Nowhere to Run
By Spunky0ne
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After the quincy war, Ichigo and Uryu are abducted by the remains of the quincy army. Imprisoned in the shadows, they struggle to find a way out as rescuers fight to reach them. Ichigo/Uryu, Bazz-B/Haschwald, Grimmjow/Tetsuya, Renji/Byakuya...mpreg
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Chapter 1: Lost
Ichigo woke to an onslaught of horrid, stinging pains that seemed to radiate all over his slashed and burned body. He was sure that if he could have opened his eyes, he would only have found his skin nearly shredded away, and what was left must be burnt to a crisp. His head and back ached so fiercely he could feel tears leaking from his closed eyes and his heart still pounded from the adrenaline that had been surging through him all through the long battle.
Did we win?
He remembered then, seeing a flash of radiant light where Uryu had appeared suddenly as he and Ywach had prepared to clash for the last time. He hadn't looked as the sea of arrows took flight. He knew well that all that mattered was reaching Ywach. If Uryu's arrows flew at the quincy king, they would only help him in his efforts, and if they flew at him, they would make sure he didn't live to regret having failed Soul Society and all the friends whose lives depended on him winning.
I have to win...
I have to win...
I have to...
What happened when our powers collided?
Slowly, his awareness faded and he was unhearing as footsteps approached and several figures draped in white reached the place where he laid. Their faces were carefully masked and they immediately set powerful barriers to hold back the remaining shinigamis rushing to reach the ones in the palace. They took their time then, searching the rubble thoroughly.
"I have found Kurosaki Ichigo!" one of the searchers shouted.
Several more joined the one who had called out, and they dug the injured man's damaged body out of the rubble, then loaded him onto a stretcher. The group looked up as a heavy barrage of kido blasts struck the barrier, but as soon as they were sure it would hold, they turned their attention back to the search.
"Over here!" called another searcher.
The searchers not assigned to bearing Ichigo's stretcher hurried over to him. Their hands dug into the debris, pushing and shoving bits aside and hewing out the area around a second trapped body.
"Commander Haschwald!" one of the men gasped as the ragged lengths of blonde hair became visible, "His life signs are barely readable. Take him back into the shadows immediately and place him on life support!"
The group found only a few traces of Ywach's ruined body, but dutifully collected them and bound them into a sealed mahogany box. They made a final survey of the room and were about to leave, when near the leader of the group, a muffled groan sounded, somewhere underneath a fallen white pillar.
"Quickly!" the leader hissed, focusing his power on the downed column and firing a blast of carefully aimed reiatsu.
The pillar shimmered fitfully, then flashed with bright light and dissolved, leaving a shower of dust that rained down on the huddled form that had been trapped beneath it. The injured quincy they found surged to his feet, limping badly as he backed away from them.
"Don't come near me!" he warned them, "I'll...!"
"Ishida Uryu," the leader of the rescue group said sternly, "You have been badly injured. You need to come with us for healing. Whatever your loyalties, I think you should give up before you are damaged beyond our ability to heal."
The quincies flinched and stared as another huge blast struck their protective barrier.
"If you think you will receive mercy from the shinigamis, Ishida Uryu, think again! They might forgive Kurosaki Ichigo for his quincy blood, but you were witnessed firing at the others. They will kill you on sight."
The rescue group moved forward and Uryu stepped back, gasping in dismay as his bow flickered and began to fade. The quincies closed in on him as yet another blast struck the barrier. Uryu's chest heaved and sweat broke out on his forehead.
"Get back!" he warned them, "Don't touch me!"
Another blast struck the barrier, making a loud cracking noise as it started to break apart.
"Uryu!"
Uryu took a stinging breath, his eyes rounding as he spotted the approaching shinigamis through the crack in the barrier. They drew back to strike a final time, and this time the barrier fell.
"GO!" cried the leader of the rescue group, "I'll bring him!"
Time seemed to slow as Uryu tried to race past the quincy that was closing in on him, heading for the staircase beyond him. The man grabbed him around the waist, subduing him with a shock of malevolent reiatsu as the first of the shinigamis entered the room.
"Well, lookie what we have here!" shouted Zaraki Kenpachi, "A barrel of quincies! Don't get in my way, I'm bringin'em down!"
"They're opening the way into the shadows!" Byakuya warned his comrades, "Don't let them get inside."
The group of shinigamis charged as the quincy rescue force retreated, leaving behind three masked officers to face the onslaught. Blinding light erupted all around the destroyed chamber as the three quincies, four shinigamis and a blue haired Espada loosed their power on each other. The power exploded forcefully, throwing bodies in all directions. In the frightening chaos, Quincies, shinigamis and Espada crashed wildly into debris, into walls, and in some cases, into each other.
The quincy holding Uryu lost his grip as he fell, then screamed as Kenpachi's blade sliced him almost in half. A second quincy dragged himself to Uryu's collapsed body and dragged him towards where the others were disappearing into the shadows.
"Close the way! They're coming!" another quincy shouted.
"No, wait for me! I have Ishida!" cried the one holding onto Uryu.
