Happy Birthday, Sousuke-san!
Yes, that's right, today our beloved villain celebrates... what exactly? Some three hundred years?
Anyway, this is my little present for Aizen for being so amazingly badass, ridiculously handsome and able to cope with all of them for this long without getting seriously pissed off... we gemini are like that, five or more personalities in one body - completely normal thing.
Also since the fact, that he's not dead practically screams: "Hey guys, I'm coming back!" I figured until that happens I might as well let him have some fun while he's stuck in prison. Remember goldens at the end of HM episodes? Aizen managed to forget what happened half a year ago, I suppose being locked up for so long makes one's memory rusty ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of the characters (shame really) and I don't make money from writing this, it's just fun. And no warnings this time, maybe except spoilers up to the end of HM arc... no implications to shock the audience or anything, just a simple K-rated fic :)
One more thing to add, I'm slowly moving to LiveJournal with all my fics here. If you wish you can just find me there under Jolinar773 :)
As usual, leave reviews, suggestions, opinions... anything!
GEMINI
Darkness. Thick and impenetrable, even time dared not reach this deep into the 8th prison, "Avici". Or perhaps it did, however there was nobody left to pay any attention to its endless flow. Nobody left to care anymore.
Soft sigh echoed through the small holding cell, eyes cracked open though it did not make much difference, searching for the dark outline of the way out.
It may have been years as well as whole centuries since the day these heavy doors were barred behind him. To keep him here, where there wasn't a single cone of light to remind him that there was still a whole world out there. He did not mind; could no longer bring himself to. Every emotion he might have once possessed had long since gone, leaving only black, fathomless void residing in a husk of what once may have been a noble soul.
Or maybe not every emotion.
Deftly, hand reached to the still-heaving chest, feeling a low pulse of something alive, but sealed away. Long fingers gripped the hem of a simple, pure-white kimono where it slept underneath the fabric. He could still feel something, though he did not know how to describe it. Perhaps the best way to call it would be the feeling of someone who had lost everything.
His hand dropped to his side again, unseeing eyes hid behind closed eyelids once more. And slowly, his mind drifted away. Falling deep into the abyss of unconsciousness, it felt like a blissful release from a terrible existence.
There was a sound of water dripping with a soft plop somewhere nearby. It had not struck him as odd at first, until he realized that was the only sound he had heard since being locked up.
At once he opened his eyes, finding himself standing, bare-footed, in a corridor lined with human-sized mirrors. The splashing of water came from beneath his feet when he looked down, seeing his own reflection on the surface, disturbed by ripples spreading from where he stepped. He recognized this place as one would recognize something they had lost long ago, feeling the familiarity, but unable to remember.
"What are you doing here?" came out a voice, smooth and deep -not unlike his own- though distorted, as if carried by the very essence of this place.
He did not answer, only whirled about, searching for its source. But wherever he looked, he could only see himself.
"You are not welcome." it sounded again, now tinted with anger and pain. "Leave."
There did not seem to be anyone else there with him, however the strangely nostalgic feeling of this place compelled him to open his mouth and speak. He did not know if he would be able to, even if he tried. How long has it been since he had last used his voice?
Tentatively, full lips parted and a strangled sound scraped through sore, unused throat. Then again, forming into a hoarse almost-whisper. "Where am I?"
Instead of an immediate answer, one of his reflections moved closer, its edges blurred and somewhat distorted. Though it still looked very much like him with chocolate hair reaching to its shoulders, messy and falling over narrowed eyes only a shade lighter and round pale, handsome face, there was something about it he could not quite indentify.
"I said leave!" its lips moved, eyes flared and one of the opposite mirrors shattered to pieces.
He covered his head with his arms to avoid any stray shards, and when he looked up it was once again to his own reflection, confused and perplexed just as he was.
"You have no right to be here, Aizen Sousuke." this time the reflection on the far side of the corridor spoke, moving through mirror to mirror until it stood at his side. "Leave now or I will make you. And do not return, until you remember my name-"
"Kyouka." the word left Aizen's lips before it even formed in his mind. "Kyouka Suigetsu." it sounded so right; he felt like he could become whole again.
The look on the zanpakutou's face was proof enough that he was correct. Eyes, the color of milk-chocolate dilated in shock for just a blink of an eye, before teeth bared in frustration and the mirror shattered. This time, however, the former shinigami stood tall and unmoving.
Long, emerald garments flowed weightlessly along slender body, whirling round ankles as the manifestation of Kyouka Suigetsu stepped out. No ripples spread from where his feet touched the glossy water surface, like he wasn't even there. Black eyes looked straight into Aizen's chocolate ones from beneath strands of ivory hair. There was a single lotus flower tugged behind his right ear.
