Chapter 2: Night
Ichigo felt his senses returning slowly and struggled to open his eyes.
My body feels so heavy.
Where am I?
He managed to crack his eyelids open enough to tell he was in a hospital room, and that the lights in the room had been dimmed. A groan escaped his lips as he turned his head slightly and registered a second bed, where another young man laid. The young man's body was wrapped in a mountain of bandages and he didn't move, but his eyes were open and turned in Ichigo's direction.
"Uryu?" Ichigo whispered uncertainly.
"Be quiet!" Uryu mouthed back, "They are just outside the door."
"Who?" Ichigo breathed more softly, "Who is out there? Where are we?"
Uryu licked his dry, parched lips.
"In the shadows."
Ichigo considered the words, then nodded slightly in acknowledgement.
"Do you know what they want?" he asked.
"They don't seem to want to hurt us. They did heal us," Uryu mused, "But you can see they've bound us. We can't draw in reiatsu, and we can't use it like we usually do."
Ichigo caught his breath in dismay as he looked down at his hands and found they were, as his friend had said, bound securely to the bed rails. He closed his eyes and used his inward senses, paling as he found that he couldn't seem to connect with his powers or speak to his zanpakuto.
"You're right," he whispered, "I can't use my powers."
"I don't know what we can do as long as they have us tied up and our powers sealed," Uryu reasoned, "I guess we have to wait and see what happens when they come back."
"Like hell I'm gonna lie here and wait," Ichigo fumed, working his hands against the restraints.
"Ichigo! Ichigo, stop!" Uryu hissed, "You're just going to draw their attention to you and..."
"Great, I'll get them in here and we can get to the bottom of this!" Ichigo said more loudly, "HEY!"
"Ichigo, don't!" Uryu objected, struggling against his own bonds, "Ichigo!"
"HEY, DON'T JUST LEAVE US LYING IN HERE! GET IN HERE AND TELL US WHAT YOU WANT, YOU BASTARDS!"
"Ichigo!"
Uryu paled as footsteps sounded outside the room, and he swiftly closed his eyes and made his body go limp.
A moment later, a tall, stern looking old man entered the room and moved to Ichigo's bedside.
"You are being too loud," he said, scowling, "I gave you a pain block. You shouldn't be in pain, but it will come back more quickly if you move around too much."
"You want to know who's going to be in pain, you just keep avoiding my questions," Ichigo snapped fiercely, "Who are you and why are you keeping Uryu and me here?"
The man glared at him disapprovingly.
"I am Terrell," he answered, "I am a healer assigned to your care, Kurosaki Ichigo. Our forces found you and Ishida Uryu and we brought you here to heal you."
"Yeah? If you just brought us here to heal us, then you wouldn't need to tie us up, would you?"
"You will need to stay calm, Ichigo, or I will have to sedate you."
"Shut up, Ichigo," Uryu muttered to himself, "Just stop talking now."
"Look, I want to see whoever is in charge here!" Ichigo demanded, making Uryu roll his eyes beneath his eyelids, "You tell whoever's in charge that I...!"
He broke off as Terrell added medication from a small syringe to his IV.
"Hey!"
Uryu sighed disapprovingly as Ichigo quivered, then closed his eyes and went still and quiet.
Baka! How do we plan anything if you get yourself knocked out?
He groaned and feigned an unintelligible blunder of words as the healer left Ichigo unconscious and moved to examine him.
"Rest easy, Ishida-sama," the healer said soothingly, "Your wounds are healing well. You will soon be feeling better."
The healer looked up as a pale woman with grey hair pulled into a tight bun and stolid grey eyes entered the room.
"Terrell, Haschwald-sama needs you. The stitches on his side have opened, and he is bleeding."
"All right, I'm coming," the healer said bracingly, turning and injecting Uryu's IV with something that made his head swim ominously.
They sure aren't leaving us any openings are they? he thought grimly as the air around him darkened and slowly went black.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Kuchiki taicho," Isane said, looking surprised as the sixth division leader entered the infirmary, "Are you all right? Your injuries aren't bothering you, are they?"
"No," Byakuya said, "I am here to question the quincy who we found injured...Bazz-B, I believe is his name."
"Ah, yes," said Isane, picking up a file and reading, "The quincy, Bazzard Black. We have him confined in the back. I will take you to him."
She led Byakuya into a long corridor where guards had been posted at several doors near the end.
"We actually found the other two quincies we brought with us to the palace," Isane reported, "but they are unconscious and in very guarded condition. They appear to have been cut down by Ywach, himself."
"I see."
"Bazz-B, as he likes to be called, has been awake, and has been fairly cooperative. He seems relieved that the quincy king was killed, but of course, he is worried about what we shinigamis will do to him in the aftermath. I tried to be reassuring, but I think we all know that Central 46 will be harsh with any quincies who are brought before them."
