Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, or any of the characters used in this fic. They all belong to Tite Kubo. I only own any of my original characters that I choose to include, as well as any of my own original plot ideas.
On Your Knees
A/N: Thousand Year Blood War.
Sitting in his own blood, buried in rubble up to his chest, he couldn't help wondering from where this had all come. The hatred, the war, the death. It could have been anything, any small, pointless reason for them to come and attack, to come and kill as many of his friends and colleagues as they could.
It was an awful thought, but, perhaps, he wouldn't have minded so much if they hadn't pointed their bows at her, and at his competition.
With what he had, Renji pushed the stones away, hauling himself out of the wreckage, his eyes frantically searching for them both. One had disappeared entirely, he noted. The only obvious signs of the man's existence thrown up against a white wall, the potential corpse coated in and drained of blood.
Rukia was some ways away, yet it seemed further what with his body weighed down like stone. Somehow, he made it to her, finally coming to fall upon his knees, forced to drag himself to her side.
Bloodied, but still breathing, he held her in his arms, as if to shield her from the rest of the hell they were in. Buildings torn down, bodies and their parts strewn in the streets, all lost in the middle of a great red river.
And that fire in the distance. Who was to say if the head captain was taking victory in his weathered hand or not? Who knew if he, or any of them, would survive and recover from this devastation?
All he could do was sit still, breathe as quietly as he could in hopes that they would not come for him, for Rukia, again.
With a question on his lips, all they could do was wait.
How many more will die?