Love in Deadly Places
By Spunky0ne
(Here's one for the Aizenlovers! Oh, and Snake Eyes is coming up soon as well. Have a great read. Love you guys! Spunky)
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Chapter 1: Old Enemies
It's cold...
always so cold.
Almost silent.
Lonely.
It doesn't feel good to be powerless.
But these things are only temporary.
For those who travel the cycle of life, twenty thousand years is a long time. But to a man bound to the hougyoku, twenty thousand years is nothing. I breathe in and out. My heart beats. It passes the time. And although being ice cold and alone is a bother, I am not without hope. In fact, I know there is no reason to despair. The time will come when I will be unbound and freed.
Someday.
A deep rumble ran through the cellblock, causing ominous cracking sounds in the rock walls and ceiling, making bits break away and drop, some striking the bound Aizen lightly as they fell. His one uncovered brown eye rotated to observe the fallen pieces and his lips smiled.
"I see," he said softly, "You have made your move, haven't you? I think we know what comes next."
The sound of panicked voices trickled in from outside of his cell, then he heard the sounds of running feet and the lift that would carry the fleeing guards to the surface.
Fools. He is only going to kill you. He is on his way here, and he has but to look in your direction and you are lost. But he can't hurt me. He can't kill me. He can't steal my soul when I die, because I simply won't die. So, he will ask. He will ask and I...
His thoughts flitted away as heavier footsteps sounded, approaching his door and pausing. A low, echoing click sounded, then the door creaked open to reveal the tall, rakishly smiling form of Ywach. He moved into position in front of the heavily bound shinigami and smiled down at him.
"Aizen Sousuke."
"Ywach."
"The attack is underway, and I come to ask you to join me now. You refused before, when you were unsure as to how I would accomplish my goals. As you see, I am capable of doing everything I claimed. Come with me now."
A wicked smirk overtook Aizen's lips and he laughed softly.
"No."
Ywach moved closer, his eyes narrowing and his fingertips reaching out, then sliding down Aizen's partially covered face.
"You have to realize I am more powerful than you, and that I will find the way to deprive you of that stone you created. You may think you have protected yourself by bonding with the hougyoku, but you are not safe, Aizen Sousuke. If you defy me, you will only be as dead as all of the ones out there. You feel it, don't you? All of them...taichous, fukutaichous, everyone down to the last unseated officer, and all of the unskilled troops. All of them will fall at the feet of my sternritters. That is a guarantee. I go next to do what you could not."
"Oh?" Aizen queried curiously.
"I am going to kill Yamamoto."
"Are you, now?" Aizen purred softly, "I see."
"Would you like to watch?"
"No, I am comfortable here, thank you."
"Very well," Ywach said, showing no sign of anger, "Stay here and wait for the end, if you like. I will come back for you."
He leaned forward and offered the man an affectionate kiss on the partially leatherbound cheek.
"You are a fascinating man, Aizen Sousuke. I look forward to the years we will have together after my conquest of our worlds."
Aizen gazed back at him quietly, offering no reply. Ywach let out a frustrated breath and turned away.
"I told you there was no shinigami alive that could do what I will do. You will see. In the end, you too will belong to me. You are only delaying the inevitable with your stubbornness. But I tire of playing with you. Soon enough, you will kneel at my feet with the survivors and beg for my favor. Do not worry. I will not forget you then, Sousuke."
Aizen watched in silence as the leader of the quincies walked out of his cell, leaving the door carelessly open and killing everyone in his path as he left.
"No shinigami alive can do what you will, you say?" Aizen breathed sedately, "I told you before, I am no shinigami. Even sealed, the hougyoku will carry me higher, and when I subjugate it..."
His thoughts paused and his eye rotated about as a deep rumble went through the depths of the shinigami prison. The sound rose slowly into a heavy, pounding roar and blue light flooded the area, instantly incinerating everything around him.