"Yes, I am afraid that is true," Byakuya agreed solemnly, "But I will speak with him privately. Perhaps if he can assist with the mission I was given, it could sway the council in his favor when he stands trial."
"Maybe," Isane said hopefully, "Go on in, sir."
Byakuya left Isane gazing solemnly after him. He nodded to the guards, who stood out of the way, allowing him to pass. As he opened the door, he spotted the red-haired quincy sitting up in his bed and glaring silently out the window.
"Who are you?" he asked gruffly, "You come to arrest me, now that I'm awake?"
"I am not here to arrest you," Byakuya said, meeting Bazz-B's challenging, green eyes, "I am Kuchiki Byakuya, taicho of the sixth division."
"I know who you are," the quincy snapped.
"I am here to seek your assistance on a matter that has been placed in my hands."
"And why should I help you?" Bazz-B asked, scowling, "I told you guys when we were coming up here that we weren't making friends. We just shared an interest in coming here, so we were willing to work with you. I've got no reason to give a shit about you or your mission."
"That may be true," Byakuya said calmly, "however, if you hear me out, you may find that our interests will, once again, coincide."
"Yeah?" Bazz-B sighed, looking unconvinced, "How?"
"You have not yet been taken into custody by the second division, but you will be shortly. And once you are taken to Central 46, my access to you will be severely limited. I would like to avoid you going there as much as you would like to avoid it."
"Why?" Bazz-B demanded, "What's in it for you?"
"You are acquainted with my fukutaicho, Abarai Renji, are you not?"
"Huh," the quincy huffed, kicking absently at the post at the foot of the bed, "You mean the guy with the cool eyebrows and the big, fat mouth? Yeah, I know him. So what?"
"There was a confrontation in the throne room after Ywach was killed. Our forces arrived to find a quincy removal team evacuating Kurosaki Ichigo and Ishida Uryu, as well as the quincy commander, Haschwald."
"Yeah? So? In case you didn't know, I wasn't friends with Ishida. I didn't trust him at all. I don't know Kurosaki and if you weren't aware, Ywach's pet, Haschwald, was the one who cut off my arm and almost cut me in two! They can have those three, for all I care!"
Byakuya considered his words for a moment.
"I understand. It was infuriating, being deemed unworthy, being drained of your power and abandoned by your king."
"That bastard was never my king," Bazz-B scoffed, "I wanted him to die. I wanted to be the one to kill him. But what does all this have to do with Abarai Renji anyway?"
"Renji was part of the team that entered the throne room with me. We battled briefly with the quincies, but they attempted to escape into the shadows. As our forces clashed, there was a huge explosion. Some of us were thrown down within or around the throne room, but Renji, as well as the former Sexta Espada, Jaegerjaques Grimmjow, were nowhere to be found afterward. We later surmised that they must have been pulled into the shadows in the wake of the escaping quincies."
Bazz-B sniffed off-handedly.
"Some poor luck, huh."
"Yes. Now, as much as I would like to know what has happened to my fukutaicho, he is not the focus of the mission I have been given. Yet, if I embark upon this mission, it should give me the opportunity to learn Renji's fate. As he is a valuable warrior, a comrade and a friend, I feel I owe him this."
"Hmm, and how does your new captain commander feel about that? Or have you told him about your little private mission?"
"As long as I complete the mission I was given successfully, Kyoraku Sotaicho will not question my methods."
"And that mission is?"
Byakuya paused and sat down in the chair beside the hospital bed.
"My mission is to find a way to enter the shadows," he explained, "I must infiltrate the quincy kingdom and locate Kurosaki Ichigo and Ishida Uryu, whom the quincies plan to use somehow to revive the fallen king."
"Sounds like fun," Bazz-B sneered softly, "When do we leave?"
Byakuya shook his head firmly.
"I do not require you to go on the mission with me. If you provide the information I need, I can testify before the tribunal that you were instrumental in preventing the revival of Ywach. As leader of the..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Bazz-B huffed, waving off the words, "Leader of the Kuchiki clan. You've got some pull. You'll get me a lighter sentence. And you think that's a good deal? No way. I'm not doing shit for you unless it includes me going free when we're finished with the mission. That's not negotiable."
"I see," Byakuya said, frowning, "Well, I cannot promise you freedom that Central 46 does not grant. We need to find a middle ground."
"A middle ground," Bazz-B repeated, running his fingers through the ends of his red mohawk, "Well, let's see. How about this? You tell your sotaicho that you'll need me to get in and out of the shadows."
"Is that the truth?" Byakuya asked.
"Actually, yeah," Bazz-B confirmed, "We have our way of getting into the shadows that we aren't about to share with you guys. If we did, it would leave what's left of our people vulnerable to attack. So, I won't tell you how it works, but I can get you in, and once you're in, I can also get you into Silbern."
"Silbern," Byakuya repeated thoughtfully, "That was what your king called it before he recreated it in the royal realm and renamed it Wahrwelt."
