The Traitor's True Face
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters, only the storyline.
Summary: What if the three traitors were actually being controlled by someone with power to rival that of five captains combined? Will the spell be broken? Who is the true enemy?
'Italics' are thoughts of course.
Chapter 1: The Battle of Revelations
A white haired young man stood above his motionless childhood friend, finally able to relax for a brief moment. Kariya, along with the Joukaishou, had been stopped, and the number of casualties had been surprisingly small. Soul Society still wasn't close to being peaceful again though. The traitor, Aizen Souske and his comrades were still on the loose, three squads were without captains, and the Fifth Division Vice-captain was still in a coma. Even before the Bounto's attack, life in Soul Society had become difficult since the day three of its respected Gotei 13 captains turned out to be their true enemies. It'd caused an uproar of uncertainty and fear within all of the Soul Society. No one was left unscathed that day. Not even the leader of the Tenth Division, Histugaya Toushiro, who now stood watching the expressionless face of Hinamori Momo. That day, emotions flooded his mind until they nearly overwhelmed him, but the one emotion that stood out more than the others was absolute rage. Aizen dared to betray himself, Soul Society, and Hinamori. He remembered back when she was first attending the academy. The first time she came back to visit him, she spoke of how she'd met Aizen-taichou and how she would join his squad one day. He had seen the look in her eyes then. He was her very most important person, and years later, he cut her down.
He stood there, remembering the past for hours. When he left the Fourth Division, the sun was setting beyond the horizon. That only brought back more unbidden memories. When they lived in Rukongai together, Hinamori would drag him outside just to watch the sunset with her everyday. Hitsugaya had acted as if it was only a waste of time, but in reality, he really did love watching the sunset with her, seeing the sun set the sky on fire and making the clouds shimmer like diamonds when they were hit just right. It was- "Taichou!" He looked up to see his Vice-captain, Matsumoto, running towards him. "What is it?" he asked when she came to a halt. "All three former captains Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tousen have infiltrated Seireitei, taken countless numbers of hostages, and they are demanding that we hand over something called the 'Sword of Dimensions' or else they will kill all of the hostages they have taken. Yamamoto-soutaichou has ordered all seated officers to go to their locations and take them down," she said with a solemn expression. "What is the 'Sword of Dimensions'?" Hitsugaya-taichou questioned. "I don't know, but Yamamoto-soutaichou said that everything would be explained later," she replied. "Alright then, let's go."
'What on earth is going on? I could understand them wanting a powerful weapon, but why would all three of them have to appear? Why not just send one person, instead of risking losing everything you've worked for?' These thoughts were racing through Matsumoto-fukutaichou's mind as she followed her captain. Via the Hell Butterflies, Squads 2, 6, and 9 were ordered to go to Northern Seireitei to deal with Aizen. Next, Squads 7, 11, and 3 were sent to Eastern Seireitei to battle Tousen. Then, Squads 10, 8, and 5 were dispatched to Western Seireitei to go up against Ichimaru. Lastly, Squads 12 and 13 were ordered to divide between the three and act as back up.
Along the way, the two officers from the Tenth Division met up with Kurosaki Ichigo, who had remained in Seireitei to recover from his battle with Kariya Jin. He quickly explained that his friends from the real world had split up and headed to where their abilities would be most useful.
Soon, Squads 10, 8, 5, and the backup from Squads 12 and 13 arrived, and together they faced Ichimaru Gin. The hostages he had taken were all out cold inside a ring of Gillian. Upon seeing this, Ichigo became enraged, and before anyone could stop him he called upon Tensa Zangetsu and raced directly towards Ichimaru without a second thought. "Damn idiot," Hitsugaya-taichou cursed under his breath. "It can't be helped now, so why not join in?" Kyoraku-taichou reasoned. With that, everyone released their zanpakuto's most powerful forms. The three captain class shinigami began the assault, with the two vice captains standing out of the way ready to give back up if needed. The rest of the seated officers went to liberate the hostages from the Menos' entrapment.
Ichigo, wielding Tensa Zangetsu, charged full force at Ichimaru, but to the surprise of everyone, Ichimaru dodged at the last moment and threw him back into a stone wall with no effort at all. Unfortunately, he had only recovered the day before, so the damage was more brutal than it should have been if he'd had the chance to fully recover. Seeing an opening, both Kyoraku-taichou and Hitsugaya-taichou attacked together by surrounding him and using Kyoraku-taichou's Katen Kyokotsu to halt the movement of Ichimaru's arms and legs, leaving Hitsugaya-taichou to bring down Daiguren Hyorinmaru from behind, but Ichimaru had become more powerful than anyone could have imagined. He forced back Kyoraku-taichou with his barehands, and drawing Shinso he broke through Kyoraku-taichou's defence, stabbing him in the chest. Then, pivoting on one foot he cut into Hitsugaya-taichou's left leg, dragging his zanpakuto upwards, creating a gash running from his right shoulder to his left leg. It all happened in the blink of an eye.
'He fatally wounded three captain class shinigami in a single heartbeat. How did he get so strong? If this is how powerful Ichimaru is, I can't imagine how strong Aizen must be,' Matsumoto thought, as she shunpoed to her captain's side. Ise-fukutaichou had already moved Kyoraku-taichou away from the battlefield, so that one of her subordinates could take him to Unohana-taichou. Matsumoto had almost reached her captain at this point, but as she closed in there was a massive explosion. Turning, she saw Kurosaki Ichigo wielding Tensa Zangetsu, having just sent an unbelievably powerful Getsuga Tensho Ichimaru's way. Once the smoke and debris cleared, though, she saw it had only caused a shallow gash in Ichimaru's shoulder.
With a smirk, Ichimaru Gin unleashed Shinso, sending his blade hurtling straight towards Ichigo's heart. Just as the tip of the blade was about to pierce through, it stopped. The Gillian disappeared one by one. Now, all eyes were on Ichimaru, and no one could believe what they were seeing. Glowing red marks had appeared on his body, twisting and writhing in an almost sickening way. Shinso fell from his wielder's grip, and Ichimaru fell to his knees trembling. His face contorted in pain, and his hands came up to clutch his head. Suddenly, a blazing light, the color of blood, surrounded Ichimaru and shot up to the sky. Simultaneously, two other columns of light appeared where Aizen and Tousen were supposed to be. The onlookers watched completely bewildered as three bloodcurdling screams ripped through the Seireitei, and just as suddenly as they appeared the three traitors vanished without a trace.
The next day, at 9:00 am, it was confirmed that the rings of Gillian were all because of Aizen's zanpakuto. What was really on everyone's minds was: What the hell happened? Everyone kept repeating that same question over and over again in their minds. Except for one Kurosaki Ichigo, who happened to be still sleeping at the moment.
Unohana Retsu, Fourth Division Captain, came in to check on her orange haired patient hours later to find that he was still asleep. After making sure there would be no complications in his healing process, she made to leave to check on her other patients. She had only set one foot outside the door when she heard the rustling of sheets. Turning quickly, she saw Ichigo sit abruptly, his eyes wide in fear.
"Kurosaki Ichigo, you should be resting. You could open your wounds back up again," Unohana-taichou said softly.
"You don't understand. I've seen those markings before. Those three, Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tousen, they're all being controlled."