Chapter 3: On the Borders of Reality

"You are looking markedly better, Kuchiki taichou," said Unohana taichou, smiling, "Your reiatsu has returned to normal and is fully restored."

"Then I may go?" he asked, returning her smile.

"Hai…but please remember to take it easy for a few days. I am returning you to non-combat duty for four days, then full duty after that…as long as you continue to show signs of recovery."

"I think perhaps you are overly concerned," he said calmly, "I feel fine now."

"Yes," she said patiently, "but as your physician, it is my job to judge based on all available information…and my information makes it clear that you still need additional recovery time."

"Well…I shall certainly have that…once Renji returns."

"Is he still in the living world?" Unohana asked, looking surprised.

"Apparently, Beniko was not pleased with the adjustment to wearing a gigai…and a few other oddities of being in the living world. He should be back tomorrow."

The healer nodded.

"And I expect you will do as you promised and remain under guard until his return?" she asked pointedly.

"Hai, I have no wish to be drained of anything more than I have been already."

"Very well then," Unohana taichou said, turning toward the door, "Just stop by the front desk as you leave to schedule a follow-up and to pick up your clearance to return to duty."

"Arigatou," he said, bowing his head.

"It was a pleasure assisting you, Kuchiki taichou…Be well."

Byakuya slipped into his shihakushou and tied the belt at his waist, sighing discontentedly at the thought of spending four days at the division with nothing but desk work to entertain him. Non-combat duty also meant no training and being that he loved training on the division grounds and that he needed to rebuild his strength, he was not looking forward to having to put those goals on hold. He sighed softly and reached for his haori.

As he did, a pair of arms slipped around him from behind, startling him. He turned in the other's arms and his eyes went wide in disbelief. He released a strangled cry as the other placed a hand over his mouth and wrapped one around his waist. He felt a jolt of energy passing through him and dropped to his knees, stunned. The other turned him, pulled the hand away from his mouth and slipped it underneath his chin, lifting his unbelieving eyes. The eyes that looked back at him were large and golden…the face, like Renji's, but with golden markings. A heavy shock passed through him, leaving him shaky and weak.

"It cannot be…you…"

The strong arms pushed him back against the wall and a hungry, demanding mouth fastened on his. Byakuya tried to twist free, but only felt the cold hands tighten. He tried to gather his power to release a kido spell, but his body refused to obey. He heard a tap on the door and started to call out. His voice stopped in his throat as he realized that the other had disappeared…that he was alone on the floor. He climbed to his feet and steadied himself.

"Who is it?" he asked, trying to sound calm.

"It's just me, Cousin," said Tetsuya's voice from outside the door.

"Come in," Byakuya said, swallowing hard and quickly composing himself.

The door opened and Tetsuya stepped inside. He smiled and nodded.

"You look a bit better," he acknowledged, "Still a bit paler than usual, but that will work itself out. Come, I'll walk you to the sixth division if you like."

Byakuya nodded and turned back to the rest of his clothes. He slipped on the fingerless gloves and wrapped the ginpaku kazahana no uzuginu around his neck, then worked the kenseiken carefully into his hair. Then he turned and walked alongside Tetsuya as they left the room together. They stopped briefly to obtain Byakuya's clearance and to schedule an appointment, then left the building and moved down the street to the sixth division headquarters. Byakuya wore a calm, quiet expression, but inside, his mind whirled.

It was him. It was the Interim King! But it cannot have been! His reiatsu was expelled at the end of the rebirth ritual. Besides, he used Renji's body before. Something is wrong with me. I cannot have really seen him, touched him. It must be the stress of this situation. It cannot be him. It has to be just a construct of my mind.

"Cousin, you're awfully quiet," said Tetsuya, "Are you all right?"

"Hai," Byakuya said, forcing a wry smile, "just too much lying around. It's good to get out of that place and to resume something resembling normal life."

"I would think so," agreed Tetsuya, "I think I would feel the same in your circumstances."

They walked up the steps and into the sixth division office.

"Would you like some tea," Byakuya offered.

Tetsuya shook his head.

"I have to get back to the council hall for a meeting, I'm afraid. They're very up in arms about your condition and the screening of Kuchiki Manor. I have to go hold hands and wipe noses to calm them down," he chuckled.

"Ah, I am pleased that is your job and not mine."

