The girl that had appeared began crying for help.

"Nee-san, hang on!" She kept saying. Nee-san? I thought. I'm not her sister, I've never met this girl before.

"Rukia! What's wrong?" I strong male voice demanded.

"It's Kyiomi! She's alive but she's badly hurt. We need Unohana taicho." The girl named Rukia shouted. Now that she'd gotten someone's attention she jumped down into the crater, kneeling beside me.

"Unohana taicho will be here soon Nee-san, please hold on," she begged. As if she reminded me how tired I was, my eyelids drooped heavily.

She grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently. Despite my lack of tolerance for strangers, I was too tired to pull away from her. I looked at my stomach and saw the blood flow was slowing down considerably. My heart was beating slowly and my vision was growing blurry. I still tasted blood on my tongue.

"Please stay awake," Rukia begged. I groaned in response. I felt a slight breeze and then a new presence. There was a woman kneeling opposite Rukia with long black hair braided under her chin. She had a motherly feel about her, but her face was very serious and worried. She was saying something that I couldn't understand. She was so quiet and her face was blurring away. I couldn't fight the sleepiness anymore, I let it take me.

My dreams were extremely vivid. The first was of me and the woman with braided hair, but I wasn't looking through my eyes, I was watching like an outsider. We had zanpakuto pointed at each other and we were both panting hard, sweating and bleeding. Her sword was a normal silver blade with a red hilt while mine was a black blade with a bright purple hilt.

Nothing about this dream felt right. This woman was helping me, why would we fight? I paused. Or, maybe she wasn't helping me, after all?

She confirmed my suspicion when she lunged forward and stuck her blade through my shoulder. I was surprised when I actually felt it. I gritted my teeth against the pain while my dream self jumped away from her and called something I didn't quiet catch, and the zanpakuto in my hands was enveloped in a black light.

As the light began dissipating I saw that I was left holding a decent sized black scythe with a carving of a moon in the middle. At a second glance I could see that the moon looks as if it were dripping some sort of liquid.

As soon as the last if the light disappeared, I yelled a new command. The tip of her scythe fell away and all surrounding shadows were pulled in around it. They swirled around each other and began forming a three dimensional shape. At first it just looked like a bubble, but it began taking the shape of a winged woman made completely of darkness. Her wings looked like they were once angel wings, but now were jagged and torn.

She stood with her back to my dream self, staring at her opponent.

I caught a glimpse of her face and what I saw gave me chills. She was beautiful, just like you would imagine an angel, but her eyes were a bloody red and she had crimson streaks from the corner of her eyes that disappeared under her collar. Her teeth looked like the could tear out someone's throat with ease. The tips of her hair looked like tiny black flames as they flicked around her. It looked like her hair was floating as if there were a breeze blowing around only her.

The dress she was wearing had a low neckline, showing a lot of skin. The sleeves were tight around the shoulders and flared at the elbows. The skirt ran all the way to the ground.

How the hell does she move in that thing? I wondered.

The shadow woman suddenly threw back her head and let out a blood curdling shriek. Holding out her hand, I saw the top of my blade. It grew into a scythe that perfectly matched my own.

She flash stepped to stand behind the opposing captain while the other me stood directly in front of her.

"I win," I whispered. But before our blades cut through her, everything disappeared and a new setting unfolded.

I was laying on a huge plush bed in a semi dark room. There was a soft, flickering light coming from a candle in the window.

The walls were pale versions of my violet and silver eyes with cherry blossoms made to look like they were raining down. It smelled like warm vanilla.

I stood up to look out the window. There was no moon tonight so I could see so many stars. It was absolutely amazing. There was a koi pond a few feet away and clusters of sakura trees dotting the yard.

I heard the door slide open urgently and spun around to see Rukia rush into the room with tears in her eyes.

"Nee-sama?" She whispered. My eyes widened and tears started flowing.

"Rukia!" I cried. We rushed into each other's arms and sank to the ground. We were both sobbing when a man appeared in the doorway with slate grey eyes and two sets of kenseikan in his shoulder length black hair.

I barely had time to look at him before this scene also evaporated. I woke up in a white room with medical monitors around me and tubes in my arms.

Sitting to my left were Rukia and the man from my last dream. Both were sleeping but I couldn't say they looked peaceful. It was at that moment that I remembered the first dream I'd had of Unohana. I started panicking.

I have to leave before she comes back, I thought. I ripped the tubes out of my arm and threw the blankets off. I stood up and looked at the wide open window. Taking the first step forward I realized how much my body still hurt, but I couldn't let that stop me. I glanced down to see I had been changed into a thin white shirt and baggy pants of the same material.

The crushing realization that I had no idea where I was or where to go hit me like a ton of bricks. My heart dropped. I quietly took a deep breath and decided to continue on anyways.

No matter what I can't stay here and wait for her to come back.

I painfully jumped over the windowsill and looked around myself. All I could really see was white buildings.

I searched carefully for any surrounding reiatsu, finding three powerful beings coming from the east and another who I guessed was the man in the room I'd just left. I didn't want anything to do with them so I headed west.

My shunpo was so slow I was barely staying ahead of the three beings behind me. I was growing frustrated.

How are they following me so easily? I hissed. I checked my reiatsu, but I was too weak for it to be up.

What is- But that's when the pain caught up with me. I groaned quietly to the night.

Well, I thought. It couldn't be the blood trail leading them my way, I groaned.

I clutched my stomach wound hoping to staunch the bleeding a little, and ran into the nearest building without checking for other people and collapsed.

"What do I do?" I asked aloud.

I curled up into a ball hoping to make the pain ease off. It helped a little, but when I heard footsteps outside of the door I tensed, causing painful spasms to run throughout my body.

