A/N This story eventually has Yaoi, but I'll head specific warnings per chapter. I'm thinking this one is going to get long though, it is about being shattered and having the pieces put back together.

Chapter Two

Revelations

The garganta, of course, led the world of the living. Before they headed to soul society, they needed to stop the bleeding from the unfortunate but necessary wound given to him by Zabimaru. Before they had a second to think about where to go there was a sudden appearance by a green clad shop keeper. His general coquettish nature barely restrained behind his trademark fan in front of his face. The trepidation, fear, and uncertainty that he kept in check behind that mysterious figure was something that only a certain purple haired vixen would recognize. And then only with difficulty.

"Oh my, I see you have succeeded…" he began but dropped of glancing at Ichigo lying unconscious in Chad's massive arms. "But not without wounding. Come, to the shop immediately!"

Urahara feigned a smile. They hadn't been gone long enough. Not nearly. And they come back with Orihime already, and the only one with a wound is Ichigo? And by the look, from Renji's sword, if he didn't miss his guess? And why did he not feel his reiatsu? Obviously, this had been too easy. He knew that much to be sure. He'd had several long conversations with Shinji about the old days and Shinji's previous fuku-taichou. He had been delighted to see Hiyori again, though his nose still smarted a bit when they were reunited.

They mostly ran into the small shop and headed to an open room, laying Ichigo on the floor. Inoue immediately set about to healing the bleeding wound. The soft glow surrounded her friend and she teared up. Even after everything, they'd still come for her. A burning in her chest told her not to let go, that she had to be strong for her friends, and she mustn't be angry with them.

Renji and Rukia pulled the eccentric shop keeper away into the small tea room. "He said he wanted Ichigo."

Urahara snapped open the fan in front of his face, lost in thought, surprised and unsurprised at the same moment. "What else did he say?"

Rukia swallowed. "He said he and his espada would never leave Heuco mundo if he got him."

Urahara nodded. "He is, of course, lying."

"He had no intention of giving Ichigo back, Renji used Zabimaru to yank him through the garganta," Rukia said, and Urahara noticed the look in Renji's eyes of being disgusted at having hurt his friend with his own sword. Urahara mused that it wasn't so long ago that he had attacked and nearly killed Ichigo with that same sword.

Urahara nodded. "So why did he give him back?"

Renji's face colored. "He didn't give him back, I took him back."

Urahara shook his head. "No, no he let you take him back. He had many espada there, there was no reason that he couldn't have stopped you right there."

That was when the heard the scream from the room behind them. It was unearthly and tortured. It almost had the ring behind it that Ichigo's voice behind the hollow mask carried. Dampened and fuzzy.

"Urahara-sama!" someone yelled, and the striped hat and clog wearing shop owner skidded into the room.

Ichigo's body was writhing in pain, his eyes open, but glazed. The wound from Zabimaru was sealed, but the wound on his neck that Orihime was trying to heal was gushing blood.

"Inoue-kun! Stop! Stop healing it!" Urarhara said breathlessly, very unsure of what exactly that wound was and why Ichigo's body was fighting it being healed.

She called back the sun sun rikki and Ichigo's body relaxed and the blood stopped flowing immediately. His eyes were still open, the bright chocolate orbs glassy and fixed. Breath flowed raggedly in and out of his body.

Urahara kneeled down by the unconscious boy and looked at the mark, right where his neck met the shoulder. "What is this?" He could feel it thrumming with foreign reiatsu. Foreign reiatsu he recognized, and his blood ran slightly cold.

"He bit him," was Inoue's quiet reply. "He bit Kurosaki-kun and he just passed out cold."

Urahara licked his lips, the game of the innocent shopkeeper left far behind now. No, he couldn't have completed the research. He couldn't have figured out… Could he? The line between hollow and shinigami was so easy to blur with the Hogyuku at your beck and call. Could he have managed to bring the powers of the animalistic hollows to his will? He looked up at the others, his hat shading his eyes and effectively hiding the worry lines that were across his brow.

"I need some tests on him, please, stay here, and report the slightest change in his condition. I'll return shortly," he said, standing and moving away.

Rukia and Renji grasped each other's hands, memories of a time not long ago when those very hands had been entwined in each others hair ghosting across their faces. They hadn't held hands since that time. Leave it to Ichigo to bring up memories better left undisturbed. No, that wasn't fair, it wasn't Ichigo, it was Aizen. Always Aizen. The meaningful glance and touch did not escape Uryu's attention, nor the impassive, silent Chad. Inoue was focused entirely on Ichigo. Her hands were shaking slightly. Her emotion was swelling, building and threatening to crash over her like a flood.

Abandoning her friends, yes she had abandoned them, even if she truly knew that she had not been given much choice in the matter, had to be the hardest thing in her life. Then to have them risk everything, life and soul, to bring her back, it was almost too much. A light blush of anger began to cover her pale cheeks. She'd been resigned to her fate. Completely and totally ready to give up on the thought of ever returning to the world of the living or soul society. If her friends were safe, she was happy.

"He can't have him, he can't, not after what…" She trailed off.

