AN: So, here's chapter 6. So, hopefully it's beginning to take shape. I think it's going OK so far. I'm certainly keeping it going. I hope you guys like it so far too. I want my fics to be interesting to you guys, the readers, so any reviews on how you think I could improve would be greatly appreciated, as always. So, without further ado, enjoy! ^^

Thinking Outside the Box

Aiden woke up in a small room strapped to a chair. He looked around, but the room was empty. He shuffled to make himself slightly comfortable. A pungent acidy smell filled the room. Aiden wrinkled his nose.

"You couldn't do any better than this then, eh Starrk?" Aiden muttered, not expecting anyone to hear. But someone did hear, and a panel in the wall slid back to reveal several people behind a thick glass screen at computers. A tall brown haired man peer at Aiden from behind the glass.

"Geez you're a real pain in the neck Aiden. I really can't be bothered with this, but it can't be helped. We're going to test to see if your Geass will sustain a Hollowfication. If it does, we'll use the information to try and reach the Land of Kings, Ragnarok. If not, then we'll simply try something else. Either way, you'll become useless after this, and we can finally get you out of the way." The brown haired man said. His name was Starrk, and he wore a white hakama, with a black sash tied around his waist, with one end hanging down, while the other was kept short. The sash acted as a belt, holding his sword sheath. Aiden was unsure what was meant by 'Hollowfication' but he knew that if the Order ever reached Ragnarok, it would be bad. Yet he had no clue how to get out of this situation.

Aiden heard a whistling sound, and a small pellet hit him in the side of the head. Aiden felt himself get knocked out of the chair. How he did not know, but when he looked back, he saw himself lying limp in the chair.

"What the hell…?" Aiden was astounded.

"Your essence has been removed from your body. You are just, for want of a better word, a soul at the moment. You are made up of fragments of energy and data, so technically, you are still you. Most people cannot see you in this form. Only those who have experienced death first hand." Starrk boomed over the intercom. The volume had been turned up considerably. Aiden look around, and as he moved heard a clinking sound at his chest. He looked down and saw a broken chain where his heart would be. Suddenly, the chain came to life, growing several mouth-like appendages and began to chew on itself. The pain from the experience was immense. Aiden gasped and clutched his chest, sinking to one knee. The panel in the wall had slid back, and Aiden was alone.

Time passed and Aiden could do nothing to stop the chains. Every so often they'd perk up and chew at themselves, before dying down to rest for a while. Aiden was sat against the wall during his fourth day in the room. The chains had one more cycle before they'd fully erode. What happened then, Aiden had no idea.

"Very soon, you will start to become a Hollow, and we don't want to you to give in. You do and you're dead. Simple as that. Fight this next sensation, or you will die." Starrk spoke over the intercom. Aiden became very scared. He didn't want to die, and he didn't even know what a Hollow was. The chains suddenly perked up and chewed at themselves. After minutes of agony, the chain was gone, and there was just the initial like that the chain had been attached to. Aiden felt something pulsate inside him, and a thick white substance burst from his right eye and mouth. The pain to his mind was excruciating. Aiden felt like his very being was being ripped into two. Aiden felt like he was fighting for possession of his mind. The white substance had begun to form the shape of a mask and solidify. The painful pulsation raced through him again, and the ripping sensation returned in greater force.

In desperation, Aiden tried activating his Geass. While it managed to activate, it did nothing to relieve him of the pain. A pulling sensation dragged Aiden's consciousness inside him.

Aiden awoke in a world where all the colours were reversed. The sky was a deep yellow, and the sun and clouds were black. He was stood in the middle of a field. The grass was blood red, and the flowers looked odd with red stems instead of green ones. A strange, familiar smell could be smelt, and the whistle of the wind could be heard, but not felt. A strange metallic taste was also hanging in the air. Aiden was also not alone. A woman in black armour with a flowing black cape stood opposite him. She had blazing violet eyes, and streaming starlight hair. Her bracers formed crescent moon shapes at her wrists, and the crescent pattern followed throughout the design of her armour. She did not look in any way weak or vulnerable, but looked well built and somewhat deadly.

"Aiden, do you know where you are?" Her voice was deep and echoed slightly around the field. Aiden hesitantly shook his head. "You are at the centre of your being. It reflects your current state of being. If you are in disarray then this place is too. Look up to the sky." Aiden did as he was told. He didn't think disobeying this person would do him any good. As he did, he noticed that the sky had become cracked, and black light was pouring through. "Those cracks are there because you are cracking. Your being is being overtaken by this Hollowfication. To stop it, you must gain a power, a dangerous, but very strong power. There will be big consequences however. Starrk is after your Geass, and if you survive this, you will have to give it to him." Aiden was shocked, and so many questions had begun to fill his mind. In the end, he settled with simple first.

