If I owned Bleach, some of this stuff may have happened in the anime or manga. Since it hasn't happened in either, that means I don't own Bleach or the characters.

Ugh, I would have uploaded this yesterday but it wouldnt let me. To make up for it though, this chapter is longer!

Note: Everything that involves Ichigo in the real world is the present time. Everything that involves Rukia in Hueco Mundo happened in the past (two weeks ago to be exact). When the story moves to Rukia, Orihime has not been kidnapped yet unless I say otherwise.

This is intentional as it is how I have planned the story. So, don't ask questions about it since I have just explained it (I think). Ask questions if my explanation makes no sense to you.


Chapter 8

Life or Death

Rukia simply lay on the bed in her room staring at the wall. She hadn't moved since she woke up with half of her left arm missing and only one usable eye. She felt constant pain from both. Her arm hadn't caused any pain to begin with but as time passed it felt as if the wound from before was still there. Aizen had told her that this was the last day before he would kill her if Ichigo didn't turn up.

Even when she was told to attend training, she didn't move from where she was. She didn't care what Aizen or anyone else thought of this. She didn't eat any of the food that was given to her either. It just sat on the floor where it had been placed by Ulquiorra or a lesser arrancar.

She often found herself in her spirit world inside her own soul. Her spirit world was a large forest with snow almost everywhere. It covered the entire ground and all of the tops of the trees. A gentle snow always fell from the colourless sky. Whenever she was there, she always appeared in the same place of the forest. She was always in a circular clearing with a single tree in the middle. It was larger than all of the other trees in the forest. Rukia assumed this was the exact centre of the area. She hadn't seen much of the forest as it was so vast.

While inside the spirit world, Rukia had the use of both of her eyes and her left arm looked as if nothing had ever happened to it. There was always a beautiful woman wearing a white kimono standing in front of the centre tree. It was Sode no Shirayuki. Her friends and Sode no Shirayuki were the only reasons Rukia was still a shinigami at this point. If one of them or neither of them were there, Rukia would have given in to the dark part of her heart a long time ago. Sode no Shirayuki knew this as she knew all of what Rukia felt and did.

'I don't know what to do anymore.' Rukia approached her. 'I can't take the pain for much longer. I just want it to stop.' She had her head down, facing the snow covered floor.

'You mustn't give in to the darkness Rukia' she said. She had a very soft and kind voice. 'You will get through this.' She placed a hand on Rukia's shoulder. 'You still have my power.' Rukia looked up into her eyes. Rukia smiled at her. She was then blinded by an intense white light.

She was outside her spirit world now. She was back inside her room in Hueco Mundo. She sat up and reached for her sword. She held it close to herself. She then stood up and faced one of the walls. She held out her palm which was parallel to the wall.

'Hadō no san-jū-san! Sōkatsui!' A wave of blue reiatsu shot out of her hand and destroyed the wall. She looked out and saw there was only the sand of the immense desert of Hueco Mundo. 'Mae! Sode no Shirayuki!' She pointed the blade towards the ground and called 'Tsugi no mae. Hakuren!' As she said the words a huge wave of ice came from the end of the blade. It froze instantly, forming a path for her that led down to the ground.

She didn't know why she was doing this. There was no escape from Hueco Mundo. The only exit was by using a garganta. She stepped onto the pathway she had just created and slid down to the bottom. She faced the fortress again before turning around and running. She ran as fast as she could despite not knowing where to go or how it would benefit her in any way.

'Nii-sama, Renji, Ichigo. Someone, please. Help me.'


'I forbid you from entering Hueco Mundo. You are all needed for the upcoming war. As far as we are concerned, Inoue Orihime has betrayed us.' Yamamoto was on the screen talking to Ichigo and Hitsugaya's group.

'What the hell are you talking about!?' Ichigo yelled at him showing no respect to the elderly commander. 'Inoue wouldn't betray us. She must have been taken like Rukia was.'

'You witnessed Kuchiki Rukia being taken away. She is confirmed to be a prisoner of Aizen' he stated. 'However, you did not witness what happened to Inoue Orihime. We can only assume she agreed to going to Hueco Mundo. Hitsugaya taichō, your group is being pulled back to Soul Society to strengthen our defences. This is an order. To make sure you comply. Zaraki Kenpachi and Kuchiki Byakuya will be escorting you back.'

A senkaimon opened behind everyone. Byakuya and Kenpachi were standing there.

'We are here to take you back with force if necessary' Byakuya said in his usual cold voice.

'You better make this easy for us' Kenpachi seemed bored. 'I really ain't in the mood for fightin' any of you.'

Hitsugaya's group turned and accompanied them back through the senkaimon.

'Byakuya!' Ichigo called. Byakuya stopped. 'Why are you doing this? Rukia's there too.'

'Kurosaki Ichigo. Rukia has been missing for almost two months.' He turned to face Ichigo. 'Don't you think we know about your rescue attempt when you saw Urahara? He is the only one who can make a garganta. We cannot do anything to help.' He continued walking away as the senkaimon closed.

