Rukia and Renji raced together towards the place where two incredibly powerful energies were locked in battle. For Rukia, it was easy to pick out Ichigo's determined, blazing fire. It was strong. It was stronger than that of any of the captains'. But it was slowly getting beat back.
Her hands were fists at her sides, fingernails almost tearing into her own skin.
"We'll make it." Renji's voice suddenly cut through the sound of wind rushing past her ears. He must have felt the same thing she did, but his voice sounded steady and sure.
"I know that," Rukia replied sharply, but Renji could see through her bravado easily.
"That kid's been through hell and back ya' know," Renji went on, keeping his eyes straight ahead and not once slowing down his pace. Rukia followed suit, trying to ignore the pounding of her heart. "There's not a doubt in my mind that he'll survive this. So quit worrying so much."
Rukia scowled, though he didn't turn to see her look. "As if you're not worried too."
At this, Renji chuckled. For another moment, they were silent again amongst the rushing wind. When Renji spoke again, Rukia did not need to see his face to know that all traces of humor had vanished.
"Rukia… Don't do anything stupid."
"I should be the one saying that," she scoffed, but Renji's voice remained serious.
"I mean it."
Rukia was taken aback by the nearly commanding tone he used. Normally she would have teased him, but this time she gave one curt nod. Wordlessly, they sped up further as Ichigo's reiatsu got closer.
-x-
The ability to see the future.
No.
The ability to change it. Ywach laughed smugly. He told Ichigo to despair.
Ichigo's attacks were useless. Inoue's shield was useless. Ichigo's body felt slower, his sword was heavy in his hands; and Ywach wasn't even hurt.
But every time Ichigo closed his eyes, the memories of previous moments of hopelessness played back in his mind like a reel. With every tremble of his own body, he remembered the night he lay on the wet pavement of Karakura and watched Rukia get taken away from him while he was powerless to stop it.
Ywach's strike came from behind. He flicked Ichigo like an old rag doll, and the Shinigami human tumbled across the ground and gasped in pain.
"I expected so much more," Ywach taunted. "It's time for the power I granted you to return to its rightful owner!"
Before Ichigo could react, the man's hand had covered his face, and it squeezed. His Quincy power, the Hollow power mixed with it… It all faded to pure white. And he couldn't do a damn thing.
Ichigo lay still on the ground. He heard Ywach laughing, watched him open a gate and delight in the promise of destruction.
Then, like a cool breeze, he felt it- felt her. Rukia, and Renji, had just arrived.
Ywach passed through the gate.
Zangetsu was broken.
Every source of Ichigo's power was gone.
"The power to rewrite the future?" Renji asked incredulously. "What the hell?"
"Sorry, Kurosaki-kun… I couldn't heal Tensa Zangetsu. It means I cannot use my power to undo any of this…Please forgive me… Now you won't be able to fight anymore."
"Ichigo." That's all Rukia said, before she was at his side. Her hand was gentle, but firm on his shoulder. Her reiatsu brushed against him soothingly, though her exhaustion was obvious.
Ichigo struggled to rise to his knees. Rukia's hand fell away from his shoulder; she had knelt beside him and now that they were face to face, she caught and resolutely held his gaze.
"Rukia…" he said, almost apologetic. He'd lost. He'd failed Soul Society, failed his friends, failed her… He lowered his eyes, the reality of his lost power sinking in.
A moment later he felt Rukia's fingers cup his chin and force him to look up once more. He found her eyes immediately; they were stern, but they held no disappointment. They burned with intensity.
"Get up." Rukia said simply.
Ichigo didn't move for a moment, and this made Rukia scowl, but her hand continued to hold up his chin.
"Get up, fool." Rukia said more loudly. "If you need to lean on someone, lean on me. If you need someone to pull you up, take my hand." She paused, her eyes conveying as much force as her voice. "If you don't have a sword, then I will give you mine. Now, get up, and fight, Ichigo!"
His legs trembled at first, but Ichigo grit his teeth and pushed himself to his feet. His hands curled into fists and he squared his jaw, standing straight. Rukia stood beside him and nodded meaningfully.