"Who are you?" He asked. The woman laughed.

"I thought you might ask that. I am part of you. Not with you at the moment, but I will be, in time. My name is ." Aiden became confused.

"Sorry, what?" Aiden asked. The woman sighed.

"It seems you cannot hear me yet. Next time I see you, I shall tell you my name again. I hope you will be able to listen then. For now, I present to you a challenge to save yourself. Over a million lights are now falling from the sky. One of these represents my power I shall lend you. Remember, I am part of you. If you can find yourself among these lights, then you can save yourself. Well don't just stand there, go!" Aiden looked up. The woman was right. Countless spots of light were falling from the sky. They were every colour of the spectrum. However, one stood out to Aiden. A deep blue light floating down slowly, flitting around slightly stood out. The sky cracked further, and shards of the sky began to fall in.

"Hurry Aiden! You're about to lose yourself completely!" Aiden made up his mind. He reached up and grasped the light, nearly missing it. Aiden felt a light sensation flow through him. The sky instantly fixed itself, and the cracks sealed with a blue light which slowly faded.

"Did I do it?" Aiden asked. The woman smiled and nodded.

"I see I didn't choose too badly." She winked at Aiden. Aiden felt himself expand and found himself back in his soul body. Several people were in the room with him, about to stab him from all angles to kill him. Filled with the light sensation, he quickly jumped out of the way, sailing over all of them. His power amazed him. The others in the room looked up as he jumped. When he landed, he realised something was on his face. The fact that it hadn't fallen off yet suggested that it was stuck. Instead, Aiden punched the mask, shattering it, and shards of white fell off his face. The men in the room looked stunned at him. Aiden picked off the last bit of the mask which covered his left eye and forehead, and threw it to the feet of the closest men. The shuffled backwards, and as the door opened, they scrambled to get through it. Starrk walked in after they'd left, and Aiden just stared at him, loathing Starrk for the ordeal he'd just been put through.

"You little piece of sh-" Aiden began, but Starrk overrode him.

"Since you survived, as troublesome as it is, I will now have you use your Geass. Don't make me have to force you. I really loath fighting, especially when you're unarmed." Aiden stood facing him; Aiden's clothes had changed. He had been wearing some casual clothes, black skinny jeans, a t-shirt, a jacket over the top. Now he was wearing some blue baggy jeans with a red shirt, and a heavy black coat which was left unfastened. At his belt was a sheath for a katana. The katana itself was missing. The sheath was decorated in some strange patterns which seemed to give off a faint glow.

Starrk seemed to pay no attention to this change. Aiden was still seething, however he could not think of a way out without using his Geass, so he complied. Instead of just activating the Geass however, Aiden began to attack Starrk, liquefying the ground beneath Starrk and causing spikes to erupt from the walls towards him. Using the moment's distraction Aiden presumed this would give him, he ran for the door, moving faster than he could before, and making it out without being stopped. Then he ran, not knowing exactly which way he was headed, but made for the general direction Aiden knew as 'out'. He was forced to stop when Starrk appeared in front of him, with his sword drawn. Aiden swore under his breath, and forced a wall up between them. Then he turned around and sped the other way. The corridor had no turnings or doors in it for Aiden to use to escape. Instead he was confronted by Starrk again. Aiden drew up another wall between them, and ran back the way he had come, until he met his previous wall, untouched by Starrk. Aiden turned around, knowing what he'd find. Starrk was standing over him, sword tip pointed to Aiden's head.

"Looks like you can use it faster and with more potency now. Not by much, but still, that's a nice bonus. Now, I will take it from you. If you resist, I will kill you and still take it from you. I've had enough playing around now." Starrk murmured quietly, so Aiden could just hear him. Starrk pointed his sword tip to Aiden's left eye. Aiden backed into the wall. Starrk moved in closer, sword still pointed to Aiden's eye. Then, Starrk plunged the sword into Aiden's eye.

Aiden woke up screaming. His throat was hoarse, and his left eye ached incredibly. When he moved to rub it however, Aiden began to freak out. His entire eye was gone. There was nothing there. He gingerly made to touch his eye socket again. He could not see his finger, which scared him, but also his finger went straight past his eye lid and into the eye socket itself. Aiden jerked his hand back. The feeling made him throw up. Aiden was panicking, and didn't know what to do. It didn't take long before Aiden passed out again.

