Chapter 2: Chaos Makers

Tetsuya woke to a feeling of paralysis and a strange detachment from his body. Unsure of even such things as whether his eyes were open or closed, or if he was able to hear sound, he tried to struggle, but felt no movement or resistance. When he tried to call out, his voice refused to sound. He tried then to retreat into his inner world, but found that he was unable to do so.

This is so strange. What has happened to me? The last thing I remember is Koji telling me that he would bring Ichigo to the study to meet with me.

Ichigo!

I wonder what he will do when he knows I am gone. I don't know if he understands how my abduction will destabilize things. Always, Byakuya keeps the council in a careful balance. And to lose, not just him, but me as well, invites an inward collapse. I need to escape and get back quickly, otherwise we could end up in a clan war when we can least afford one.

"Tetsuya Kuchiki," hissed a distorted voice that seemed to echo in both ears at once, "Do not struggle. As long as you remain quiet and calm, no harm will come to you. I know you have many questions. Let me explain the things it is allowed for you to know."

Tetsuya tried again to move his mouth, only to find he still had no connection with it.

"Relax," the low voice said soothingly, "I have said that you won't be harmed. You are currently held in a stasis field that is preventing you from doing anything more than breathing and having a heartbeat. Your body is unable to move, but you have not been damaged in any way. Your powers have been sealed so that you have no means of attack or defense. You are completely helpless. I am sure that if you could ask, you would inquire about why we have made you our prisoner. What do we want? What can we gain from doing this? The answer is simple. You are the glue that holds the Kuchiki clan together right now, while your leader is on his way to his death, and your clan is the thing that holds the noble clans in balance. We are acting to upset that balance. You can form your own conclusions about who we are, that would want to do this, and I will not tell you what we hope to gain. It would be meaningless to you. Maybe you are wondering now if we plan to release you. Your fate is yet to be decided. Be calm. Be quiet. That is the best way to ensure your survival."

The voice went silent, leaving Tetsuya suspended in silence and an odd greyness.

He said that I am in stasis…and I am sure that my reiatsu has been sealed. But…even if my reiatsu is sealed, it is still here, within my body. I can't move, but I may be able to use my natural ability to alter my cells so that my body will become a waterform.

Tetsuya took a steadying breath and focused deeply, willing his cells to change. For a time, he couldn't tell whether or not his plan had worked, but finally, he began to sense the other sources of water around him.

Now that I am in this form, I should be able to escape. I can't do as I usually do, and make a new waterform, but if there is a source of water nearby, I should be able to shift my soul to it. I do feel sources of water…an apple, an insect of some kind. I also feel the presence of another body, one that is not moving, but stationary. It seems I may not be the only prisoner here. I wonder who else these people have captured.

Tetsuya continued to focus, scanning all around him until he found what seemed to be a cup of tea.

I don't sense anyone in the room with us right now, but there maybe someone watching. Still, I have to do something. Maybe I can free their other prisoner.

Tetsuya turned his focus inward, onto the cells of his own body, using his trapped reiatsu to shift the cells into their watery state. A throb of relief passed through him as he felt the coolness of his waterform and turned his attention to the cup of tea that sat near him. The shift from his trapped body to the cup of tea was instantaneous. Tetsuya felt the heat of the liquid in the cup for a moment as he gathered himself, then let the cells of his body slowly expand to take on his normal size and shape. The teacup overflowed, and Tetsuya found himself spilling onto the floor, where he laid for a moment before being able to shift himself back to shinigami form.

Thank kami that worked.

Tetsuya now laid on the floor beneath a desk, a short distance away from the examination table, where a large blob of water remained suspended. He lifted his head and looked around, quickly finding a second table that held the other restrained person. His eyes widened as he spotted a bright flash of ginger hair.

Ichigo!

He forced down an urge to rush to the Shiba leader's side, and instead, ran his eyes around the room, which looked to be some kind of laboratory.

I don't want to think about what they plan to do to us. We have to get out of here, but…

He looked up at Ichigo's bound form.

I have to free him first.

Tetsuya crawled out from under the table, listening carefully for signs of anyone approaching as he hurried to Ichigo's side. He located the controls to the stasis field, then paused for a moment to issue a soft warning.

"It's me, Ichigo," he whispered, "It's Tetsuya. I am going to release the controls and free you, so please don't make a sound when I do."

He touched a button, turning off the restraining field, and watched as Ichigo blinked and sat up, adjusting to being able to move again. He slid off the examination table, giving Tetsuya a look of gratitude, then took Tetsuya's hand and led him to the lab room door.

"I don't know how you got free," Ichigo whispered, "but thanks, Tetsuya."

