Chapter 10: The Fading
(By request for HaruB13)
"Sasaki Naoko, what can you tell me about the condition of Kuchiki Byakuya? Were you able to preserve the life of the heir?" asked the king.
After you beat your consort nearly to death, you are worried about the heir?
"Your majesty, Kuchiki Byakuya's condition is grave, but the heir is still viable. However, if you wish for your consort to live, you must abandon all hopes of him carrying this child to term. It was difficult enough for his body to endure carrying the heir, but…
The beating you gave him…the violence of it!
"…but the injuries he has sustained will not allow him to continue. He has already begun to fade."
The king stepped past the healer, into the room where Byakuya lay, still, silent and hooked up to machines that regulated his breathing and monitored the signs of life. His expression darkened with something that might have been regret, but he forced it away and turned back to the healer.
"Naoko…you are to keep him on life support…until the child can be delivered alive. After that…you may take whatever steps you see fit to try to save him."
He sighed softly.
"It is a terrible thing. I have wanted Kuchiki Byakuya ever since I sensed his birth. I thought that if anyone could carry my heir and make a truly worthy consort, he would. I am deeply saddened to see that although powerful and strong in body, he was too emotionally overwrought by the transition and pregnancy to properly manage things. It was, I think, desperation that caused him to join Kirio in her attempt to overthrow me. I only wish that he had recognized his error before it came to this."
He returned to the noble and leaned over and kissed Byakuya very gently on the forehead.
"I am sorry, my Byakuya. I think that if she had not interfered, you could have learned to be happy remaining at my side. We would have had many happy years before you faded. And now, we are left with only this little one, this small reminder of the brief time that you were here with me. I shall treasure the memory of our lovemaking. Despite everything, I still yearn for you. In my heart, I do hope you survive."
He turned and flash stepped away, leaving the disgusted healer staring after him. He leaned over Byakuya again and carefully checked the monitors. Then, shaking his head sadly, he reached out with his senses to make sure no one was about and slipped out of the room.
"Mika," he said to his assistant, "I am going on a break. I will return soon. Please continue monitoring Kuchiki Byakuya. Do not alter his treatment in any way while I am gone. Send a hell butterfly if he wakes or if anything changes suddenly."
"Yes, sir," the healer said, turning toward Byakuya's room.
Naoko continued out of the healing center and down several hallways. As he went, he checked the reiatsu around him carefully to make sure that he was not followed. He made his way to the south end of the palace and ducked into a small room. Within the room, he pressed a small device in the wall and a door opened in the wall, revealing a hidden passageway. He went inside, carefully sealing the door behind him, then followed the silent passageway into a hidden room. He opened the door and stepped inside, looking around at what appeared to be a storage area.
"You can come out," he said quietly, "I have a report on Kuchiki Byakuya's condition."
At the sound of his voice, Kirio stepped out from behind some boxes, followed by a tall, slender man with brown hair and dark brown eyes, a ginger haired youth, and a red haired shinigami. They gathered around him, looking at him questioningly. Naoko glanced at the brown haired man.
"You said that you had someone in your group who could save Torio's life. Were you able to do that? The poor boy was essentially dead when I brought him to you."
"I placed Torio and the one healing him within a reiatsu cage. We cannot chance the king sensing the girl's presence. He would kill her immediately."
"He would kill all of you on sight," the healer said warningly.
"I still can't believe you brought Orihime with us like that and kept her hidden from her own friends!" Renji said disgustedly.
Ichigo nodded in agreement.
"If you will think back a bit, literally just a day ago, you were our enemy. If you want us to trust you, then you shouldn't hide things from us," he said, sounding only slightly calmer than Renji.
"The two of you need to keep from getting agitated," Yoruichi said reprovingly, "Our powers might be sealed away, but if you get angry, your reiatsu still swells beneath the seal. You run the risk of giving us away. Now, I also don't like the fact that you didn't tell us that you were bringing Orihime, but as you have the most knowledge of our enemy, I am willing to accept that it was necessary. Still, in the future, we need to work in conjunction with each other or we risk being exposed and annihilated. The king is extremely volatile. And we need look no farther than Byakuya to know how dangerous he is!"
Aizen met Yoruichi's eyes and nodded.
