Chapter 2: Evernight

Ichigo found himself dazed and wandering in darkness, the sky above him lit by the brightness of a full, white moon and a sea of lovely stars. There was a gentle sweetness on the breeze that felt familiar, but that, try as he might, he just couldn't place. He looked around at the shapes of trees and brush, then followed the little trail he was on, his mind working to piece together how he had gotten where he was.

Something weird happened.

I know I was at Kuchiki Manor. Rukia said it was time to go. I stood up and…something happened.

How did I get here?

How do I get back?

He didn't see any sense in turning back, since he didn't know how he'd gotten onto the trail in the first place. He didn't feel like there was any great danger. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact of his knowing that the situation was strange, he would have been gently lulled by the coolness and gentleness of the breeze, the pleasant scents around him and just the general calm of the night.

It's actually really pretty here. I wonder where I am. Am I just dreaming right now? Did I pass out or something? I suppose that it could be that I'm still kinda recovering from the fighting. The healers told me to take it easy, still, I wasn't overdoing anything. I think I was just getting up to go.

Ichigo's feet slowed as he spotted something ahead of him…the brightness of the moon, reflecting on a mirrored surface. As he moved closer, he could see little ripples. He recognized the surface of a quiet lake and the little trickling sounds of a small waterfall. And looking closer, he noticed that there was someone under the waterfall, his body lit by mingled splashes of falling water and brilliant moonlight. He seemed to sense that he was being watched and his head turned.

He looks kinda like Tetsuya, but…not.

There was a powerful feel to the lovely man's reiatsu, and his gentle smile and bright blue eyes drew the Shiba heir closer. The man paused in his bathing and gazed quietly at Ichigo. His lips moved, but Ichigo couldn't make out the words. The man's hand rose, indicating someone collapsed at the edge of the water and Ichigo frowned and turned to look.

"Tetsuya!" he called out, recognizing the young man who was unconscious on the shore of the lake.

He rushed to Tetsuya's side and dropped to his knees, shaking the young man gently to try to wake him.

"Tetsuya, come on," he said urgently, "Something weird is going on. I don't know where I am. What is that place? Who is that guy? How did we get here? Am I dreaming or something? What's going on? Tetsuya!"

He looked up and started to speak to the man under the waterfall, only to find that the mystery person had disappeared.

"Tetsuya," he called again, "who was that guy? Where are we?"

A few more minutes only proved the futility of his efforts, and he went quiet, his mind working to try to make sense of everything that was happening.

Okay, this is really, really strange, but…I don't feel like I'm in danger here. I feel like this place, whatever it is, has something to do with Tetsuya being unconscious. Looking back, I think I may have brushed up against him as I was getting up to leave. There was a big flash of white and I saw something…a garden, I think. There was that man from before, and there was someone else. It's so strange. I feel like I should know them.

He turned his attention back to Tetsuya, who laid, curled in the soft grass by the lake, his body quivering intermittently and his face reflecting pain and intense fear. He flinched at Ichigo's touch, but his eyes remained closed and his heart rate and breathing elevated.

Maybe I can help by trying to calm him down a little.

Ichigo sat down in the grass and lifted Tetsuya to rest against him. He talked softly into the restless sleeping man's ear, trying to soothe him. At first, there seemed to be no change, but gradually, Tetsuya's body began to relax in his arms, and the young man slept more quietly. Ichigo sighed in frustration as he looked down at Tetsuya's lovely sleeping face.

What's going on here? There must be something that brought me here to you. I know you were traumatized by the battle and you weren't waking up, but how did we end up here?

Where are we?

Ichigo looked around again, his brow furrowing as he studied their surroundings and reached out with his senses.

This…whole place feels like…him.

He blinked slowly, considering.

I've been in places like this before.

Yeah…

Sometimes in battle, I've had it happen where I seemed to make a connection with my enemy's mind. During the fighting, I was able to enter my enemy's inner world. Tetsuya's definitely not an enemy. His reiatsu and mine seem to mesh comfortably. I don't feel any sign that I'm unwelcome here. In fact, it feels like he is comfortable with me. And I feel comfortable with him. And being that I've been let in here, I feel like there's something I should be doing. Maybe there's a way to wake him up or something. At the very least, I'm supposed to learn something important by being here. I wonder what it is.

