Be ever a Heart so Still

"Not quite..." The voice had a strange, resonate quality that made Karin shudder even from here. The amber eyes that peered out at her from behind the mask were pitiless empty and devoid of any kind emotion other than hate.

"I wondered who they would send..." The dark haired boy hopped from foot to foot as he stepped from the rock he had been sitting on and approached, slow and deliberate.

"I haven't killed in.. oh twenty minutes after all..." With that he was in front of her, naked blade held against her throat, the strange light throwing odd shadows on the ground. "But then again, I haven't killed anyone as good looking as you before. I wonder if your blood is as sweet as your scent..." he drawled the final word out, and Karin felt herself begin to cry as she realized what was about to happen.

"Ahh, yes, tears... cry, show me the power of that..." he began before being interrupted by a savage cry from nearby. With a wild jerk, some inner sense made Karin dive out of the way just as a blue flame ignited the space where the boy had been just a moment eariler. Blazing through the hellish flame Hitsugaya jumped like the very vengeance of heaven.

"Toshiro, how NICE of you to join us..." the raven haired boy was suddenly behind her, roughly pulling her by her wrist and locking it behind her, she felt the evil blade nick just at the right spot on her neck to make her go still. "We have lots of things to discuss, and a WONDERFUL treasure to exploit..."

--

"How is the human Unohara?" Ukitake had entered the medical tent five minutes eariler, roughly dragging a unresisting Matsumoto behind him like a ragdoll.

"She is stable, however she is in a coma, and her reiatsu seems to have disappeared..." Unohara finished lamely.

"That is because she is in his mind right now. She is the Limiters focus... We need to prepare for an immediate dive to prevent this from getting out of hand any more than they have. Call Mayuri and have him bright 'that.'"

--

"You won't touch her, you bastard!" With a harsh bellow Hitsugaya flew at his opponent, soul cutter carving ice out of the air as he plummeted at his enemy.

"Heh, so I won't touch her? But she is just soo... delicate" a sudden wrenching and Karin felt something in her shoulder give away, and she began to scream in agony. Hitsugaya stopped, feet only separating the two combatants as they faced each other down. Karin continued to sob, her cries being muffled as the atmosphere began to change suddenly. Dark, foreboding clouds sprang up, and Hitsugaya, bangs shadowing his eyes, dropped his soul cutter...

"What do you want?" Hitsugaya's voice was a monotone, his body not rising from where he stopped, his breathing slow and deliberate.

The masked boy sneered, and with that same strange voice demanded "I want my freedom. I want the power to do what your pathetic and worthless carcass can't. You, who are bound by your honor, and your love for that worthless woman..."

He spat this out with a cursed tounge blacker than steel "I want MY vengeance. Give my freedom to me, and I will kill Aizen with this blade, for US Toshiro." the masked boy cackled wildly. "I had hoped that you would not intervene in my business, but your sniveling self important ass decided to try to be a hero. Don't. You know that you want this, you want that bastards ass skewered and frozen. LET ME DO IT. LET ME FREE NOW!"

"On one condition. You need to let her go. Release her from this place, and you can have whatever you wan.." Hitsugaya was interrupted by Karin, her pain choked voice seemingly resounding in the rapidly darkening place.

"No. Don't do this Hitsugaya. Please. I don't fully understand this, but giving yourself to darkness is just an excuse. I don't care if I die here, but if you do this, you won't be forgiven. Stop before you do something that will make you regret being a captain. Stop before you do something that Momari would regret you doing..."

With a heave, Hitsugaya fell back on his haunches, his eyes leaking tears.

"I killed her! She is dead! Don't say her name PLEASE!" The child before Karin seemed so small, even through the pain she could tell that he was hurting, and she knew that it was so easy to give into the darkness, so easy to just give up. She bit into the hand of the boy who had been holding her so roughly, and with a wrench of her bad shoulder, she was suddenly by his side, holding his head gently as his emotional torrent finally broke free, causing the black clouds above to open in a torrent of freezing rain.

