin smirked and also exclaimed, "Why hello there Yoruichi! How have you been?"

Karin sighed, "That's a cat, goat-chin, it's not going to talk back..."

Yuzu giggled and pet Yoruichi. Whom leaned into the touch and padded over to Ichigo who was sitting in the corner. She leaped into his lap, and he jumped. Cursing a little in his head, he scowled. Yuzu giggled again and said, "I think Yoruichi likes you!"

He grumbled and Yoruichi stared up at him in amusement. He forced himself to meet her gaze without giving anything away. He had been trained by her and Soi-Fon, after all. They had beaten it into him to not show his emotions, but he still kinda failed. Ichigo glared back unflinchingly at her. He could feel another scanning of his reiatsu, but if she found anything, she didn't show it. The visit went on for awhile and Yoruichi moved around the room, climbing on shoulders and stealing food and tea off the table. They then left the Shouten with Urahara's exclamation of, "Come along anytime! If you ever need anything, don't be a stranger!"

Ichigo was sure there was a veiled invitation there to talk, but ignored it. Urahara waved goodbye with Yoruichi sitting on his shoulders. As soon as the four of them left, Urahara, in a much more serious tone of voice, said to Yoruichi, "So?"

The cat replied, "He seems to be cloaking his reiatsu, and as you noticed, and either he doesn't like cats, or he recognized me."

"Think he spoke to a shinigami?"

"Probably, let's hope it was a benevolent one, or one at all..."

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Ichigo, back up in his room, cursed his luck. he had been prepared for Urahara, but Yoruichi might have caught on to something. He still didn't have that good of a plan, so he decided to commune with his partners in his inner world. Closing his eyes, he found himself in a familiar sideways city. Zangetsu was standing all mysterious-like on his usual flagpole, Hichigo was leaned back against a balcony on the skyscraper he landed on, and Muramasa was sitting on the edge of it near Zangetsu. His hollow looked up at him,

'Well that didn't go as well as we hoped.'

'It's behind us now. What we need to do now is think up a plan for Aizen'

'It's highly unlikely that he does not have more than one plan at this time, so we should assume he is just as dangerous and he was in our time.'

'alright... this is what I think we should do...

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It was later that week when he started feeling the strain of holding his power. He had just gotten back from 'sparring' with Tatsuki. He was training her by letting out a little of his spirit pressure out to help her spiritual awareness as they sparred because the last time around she was very pissed about being left out of kicking ass, and she was farther behind the rest in terms of power. He kept himself only a little above her strength so she would be irritated enough to strive to beat him. He had decided earlier that he would take her and Uryu with him, maybe Chad, too because of the promise they made, but would try to keep Orihime out of it. Even though he knew that she would probably get dragged into it this time around, too, she was never suited to combat, and he remembered when-No don't think like that, He told himself. In the war she had saved their asses many, many times, but she never had the intent to kill. He would try to train her to defend herself if she got powers again this time, but he would not make an effort to activate them.

Ichigo had 'obtained' one of those gloves Rukia used to use on him, but did not want to use it because the whole lot of spiritually aware people, AND the soul society would end up sensing him without a barrier, but it was handy to have a way to use his preferred powers. Kon would have to wait until it was closer to the right time. He could use a quincy bow, but could only fire about one arrow every few minutes because of his pitiful reiatsu manipulation skill. The Quincy version of a flash step he was better at, but it tired him out quickly in his body, and that was about it. He was feeling a little dizzy, and his coordination was off. Zangetsu said he needed to blow off some power somewhere, so he decided once he hit his limit he would trek to the vizard's warehouse and ask to borrow some space to train. He knew he was getting soft, there was no good sparring partners at the time, and he couldn't very well ask Kisuke because he didn't want to reveal his hand yet. Though it was getting pretty bad now, and he had started feeling feverish. He looked and sensed around to make sure no one was watching, then sloppily used hirenkyaku to go to their whereabouts. He stopped at the barrier and prepared himself.

'Hiyori charged and fired a cero at the new third Espada, who blocked it and used Sonido to attack her from behind, Shinji blocked the strike and slashed back. The Espada blocked and went into resurrection, Shinji got knocked out, but was still alive, Hiyori wasn't so lucky. When he found out, Shinji singlehandedly slew the second and third Espada before being killed by the first. Ichigo was now the last Vaizard.'

Ichigo shook his head, and he felt dizzy again.

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The Vaizards were lounging in their strangely comfortable warehouse. Lisa was curled up on the corner of their large and beat up couch flipping through a questionable magazine. Mashiro, perched next to her, was staring with wonder at their modest-sized TV with multiple kido barriers around it, because the last TV's life ended when Hiyori put Shinji's head through it. Don Kanonji was on, and Kensei, while disliking the 'complete dumbass' immensely, was sitting there watching the damned thing right next to her because she asked (read begged). Love was sitting with his back to the wall, droning the show out with his Ipod, and Rose was reading manga right next to him. Hiyori was rummaging about the kitchen in the room over for something to snack on, and no one was getting in her way. Shinji was sprawled out on what was left of the couch, not really watching, but not bothering to move, either. Hachi was sitting in *his* chair, a massive and heavily supported piece of furniture with kido spells on it. He was watching with mild interest, but seemed distracted. Hiyori walked back in with cookies of the chocolate chip variety stolen from the cookie jar, and made Shinji move over for room on the couch. Hachi then calmly spoke up, "Someone has approached the barrier. They have an unknown power level, and unknown signature."

Love yanked the earbuds out of his ears, and Rose looked up from his manga. Lisa put down the magazine and materialized her zanpakuto. Kensei got up and stared toward the door. Mashiro, with a last look at the show on TV, turned it off and also got up. Shinji didn't move at first, but Hiyori shoved him off the couch and got into a fighting stance, also materializing her zanpakuto. Shinji sighed and picked himself off the floor, then addressed Hachi, "What do you mean, 'unknown signature?'"

"I mean unknown. As in its not a Quincy, Soul Reaper, Hollow, or even one of us. I can't place it. And it's gone through the barrier now"

They all positioned themselves toward the door, hands on their swords. A foreign reiatsu appeared. Hiyori unsheathed her sword. The door opened.

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So how was that? Yes I'm evil for putting a cliff hanger, and on my first story, too! Oh well, all the more reason to wait for the next chapter. If you liked, I would appreciate feedback on stuff.

(1) His is the only one with a time limit, when he masters that baby, that's probably gonna go, and be strong enough to rival Yamamoto. Remember when where his hand that held the sword used to be a dragon head, and the claws were over his hands? When he fought Aizen in the Anime, He had both hands clawed, like he was the dragon, instead of it covering him. I'm thinking that with complete hydro and cryokinesis with dragon horns, possibly red eyes, and claws on both limbs, and with no shoddy time limit.

Again, guys, it's unlikely that I will update regularly, best you can hope is I am, albeit slowly, working on it.

Til next time, -Waywardneko