"I admit to having been deceptive about bringing Orihime," he said, glancing at Renji and Ichigo, "I agree that from this point, it is necessary for us to work as one, if we plan to succeed."
Renji and Ichigo still looked less than convinced, but nodded in agreement.
"But you said you had an update on Byakuya's condition," Aizen said to Naoko, "What have you found?"
Naoko nodded, biting his lip gently.
"I will not lie to you. Byakuya is in very grave condition. In addition to his physical wounds, the king drained him after…"
He broke off and swallowed hard, his stomach clenching at the memory.
"…after beating him nearly to death. I placed him on life support, but that will not end the threat to his life. The beating and the draining of his power caused him to begin to fade…even though the transition process has not yet been completed. If he continues to carry the heir, then he will also continue to fade at an accelerated rate. He will have to remain unconscious and on life support until the heir is birthed. At that point, if he is removed from it, he will likely just die."
"Have you told this to the king?" asked Aizen.
Naoko's face paled.
"Yes, I told his majesty and he told me to keep Byakuya on life support until the heir was birthed, then to allow him to die."
"He cannot continue this pregnancy," Aizen said quietly.
"The king has placed a seal on the room in which Byakuya lies. No one but healers may enter the room…and Byakuya cannot be removed from it."
"So that's it?" Renji mused angrily, "He just has to lie in that room and slowly die?"
"We can't let that happen," said Ichigo, his eyes flaring, "We have to find a way to get him out of there."
"There is something you need to know…something I knew to hide from the king," Naoko went on, "The heir is not going to survive. The reiatsu has begun to deteriorate. If I do not remove it, it will continue to negatively affect Byakuya's physical state. I know of a way to hide the loss of the heir from the king…but to attempt it, I would need some genetic materials taken from a member of one of his majesty's blood."
"What?" Aizen asked, furrowing his brow.
"Kirio," Naoko said, looking at her hopefully, "You said that you thought you might be able to help me with that."
Kirio nodded and turned to the others.
"You need to understand what I found when I arrived here. I realized rather quickly that something was very wrong…but like Byakuya, I was put in a position where I had no power to do anything about it. What I did manage was to research the situation in Yoshiaki's family histories…and what I found was that, beginning long before my choosing as consort, the king had somehow become corrupted…and he drained his queen of her power, so that he maintained his and yet, she still balanced him. It was at that point that the king was no longer himself. It was then that he became a hollow god. As time moved forward from that point, the royal family began to die off. Each death occurred in a way that was ruled accidental or natural…but the deaths continued until all that remained was the king and queen…and their infant heir."
Kirio stopped for a moment to gather her thoughts.
"I found a hidden set of her diaries…a chronicle of the years of change. It was there that I discovered that although the heir was reported to have died, the queen's diaries indicated that what had really happened was that she had become afraid…because of the changes that Yoshiaki underwent. She faked the crown prince's death…and concealed him within a family in the Rukongai. He has never known who he truly is…and Yoshiaki is not aware he is alive."
"So…what?" Renji mused, his brow furrowing, "We just got in here…and now we have to go and look for this heir?"
"We cannot leave and hope to re-enter," said Yoruichi firmly, "Byakuya was nearly killed getting us in here. We have no way to return if we leave now."
Kirio nodded.
"You are correct," she said in agreement, "You cannot leave. Luckily, you will not have to. You see…the queen's hidden diaries revealed to me the identity of the heir. I made contact with him…and he is in the spirit dimension."
She turned to Naoko.
"So…why don't you fill us in on how you would use the genetic material from this heir."
"Well…the king is able to sense the presence of a legitimate heir to the throne…unless it is cloaked somehow…as Kirio has assured me that this heir's is. The king's heir that is being borne by Byakuya is not cloaked and is therefore, visible to the king. If I remove the dying reiatsu from the spiritual chamber it resides in, within Byakuya's body, then when he comes to visit Byakuya, he will sense that the heir is gone."
"So what can be done?" asked Aizen.
"I can remove the dying reiatsu, but leave the spiritual chamber intact. Then…I can use genetic material from Byakuya and the king's shinigami son to create a new reiatsu…a new heir, but the strain that has been assailing Byakuya will be relieved…and he will bear an heir, as the king wishes, without endangering his own health. The king will sense the legitimacy of the heir and simply assume the child is his. In truth, Byakuya will bear his grandchild."