"Finally," Renji said as he hefted up his sword. "Time to finish this thing for good."
The three of them disappeared together through the gate and did not look back.
-x-
Ywach's grin was wider than ever.
"Ichigo, I must admit that you have surprised me. Your plan is to fight me, with a broken sword now? When you could not defeat me with all your powers?"
Ichigo stood his ground, Renji on his left and Rukia on his right.
Ywach began to laugh. "Even you must know that there is no future in which you can win this fight. Stand down, Ichigo, and I promise to end things quickly for you and your friends."
Ichigo, Renji and Rukia attacked in sync.
When Aizen joined their attack, it seemed as if things were finally taking a turn in their favour. That didn't last long.
Renji fell first. Then it was Aizen.
When it was just Ichigo and Rukia left standing, Ichigo felt his resolve start to get clouded by desperation. He had managed to do some damage with the sheer force of his reiatsu, but he could feel his fuel dwindling. And Rukia, though she stood with her feet wide apart and her sword held high, was breathing hard, visibly shaking with exhaustion. Neither of them could keep going for long.
"Ichigo," Rukia said, urgency in her voice.
"I'm curious," Ywach's boisterous voice seemed to shake the very ground. "What last desperate attempt will you come up with?"
But Ichigo was not paying attention to Ywach's words, because all he could see was Rukia's face, and an expression that he hadn't seen in a long time but one that he would never forget. It was the look she'd had that first night they'd met, and suddenly Ichigo felt like he was a boy of fifteen again about to trust his life and his fate into the hands of this Shinigami who somehow trusted him as well.
"You must know how far out of your league you are," Ywach went on.
Rukia turned to look at Ichigo and she held up her sword sideways. The pure white blade was steady between them, its ribbon dancing in the breeze. "Take it," Rukia said.
Ichigo's eyes went wide. "What are y-"
"Do you trust me, Ichigo?" she interrupted him, and there was the hint of a smile on her lips.
Ichigo did not hesitate. In answer, he dropped the remains of Zangetsu and reached towards the hilt of Sode no Shirayuki. He placed one hand over Rukia's around the hilt of the sword. He had already expected the cold, but that feeling was mixed with a rush of something else, something he couldn't explain.
Ywach had gone quiet for once, eyes narrowing as he waited for their move.
"Rukia," Ichigo said, and he tightened his hold around her hand. "I…"
He wasn't sure what he would say, or how, but he felt that this may be his only chance to say it and his heart was suddenly pounding harder in his chest in a way that had nothing to do with fear or adrenaline. Rukia took one short step closer to him, enough that the zanpakuto was dangerously tight between them.
"I know," Rukia said simply.
Many more words passed unsaid between them, and very deep in Ichigo's mind he wondered what they might have said, or done, in another time and place. But none of that mattered. This was their reality, and Ichigo found that he wouldn't change a single moment.
He knew what Rukia meant to do by the sudden shift in the air around her. It was a feeling he recognized from the many times he had felt it caused by himself: the stillness followed by an instant pull that seemed to light up his every bone with a burst of power. Because of this, he was able to mirror her as she spoke, and they simultaneously said;
"Bankai."
-x-
When she released her bankai, Rukia felt as if time stopped. It was an odd feeling, because no one noticed the constant rhythm of their own heartbeat. But she was able to notice when it stopped.
Rukia saw her robes had turned to white, felt the frost littering her eyelashes and skin. But this time it wasn't her own transformation that amazed her. Ichigo stood in front of her, his hand still curled over hers and providing the only source of warmth she was aware of. However, it wasn't the same orange-haired boy she had been looking at a mere moment before.
His hair had turned black as his robes, and his shihakusho overflowed with tendrils of reiatsu so thick that they were clearly visible.
As for Sode no Shirayuki, it was no longer the transparent blade she had held before. It still appeared to be made out of carved ice, only it was entirely black now, and it seemed to pulse with heat beyond the cold surface.
When Ichigo let go, Rukia attacked.
Every time that Rukia finished an attack, Ichigo was there to take the sword and slash it through Ywach's power. They passed the sword back and forth, and the blade seemed to hum with power whenever it exchanged hands.
