I don't own Bleach or anything to do with it

Thanks to all of those who sent in reviews. It took me a couple of weeks to write up this chapter. So I hope it was worth the wait.

Reviews and constructive critism welcome, but NO FLAMES!

He could hear the fierce battle raging behind him, as he stood winded facing Gin Ichimaru. His father, Urahara and Yoruichi were battling Aizen mere yards from him; so many Soul Reapers had already fallen, and all the Espada were doing, now that their master was free from the old man's fire-prison, was standing and waiting for the battles to end.

He was still having difficulties accepting that his father had been a Soul Reaper, and was a Soul Reaper standing at his side. There were so many questions in his mind, but he had decided that he would wait until his father was ready to talk about it ...much like Rukia's attitude before he had learnt that the Grand Fisher was behind his mother's death.

He shook his head –memories of the past were not going to help him survive against the grinning man before him. His Hollow mask had already shattered.

"Were you always this weak? And your mask is pretty fragile too. Is that all there is to the hollowification process? You were a lot more frightening, back then. Good god. Go on, get."

"What!" He felt heavy spiritual pressure from further off, and turned.

"Is it a good idea to turn your back, even though I'm right in front of you?" Gin asked. "You can't do nothing anymore. You ain't a soldier, or a Soul Reaper, or a Hollow, or even a human. Here you are in this awfully fragmented state, and you think you can beat the person who took down those three?"

Ichigo made the mistake of letting his gaze drift, away from Ichimaru.

I ain't gonna mince words," Gin said after a pause, seeing that his resolve had weakened. "Get outta here. I've already lost interest in ya. Captain Aizen'll probably be disappointed with you as well. He's pretty frightening, ain't he? You've got a good idea about his power, right?"

Ichigo remembered, all too clearly, the feeling he had felt when Aizen had stepped through the smoke after Urahara had tried to incinerate him with his own spiritual pressure; his form had changed; his face was covered with a white canvas and his outfit was now a white cloak that was split in four sections near his waist. There was a cross in the middle of the cloak, showing where the Hōgyoku was embedded in him.

Ichigo could only kneel, exhausted and terrified, questioning his own power. Ichimaru's eyes narrowed even further (if that was possible with eyes that rarely ever opened), and he began to draw his zanpakuto.

"That's all the warning I'm giving ya," he said as he slid his weapon from his sheath. "If ya ain't gonna scram..."

He vanished in a flash-step and reappeared right in front of Ichigo. "Then I'm going to cut you down right here."

Suddenly something descended from the sky, right behind Ichigo. He turned his head and stared up at Aizen. There were cracks in the canvas outfit, but that seemed to be the only damage. Bodies rained down from the sky around them –his father, Urahara and Yoruichi, all beaten. He hoped against hope that they weren't already dead.

While he was distracted, Aizen addressed his subordinate. "Gin, what were you about to do to him just now?"

"Nothing, just testing his power a lil' bit," Gin said.

"I see," Aizen said. He stepped around Ichigo's kneeling form.

"Open the Senkaimon," he instructed Gin. "We're going to raid the Karakura Town in the Soul Society."

Ichigo's eyes widened at that. His town and his friends were in danger, and he was just letting it happen.

"There is no need to destroy the Tenkai Kecchu," Aizen said. "If we're going to take the Royal Palace, then it will be much more convenient to create the Key in the Soul Society."

"H-Hold it!" Ichigo said.

Aizen glanced over his shoulder at the orange-haired boy and found his interest in the boy to have been something fleeting. His role was at an end. The boy was on his feet, Zanpakuto in hand. Aizen vanished in a flash-step, reappearing behind the Substitute Soul Reaper, his sword protruding from the boy's chest from where it had been rammed into his back. Ichigo could only stare at the blade in his chest while Gin looked on.

The sword was yanked out his chest, and he fell to his knees, his sword clattering to the ground beside him. He couldn't believe it –it had been so easy for Aizen to cut him down, first at the top of Soygoku Hill, and now in a replica of his hometown. But this time was different –this time, he was going to die.

Suddenly the material covering Aizen began to fall apart. His hair was longer now, and his eyes were purple with grey sclera.

"Captain Aizen..." Ichimaru began.

"Yes," Aizen said. "It would seem that the chrysalis stage has ended. How fortuitous –now I can watch the demise of Soul Society with my own eyes."

The Senkaimon opened, connecting the world of the living with the Soul Society. Before Aizen went through, though, he had to turn and taunt Ichigo.

"I will leave you here," he said. "Devouring you can wait until all is said and done."

The Garganta slammed shut behind the two traitors.

Ichigo could only kneel as the blood poured from the wound in his chest. He had never felt this helpless. He remembered Byakuya's words, just before he had left Hueco Mundo –that as a Substitute Soul Reaper, his true duty was to protect Karakura Town. He had failed.