So, you wish to make a statement, Aizen thought, smiling as the stone enclosure, the fallen bodies, everything down to his leather and metal bindings burned away and the column of blue light swallowed him, If I was a simple shinigami, your power would have devoured me too. But you have only tasted me, and you know you cannot claim me. How kind of you to open the door for me. I will show you the same courtesy when I destroy you for underestimating me.
He stretched his aching arms and legs, slowly rising, then swaying for a moment as he adjusted to his returned freedom. His eyes scanned the hollowed out area around him and the wreckage of the damaged prison, seeking the best way out. He found a workable pathway and started along it, marveling at the sharp contrast between the cleanly swept and emptied place that had been his cell, and the rest of the prison that Ywach had reduced to near ruins.
I am surprised he didn't just vaporize the entire place, but then, he is not yet at full power, which is why he was so accommodating. He won't be that way when he returns. He will be a monster. But he will find a more powerful one waiting for him.
Yes, he will be surprised.
He turned his full attention to escape, now that Ywach's eyes were turned towards the captain commander. Picking his way carefully through the debris, he focused on the grey light filtering in and worked his way upwards. A long hallway opened up before him, surprising him with how well it had endured the devastating assault on the prison. He followed it to the end and started to open the door there, then paused as a low, pained groan sounded somewhere nearby.
It wasn't the sound, itself, but its familiarity that made him pause and listen more closely. Another sound of pain followed, and it only confirmed what Aizen's stunned mind had first registered. His reduced senses picked up a flicker of life in the tumble of wreckage, off to one side. The former taichou headed in that direction and began lifting away some of the debris.
"Who's there?" panted a male voice that made Aizen smile wickedly.
"Hold still," he told the trapped shinigami, "I will get you out."
At the sound of his voice, he heard a shocked inhale, then the still partially buried person began to struggle madly.
"Get away from me!" he gasped, pushing away at Aizen's hands.
Aizen's arm curled around the trapped man's upper body, and he hauled him out of the mess of stone and steel.
"Stop! Let me go!"
Aizen laughed, setting his captive down and ruffling the man's silver hair with his fingers.
"There now. That's better, isn't it, Gin?"
Ice blue eyes glared up at him defiantly and Gin's hands clenched.
"How did I get here?" Gin demanded, "Where are we? I thought you...!"
"You thought what?" Aizen asked, frowning.
"I thought that Kurosaki Ichigo...would have defeated you."
"But he did," Aizen explained, "You are sitting in the heart of Muken, or in a devastated section of it. And I am extremely curious to know, my friend, first how you survived and second, why you are here. I heard that your friend, Rangiku, had you buried in the Rukongai after I killed you. Yet, here you are. But you don't remember?"
Gin blinked slowly, taking in Aizen's disheveled appearance and the look of the wreckage that surrounded him.
"If this isn't from your battle with Ichigo, then what happened? Did you...?"
"Oh no, I was bound too tightly to escape, and was given twenty thousand years as sentence for my treachery."
"Then, who...?"
"Ywach."
The name alone brought a look of horror to Gin's already spooked eyes.
"You are beginning to wish you had stayed dead, ne?" Aizen chuckled.
"You're very jovial," Gin noted, "Are you going to finish killing me now?"
"I am more curious why they saved you. You say you don't remember anything?"
"Only one thing," Gin said, looking down at his slightly shaking hands, "I heard that bastard, Kurotsuchi's voice saying that I deserved a fate worse than death, and he was pleased to give me that. I don't remember anything else at all."
"We should..."
Aizen paused as Gin made a sound of distressed and sank the rest of the way to the stone floor.
"Ah. I suppose I will have to search for clues alone then. Rest a bit. We'll have more time to catch up later."
He listened for a moment to the sounds of raging battle that echoed in the distance, then turned his attention to the area where he had found Gin trapped. A quick search uncovered a scattering of papers, but it was too dark to read them properly, so he shoved them into his clothes and made his way back to his unconscious colleague.