"Che, your interrupting our discussion girl. I can see that it's time to just cut the fat and do this the hard way. With a flick of the black haired boys blade, Karin felt a sudden chill on her back, then nothing...

"There, now that we have THAT out of the way, you feeling up to a REAL fight Toshiro, or should I just cut you down where your sitting and take this body. It doesn't matter, after all, I get your body even if you die, so I win!"

Hitsugaya looked on as Karin was enveloped in a block of ice, knowing what the next stroke of the attack from the boy would be. With a barely audible voice, the rains above suddenly grew colder, turning from sleet to snow. Eyes suddenly devoid of feeling, blue as the sea and cruel as depths of hell, Hitsugaya stood up to face down his opponent. A cry of "bankai" was the last thing seen before the world turned white...

--

"We are losing her! Quickly, I need every member, and I mean EVERY DAMN member here now." Karin's body had gone into convulsions soon after Unohara sent for Mayuri's aid her skin which had been warm to the touch was suddenly freezing, and her heart rate began to flutter and slow as her temperature began to drop.

--

"Oho, I see you have some fighting spirit left in you after all, and my what a BIG dragon you have Toshiro. I hope your not going to use that on poor little me..." the only response the black haired boy received was a blast of freezing ice as big as human fists. Blocking and parrying as he jumped away from the enraged captain, he sent out his own ice attacks to counter the captains. The dragon towered 50 stories above the battle, it's red eyes watching the battle below.

"You've gotten better, but remember, boy, I HAVE bankai as well." With that, the boy released his own soul cutter, the blast of black ice and fire matching the release from Hitsugaya.

"Bankai won't matter if your dead, fool." Hitsugaya was behind him suddenly, and the black haired boy could only realize that, too late that bankai had been a feint as Hitsugaya's soul cutter pierced through him, and the darkness again engulfed the world... The last vision Hitsugaya had as he lose consciousness was Karin's icy form beginning to fade into the darkness.

--

The ice crystals that had been forming on the barrier outside the containment area suddenly began to fall, and as the sealing squad watched, the visible power of the out of control dragon began to fold back in on itself, disappearing as if it had never existed, only to leave the devastation that had been wrought in its wake...

Jumping through the rubble even as the astonished sealing team was still trying to come to terms with the sudden release of the pressure, a white streak bounced from the zone hell bent towards the fourth squad headquarters.

--

"Cardic arrest, we need Mayuri here NOW, or we are going to lose her!" Unohara was managing the chaos around them, but she knew that they were probably too late. Once someone was locked into the battle for the mind, if they were unable to return, they were lost. The host soul would devour the intruder like a microphage. The only chance to save this girls life was to take what was left of her body soul and take it out, and then let it regrow. She would not be as she was before, but it was better than having her die forever.

The doors to the room were suddenly blown open, and without waiting for anyone, Hitsugaya ran up and shoving through the crowd, bent down and kiessed with Karin with all the passion in his soul before collapsing next to her, sound alseep. Unoticed by anyone, the glowing ring on the table next to the emergency table glowing bright blue for one moment before going out...

--

Black. White. Black. White. Black. White. She rose from sleep slowly, like a diver coming up from the depths of the sea. She had just had the WILDEST dream, and wanted to go to sleep and see if she could have a better one. Turning to her left, she snuggled down further into her pillow and wondered why it grunted in pain as she tried to punch the lumps out...

Hitsugaya was awakened in the darkness by the still form next to him beginning to shift slightly. Trying to understand why he would be sleeping next to someone, he was suddenly and rudely grabbed about the chest, then punched repeatedly before with a throaty sigh, the girl next to him rested more tightly in the crook of his arm. Deciding this was a bad dream himself, he closed his eyes for a moment before the reality of someone sleeping next to him hit like a ten ton brick.

"AHHH MATSUMOTO WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!" Hitsugaya screamed as every light in the fourth division recovery center came on...

authors note:

muhahahahahahahaha

for anyone who had read this far, thank you, and please submit a review!