Title: Trepidation

Pairing: HichixIchi

Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns Bleach and its characters

Rating: Um…T? And will eventually go up. Just give me some time.

Warnings: violence, shounen ai, gore in the first few chapters; death, angst, and the characters are a tad OOC.

A/N: First gore…

A thundering crash. A devastating fall. Agonized wails of students exploding from the unexpected eruption of raw nuclear power, reducing them to nothing more than unrecognizable bloody carcasses that fell lifelessly to the incinerated floor.

That's all he remembered before he to fell victim to the explosions wrath.

High school student, Ichigo Kurosaki groaned, fluttering hazed over ocher eyes open before squeezing them back shut as a rolling wave of nausea forced itself upon him. In the middle of the wreckage he lay fairly unharmed besides for the fractured shoulder blade, but unfortunately the same couldn't be said about his classmates who had scattered among the debris due to the power of the explosion.

Cracking an eye open, he gazed at the ruins of his school and town, taking in the condition of the landscape around him. Many of the telephone polls and trees had fallen and crashed into nearby objects, some objects even being a person or two. Windows from shops and other buildings had shattered out and some of the larger windows even managed to impale an unlucky person through the stomach or chest, gravity slowly bringing their own body down the glass spike as it gradually split them in two.

He actually remembered reading something about a so-called 'vampire' whose favorite torture method was to impale someone upon a sharpened wooden stake. The end of the stake was oiled so the victim wouldn't die to quickly, and normally the stake would be inserted into the body through the anus and forced through the body until it emerged through the mouth. However in some other incidents they where also stabbed through the chest or abdomen.

Ichigo actually admired that man for a short period of time, but now, seeing it actually happen in front of his very eyes, he knew this was no admirable deed. It was murder.

Honey eyes narrowed into angry slits as he grabbed at the dirt under his fingers.

He knew it was all gone.

His entire life.

Everything he knew. Obliterated.

It was like a nightmare, but this was something he knew he couldn't awaken from and everything would be okay. This was reality no matter how much he wanted to scream and deny it.

All his life he had been blessed with exceptionally acute senses, so as he lay in despair and was forced by his own body to be informed on every casualty of every person he knew, it seemed more like a curse then anything else.

The fresh smell of blood mixed with smoke. The feeling of the warmth slowly dripping away from each victim, leaving them pale and cold. And then the silence. Not even the whimper of a soul barely clinging to life could be heard. Even the fire that quickly enveloped his town was as silent as the wind.

But suddenly, an angel of hope descended upon him. It wasn't much, but it was still there. A cough. That's all it was. But it didn't matter. Someone else was alive!

Determination sparked within his eyes, and his body was lit with a will to live and find this other survivor. Find them and leave this wrenched island to a place not plagued by endless war between sides supporting meaningless causes and opinions of how life should be lived.

Staggering upright, he began to trudge to the source of the sound, finally coming to a small clearing where a teen he recognized immediately lay.

"Rukia!" He cried, rushing to her side.

She was barely even there, but he could tell her soul was fighting to live. Her small frame was heaving up and down rapidly as she gasped for the sweet oxygen her lungs cried for greedily, and to Ichigo's unbridled horror, both of the petite girl's legs where blown to smithereens, leaving two bloody stumps that leaked pearly white puss and blood in unreasonable proportions.

"R-Rukia!" He cried again, gently shaking her so not to cause too much pain. Her dazed violet eyes slowly turned to him, and she smiled.

"Thank goodness…your alive…" She said weakly, reaching a trembling hand to his face. "I'm…so happy you're alive…"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about me, we have to get you help!"

She slowly shook her head, and she looked back into her friends sad honey eyes that where practically on the brink of tears. "No Ichigo."

"No? The hell do you mean by 'no'?"

"I want you to leave me."

"Like hell!"

Moving her hand from his face to his shirt, she roughly clenched the collar in her fist and pulled him close. "There is no time to argue…. hurry…hurry and get off this island. Find a safe place to hide away from the army…you can't trust either sides…"

"Heh. Like I didn't know that."

"I mean it Ichigo…you possess something inside you…. something very important…."

"Rukia…what are you talking about?"

"Both sides crave what you have. Make sure they don't get it."

"I don't understand…"

"Flee the island Ichigo…leave me and flee…"

"I already said I won't leave you! We'll get off this island together and…and…you can't give up now!"

"Ichigo!" She shouted, coughing when the strain on her throat got to her. "Just look at me… my legs are gone and I'm just loosing too much blood. I'd just be in your way."

"Not true!" He shouted. "I'll just carry you! It'll be ok! It'll…it will…"

Rukia smiled and wiped a saline drop from Ichigo's cheek. "You where always such a cry baby when we where little…"

"This is no time to be reminiscing! We have to get you to safety!"

"No. I already told you. I'd just weigh you down. If you do not want my death to be in vain, escape… please…"

"No…"

"You must! You must protect it…protect it with everything you have…."

"Protect? Protect what?! Rukia! I don't understand!"

She parted her lips, just about ready to say something when her eyes widened drastically in panic as she stared at something just beyond Ichigo's shoulder. Turning around, he was met with the image of a figure dressed in all white, pointing a rifle aimed directly at his heart.

"Aw come on, don't stop your little conversation on my account…" The figure said, grinning sadistically as he pulled the trigger.

What happened next felt like floating in water. Everything seemed to take a slower feel, and even the bullet that raced out the barrel seemed to slow to a stop.

He was ready to die, and embraced the feeling completely. Now, he could die along with his friends…

Bang.

Blood blossomed from the wound like a blooming red flower and coated the ground below in spatters of red rain.

The man frowned. "Gezz, if only she stayed down. She would have lived longer. Oh well No loss."

The teen's lower lip quivered as Rukia's lifeless body fell to the ground. She…she had saved him…she had blocked the bullet from killing him with herself…she was gone….gone….

A sudden anger developed inside of him, and before he could think of an alternate plan, he suddenly found himself charging at the figure with all the fires of hell fueling his anger.

But not even hell could protect him as he too suffered the bite of a bullet to the heart.

The salty sea air whipped at the albinos wild spiky hair; his golden eyes tearing a bit from the wind rushing at him. His stiff green uniform and sturdy spiked black combat boots where damp from the saline ocean spray that splashed him over the stainless steel rail of his divisions' navel ship, causing a slight chill. He sighed, and wiped away some eye crust that was beginning to form in his eyes. Shiro fiddled with his belt, flicking at the grenade pouch on his side, and fingered the small daggers and pistols he stored, wincing in pain when he stuck himself against one of his knifes. The albino brought his slightly bleeding finger up, and licked it pensively.

His fleet was on its way to Karakura Island, Japan. One of their bases was located there; and Supreme General Yamamoto sent his and Squad 2 too eliminate invading 'Arrancar', or at least that was what they called their soldiers in Hueco Mundo and in the capitol city, Los Noches.

His squad had recently received a report that a small band of Arrancar lead by their leader, Commander Grimmjow Jeagerjaques had bombed their base on Karakura Island, and were massacring the squad on the Island along with its entire population, most likely trying to set up a base of their own on the remote island. That's the reason the two fleets were on the way right now, to disband and destroy these Arrancar.

A/N: Super sorry this is so short. Sorry if it's confusing…. You know what stinks? I wanted to add this:

He could hear their skin rip from their bone and sizzle into ashy nothingness and how their skulls would grow brittle and charred until they finally shattered from the heat of being roasted.

But I couldn't because you can't have silence with noise….