"I would simply kill you and leave you behind, but I am very, very curious as to what exactly Kurotsuchi Mayuri was doing with you, here in Muken. He is a dastardly man, but his intelligence is near that of Urahara Kisuke's. If he was experimenting on you, there must have been a compelling reason. I am interested in discovering that."
He gave Gin's unresponsive form a chilling smile.
"When I have done that, there will be time to kill you much more slowly, my friend. For some reason, your betrayal stings quite deeply, even though I knew it was coming. I thought running you through and tearing your body apart would cure me of that feeling, but it really hasn't. I do wonder what will...and why I still care. You were interesting, but you were only a bug I squashed. Someone put the pieces of you back together, but that is easily enough undone."
He walked back to Gin and lifted his limp body, then continued out the door and up into the less damaged section of the prison. The guard posts stood abandoned and prisoners within the still locked cells, banged on the doors urgently. Aizen walked blithely past, ignoring them as he rose upward, then exited the deserted compound.
"Where are you taking me?" Gin moaned, only partially cognizant.
"I have a place in the living world, if you can open a senkaimon. My powers are still sealed. And I don't suppose you will want to...?"
He paused, looking on in surprise as Gin's fingertips touched his wrist and returned power flooded Aizen's body.
"Why did you do that?" he asked, looking down into Gin's hazy eyes.
"I know you're going to kill me when you have whatever it is you want from me," the silver haired man surmised, "But right now, we are both fugitives. It makes sense to have one of us be able to defend us."
"I did notice that although you have your powers, likely because they didn't think you a threat while unconscious, your reiatsu is dangerously weak. But there will be time to rest and eat when we arrive at the house in the living world. In any case, thank you...although I notice that you didn't also release the hougyoku."
"The seal is too strong. The one on you was simpler."
"Hmmm."
"You don't believe me?" Gin asked, blinking dizzily.
"You have lied to me before."
"Touchè," Gin chuckled wearily, "But I really don't know how to get that one off, not that I would if I did know."
"Very well, I will be thankful for small favors, but let us go. A few more minutes and either the soldats will start showing up here or shingami forces will begin counting their losses, if any of them are still alive."
"I know you hate us all," Gin sighed, "but don't you feel anything at all about what that guy is doing?"
"I am annoyed."
"Oh?"
"There is no need to be so messy and cause so much unnecessary suffering. As you, yourself, demonstrated so capably, revenge is best served swiftly and cleanly, with no warning, so that the person dies quickly and in full knowledge of just who has undone them."
"Sousuke..."
"It was a brilliant move, Gin. It just didn't work," Aizen said, smiling at him, "But it appears I didn't do a capable job of killing you either. Well, that or Kurotsuchi was very determined that you should live."
Gin said nothing more, but only looked back at him quietly. He started to speak, but then felt an odd twinge in his midsection and slid a hand down to rub the area. His breath caught as his fingertips encountered an odd rounding on his lower abdomen.
"Wh-what...?"
"Gin?" Aizen mused, gazing at the other man as curiosity gave way to amazement, then to shock and terror.
"What is this?" Gin panted, staggering back and nearly losing his balance, "What did that bastard do to me?"
Aizen's flash step sounded suddenly and a shock of kido dropped Gin easily back into his arms.
"We will have to discuss this later," Aizen said brusquely, "We need to get out of Soul Society. Things are falling apart here. We will figure this out when we reach my house in the living world. I must say, Gin, you have me far too curious to kill you now. I am very interested to know what Kurotsuchi Mayuri was doing to you. You looked ready to jump out of your skin. I don't think I've ever seen you that scared...not since I killed you."
He laughed softly as the senkaimon opened in front of him, then stepped inside and glanced briefly back over his shoulder.
"Yamamoto, Byakuya and Kenpachi all down?" he mused, "You are a monster, Ywach. But you will find very soon that a monster can never match...a pure demon."