-x-
Ywach knew the moment that he was defeated, far before the final strike.
Impossible.
That was all he could think. He watched Ichigo and Rukia, two figures of black and white, fighting in such deliberate synchrony that he could only balk. He had not seen this.
Not one of the infinite futures he saw had showed him this instance.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" He howled, his fury overcoming his shocked silence.
He was the one who could see every future, the one who could rewrite it in any way he wanted! And yet, this was almost as if…
As if they have rewritten their own future…
The final strike was about to come down. Ywach couldn't see anything beyond that, and he understood why. Any future that he could see, had disappeared.
Very well then.
I am not fool enough to attempt to defy this fate… But…
There was only one sword. Their synchrony was nearly perfect as they traded it. Nearly.
There was, after all, only one sword.
-x-
Ichigo swung down the sword.
Maybe it was because Ywach had been practically defeated already. Maybe it was the rush of power that had made him feel invincible. Maybe it was the arrogance of seeing how he had managed to crush fate. Whatever the cause… he dropped his guard just a split second before he swung. And that second was enough.
The world went silent.
Ichigo saw Ywach's final, twisted grin even before his sword wiped it away forever. The sword then fell from his hand, and its shattering on the ground was the first sound he heard, followed by a blood-curling scream. He barely even registered that the scream had come from himself.
The next thing Ichigo knew, he was on his knees, and Rukia was in his arms, her white robes replaced by the black shihakusho and her eyes staring up at him as she took a shuddering breath.
"Rukia!" Ichigo cradled her, and his heart dropped to his stomach as he felt her blood seep through her clothes with frightening speed. "Rukia, hang on, okay? You're gonna be fine, we just have to get you to Inoue, and you'll be fine. You hear me? Stay with me."
"Ichigo…" Rukia's voice was so soft it could have been carried by the wind. Her face twisted up in pain, and then she relaxed.
No.
No.
Not her.
Ichigo's entire body shook. He held Rukia as tightly as his strength would allow, and his mind raced.
No, no, no, no, no.
This wasn't right. They had done it, they'd rewritten the future, changed their fate. They decided their destiny, together.
He couldn't accept it. He wouldn't accept it.
Still cradling Rukia, Ichigo stood up. The hilt of the zanpakuto they had shared was still on the ground, still had a part of the blade attached to it. Ichigo grabbed it and he appeared at Ywach's side.
It was almost gone, but there was still a glimmer of life left in the Quincy. Ichigo knelt beside him, broken sword in hand, and said, "You're going to change this."
Ywach would have laughed, if he could have. He found enough strength to say, "Impossible."
"You will," Ichigo snarled. "You're going to make this right, if I have to give you the power myself."
Ywach only stared at him.
Ichigo looked at Rukia, whose eyes were closed. He pressed his forehead against hers and shut his eyes. Rukia. Rukia, who wasn't punching him, or calling him a fool, or reprimanding him or thanking him or saving him… Rukia, who wasn't there.
No.
Ichigo lifted his head and a new resolution dried his eyes. As he raised the broken sword in his hand, he said,
"You're going to change this."
When he brought the sword down on Ywach, power surged and from a brief instant that may as well have lasted forever, Ichigo saw… Everything.
He saw his future, as a Shinigami. He saw himself wearing the white robes of a Captain, the number thirteen etched on the back. He saw his friends brandishing some kind of ticket as they walked into Soul Society, still alive but a few years older, coming to visit him at his barracks. He saw Renji and Byakuya, their eyes hollow. He saw a grave marker, the name Rukia Kuchiki forever etched on it.
Ichigo turned away. He saw something else, another thread. In it, he was human, all but powerless. He saw his friends, visiting him at his home in Karakura. And he saw Rukia. Her hair was long, and Renji stood beside her. Ichigo could see the emptiness in his own smile. But she was there. Her eyes were shining, her smile could still clear away his clouded thoughts, even if it lasted but a brief moment.
Ichigo did not have to ponder. He chose the only future that he could live with.
He chose her.