'Shit' Ichigo cursed. He decided to see Urahara once more to see if he could keep the garganta open long enough for them to go through.

Ichigo arrived at the Urahara shop. He went down to the secret training ground and found Urahara, Chad and Uryū there.

'Kurosaki, you kept us waiting' Uryū pushed his glasses up.

'Wha- what are you all doing here?'

'Urahara-san called us here' said Chad. 'The garganta he made stays open this time.'

'That's right Kurosaki-san. I don't know why but I tried it one more time and it stayed open' Urahara pulled his hat down over his eyes slightly. 'Aizen probably did this for a reason but still we have to take advantage of this.'

Urahara opened the garganta and, just like he said, it stayed open.

'Rukia, Inoue. Don't worry. This time we will save you.' The three of them jumped through the garganta.


Rukia had been running for what seemed like forever to her. She was desperately trying to find someone to help her. She wouldn't believe Aizen who said Ichigo still wasn't here after almost a month. For all the time she was running, she was exerting almost all of her reiatsu, hoping someone would detect it. As almost all her reiatsu was being exerted, it drew many hollows towards her. As they approached her, they were almost instantly frozen by the reiatsu, moments later they would shatter into thousands of tiny ice crystals. They were only weak hollows that weren't even menos so they weren't able to get close enough to her.

Rukia was exhausted though. Releasing the majority of her reiatsu tired her out quickly. She was breathing heavily and was trying to keep herself from collapsing.

'Why am I running away?' she kept asking herself. 'I'll die out here quicker than I will back there. Everyone probably knows I've escaped by now. They're probably after me right now.' She knew it would be easy for them to find her. Everywhere she went looked the same to her. She looked back and could barely see the fortress. She had gone quite far in however much time it was she was running.

Rukia continued running but it was at a slower pace than usual. She was completely worn out. She could run no more.

'Damn it… DAMN IT!!!!!!' she shouted. 'Why- why am I so weak?!' She collapsed on the floor with her arm outstretched still holding Sode no Shirayuki. She was still conscious but she could barely move. She let go of Sode no Shirayuki and tried to stand up again. Everything was so much harder to do with only one arm. It was no good. She couldn't keep herself up and fell back down again.

'Ichigo… why? Why didn't you come?' She had never felt so hurt on the inside before. She was lying on the sand, not able to move with Sode no Shirayuki now just outside of her reach. She knew she was going to die soon. She would have been found by someone by now. The hollows would get to her eventually.

Just then, she felt reiatsu nearby. She knew who it belonged to. It was the last person she wanted to find her. Ichimaru.

'Ah there you are Rukia-chan.' He had his usual grin on his face. 'You gave us quite a scare when we found out you weren't in yer room.'

'Leave me alone.' Rukia tried to turn away from him.

'Aww that ain't nice.' Ichimaru walked closer to her. 'It was nice of ya to release all of yer reiatsu though. It made my job much easier. We can't have ya dyin' out here, can we?'

He picked her up from the floor and carried her in his arms. He reached down and took Sode no Shirayuki too. He put it in her hand as if he was giving a toy to a small child. Rukia couldn't do anything to run away again. She was too exhausted.

'Ya better be thinkin' about what ya wanna say to Aizen when we get back' he said. 'Times up ya know. No one's comin' to help ya. So now, ya either die or join up with us. Just think about it as a choice between life and death.' He looked down at Rukia. Her face held no emotion.

'I know what I want to tell him' she said.

'Welcome back' Aizen greeted Ichimaru as he brought Rukia back to the Las Noches fortress. Ichimaru put Rukia down and bowed slightly before leaving. Rukia was able to stand up now. 'I do hope you didn't run into any trouble out there. Running away will not heal you. Only I can do that for you. You are still essential to my plan but it is now the final chance for you to decide your fate.' Rukia said nothing. 'So what will it be? Live and serve me or die. Should you choose death, I will make it swift for you.'

'I don't want to die. But I don't want to help you either' Rukia said weakly.

'That is a shame because you must choose one of the two.' Aizen was confident she would make the correct choice.

'I-I choose dea-' She stopped herself. She knew what this meant. If she wanted to live, she would have to choose the other option. Tears fell onto the floor. 'I want the pain to stop but I don't want to die.' She fell to her knees. 'Everyone has abandoned me. They don't care for me anymore. ' She clenched her fist. She left a long pause before speaking again. 'Please, Aizen.' She was practically begging now. 'I-I want to become an arrancar! I want to be stronger. I don't want to have to endure this pain again.' She said the words but something inside her told her that she would regret this choice.

Aizen smiled. 'A wise choice. Do you see how much easier it is for you now? You wanted to keep your life and you wanted power. Your choice means you get both.' Aizen reached into his pocket and pulled out the Hōgyoku.


Well, I think the next chapter will focus more on Ichigo and the others. This isn't a guarantee as I may decide to alter small parts of the story.

After the shock of the end part of this chapter I'm not going to say anything else about the story.

Review please!