He scrambled forward, pursued by a badly limping Grimmjow and Renji's skeletal snake. He barely made it into the opening behind the others, as the shinigami team reached them and fired a final furious volley of blistering attacks.
The chamber shook forcefully and power roared around the combatants. Noise and vibration disoriented all of them for a moment, then they heard an odd screeching sound, then a rending hiss. The light of the chamber and their clashing power seemed to be sucked away, and the combatants fell into the dark abyss that seemed to swallow them. All sound died away as they were hurtled through the blackness and into the shadows. One by one they crashed down, haphazardly throughout the area. The impacts jarred the region, shaking several buildings off their foundations and damaging others as hurtling bodies and rubble slammed into them. As the hard impacts ended, silence and cold returned to the shadow demesnes.
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Deep within the shadows ruled by the quincies, a white clad officer with cruel green eyes glared down at the bound and blindfolded shinigami stretched out on the table in front of him and extended his hands, gathering reiatsu and preparing to strike.
"Kuchiki Tetsuya," he said sternly to his captive, "I am Officer Arnell of the Sternritters. We know who you are, and that you were guarding the escape route for the Kuchiki women and children when you were captured. You know the coordinates of the evacuation compound. I want those coordinates now."
Tetsuya stiffened and said nothing, steeling himself for the punishment he knew would follow the demand. He screamed in agony as the officer struck him with a heavy shock of reiatsu. The quincy intensified the reiatsu, making Tetsuya cry out louder, but earning no actual words. He left off, giving the reeling shinigami time both to catch his breath and to reconsider his lack of cooperation.
"Resistance is useless, Tetsuya," Arnell said coldly, "We will find them anyway. You needn't die just being stubborn. Give us the coordinates and we will return you to your cell and bargain with the shinigamis for your release. You are only going to die if you continue to resist."
Tetsuya panted harshly, still trying to regain his breath. Arnell waited a few moments, then shocked Tetsuya's restrained form again, tearing another agonized howl from deep in his chest.
"This is pointless," Arnell scolded him, "You will accomplish nothing but a needless and very painful death by resisting. Give in and give us the coordinates, before it is too late!"
He jolted Tetsuya's tasked body with reiatsu, watching him writhe and cry out. He didn't ask again, but followed that attack with another, then another. He readied himself to continue, but paused as a roaring seemed to fill the air around him and then several hard impacts rocked the area.
As the last impact sounded, the wall of the chamber broke apart, sending debris crashing into the table Tetsuya laid on and sending toppling over onto the surprised quincy. Rock rained down and Arnell screamed as it began to bury him. Torn free of the table, Tetsuya lurched to his feet, escaping the dying quincy's grasping hands. He staggered into the ruined passageway and squeezed through a section of broken wall, tumbling out into the darkness and stumbling among the buildings, seeking a place to hide.
I don't know how to get out of the shadows they brought me into. I have to conceal myself and then attempt to learn how they travel in and out of the shadows.
He pressed up against the side of one of the buildings as a group of soldats ran by, then ducked down and worked at the reiatsu suppressing bands his captors had placed on his wrists. Unable to remove them, he instead moved on, using the darkness for cover as he searched for refuge. He came upon a heavily damaged building and spotted a huddled, blue haired figure, half buried in the rubble. Moving forward cautiously, he studied the unconscious being, quickly realizing, first, that the man was a hollow, and secondly, that he knew that hollow.
Word came from Urahara-san about several Espadas and humans who were our allies in the war...a small female named Neliel and a blue haired hollow named Grimmjow.
He studied the hollow for a moment longer, then concluded that he couldn't be completely sure. But as the man was unconscious and enemies were moving closer, he dragged the hollow into a dark corner and used the very small amount of healing power he could manage with his bonds still suppressing his reiatsu to bring the hollow awake.
Tetsuya shivered as the hollow growled and quivered, then opened his eyes and fixed them on him.
"Who are you?" the hollow demanded, "You're a shinigami. How did you get in here?"
"I was taken in the conflict and imprisoned here," Tetsuya explained, "I am Kuchiki Tetsuya."
"Grimmjow," the hollow introduced himself, crouching next to Tetsuya and looking out at where a group of quincy guards was searching the rubble Tetsuya had rescued him from, "Thanks for getting me out of there."
"Don't thank me yet," Tetsuya said softly, "We still have to figure out how to escape these shadows."
"I already know," Grimmjow said shortly, "We have to follow one of them when they open the way and go through. We can't open the way because only quincies or one of those crazy scientists can do that. But we have a bigger problem."
"What is that?" Tetsuya asked.
"Just before I crashed down out there, I saw those bastards take Kurosaki and that Ishida boy," Grimmjow informed him, "We can't let them keep those two. There's a rumor that the quincies could use them to bring Ywach back!"
"Very well, I will help you," Tetsuya offered, "Just remove the bonds on my wrists so that I can use my powers. I can conceal us from their eyes."
Grimmjow struck the bands with his reiatsu, shattering them and setting Tetsuya's restrained powers free.