He didn't hear his father calling his name as he finally recovered from Aizen's attack. As he started to lose consciousness, his father caught him before he could hit the ground; only a few paces away, a boy appeared through a Garganta.

Elsewhere in Fake Karakura...

Starrk could sense them –they had come through not just one, but four Garganta. They were moving around rather quickly, and he almost could not detect their reiatsu. It was almost as though they were purposefully limiting it. If not for a few glimpses that he stole of them as they crept around the battle-field, he wouldn't have thought that anyone was there.

"What should we do, Starrk?" Lilynette asked as he returned his powers back into the form of the girl now standing at his side. Starrk was curious, but since they weren't attacking him or Harribel, he didn't see a problem with leaving them alone.

He kept an eye on the one nearest him, though. And when he said an eye, he meant only one eye –the other was shut in the vain attempt of catching a few winks without being obvious about it. All he wanted to do right now was sleep.

The one nearest him was a girl, a mask fragment covering the complete lower half of the left side of her face, running just below her eye before it ran down the side of her cheek in an curve, creating almost fang-shaped fragment.

And her spiritual pressure was weird. It was suppressed, just like that of all the others, but there was an odd mix that even a fool could pick up on. At first call, going with what he could see of her face, he would have said that she was an Arrancar, but her spiritual pressure felt much more like that of a Soul Reaper. It was strange.

Apparently Wonderweiss Margela didn't have the same wait-and-see-and-let-them-make-the-first-move attitude that the two Espada were taking. Picking up his zanpakuto from where it was lying on the ground, he charged at the girl. She spun around from where she had been crouching over the white-haired Captain that Wonderweiss had impaled before, a slither of steel whipping out from her belt.

The two blades pressed against each other, reiatsu flaring as she removed a bracelet around her wrist. Wonderweiss had more of a sword over the girl's dao, the sealed form of his power as long as his body. Then the girl released more spiritual energy, and Wonderweiss was send flying backwards from a wall of grey spiritual pressure. He began charging a purple Cero, but the girl reacted with a burst of sonido, drawing alongside him rather than following him. He didn't have time to react before he was kicked in the stomach and sent flying into a building. The Cero hadn't been completely charged when he was forced to release it, and sailed right past his oncoming assailant, who just happened to put in a flashy spin in mid-air.

The girl began to generate a burst of crackling yellow energy in the centre of her palm, using the energy to draw a inverted yellow triangle. The triangle generated solidified energy in the shape of triangles from the three points of the inverted triangle. Wonderweiss watched with child-like fascination. Starrk recognised it –he had seen one of Barragan's Fracciones pinned by it by a Soul Reaper Captain.

"Bakudo Number 30 –Shitotsu Sansen," the girl said. The hooked projectiles flew from the corners and slammed into his body, holding his arms and waist.

Apparently satisfied with her work, she left the pinned Arrancar, moving away to complete whatever it was she was doing and pulling the bracelet she had removed just before their swords clashed from her pocket. Starrk watched fascinated despite himself –that was a Soul Reaper spell, and yet she had used an Arrancar's sonido so effortlessly.

Wonderweiss screamed his banshee-screech again, and the Kido was shattered. The girl whipped around as he came at her again. Previously, she had been willing to let him get away without any pain; but now the charity was off. He was coming at her as an enemy, so he was going to get treated like one. She easily dodged his Bala with a sonido, and was suddenly close enough to lay two of her fingers directly on his throat.

"Hado number 4, Byakurai," she said. A stream of concentrated lightning buzzed through the air from her index finger, entering Wonderweiss' throat at point-blank range. His voice died and his eyes widened as he dropped like a rock.

The girl's eyes followed him until he impacted with the ground, wary of another crazy attack from the Arrancar. When none came, she finally sheathed her Zanpakuto.

Curiosity overcoming his surprise at just what she was, Starrk decided to approach her directly. He used sonido to appear in front of her as she walked away, sliding the bracelet back on and limiting her reiatsu. For a moment, he thought he saw a flicker of surprise, but then it was gone and replaced by a look of indifference. But she was on guard –her hand was drifting back towards her Zanpakuto, ready to draw it.

"State your name," he said. It didn't sound like a demand –he spoke as though he was trying to strike up a conversation. For a long time, she didn't say a word and merely looked at him, and he thought that she wouldn't answer him. He looked at her face, taking in her brunette curls that reached her shoulders and her blue-grey eyes.

Then, of course, she had to answer his question. And she said the one word that would throw his world upside-down.

"My name is Rika," was all it took to actually shook Starrk. He had been planning on capturing her, of giving her to Lord Aizen when he returned, but the word froze him in his tracks and his world seemed to spin as he was yanked into the past...