"Help me get us out of here and then thank me," Tetsuya whispered back.

Ichigo peeked through a pane of glass in the lab room door and nodded.

"I don't see any guards in the corridor," he breathed, "but it curves. We've got no choice but to go that way. But there are other rooms around here. I'm sure we'll find a way out, or at least somewhere to hide."

"I can help with that," Tetsuya informed him, "Although my reiatsu is sealed and I can't make waterforms, if I am touching you, I can change our cells to water, so that we can hide more easily. We need to try to avoid bright lights, so that corridor will be dangerous. We have to try to get outside, where it will be easier to hide."

"Sounds like a plan," Ichigo said approvingly, "Let's go!"

Tetsuya nodded and slipped a hand into Ichigo's, focusing until the color seemed to go out of their bodies, leaving them almost transparent. Ichigo marveled for a moment at how the forms were watery, but still held their shape.

"This is amazing!" he exclaimed softly, turning the handle of the door and slowly opening it.

The two crept out of the lab and started down the corridor, listening for any sound of voices or footsteps, but all seemed quiet as they made their way forward, pausing and listening at several of the doors, trying to enter, but finding all of them carefully locked. They caught their breath as a door opened, further down, and they slinked back in the other direction, heading past the lab and trying the opposite end of the corridor as the footsteps seemed to follow.

"They're probably going to the lab!" Tetsuya hissed, "We have to find a way out!"

They tried each door as they raced down the hallway, but each was locked, save for one that led to a dark storage room that held only some cleaning supplies, a mop and a bucket half-filled with dirty water. Tetsuya looked down at the bucket, grimacing.

"Oh man," Ichigo mused, following his gaze, "No way!"

"I don't think we have a choice," Tetsuya reasoned as the footsteps neared, "We have to hide in the bucket, using my ability. It's the only way!"

"Ugh!" Ichigo complained, but he accepted Tetsuya's hand, watching raptly as his friend touched the filthy water and carefully joined their waterform with it.

Within moments, the two had disappeared into the bucket, where they waited breathlessly. A short time later, the door slammed open and the light clicked on.

A tall man dressed in white looked around quickly, then turned back outside and shut the door.

"They're not in here!" he shouted.

"Well, they have to be somewhere," a second voice answered, "Keep looking!"

Within the bucket, Tetsuya connected with Ichigo's mind, instantly feeling that the Shiba heir had realized the same thing he had.

The enemy that took us wasn't a rival clan at all! It was a quincy!

XXXXXXXXXX

The door to Byakuya's cell opened and a youthful male attendant entered, carrying a tray of food. He approached the bed, where Byakuya sat with one hand bound to the steel rail at the head of his cot, and he set the tray on the table at the noble's bedside.

"Thank you," Byakuya said solemnly, earning a surprised look from the youth.

He colored and gave Byakuya a conflicted look.

"You are welcome, Captain Kuchiki," he answered.

The young man started to leave, but paused at the cell door.

"Captain?" he said more softly.

Byakuya looked back at him silently.

"I am…very sorry. I wish that…"

"Miki!" a guard scolded the boy, "You know you aren't allowed to become friendly with them. Give the other his food and get out of here!"

"Y-yes sir!" Miki said hastily, rushing out of Byakuya's cell and locking the door. He moved on to Nori's cell as the old man sat up and stretched.

"Thank you, my boy," he said kindly.

Miki bowed respectfully.

"You are welcome, sir," he answered in a formal tone.

He left the cell and started out of the cellblock.

"Is there nothing for Sousuke Aizen?" Byakuya asked the guard, glancing at Aizen's heavily bound form.

"Too dangerous," the guard answered tersely, "There's no way to feed him without endangering anyone doing the feeding. He doesn't need food anyway. None of you will, soon enough."

Byakuya's eyes closed for a moment at the cruelty in the words, and when they opened again, they focused on Aizen's bound form.

"I will feed him," Byakuya offered, "I am given a sentence of death anyway, so what do I have to lose?"

"I don't know why you want to bother…"

"There is no need to be cruel to a soul about to receive the ultimate punishment," Byakuya reasoned, "In fact, our laws require civil treatment of all prisoners."

"Whatever," the guard said off-handedly, "I guess it doesn't matter if he just kills you sooner."

The guard left his station and entered Byakuya's cell, where he detached the chain that bound him to the cot.

"What am I to feed him?" Byakuya asked.

The guard shrugged.

"I guess you're sharing yours."