When he woke this time, Aiden felt slightly calmer, but was still upset by the loss of his eye.

"Hey, you ok? Seems like you're having a rough time." Aiden whipped around, and found he was in a small cell, sat on one of two beds, the other being occupied by a ginger haired man, who looked a couple of years older than Aiden. He was wearing dark blue jeans, a grey t-shirt and a black winter jacket. He had a necklace which looked like half a key. He had an arrogant air about him, but also kind and strong-willed. Under his bed was a black sheath which, like Aiden's, was empty. Aiden looked at him for a moment before responding.

"I'm fine. Who are you?" Aiden guarded his tone, but still sounded cautious and interrogative.

"My name's Ichigo. Ichigo Kurosaki. They wanted your Geass I take it?" Ichigo said casually. Aiden widened his eye in surprise.

"How did you know about Geass?"

"They did the same thing to the guy in the next cell over. Except his Geass was more advanced, so they had to remove both his eyes. They replaced them though. Dunno about you though. Either way, it's wrong to force people to give up something like that." Ichigo answered. Aiden wondered who the person in the next cell could be.

"Who was the other guy?"

"He's called Lelouch, or from what I can hear. I think he's French, though his English is impeccable." Another shocking bit of information. Lelouch was the leader of the Black Knights originally, supposedly dead but it surfaced that he survived murder when he was found by the Order when Aiden was small. Aiden could not understand why he was still alive. He let it drop however, and leading against the wall, bringing up one knee onto the bed, letting the other hang over the side. He made to rub his left eye, but stopped himself. It itched, but Aiden knew he'd be sick if he tried to rub his eye again.

"I can't imagine what it's like to lose an eye." Ichigo muttered.

"Scary, and sickening. But I'll get over it. What did they take from you?" Aiden responded, wondering if he was supposed to have heard him. Ichigo looked at him.

"Me? The power they took from me has been given to you, in an indirect way. You didn't want it I know, but now you have it."

"And what power is that?" Aiden asked, confused. The Order hadn't given him any powers.

"My hollowfication. They took it from me. They had to invade every fibre of my being to get it out, but they got it. Well, I say they, who I really mean is Starrk. He's doing all this personally it seems. And I thought the Espada were finished after the second Death God war. However, Starrk survived somehow, and now he wants to see the world overturned again. I won't let him do that."

"You're not alone. I never introduced myself did I?" Ichigo shook his head. "My name's Aiden."

"Strange name." Ichigo casually said. Aiden shrugged it off. It was a strange name. "How did you survive the hollowfication process?" Aiden looked puzzled.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, when you were in that room, most people would have turned straight into hollows. How did you survive?" Ichigo explained

"I don't really know. I felt like I was taken into myself, and met someone who's name I don't recall hearing. She told me I had to find the one light that was me, before the world that was me crumbled to nothing. Does that make any sense?" Ichigo nodded.

"Very similar to me then. That person you met, do you know who she was?" Aiden shook his head. "If I'm not mistaken, she was your sword. I remember seeing someone carrying a sword to the armoury, and it looked very similar to Starrk's and mine. In style anyway. Our swords are things which have feelings and emotions, becoming a separate part of us, lending us their power, and in return, borrowing ours to help us. The fact you couldn't hear her name, means you haven't realised the existence of your sword yet. Try listening to her next time. She's probably been calling to you for some time. The only reason you lived through that hollowfication is because of her, and that was a miracle in itself, you being so far apart and all. Anyway, you have any idea how to get out?" Ichigo finished, leaving Aiden feeling bewildered. He shook his head plainly, struggling to get his head around the ideas. Ichigo got up. "Guess I'll have to try something new. Been practising for a while, but I don't know how this will go." He moved towards the door. He pointed his finger at the lock, and a small ball appeared in front of it. After a moment, the ball fired, becoming a ray of blue light, which incinerated the lock. Ichigo grinned.

"You really are an idiot Starrk." He mumbled. He turned to Aiden. "You know when I said they'd taken my hollowfication? Well, they didn't really take it. I've still got it." Ichigo smiled. Aiden got up, expecting them to leave. Ichigo didn't move.

"Erm, shall we go then?" Aiden asked hesitantly. Ichigo laughed.

"Are you insane? They'd kill us before we got five feet. This is a prison cell after all, not a hotel suit. This place is guarded to hell, even if it seems empty. That was just a test. Next time we will though, I promise." Aiden was unconvinced. He made to move to the door, but heard footsteps echoing on the floor. He moved away and back to his bed. Ichigo did the same, lying down with his hands behind his head.