Damn…

Ichigo closed his eyes for a few moments, breathing in Tetsuya's gentle, sweet scent and reaching out with his heart. He felt again the anguish that wracked the young man's heart, and when he opened his eyes, he made a sound of surprise as he realized that images were beginning to form on the surface of the lake…what looked like reflections of the recent quincy invasion. Amidst the flashes of fire and kido and with the ground shaking under his feet, a battered looking Tetsuya flash stepped recklessly towards a place where the fighting seemed most fierce.

"B-byakuya-sama!" he gasped, his dazed eyes blinking and staring in the direction of the heated exchange.

He ran forward, lifting an arm to shield his face as a bright conflagration began to flare up in front of him and the ground shook so hard that he fell. His landing took the breath out of him and Tetsuya panted and coughed, shuddering as a heavy blast of fire and light passed over him, singeing his exposed skin. His blue eyes blinked and filled with dread as the light and smoke ahead of him roiled, then slowly began to clear.

"Tetsuya-san!" called a male voice from behind him, "Tetsuya-san, wait! It's too dangerous. P-please wait for the smoke and dust to clear!"

But Tetsuya seemed driven nearly to the point of madness. He dragged himself to his feet and staggered on, his anguished attendant following more carefully and protecting his master's path. Tetsuya stumbled forward relentlessly, honing in on where he still sensed strong power burning. Whatever conflict he had sensed, seemed to have ended, but the flares and intermittent explosions continued as Tetsuya made his slow, jolting advance. He slowed as he spotted several collapsed bodies. One by one, he checked them. He found two simply unconscious, but the third, a familiar man with long, flowing hair that was splashed in black muck…Tetsuya felt an odd jolt of fate in his insides.

"Ukitake taicho?" he asked, coughing as the smoke continued its assault.

Tetsuya closed his burning eyes, laying a palm on the collapsed taicho's chest and sensing his condition. He started to feel a looming sadness at the weakness of the older man's reiatsu and the definite decline, meaning that death was approaching. Tetsuya's eyes filled with devastated tears as the faces and voices of all of the fallen he had seen surrounded him and attacked his harried mind.

It's too much!

Why is this happening? Our family? Our friends? Our homes and all of the familiar places? Why is it like this?

Despair gripped his insides and he collapsed onto the dying man's chest, sobbing heartbrokenly.

I should just die here too.

So many have lost their lives and we will never, ever be the same. I've fought for every step and borne the horrors of each loss, but I don't know how I can take any more.

"You can't help him," a low, quiet voice said suddenly from somewhere in the darkness near him, "but you can help me."

Tetsuya's teeth clenched and his slender body jerked into alertness. He held Juushiro against him, as though desperate to protect him, even as he died. His blue eyes raked the smoke and darkness and found a pair of dark, curious brown eyes gazing at him.

Aizen Sosuke?

The former taicho laid, pinned in the wreckage and missing an arm. His upper torso had been blasted through, so that part was also missing. Blood ran from his nose and mouth.

"Kuchiki Tetsuya, isn't it?" he managed.

He studied the younger man's rigid posture and the death grip he held on the dying taicho.

"Do you really think that you can save him?" Aizen asked.

It's too much, Tetsuya's heart whispered, I've seen too many lives end…too much of our world destroyed. I don't know if I'll ever see Byakuya-sama or Rukia-chan or Renji-san again, and I know that, even if I do, everything will have changed.

Why?

Why did that all have to happen?

A vision of the slaughtered children he had found returned to his agitated mind, further unhinging him. Tetsuya's breaths shortened and his eyes rounded and went senseless. In front of him, Aizen sighed in understanding.

"I see. Reality is too much, is it? Would it help you then, to be able to escape for a moment? Here then, I think I have enough power left to help you…so you can help me."