"You know a little of our history."
Byakuya gave him an appraising look.
"It is the duty of my family, as required by the king, to inscribe the history of Soul Society into our family diaries, as well as to collect and preserve important documents and artifacts. And while not a great deal was known to us about quincy society, it was recorded by an ancestor of mine that there were noble families among the quincies."
"Yeah, we have our nobles too," Bazz-B sighed disinterestedly, "I happen to be from a noble family, not that it means shit anymore, because a while back while Ywach was marching all over our world and killing our own people right and left, he also killed my family. He wanted control and he took it, and he killed anyone who even breathed a wrong word in his direction. Then, when there wasn't anyone to stand in his way, he looked for the strongest survivors and he made the Sternritter army. The ones with power he thought he could use, he granted additional power to. When he had the power he needed, he invaded Soul Society."
"And you say that after Ywach killed your family, you decide to...?"
"I trained and joined the Sternritters. It was our plan...it was my plan to get close to Ywach and to kill him."
Byakuya frowned, studying Bazz-B's angry expression closely.
"You said our plan," he pointed out, "Who joined you in your plan?"
"Doesn't matter," Bazz-B said darkly, "He got taken in by Ywach and became his little sycophant. He was the first to kneel in front of the bastard and to kiss his goddamned feet!"
A look of realization rose on Byakuya's face.
"The quincy commander Haschwald?" he asked warily.
Bazz-B's fists clenched and his lips curled and trembled in fury.
"Uh-huh, that's what he turned into once Ywach got hold of him...but before that, he was my friend. Before that, I just called him Jugo."
XXXXXXXXXX
"Ugh!" Renji grunted, wincing at the pain that radiated throughout his body.
He tried to move his hand, but it seemed heavier than it should have been, and he heard a clanking sound indicating that heavy, kido reinforced chains had been placed on him. He laid on a hard surface that only made his beat up body ache more. Forcing his heavy eyelids open yielded the information that he had been fastidiously secured to something he thought might have been meant to be a bed, but felt more like a table. He moved his head to look around and discovered that he laid in a cell with strong iron bars.
A moment later, he realized that he wasn't alone.
"Are you awake now, shinigami?" said a feminine voice, issuing from the cell across from his.
"Y-yeah, I'm awake," Renji answered in a thick, pained voice, "Y-you look familiar."
"Do I?" asked the woman, who had been chained with her slender hands over her head, "I don't know you. But you are, perhaps, an officer?"
"Uh huh," Renji agreed, "Abarai Renji, fukutaicho of the sixth division, "And you are?"
"Harribel Tier, Tres Espada and governor of Hueco Mundo."
"Espada," Renji mused, "That's right. Ywach was using Arrancars in his army."
"The quincy king sent his men to Hueco Mundo and killed the greater number of powerful hollows there, but some he enslaved and convinced to fight for him. Although he treated them like refuse. He granted them powers, but instead of the glory he offered, most of the Arrancars who fought for him only encountered a cruel death...some by his own hand."
"Yeah, he wasn't the nicest guy," Renji sighed, pulling slightly at the chains that held him, testing the strength and positioning on his wrists and ankles, "But you'll be glad to know he's dead."
"For the moment," Tier agreed, turning her stern, aqua colored eyes on him, "However, don't be too quick to celebrate because I have overheard talk of a plan to revive him."
"Revive him! Can they do that?" Renji asked worriedly, "We just pulled out all the stops to beat him. You mean to say that, just like that, they can revive him?"
"I'm not sure what they will do," Tier went on, "I only heard bits and pieces. But one thing is certain. We can't let him be reborn. If he is, he won't repeat the mistakes that led to his downfall. Whatever we have to do, we must do to stop him."
"Right," Renji sighed, pulling at his chains, "Well, then I hope you have a plan for getting out of here, because there's no fucking way I'm gonna break these stupid chains. They're..."
Renji paused as he heard a soft exclamation, then a grunt and the sound of a body hitting the floor. Running footsteps approached the cells, but squinting, Renji and Tier could only see a shadowy outline of two men. Renji caught his breath in surprise as the forms thickened, then solidified into living, breathing people.
"Tetsuya, am I ever glad to see you!" he exclaimed softly.
He grinned as Tetsuya sent a flash of icy mist that wrapped around his bonds and Tier's, then thickened and caused a cracking sound as the kido shattered and the heavy bonds failed. Tetsuya and Grimmjow quickly opened the cells and Tetsuya helped Renji to his feet, while Grimmjow wrapped a supportive arm around Tier, giving her a wry grin.
"You all right miss governor?" he joked, "They beat you up a little, huh?"
"I am fine," Tier said stiffly, wriggling out of Grimmjow's hands, "Let's get out of here!"
Tetsuya nodded and invoked his power again, making the color fade from their bodies. He and Grimmjow led them out of the cellblock and upward into the palace.