"And for good reason, Cousin," Tetsuya laughed, "Well then, I'll leave you here in the capable hands of your squad. Take Abarai-san's advice and try to stay out of trouble. I have enough to deal with."

He turned and flash stepped away.

Byakuya nodded a greeting to the third seat, who sat at Renji's desk, writing reports, then moved to his own desk and sat down. Senbonzakura was still set on top of his desk, where he had placed it, just before collapsing the day he became ill. He reached for the blade to move it to the stand and reached out with his mind as he touched it, sending a greeting to the spirit within. A cold feeling passed through him when the spirit in the weapon did not answer him. He tried again, and a third time, to no avail.

"Kuchiki taicohu, may I make you some tea?" asked the third seat, looking up at him.

Byakuya shook his head.

"No…thank you," He stood and placed Senbonzakura in the stand, "I will be in my quarters if anyone should require my presence."

The youth nodded and continued his work, pausing to glance up at him again as he left the room.

Byakuya walked past the guards at his door and into his quarters. He walked to the window first and immediately felt the presence of the guards outside. Breathing a relieved sigh, he removed his uniform and slipped into a soft yukata. He sat down on the bed, trying to relax his stormy mind.

Why can't I speak to Senbonzakura? Why couldn't I use my powers? There were no signs of this when I was examined in the fourth division. Could my own mind be causing this? I was cleared for duty. My reiatsu has been restored. Why can't I use my powers? Why can't I speak to my zanpakutou? And why doesn't anyone else sense the loss of my powers? Such a thing is usually obvious.

He wished briefly that Renji would return and came close to sending a hell butterfly to urge his spouse to return. But he stopped himself short of taking the action for one single reason. He was scared to death that his illness had caused a relapse…and that he was imagining everything. It would explain the fact that he still felt power present, though he couldn't use it. It would explain why the vision he saw disappeared when Tetsuya knocked…and it would explain why even now, he felt a vague, inward sense of disassociation inside. But if he read the situation right, he was losing his mind again.

He slipped beneath the blankets and began to drift off. As he neared sleep, an odd feeling overcame his senses and he felt very suddenly, as though he wasn't alone. He sat up and started to get out of bed, then fell to his knees on the floor as a sharp pain burst through his midsection and light flashed softly around him. He tried to call for help, but found himself unable to speak.

Something shadowy rose up out of his own body and hovered in the air beside him…then slowly resolved into the being he had seen before. Byakuya rolled to his feet and backed away, trying again to speak and finding himself unable. The golden-eyed man followed, wrapping a strong hand around his wrist and forcing him down onto the bed. Byakuya tried again and suddenly found his voice.

"You…you aren't real. Your life ended with the birth of the king! I'm just having a hallucination. You aren't here!"

A cold palm touched his face and the Interim King looked down into his eyes.

"You don't believe I am here?" he asked softly, "Is that why you do not call for assistance? Or is it perhaps, something else? Could it be, Kuchiki Byakuya, that you actually missed me?"

"I gave myself over to the rebirth ritual," Byakuya said, staring, "I told you then and I will tell you again, I am not in love with you. I love Renji, and Renji is not here. You cannot be using his body. You can't be here…It's just in my mind. You're still in my mind. I thought you were gone, but somehow you won't leave my mind!"

The Interim King smiled and leaned down to kiss him. Byakuya pulled away sharply, but the king touched his face again, sending a shock through him and freezing him in place.

"Well then, my Byakuya, if you are that convinced that I am not real, then you will not mind if I indulge."

He pulled the tie at his waist and hastily removed the yukata. Byakuya struggled to move, but was still frozen by the king's power. He tried again to use a kido release and felt pressure, but no release of power.

"Stop," he gasped as his body was turned so that he was on his stomach, "Don't do this!"

"You object to this?" the king whispered, "You have no right to refuse me, Consort."

"I met the requirements of the rebirth ritual!" Byakuya hissed, "You have no power over me. You're not even real. You never were! That's why you needed Renji's body. You were a construct made to render the reiatsu for the new king. You have no life of your own. You told me…you told me that you made peace with that! You said that…"

"I know," whispered the king, "but I never said that I had let go of the emotions. Remember, that I had no emotions before you interfered by asking me to show them for you. You caused me to develop them, and that makes you responsible. Now, you will serve my desires. And I desire life…and I desire you…I will have both…You, Byakuya, will give me both."

"No…"

One cold hand closed over his mouth and the other ran slowly down his spine, sending a hard chill through him.