"Very well, perhaps I could give you another chance." the zanpakutou spoke, smirk adorning thin lips.
He raised his hands, holding a small round mirror that transformed into a fine sword the moment he did so. Kyouka's fingers firmly wrapped around its emerald handle, the tip pointing into Aizen Sousuke's expressionless mien.
"Kudakero, Kyouka Suigetsu." he said only and disappeared, leaving Aizen standing at a crossroads, surrounded once again by mirrors showing only his own reflection.
"If you can find a way out of the maze, I shall lend you my power once more." the zanpakutou's disembodied voice carried through the air. "If not, then this is the last time we meet."
Aizen opened his mouth. This wasn't why he had come here. Truth be told, he didn't even know where 'here' was precisely. His head hurt a little, making it very hard to concentrate, the only thing on his mind being the endless time spent in eternal darkness. Perhaps if he plays along, he will get some answers?
With no other real option left anyway, curiosity insistently pushing him forward, he moved through the corridors, slowly, turning corners only to find everything looking exactly the same. It was at the first dead end, when he saw images projecting within the mirrors. Memories of his own life he never realized he had lost.
Since the day he was born, his strength was superior and growing up among nobility made things even easier. Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hohou, Kidou... while others of his age learned to specialize in one or two of these different aspects of combat, he strived to master them all. Academy library, endless hours of training to achieve perfection became his only companions. But whenever he reached one goal, his ambitions drove him further. And before he knew it, the rest of the shinigami gradually fell behind, until he reached so far beyond their abilities, anyone could no longer measure up to him.
They couldn't understand him. The real Aizen Sousuke.
It was then when he discovered the truth, while digging further still, hungry for knowledge. And what he witnessed frightened and outraged him. At that moment he thought only he could make a difference, because nobody else seemed to care. Perhaps they were not even aware.
However, he could not do anything all by himself, he knew that much.
With Ichimaru Gin, he gained a valuable ally as well as a possible threat that forced him to stay vigilant, watch for Shinsou stabbing him in the back. And due to Kaname Tousen's condition, there were no other options than to turn him to the cause. It wasn't very difficult, that man's ridiculous sense of justice saved Sousuke a lot of trouble.
Research of the Hogyoku; experimenting with hollowification without it... there was always something missing. And then Urahara Kisuke came along and Aizen realized the man's raw potential. However, the 12th Division captain proved to be more of a liability than an asset to his plans. Liability that needed to be disposed of.
It was necessary, he told himself as he walked among the mirrors, edges of panic gripping his otherwise calm, levelled mind ever so slowly as he began to remember.
Since then he still kept searching. Wished to find the complete Hogyoku Urahara had created and years later, he finally succeeded. But together with it, he found something equally interesting - a child born of human and shinigami, who possessed the kind of power to perhaps one day rival his own. However for the longest time the boy was just another experiment, and though he matured splendidly into a shinigami far beyond any of the captains of the Gotei 13, it still wasn't enough.
Even after so many disappointments, however, knowing the Hogyoku had to be the only answer after all; Aizen still had not given up hope. He tried, prodded and whispered ideas into other people's heads. Making them question their beliefs in the way things worked, wishing for someone to realize what he had realized so long ago. But nobody did. And so he furthered his plans, proceeded with ruthless efficiency, doing what had to be done before eventually lifting the veil ever so slightly at the top of the Sokyoku Hill, where he claimed the Hogyoku for his own at last. Because there was nobody else, who could bear the burden of truth in his stead. He wouldn't be able to trust anyone else with it.
However, there was no way of knowing where his actions would lead him in the end. Unawares, he had lost his way during the following months; perhaps even before that. His mind consumed by ambition and the iron will of that little thing he had so foolishly taken into his own body in order to reach his goal, while the deepest desires of his heart were shut away, even he himself had forgotten about them. However they could not stay hidden forever.
Aizen Sousuke remembered now clearly, as he stared into another dead end. There, within the mirror memories of the last few minutes of his freedom played out, so vivid as if it happened only yesterday.
Gin's betrayal and the final end he met at the end of Kyouka Suigetsu's blade. It hurt just the tiniest bit, for he could never think of anyone else the way he did about Ichimaru. The silver-haired man with ever-present, face-splitting smile was after all the closest thing to what one would call a kindred spirit.
Perhaps it had turned out for the best, though. Enabled him to stretch the boundaries between shinigami and hollow ever further. Immortality. Invincibility.