The woman who had ended his loneliness for some time was lying on the futon that had been made for her; there was another woman, with dark skin and purple hair, quickly leaving them alone in the room. A gentle smile that reached all the way to her orange-red eyes lit her face as she tried to sit up. A hand –his hand –was helping the female Soul Reaper. And lying beside her were the three new-born cubs, his offspring, four girls and two boys.

"Which was first-born?" he asked, eyeing the new litter. He had his spiritual pressure suppressed, determined not to lose his mate and litter from just being near them.

Lilynette was not so restrained –she gazed down at the new-borns, delicate mask fragments already forming on their small faces at so young an age, reflecting their mixed heritage. She had been pestering Starrk for a long time, wondering what her relationship would be to them. Finally, Starrk had told her that she was their big sister.

His lover held the girl in her arms.

"We'll call her Rika," his mate said. "That way, you'll always find your way to our home."

It had been years since that day –over sixty years if he had counted the days and nights right. He took a closer look at the girl –only to find that she was rising higher and higher into the sky. There was a pulsing white field surrounding her –a Negacion. But this was different from other Negacion he had seen.

He raised a hand to touch the border of the field surrounding the girl, but he jerked his hand away before he could make contact. This Negacion felt almost sacred, as though lesser Hollows were not welcome anywhere near it.

The Negacion wasn't the only one activated, he noticed. And she wasn't the only one riding within the protected barrier that cut her off from enemies; the body of the white-haired Captain was lying on the ground beside her. He noticed that one of the Negacion was lifting the injured Kurosaki boy into the air, his orange hair clearly visible.

Lord Aizen would not be too impressed when he heard about that, he thought with a sigh. He looked over at Wonderweiss who had somehow found the strength to stand, the damage beginning to slowly repair itself, and stare up at the Negacion. Well, at least he was alive.

The Garganta that had opened to receive the escaping combatants slammed shut; it was as though they had never been there.

Las Noches, Hueco Mundo

The boy darted through the remains of red columns that had been reduced to little more than rubble as a result of several brutal battles between Aizen's Espada and those who had invaded the fortress. All of the Espada below Third had been eliminated and the Cero was lying dying after being locked in battle with two Soul Reaper Captains for hours.

The Squad 12 Captain sat on the side of a building, no doubt pondering all the experiments he could carry out on the massive Espada's corpse.

Kurotsuchi caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye, a figure darting from the shadow of one ruined building to the next. Curious, he watched the trail of what he suspected was another Arrancar until the boy darted across a wide stretch of unsheltered white sand, skidding to a halt in front of Renji Abarai, Rukia Kuchiki and the humans that had accompanied the Substitute to the desert realm of the Hollows.

The boy had raven-black hair that fell past his shoulders, messy and seemingly uncombed. One of his eyes was covered by a patch while the other blazed an bizarre orange-red hue. He wasn't wearing a Shihakkusho of either white or black, and now that he had stopped, his spiritual pressure seemed similar to that of a Soul Reaper.

Kurotsuchi was just getting to his feet, with the intention of capturing and experimenting on the boy to take heed to the fact that he was earnestly talking with the Soul Reapers and humans. As he moved in on his target, the boy turned to see him coming.

Suddenly, as the gap closed, they were enveloped by a square of pulsing white light, sealing Kurotsuchi off from his intended victim. It was as they rose into the sky that the Hollow-dog that the boy had picked up on his way past the huge corpse poked its head out from under his shirt. It barked its farewell to its former master's corpse and its old home.

The Real Karakura Town, several minutes later...

Aizen was meandering the streets of Karakura Town, taking his time as he chased down the humans who were awake in the otherwise sleeping town. They were somewhere, on the run, one of the humans so desperate he had taken a Soul Reaper's sword –moments before the said Soul Reaper had taken it back and released it. The boy was amusing, but nowhere enough strength to be a real threat.

Within the boundaries of the town, a woman with dark skin, light lavender hair and grey eyes flash-stepped over the rooftops. She had two girls from her class at school under her arms –Yuzu and Karin Kurosaki. Now she was trying to locate those on the run from Aizen.

She had hoped that she would have more time –more time to find them before Aizen arrived, even that she would have more time before Aizen found them. Given the severity of the situation, she realised that had been a mistake.

And there they were, running at break-neck speed while Aizen paced behind them, enjoying the pursuit as a cat chases down a mouse. This was all a game to Aizen. She leapt forward, darting ahead and pulling them into an alley when they neared her.

"Kato-sensei?" Keigo asked. He didn't understand any of this –it was far beyond anything he had seen before. It was far beyond seeing Soul Reapers and Arrancar brawling in a life-and-death fight in the streets, or when he had seen Ichigo, Uryu and Chad leap through a black rip in space in an area below a candy-stores' floor. "What's going on?"