"I would be quiet if I were you," the Interim King warned him, "if you call the guards, I will only disappear again."

Byakuya closed his eyes and tried to end whatever nightmare had overtaken him, but the cold hands moved over him forcefully, holding him in place and pushing inside. He ached to call the guards that he knew were just outside the doors and windows, but he was scared to death that this creature would just be a creation of his battered mind. So he forced away the sensations as they passed over him, denying each as it happened.

He knew he couldn't be feeling cold, probing fingers preparing him as they had so many times when he was in the spirit dimension with the Interim King…and the hands that touched him now were far colder. The Interim King was cold only in demeanor. His hands had been insistent, but they had also been alive and warm. There was no warmth in whatever manner of creature lay stretched along his back…if it even existed. There was no warmth in the hands that forced his legs wide, in the body that shifted into position and slowly entered him from behind.

He was sure that he had to have gone insane as the cold form worked its way inside him and didn't bother to pause before it began its hard thrusting. But he couldn't explain away the awful pain…the sensations that shattered his defenses, that broke through his illusions and brought the truth to life in staggering detail.

Kami, this is really happening!

And the realization renewed his faith in his own mind. He wasn't going insane, wasn't seeing things. Somehow the Interim King had held onto life. He was here, but that coldness! What did it mean? And the forcefulness…The Interim King might have been insistent, but he had never hurt Byakuya physically. The one assaulting his body now was paying no attention to the damage it was doing. The hard, cold fingers dug into his skin. Its body thrust into his painfully and what little resistance Byakuya could manage while held in place by the creature's power was met with brutal force.

Something must have gone wrong because of what I asked of him. It was because of what I made him feel!

The thought sent his mind into chaos. He felt a darkness close in around him, while the cold, brutal assault on his body continued, but farther away. He was losing sensation in his body. He felt like he was falling. Everything was disappearing around him. The only consolation in this loss of consciousness was that, in his dreams, he found that he could, once again, scream.

XXXXXXXXXX

The door to Byakuya's door burst open and the guards rushed in. They slid to a stop as they reached the bed and found Byakuya sitting on the bed, wild-eyed and with the tangled blankets and clothing tumbled around him.

"Kuchiki taichou?" the third seat said in a whisper, staring at the lost, shattered expression on the noble's pale, stricken face, "Sir, did you have a nightmare or are you…?"

Byakuya blinked slowly and swallowed hard. He disentangled his fingers from the torn sheets and slipped his yukata back into place.

"It was just a nightmare," he said softly, "I am fine."

But he didn't feel fine.

How could he?

He knew what he had felt…knew it beyond the shadow of a doubt…

But when he had regained his voice and begun to scream, whatever the nightmare was, it had shattered. And he had clearly seen the lack of evidence of what he had felt. His skin was pale, but still perfect and not bruised. He was perfectly able to move, to scream, and he felt the pulsing of his power as it flared softly beneath his skin. And the final damning fact was Senbonzakura's voice as it touched his mind.

Master, are you all right?

Byakuya watched as the others left, then he fled to the shower to wash the awful feeling of the creature's touch from his skin. And as he washed his body, he checked again.

No sign of injury…no sign of force…nothing…Kami, there's nothing…It was a nightmare. It had to be…because if it wasn't, then…then there would have been something. There would have been some sign of it on my body.

He slid slowly down the wall and rested against the tiled wall of the shower. His mind whirled, trying to make sense of what had happened, but there was no sense, no logic, nothing to help him resolve it in his mind. He sat, curled in the corner of the shower, tears of frustration threatening, but not making it past his eyes. He let his eyes close and focused on the steady intake and exhale of his breath.

Some part of him registered that he wasn't alone and he opened his eyes and looked up. A bolt of fear shot through him, only to be replaced with an equally strong feeling of relief as Renji dropped to the shower floor next to him, heedless of the fact he was still dressed or that the water had gone cold. He wrapped his arms around Byakuya and pulled him close.

"What is it? What happened? They said you had a nightmare. It was that bad?" Renji asked softly.

Byakuya didn't answer, but sank deeper into the redhead's arms and rested his head against a strong shoulder.

"It will be fine now. I'm not going to leave again. Whatever this is that's happening, we'll figure it out together, okay?"

Byakuya nodded silently against Renji's shoulder, thankful that the water soaked material there hid the tears he found he couldn't hold back any longer.