Or so Aizen believed back then, when he thought he could already feel the sweet taste of victory.
'You've lost, Kurosaki Ichigo.' he heard his own voice say into the defiant eyes of an orange-haired boy kneeling within the mirror. 'The Hogyoku decided that I do not require a zanpakuto!'
But he did not remember saying such a thing. His legs moved on their own as he made a step back, though unable to avert his eyes from Kyouka Suigetsu slowly dissolving before him. What was he doing? What was he thinking? This could not have been true... it could not...
'Urahara Kisuke, I despise you! Why does a man of your intellect sit idle? Why do you allow yourself to be controlled by that thing?' at these words he finally began to understand, even before he heard Urahara's quiet response.
'You mean the Spirit King? The Spirit King is a lynchpin. If the lynchpin is lost, then it will all easily crumble.' grey-green eyes fixed into his own. 'That's the way the world is.'
"That's the logic of a loser!" Aizen mouthed together with his past self, recalling the events that preceded his imprisonment now with every detail. "A winner must always think of how the world should be."
He was such an idiot. And still remained an idiot when the Central 46 sentenced him to twenty thousand years in "Avici". Yes, the Hogyoku ultimately granted him the deepest desires of his heart in its own twisted way - to find someone equal to himself; to become just an ordinary shinigami.
But at what cost?
Aizen's knees gave way and he dropped to the rippling water surface beneath. His head tilted up, away from the scene of Urahara Kisuke's kidou seal swallowing him whole. And suddenly laughter escaped from his throat, echoing through the deathly silence. He did not know why he felt like this, but he found himself unable to stop it.
His hand reached to his chest, clawing on the skin to rip the Hogyoku out. He no longer cared what would happen to him, he just wanted to be free again. To lift the boulder of stupid, unnecessary responsibility weighing him down once and for all.
It was with a start, he felt a soft touch of fingers against his own, soothing the pain with lover's tenderness. And when chocolate eyes found their owner, they were looking into the face of his zanpakutou, crouched in front of him, holding back Sousuke's hand covered with warm, red blood.
"You decided to forfeit your powers on your own free will." he said, deep sorrow lining his pale features. "You abandoned yourself and thus abandoned me. There was nothing I could do for you anymore back then, Sousuke."
Aizen let himself be hoisted up, something from those long years ago came back in the form of a soft smile adorning his lips, eyes heavy-lided and mind calm once more.
He chuckled softly. "Yes. You are right, of course. I apologize."
Kyouka's ivory brows furrowed slightly. "Apology..." the maze began to dissolve around them. "...accepted."
The sound of an explosion caused Aizen to open his eyes to the darkness around him. He was back, for a moment unsure whether or not this was all a dream. Almost imperceptible caress at the back of his mind, however, reminded him that Kyouka Suigetsu was with him still. He smiled to himself at the same time the fortified door to his cell burst open.
To protect himself against the light that flooded the small room, he raised his arms until his vision adjusted and he could make out an outline of a person against the flames scorching the corridor behind him.
Tall, well-build body swathed in black shihakusho, white haori thrown haphazardly over his shoulders. There was something familiar about him, but it was when he stepped closer that Sousuke recognized him. Strong chin covered with light stubble, features more pronounced as he grew older, but there was no mistaking the fierce, bronze eyes and slightly overgrown, bright orange hair.
"My, my... I would never expect to see you here of all people." Aizen's smile widened; truly fate had a sense of humor. "Kurosaki Ichigo."
The characteristic frown on the now old man's forehead deepened. "Cut the crap, Aizen. Don't think I don't see the irony." he growled, looking behind him for a moment, before a sword appeared in his hand.
He tossed it to the former 5th Division captain, much to Aizen's surprise. "Now c'mon, it's time to get you out of this hellhole."
Here goes :) I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it, while listening to Bleach Rock Musical Saien... which reminds me of a pretty funny scene at the end... like this:
Ichimaru: *walks on a stage after Byakuya, Aizen and Hitsugaya finished their song* "You three did a good job."
Hitsugaya: *angrily strides towards him* "Youre the one I can't forgive!"
Aizen: *with a smirk* "Hitsugaya-kun. Adult shouldn't fall for such provovations."
Ichimaru: *face-splitting grin in place* "But 5th Division captain-san, you're not so good with dancing, are you?"
Aizen: *taking off his glasses and charging at him, pissed*
Hitsugaya: *stops him* "Aizen! Be an adult."
(this is where audience starts laughing their heads off... I did too, but I suppose anyone would when Byakuya keeps frickin' smiling in the background from ear to ear the whole time)