"We have to find her. She's lost too much blood." Someone called. Unohana.

They tracked me so easily even in the dark. But, maybe they really are trying to help me?

I was at war with myself. The more I thought about the 'battle' the more sure I was that it was wrong. She wouldn't fight this hard to help me if she wanted me dead.

Would she?

No. Of course not. Why waste the resources?

Maybe it's all just an act for the others.

She seems so motherly though.

A muffled groaned escaped my lips. My head was throbbing along with my stomach.

I can't stay here like this, but I can't put my life in their hands. I don't know these people, I told myself sternly.

The dream about Rukia. That dream had felt right, like we belonged where ever we were.

Rukia! I exclaimed. I feel like I can trust her, but I don't know about everyone else. How many could there be? It doesn't matter right now, I can't leave until I'm healed.

With a sigh and used my remaining energy to flare my spiritual pressure, hoping they would find me.

"Did you feel that?" Someone demanded.

"She's in there!" Another voice shouted, sounding a little closer.

Rukia was the first to charge into the room with the man from my bedside right behind her. I noticed he was wearing a white haori similar to Unohana. They were both by my side in an instant. I made myself sit up so I was a little more even with them.

Finally getting a good look at his face, I felt as though my brain was trying to bring something up but it couldn't. The throb grew.

The look -rather, the lack thereof- on his face caught me off guard.

He kept his face blank, but his eyes couldn't hide the worry he hid so well everywhere else.

"Kyiomi! What were you thinking?" Rukia hissed as Unohana and another man, also in a white haori, shunpoed into the small dark room. During all of this, my eyes stayed locked with his.

"Kyiomi," the two newcomers sighed.

"Are you ready to go back now?" Unohana asked gently. I let my eyes slide to her for only a moment before bringing them back to his. Before I could answer, though, the pain in my skull became so sharp I couldn't breathe. I grasped my head with both hands and fell onto my back, a shriek ripped it's way through my teeth. A wordless gasp swept through the room.

It was over almost as quickly as it had begun. I let my arms wrap around my middle while I worked to catch my breath. After I could bring myself to open my eyes again I wished I hadn't. Everyone in the room was staring at me with similar pained expressions.

"We need to get her back to the barracks. Kuchiki taicho, if you would?" He nodded once before reaching out to me. I unwillingly flinched and his hands stopped moving.

That hurt him, I whispered to myself.

It took great effort to unfurl my arms from my bleeding torso and reach a hand out to him. Slowly and gently he lifted me into his arms. I let out a sharp gasp and clutched the front of his shihakusho hard enough to turn my knuckles white.

His right hand that was under my knees gave them a gentle squeeze, small enough that no one else would have seen it but enough that it felt comforting to me.

Wait what am I doing? I don't even know him, that didn't mean anything. I thought weakly, but even I didn't think it sounded convincing.

He doesn't know me but he's being so sweet.

Under everyone's noses. I added dryly.

When I let myself come back to reality we were walking back into the healing room. He moved to lay me down on the bed and walk away but I grabbed his hand without thinking and whispered, "please don't leave me." I felt tears stinging my eyes.

Upon hearing this, Rukia pulled a chair forward for him to sit. I flashed a genuine smile her way then locked eyes with him again. I barely noticed when captain Unohana started replacing the tubes in my arms.

"I must bandage the wound on your stomach Hime-sama." She stated. I broke eye contact to look around the room in confusion. When I realized she had to have been talking to me I nodded. Rukia stepped forward so she and Unohana could help me sit forward. I didn't anticipate so much pain.

A high pitched scream escaped my lips before I could bite it back. Once I was on my knees they helped me sit still for a moment so I could adjust as much as possible. I sat there panting and clenching my teeth.

At a nod of my head Rukia released my arm and peeled my bloody shirt from my wound, earning a new round of moans.

Unohana let go of my arm before Rukia had a hold of the other side, so when she let go just collapsed forward, wrapping my arms around myself. I felt hot tears streaming down my cheeks. There was a gasp from everyone in the room.

Unohana carefully pulled me up by my shoulders and uncurled my arms, motioning for Rukia to hold me up again. The pain didn't fade in the slightest as she began wrapping the bandage around me.

A few minutes that seemed like hours later she wrapped it around me the last time and one of her subordinates brought in a new gown.

"I-I can't." I whispered before she could say anything. She smiled sadly and, after the man averted his eyes, helped me put it on.

"I will leave you alone for the night. Push that button," she pointed, "if you need anything." She patted my hand gently and walked out.

I shut my eyes tightly and took a deep breath. I had to force myself to open them again so I could look at my visitors. Rukia was staring at me with puppy-like eyes. I threw her an exhausted smile.

"You should rest Nee-san."

"So should you two."

"We will sleep when you do." She glanced at the man. "Right Nii-sama?" She added quickly. We both glanced at him and he nodded once without saying anything.

She calls him brother just like she calls me sister. What is that about? Are they truly family?

My eyelids drooped again and Rukia smiled.

"Rest now. We'll be here in the morning." For some reason that brought me comfort and I let myself nod off.

When my eyes opened I was back with Rukia in the room that matched my eyes, the man still in the doorway. It was as if time had stopped for me while I was awake.

"Byakuya," I gasped. Fear struck my heart. What if he doesn't want me back?

Those fears were silenced when he stepped in front of us and fell to his knees. He had so many emotions running through his eyes as he wrapped us tightly in his arms.

"I've missed you two so much!" I sobbed.

"We've missed you too, Kyiomi," Rukia whispered in a strangled voice. While Rukia had her face buried in my hair I reached up and quickly kissed his soft lips.

I woke up with a start.

Byakuya? Who are you?