He met Tetsuya's feral, maddened eyes and loosed his shikai.

"Shatter."

Instantly, Tetsuya calmed. His eyes blinked slowly and cleared. Aizen watched him closely and nodded in approval.

"You should be able to heal me now. Come, Tetsuya."

Tetsuya seemed not to hear. He focused his glazed eyes on Juushiro and his hand caressed the nearly dead taicho's face tenderly.

"I won't let you die," he promised.

Aizen's dark eyes widened as white power began to swell all around the younger shinigami. Tetsuya's lips smiled as that power seemed to flow out of him and into Juushiro, burning away the blackness that had tried to claim him.

"Begone," Tetsuya hissed at Mimihagi, "you have no place here."

He belongsssss to me, the blackness seethed.

"No," Tetsuya said sternly, increasing the whiteness around him until it became blinding, "I claim this soul in the name of…!"

A hard shock tore Ichigo out of the vision. He made a sound of pain and tried to hold onto Tetsuya, but another jolt dragged him back through the darkness and sent him crashing down into his body. He found himself lying in a comfortable bed with Rukia, Byakuya and Renji leaned over him on one side, while an elderly healer smiled down at him from the other side.

"Wh-what the heck?" he panted, trying to sit up.

"Take it easy," Renji said, shoving him back down.

"Ow! Quit it!" Ichigo snapped petulantly, "What're you doing, Renji?"

"What am I doing?" Renji mused, "I'd ask you the same thing? What the hell was that? Why'd you pass out like that?"

"You're asking me?" Ichigo complained, sitting up more slowly as Rukia helped him, "I dunno why I passed out. Maybe because I just recently fought a god? What d'you think?"

"You seem to be recovering well from your ordeal," the old healer told him, "In fact, you are remarkably recovered. I was under the impression that you had been told to take it easy, but your body doesn't seem to show the stress that it did the last time I encountered you."

"Well, I've been resting…" Ichigo began.

"Oh, it's definitely more than that," the old man assured him, "From what I heard, you had some kind of reaction when you brushed up against young master Tetsuya?"

"Eh, yeah, that was when everything got really bright and I passed out. I woke up in this dark place with a white moon and a lot of stars.

"You were aware during your unconsciousness?" Byakuya inquired, frowning.

"Ah, yeah," Ichigo answered, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck, "I was in this weird place with a lake that had pictures on it. I mean, not pictures, but things that happened. There was a guy under a waterfall…a naked guy."

"Erm…" Rukia said, blushing, "I think Ichigo's lost it a little."

"What the heck? A naked guy?" Renji mused.

Byakuya gave the shinigami substitute a stern look and Ichigo blinked and made a discomfited face.

"What?" he mused, "Did I say something wrong?"

"No," Byakuya said in an oddly unsettled voice, "It is just that what you said…"

He stood abruptly.

"I will return momentarily," he said brusquely, "Ichigo, I want you to remain here until I return."

He flash stepped away, leaving the others staring after him.

"What's up with him?" Ichigo asked in a mystified tone.

"I dunno," Renji muttered, "Looks like he might've come up with something."

"He might have," Rukia agreed.

"He did seem interested when you mentioned the naked guy under the waterfall," Renji recalled.

Rukia scowled and smacked him on the back of the head.

"OW! What're you doing?" the redhead objected.

"I'm smacking you for talking without thinking. That's what I'm doing," Rukia huffed.

"Well, the guy under the waterfall was cute," Ichigo snickered, "but I think your cousin, Tetsuya is cuter."

Renji and Rukia blinked and exchanged surprised glances and Ichigo blushed dark pink.

"I didn't mean…!"

"Oh my," Michio chuckled, "This is so much fun, being with you youngsters, but unfortunately, I need to go and check on a few others who are still recovering. Arigato, for the entertainment."

"Eh…um, thanks, Michio," Ichigo said, still blushing brightly.

As the healer left, he looked back at Rukia and Renji, who were trying unsuccessfully to hide their smirks. Their eyes met and the two dissolved into laughter.

"SHUT UP!" Ichigo snapped.