The door opened to reveal a very tall, very muscular man. He pointed to Aiden, then over his shoulder. Aiden took this to mean he was leaving. Ichigo gave him a puzzled look, and Aiden shrugged. He got up and walked out the door. The man shut the door behind him, and when Aiden turned around, he saw the lock reform, just like new. The man then pushed Aiden along, who stumbled, only just managing to steady himself. It wasn't long before they reached an elevator which took the man and Aiden straight to the medical floor.

There, the man pushed Aiden to an empty room with a woman who looked deeply regretful when she saw Aiden's eye. Aiden remembered her to be called Natasha. She had been nice whenever Aiden had seen her before, if a bit detached. He smiled at her, and she tried to smile back, but it didn't really come out right. When in the room, the big man left and shut the door behind him.

"Can snakes hear the dust?" Aiden asked. Natasha shook her head. Aiden relaxed a little. "Good. Glad you remembered that." He smiled.

"I knew you'd be back, so I did my best to remember all our little secrets." She said. He voice had a nervous edge to it, which Aiden didn't like.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Natasha shook her head. Aiden repeated the question. She looked at him, fear glazing her eyes.

"They've got Clint." She whispered. Aiden didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry." Aiden couldn't think of anything else. Natasha shook her head again.

"Don't be, you couldn't have done anything." Aiden couldn't respond. His mind had gone blank. Natasha's loss made conversing now seem very awkward. Eventually, he struck upon asking why he was here. Apparently, he was getting his eye replaced.

"At least the Order has a little bit of dignity then." Aiden grunted as he laid on the bed in the middle of the room. He instantly wished he'd said nothing when he saw the look on Natasha's face. She made Aiden breath in a gas which would knock him out, which didn't take long, before setting to work.

When Aiden woke up, his vision had expanded. He instantly made to rub his left eye, and when he felt that it was there, elation filled his body. He was glad to have it back. What he didn't notice at first was that the door was open, and Ichigo was missing. When Ichigo returned, Aiden realised what he'd missed. Before he could ask any questions, Aiden was handed his katana.

"We're leaving now." Ichigo growled. Aiden didn't argue. He got up, and reattached his sheath to his belt. Then he put away his katana and followed Ichigo out of the cell.

"Hold on, you said we'd be caught within seconds if we left, how come not now?" Aiden asked. Ichigo turned to face him. His face deadly serious, Aiden wasn't sure what had happened, but he became afraid.

"Your friends are attacking the Order. And in the distraction, I thought we'd leave to go and help. Not that I agree with the fighting, but it has to be done." Aiden was stunned into silence. This was the second time in a week that Aiden's friends had attacked the Order. Last time they barely made it out alive, and Aiden had been in a room next to the entrance of the hideout. Now Aiden was much further in, and the Order more prepared. Aiden began to feel sick when he thought of the likely outcome.

"We need to move fast." Aiden said. Ichigo nodded and set about freeing the other prisoners. There was an explosion over head, and the corridor shook slightly. Ichigo and Aiden exchanged looks. Aiden began praying that Kathryn and Oliver hadn't already died, let alone entered the fight. They reached the last cells fairly quickly; the corridor had been short. The last prisoner was Lelouch. Aiden looked at him.

"So, you've finally arrived, Aiden. I've been told about you. Shame you had to lose your Geass already, I had wanted to see it. Never mind. Shall we be off? And can we stop by the armoury? I have something to pick up." Lelouch had a clear pronunciation of his words, and sounded intimidating, despite his fragile appearance. He was dressed in a purple suit, with a darker purple cloak, the rim lined with yellow, which he could wrap in front of him. They made it to the armoury with no problems whatsoever. Lelouch went in, and came back out within a matter of seconds. He was carrying a small key. Aiden wondered why such a thing was in the armoury, but said nothing. They hurried to the entrance floor, and when they got there, the sight was more than Aiden had expected. Every Order member was fighting. The group fighting the Order looked immeasurably smaller, but had ownership of several Knightmare frames, humanoid tanks which were incredibly mobile and destructive. The Order was able to defend itself effectively however, and the small group looked out-matched. Ichigo said exactly what Aiden was thinking.

"This is war."

AN: So what do you think? Is it getting good? I hope so. Anyway, leave reviews with your ideas, and I'll gladly take them into consideration for subsequent chapters. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and will update with chapter seven ASAP.
Aiden ~