"No time right now," she replied. She could feel the oppressive spirit energy beginning to bear down on them. The students stared as an odachi with a black cloth hilt materialized in their sensei's hands. "Just stay down here and out of the way."

She stepped out of the alleyway, ready to meet Aizen.

Aizen had not been expecting to find another Soul Reaper here, much less this particular one. It took him a moment to place the face, but that was only because she had not been in the Soul Society for over two hundred years. A smirk played across his face.

"And what brings a member of the Royal Special Task Force down here?" he asked. "Well, Howell Kato?"

Howell remained silent, trying to come up with a better tactic than just standing there. She was well aware of Aizen's abilities, the way he had manipulated hundreds of Soul Reapers before his treachery was discovered. It had been in the report that had reached the Royal Guards, sent by the Head Captain, along with the news that the Central 46 had been slain.

The stand-off was shattered when a glass bottle went spinning past Howell's head, aimed for Aizen. It dissolved into a thousand ashes before it even got close to its target. Aizen watched the space where the bottle had been for a few more seconds –he had detected a small amount of spiritual pressure contained within the object lobed at him in such a crude manner.

He vanished in the blink of an eye, appearing in front of the humans. But before he could swing his sword down on Keigo, Howell was there, trapping his blade beneath hers. The humans did the most sensible thing –they ran from the colliding spiritual pressures.

She could sense Gin Ichimaru nearby –he hadn't moved a muscle to attack her or the humans who were running while she was preoccupied with Aizen. In fact, Ichimaru was leaning up against the wall of a nearby building, that grin never faltering for an instant. Howell knew that she couldn't activate the Puro Negaccion with Aizen so close –it would take an instant to activate. If Aizen came at them in that second, it would take him with them. She needed some form of distraction.

Aizen was moving in, raising his weapon again, when Ichimaru decided to intervene. He suddenly appeared between the two, facing Howell and only inches from Aizen's sword.

"Gin, what do you think you're doing?" Aizen asked. Howell watched as Ichimaru wrapped his hand around the blade of Kyoga Suigetsu for a moment before turning back to look at Aizen, drawing his Zanpakuto.

"I'm going to finish this," Ichimaru said. "Slay them, Shinso."

Howell was fully expecting Shinso to pierce through her chest, but the exact opposite happened. Gin's zanpakuto lodged itself in Aizen's chest.

" Gin..." Aizen said. "What is this?"

"The only way to escape Kyoka Suigetsu's power is to touch your sword before you activate its hypnosis," Gin revealed, aware of the audience. "How many years did it take to get you to tell me that?" he pondered before shrugging. "No one else in the Court Guard Squads knows that. Yet they all thought that they could kill you. It was exciting to watch. But I am the only one who can kill you."

He withdrew his blade from Aizen.

"I knew," Aizen said, clutching his bleeding chest. "I knew what you were after, yet I brought you with me. I was curious to see how you would try to take my life..Unfortunately, Gin, you cannot kill me this easily."

"I didn't think I could," Gin said, holding up his zanpakuto. Kato, as well as Aizen, saw that there was a fraction of the blade missing. "Do you see this? It's missing a bit. That's because...I left that piece inside you."

"What?" Aizen asked.

"Long ago, I told you about my Bankai, didn't I?" Gin said, more of a statement than a question. "I'm sorry, but that was all a lie. It does not extend as far as I said, nor as fast as I said. it just turns to dust for an instant when I extend or retract it. And the inside of the blade contains a poison that can destroy your very cells."

Howell's breath left in a hiss as she listened in on the conversation –Gin had been planning to turn on Aizen from the beginning.

"I see you understand," Ichimaru continued. "When I pierced you with my sword, I left a small piece of it inside your heart.

Aizen was angry –it was clear in his eyes. "Gin!" was all he had to say.

"If you have something to say, you'd better say it soon. Though no matter how quick you are, you will still die."

He placed a hand on Aizen's chest. "Kill Kamishiniyari."

A gaping hole immediately began to appear in Aizen's chest, with the Hōgyoku floating the middle. Aizen cursed Gin.

"It has been my long held wish to see you with a hole in your chest," was Ichimaru's only response as he took the orb, as Aizen fell to his knees and Ichimaru disappeared with the Hogyoku.

Howell hadn't been expecting such an opening, but she sure as hell wasn't going to waste it. She activated the Puro Negaccion the moment that she caught up with the kids, taking the humans and the valuable information that Ichimaru had provided with her.

Just as the Negaccion was about to seal shut, she felt Aizen's spiritual pressure flair. The most unnerving thing she noticed was that she couldn't sense Aizen's spiritual pressure anymore –his power was far beyond her spiritual range.