"Thank you," Tetsuya said gratefully.
"Don't thank me yet," Grimmjow chuckled, "We still have to find those two and find a way to escape. Do you know where they might take a couple of important prisoners?"
"I think so," Tetsuya answered, "They held me in a special set of cells because I have knowledge they wanted."
"Oh? What kind of knowledge?"
Tetsuya gazed at him warily and gave no answer.
"All right, keep your secrets. I was just asking," the hollow chided him, "Which way?"
Tetsuya nodded and pointed back in the direction he had come.
"We need to go that way. But be careful," Tetsuya warned him, "There were several devastating impacts earlier."
"Eh, that was me and a bunch of allies and enemies getting thrown all over after assaulting the palace."
"You reached the palace?" Tetsuya asked urgently, "Did you see Byakuya-sama?"
"Kuchiki Byakuya?" Grimmjow asked, "Yeah, he was there. So were Kuchiki Rukia, Abarai Renji and a few others. But we got thrown all over the shadows here, so it's anyone's guess where they ended up. They might have come down in the wreckage at the palace, or they might have been sucked in here like I was."
"But if they're here, I must find them!" Tetsuya said, looking around.
"Take it easy. Don't go off half-cocked," Grimmjow warned him, "This place is going to be crawling with guards for a while. Let's get out of sight and wait for the excitement to die down."
"I think you're right," Tetsuya admitted regretfully.
"Come on!" Grimmjow snapped, pulling him forward.
"Wait," Tetsuya said urgently, "Let me make it harder for them to see us."
He summoned a blue steel blade to his hand, then whispered a command that left Grimmjow staring appreciatively as their bodies seemed to lose their color and fade into the darkness.
"This is a waterform that I use for stealth," Tetsuya explained, "Try not to step into direct light or you can be seen. If the form is hit once, it will just shatter, but if you are hit twice before it can break, you will be injured."
"Sounds like a perfect power for getting us in where we need to go," Grimmjow said approvingly, "But we need to move now. Those guys have reiatsu lights and will be searching every nook and cranny. We need to get clear of here. Lead the way."
Tetsuya nodded and stepped forward, angling away from the approaching guards and slipping back through the broken wall he had used as an escape route. The two took refuge in an unoccupied holding cell.
"This is just the area of their prison that they use for interrogations and torture," Tetsuya whispered.
"I won't ask how you learned that," Grimmjow said, sounding oddly sympathetic as he observed the heavy bruising on Tetsuya's comely face and partially exposed shoulder.
"You don't want to know," Tetsuya agreed ruefully, "There is a set of guards at the entrance. We must subdue them and steal the keys to get to the next level underneath this one. That is where they keep the most valuable prisoners. Ichigo-san and Ishida-san may have been taken there."
"There's someone else who might be there too," Grimmjow said softly, "If she is, we need to free her also."
"Who is that?" Tetsuya asked.
"Harribel Tier, the governor of Hueco Mundo."
"The Third Espada?" Tetsuya mused, "She is a comrade of yours? A friend?"
"Well, kinda," Grimmjow said, giving Tetsuya a feisty grin, "but it's not so much friendship that makes me want to find her and get her out."
"Oh?" Tetsuya inquired, "Then...?"
"See, it's like this. After her, I'm the next most powerful Espada left alive, except for Neliel, who doesn't want at all to lead. I don't want to be in charge of things either. So the only out Nel and I have is to return Tier to power."
"Oh," Tetsuya said, looking amused, "by all means then, we'll find her."
"Good," said Grimmjow, "Let's go!"
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Byakuya sat quietly, resting with his back against a surviving section of the palace wall, while Hanatarou knelt in front of him, extending his hands and slowly erasing the damage to the sixth division taichou. A few yards away, Isane knelt beside the unconscious Zaraki Kenpachi near where Shunsui stood with the recovering zero squad.
"We will take care of restoring the palace and seating the new king," Ichibei said, looking around at the damage and frowning, "We will fortify the area against invasion, but it will fall to the Gotei 13 to find a way into the shadows to recover or kill Kurosaki Ichigo and Ishida Uryu."
"Did you say recover or kill?" Shunsui asked unhappily.
"Regretfully, yes," Ichibei answered, "As much as they were the ones who stopped Ywach, they are also the ones the enemy can use to revive their dead king. I don't know the exact method, but I do know it exists, and that will be their first and most important move upon returning to the shadows. You must prevent them from reviving Ywach at all costs...even if that means killing those young men."
"Well," Shunsui said, reaching up and scratching the back of his neck, "Most of my strongest officers are injured or incapacitated..."
Byakuya looked down at his left hand, turning it over and opening it to reveal a broken shard of Abarai Renji's skeletal snake.
"I will go," he said solemnly, making the others' heads turn to look at him, "I will lead the mission into the shadows."
"Do you think you will be able to find a way in, now that their gate closed?" Shunsui asked, looking doubtful.
"I will find a way," Byakuya promised, closing his hand around the bit of Renji's bankai again, "no matter what it takes."