Uryu frowned, kneeling beside her, his hand resting on her shoulder. "What is it, did the tell you something?"

She swallowed glancing at the others. "Ulquirro, he was my guard, I suppose. And he would bring me food and comment on how foolish it was that I was still attached to my friends because that's why I left with him, risking everything to save Kurosaki-kun and everyone else. And then when I felt the presence, I couldn't hold back my joy, but I was so afraid."

They all waited while Inoue talked, gently tracing her fingers across Ichgo's pale cheek. Despite the healing, he looked drained of color completely, and those permanently knitted brows were relaxed in a very unnatural way. It was obvious it was not sleep that claimed him at the moment. Inoue cupped his face gently in her hands and stared at the closed eyes.

"Why did you have to come?" she suddenly screamed at him, her face twisting in something between absolute fury and pain. "I did this to protect you, and you put yourself right in there again!"

Rukia's hand tightened on Renji's, neither having ever seen this type of explosion from the girl who was usually upbeat to a sickening degree. Even Uryu lifted his hand from her shoulder and leaned back feeling the disturbance in her normally calm reiatsu strongly from his point. Chad only looked down at the ground.

"Why, Kurosaki-kun? You should have stayed here, forgotten about me, and faced Aizen when you were strong enough! That's what I wanted, to give you enough time to best him! Because it has to be you, and that horrible power inside you, and he knows it! He knows you can beat him, Kurosaki-kun! You are the only one he truly fears. And you came to save me, and now it will be over…" she had stopped yelling and had settled to weeping, her tears falling over his face as she sat over his head, hands still gently cradling his lovely face that she had loved for so long.

She leaned her head back, realizing that Urahara had returned, pulling a cart with him but had stopped at the doorway to wait. He still patiently did, his grey eyes in the depths of the shadow of his hat, his heart clenched at the scene before him. These children, all of them, why did it have to happen this way? They were far too young to be put through this kind of torment, even Renji and Rukia were far too young. This was a war for old ones, not young ones, and definitely not for humans like the three suffering before him. His eyes returned to Ichigo and his heart clenched harder. The boy, and yes he was a boy, had been dragged into this kicking and screaming the whole way, yet still he trudged onward. Fighting now for the people he had previously fought against. Creating bonds of lasting friendship where before there had only been the clash of swords.

Inoue sighed, wiping her tears off Ichigo's sleeping face. "I loved you so much, Kurosaki-kun, so much and never said anything. I was so afraid, so terrified, as I stood over your bed and healed you before I left. I knew that if it continued, there would be a time my healing would not help you anymore. And I wanted to protect you like you've always protected me."

She leaned forward, pressing her lips gently to his forehead, then sat back wiping his orange bangs out of his face. She sighed deeply as more tears fell from her large, gray eyes.

"They said something, didn't they, Orhime?" Rukia asked softly, her bright violet eyes closed against what she feared. They'd all seen what Aizen had done, had heard what he had said. Deep in their hearts they hoped that it was untrue. That there would be nothing to confirm it.

Inoue gulped noisily and continued stroking Ichigo's orange hair. "Yeah," she whispered almost inaudibly. "It was the blue haired arrancar, right after I had arrived there. Ulquirro was gone for some reason and he wandered by. He said he was excited for his next fight with Kurosaki-kun, and told me how glad he was I healed him up after the last one. He said it was unfinished business. I told him that he wasn't coming and he just smiled at me. He said he was coming, of course, what could resist bait like me?"

There was a collective tension in the room at the words. Bait. For Ichigo. "What does he want Ichigo for?" Renji finally spilled out.

Urahara moved up, attaching electrodes and strange wires to the boy's silent body. He muttered apologies to the unconscious form as he slid under his hakama to attach them to his hips and thighs. He smiled internally at the full body blush the boy would have given him at that.

It was then that another spoke up from behind them, and all looked up in utter shock to see Issin, Ichigo's father. But he was dressed as a shinigami, hand on an zanpakuto at one hip, white captain's haori bunched over one shoulder.

"His heritage," he said quietly.

For a long moment, no one said anything. "The vizard were a creation of Aizen trying to break the barrier between hallow and shinigami. The arrancar are the same result. Ichigo is a natural vizard," Issin finally said with a sigh. "There was never a barrier to break, he was born both hollow and human."

The shocked silence was only interrupted by the beeping and occasionall scratching of Urahara's pen. "What do you mean, natural vizard?" asked Rukia with a deep frown.

Urahara looked up. "It means that Ichigo doesn't just draw on the power of the hollows like the other vizard, he actually has a hallow soul inside him along with his human soul. It is, in fact, half of his soul and can never be separated from him."

"What?!" Renji exclaimed. "How is that even possible?"

Issin shook his head. "It's a long story, Abari, a very long one. Has to do with Ichigo's mother and why I left soul society and had my powers sealed. And why Ichigo knows nothing of this."

There was a crack and pop. "It's ready. I'm hoping he'll cooperate, Issin, he's not been very cooperative with Ichigo so far. But this is the only way I can think to get a handle on what's happening to him."

"Who?" asked Inoue softly.

"The hollow of course," Urahara said almost dismissively.