Byakuya picked up his tray and followed as the guard led him into Aizen's cell, then fastened the end of the chain to the bars near Aizen's chair. He left the two in the cell and exited, locking the door behind him. Byakuya moved another chair so that he could sit comfortably in front of the other man, and he picked up the chopsticks, capturing a piece of meat from his plate and bringing it to Aizen's smiling lips.

"How very kind of you," Aizen commented, accepting the bite of food, "But then, you are not one who believes in cruelty for the sake of cruelty. Even the condemned gentleman must still be a gentleman, ne Byakuya?"

"I haven't many days left to live," Byakuya answered quietly, "but the ones I have will be lived honorably."

"And this will save your soul?" Aizen asked skeptically.

"This will set an example," Byakuya corrected him.

"And you think that these ones around you will become gentlemen too, and the world will be a better place, is that it?" Aizen asked sarcastically, "That is both foolish and pointless. Your example is wasted on these. You would be better off finding a way to escape so that someone like you stays here to guide others more directly."

"Says the man who wanted to control the world…" Byakuya said dryly, feeding Aizen another bite.

"Our worlds are corrupt," Aizen said, accepting the food and chewing slowly, "They won't change with the few like you setting the rare example."

"And the answer is to betray and kill? To bring more evil to the world?" Byakuya inquired, frowning, "It just makes more evil."

"It doesn't have to," Aizen posited, "You become violent, you kill to protect."

"But you weren't protecting anything but your own interests by betraying all of us and murdering the Central 46 councilors. You weren't planning to make the world better for us all by murdering a hundred thousand innocent people to make the king's key."

"Those were stepping stones to changing the world, Byakuya," Aizen explained, "I did betray my allies so that I could obtain the hogyoku. I needed the hogyoku to alter the Espadas so that I could defeat the Gotei 13 and make the king's key. I needed the key to reach the royal realm, and I would have had to slay the king to bring about change. But once that was done, I would have been free to rebuild a better world."

"A better world by whose definition?" Byakuya asked sternly, "What kind of world would a murderous, selfish egomaniac like yourself have created, if you had been given the chance? I have a hard time after the way you tormented my peasant sister and Renji, believing that life would have been better for peasants. And given the fact you wanted to destroy the military, I do not imagine it would have been better for them. Then, there are the noble houses, the ones whose elders make up the bulk of the Central 46 councilors. Would you have made a better life for them? I doubt it. That brings us back to you. You would have made a better world for yourself. You never cared about the fates of the rest of us."

"But I did," Aizen objected calmly, "I needed to break the backs of the Gotei and Central 46, and of the noble houses. But I only did so to do away with their corruption."

"Is this when you tell me a sad story about how the government and military somehow wronged you?" Byakuya asked dryly, "Save me your excuses. You were doing what you did for one reason and one purpose. You were rising to the top and taking control. That's all."

"I am sure that is what you see, but if you will look closer, you'll see more than that, Byakuya."

"Why try to take me in with your lies now?" Byakuya asked, taking a bite of the food for himself, "There is nothing to gain. Our fate is sealed. After we are presented to the districts, we are going to be executed. Why does it matter whether I believe you about something that means nothing anymore?"

"Isn't it a natural desire for any soul to be understood?" Aizen asked.

"You want me to understand you? Why? Sousuke Aizen said follow me, but don't trust me. He betrayed his own and scolded them for having faith in him."

"Exactly," Aizen said solemnly, "because someone has to make people see. It is pointless to put one's faith in another. That only ever weakens a soul by making it dependant. Souls become strong through conflict and danger, through the constant struggle to survive. In your heart, you know I'm right."

"But how does that justify what you did?" Byakuya demanded, "You preyed on honorable people…"

"I preyed on the weak," Aizen corrected him, "As the weak fall, the strong survive and grow stronger. It will make a stronger society in which all are struggling and striving."

Byakuya considered Aizen's words, his mind's eye focusing on a mental image of his late wife.

"So…because a soul might be weak, you think it does not contribute?" he asked, "What about things like kindness? Justice? Love? Those things are expressed through our treatment of those who are weaker than us…and I think there is value in those things. If there is no kindness, justice and love, there is nothing left but constant war. That is not the kind of world that I would want to live in, Sousuke Aizen."

Aizen went quiet for several minutes, simply watching as Byakuya fed him and took intermittent bites of the food on his tray, then shared the cups of tea and water that had been provided.

"That's enough," the guard said finally, entering the cell and retrieving the end of the chain Byakuya was attached to.

He led Byakuya back to his cell and chained him to the cot, then returned to his post. The noble laid down on his bed, gazing calmly up at the ceiling and breathing slowly. He had nearly fallen asleep when he heard Aizen's low voice reach him once more.

"You have given me a lot to think about, Byakuya. Thank you."