"You're the one who started it by saying Tetsuya is cute," Rukia teased.

"I didn't say that exactly," Ichigo argued defensively, "I said he was cuter than the other guy."

"The naked guy?" Renji snorted.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Ichigo roared, "Okay, fine! I think Tetsuya is cute. There! Are you happy now?"

His jaw dropped and he stared in dismay as he realized Byakuya was standing in the garden doorway to the room, watching them through quiet, disapproving eyes. Renji sucked in a surprised breath, then coughed and blushed.

"Ah, sorry. We were being too noisy. We'll uh…"

"You will stay," Byakuya said firmly, "and if all of you will quit your noisy antics for a moment, I will explain what I found. Ichigo, you said that while you were in Tetsuya's inner world, you saw a naked man under a waterfall?"

He shot Renji a deadly glare as the redhead started to laugh, then hastily turned it into another cough instead.

"Yeah," Ichigo answered, lowering his eyes, "so?"

"So," Byakuya replied, "I want you to look at this."

The noble held up an opened book, showing a picture of a beautiful dark-haired, blue-eyed man bathing beneath a silvery shower of sparkling water. Instantly, Ichigo's eyes widened.

"Th-that's him!" he exclaimed, "That's the naked guy!"

He shot a glare at Renji, who bit his lips and tried to look serious.

"Who is that guy?" the Shiba heir asked.

"The man in that picture is Kuchiki Hajime, the progenitor of the entire Kuchiki clan…and the soul king's consort."

"Eh…the soul king?" Ichigo mused, thinking back to the king that had died.

"I know what you are thinking," Byakuya said quietly.

He paused and raised a protective shield around the room.

"What're you doing?" Renji asked, frowning, "What's goin' on?"

"What's going on is that I cannot speak the words I need to say without ensuring utmost privacy," Byakuya answered.

He turned his dark grey eyes on Ichigo.

"The king that you are thinking of? The one who died in the conflict and was replaced with Ywach's body? That was not the king who made our worlds."

"What?" Ichigo whispered, blinking, "What're you saying, Byakuya?"

"I am saying that our soul king, the one who created our worlds and ruled them with Kuchiki Hajime at his side…was killed, along with Hajime in the first war with the quincies…or so it was thought."

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked, his face paling, "Byakuya, what's going on? And what does it have to do with Kuchiki Hajime? Why was Hajime in Tetsuya's inner world?"

"I don't know," Byakuya said darkly, "but I do know this. You need to keep this to yourselves and do not discuss it, except within protective shielding. I need time to explore this."

"Do you want some help with that?" Renji asked, standing.

"Yes. In a moment, Renji."

Byakuya turned the pages of the old book to another that showed the lovely, blue-eyed Hajime lying in the arms of a golden-haired, golden-eyed man, who was smiling down at him as bright white light surrounded the two.

"Hey," Ichigo said, staring, "that's kinda like the light that…"

"It is akin to the light that surrounded you and my cousin," Byakuya finished, "It is a light of complete resonance."

Rukia's eyes rounded.

"Complete resonance?" she repeated breathlessly.

"What is that? What's complete resonance?" Ichigo asked, "I mean, I've heard of resonances, even perfect resonances, but what's a complete resonance?"

Byakuya drew a steadying breath.

"Resonance is the connection between souls. The stronger the resonance, the more closely bonded the souls are. A perfect resonance is the closest that two shinigami souls can be."

"But then…what's a complete resonance?" Ichigo asked.

"A complete resonance is a divine resonance that happens between transcendent souls…It is, simply put, two bodies, one soul."

Ichigo stared back at Byakuya wordlessly, trying to fathom what he'd just heard.

"But," Renji mused, "Tetsuya's not a transcendent…is he?"

Byakuya's eyes flickered suddenly with realization and his breath caught.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked anxiously, "Byakuya, what's going on?"

"Renji, come with me," the noble said sternly.

"Sure," Renji answered, moving closer to him, "but uh, where're we going?"

"We are going to see Aizen Sosuke."