"But, wait just a sec," Ichigo objected, "If the king is a hollow god, why is his son a shinigami?"
"It is because the original heir appears to have been conceived before the king underwent his transformation to hollow god," Kirio explained.
"But won't the king realize that this heir is a shinigami? Doesn't he know that he impregnated Byakuya with hollow offspring?"
The healer shook his head.
"The king is in a state of denial. He does not recognize, nor accept what has happened to him. That is part of what makes him so dangerous. He maintains that state of denial by forcing everyone here to wear medallions which seal away whatever powers he does not wish for us to have…and they also make us vulnerable mentally, so that we simply follow the orders we are given. Some few of us have escaped this. Kirio assisted me in breaking free. Torio was beginning to free himself, which is why he was suffering so in the presence of the king."
"So," Ichigo said, frowning in disbelief, "it's like everyone here is brainwashed?"
"Except for the consorts and those of us who have freed our minds," the healer said, nodding, "The consorts must be left without controls while they are being drained and so both Kirio and Byakuya realized the wrongness of what was going on, but the cruelty of the situation is that even knowing, they had little power to change anything. Had they not each found a way to contact Aizen Sousuke, then we would all be without hope, right now. Truly, Byakuya's coming into the designation of consort was a good thing for all of us."
"Yeah," Renji said bitterly, "too bad it's nearly been the death of him."
"And now you say that the only way to save him is to impregnate him with the hidden heir's genetic material?" Yoruichi asked, "Are you sure that, in his drained state that Byakuya will be able to carry this heir?"
"Well," said the healer thoughtfully, "If you had asked me that question before Aizen Sousuke explained Orihime's powers to me, I would have said that the situation was hopeless…but knowing what she is capable of doing, I think we can use Orihime's powers to reverse the fading effect entirely. In fact," he said, turning to Kirio, "It is possible that this girl can stop you from fading as well. But to help Byakuya, we need to get her into the room. Her powers will allow her to enter the room…but the king must be distracted away from the palace while she and I see to his healing and the making of the new heir."
"And not to throw water on this whole idea," Renji said, "but we also need to remember that Gin is still here. We have to watch out for him, too."
"So it sounds," Yoruichi said, "like we need to work in teams. Sousuke, Kirio and I will distract the king. Ichigo and Renji can manage Gin. You and Orihime can work together on Byakuya."
"How do we get Gin away from the king?" asked Ichigo.
Aizen smiled a bit too pleasantly.
"It will help to remember that Gin wants to secure his own place as king. He wants us to weaken the king so that he can come in and try to steal the throne for himself," he said quietly, "Perhaps, I should show myself to Gin…and offer to work with him to overthrow the king."
"You think he's going to trust you now?" Renji asked, "You just deceived him to come here to help Byakuya. Why would he listen to you?"
Because Gin is a unique mixture of realist, opportunist and snake. He will agree to help and will work with me to the point where he feels he no longer has to…then he will attempt to stab me in the back."
"But you trust you will be able to anticipate and head off that attempt," said Yoruichi, "Truly, this is a high stakes game of chance you intend to play, Aizen Sousuke."
"I have worked alongside him for some time now," Aizen assured them, "I will anticipate his moves and will remove myself before he becomes too dangerous."
"So you can join Ichigo and Renji to manage Gin," said Kirio.
"No," said Aizen, "He will betray anyone I reveal to him. He needs to think that I have my own designs on the throne."
"Don't you?" said Renji confrontationally, "Isn't that why you said you betrayed us?"
"Renji," said Yoruichi calmly, "I think, given the situation, we need to be honest with ourselves. Aizen Sousuke was right in believing that the king needed to be taken from power."
"Or saved from what he has become," suggested the healer.
The others stared at him.
"He is a hollow god," said Aizen softly, "How would it be possible to save him?"
The healer took a long breath and released it.
"We have his shinigami heir, his consort, Kirio, whom we can restore…and we have a girl who can reject fate…"
"Oh, you are NOT bringing Orihime into this!" shouted Ichigo, "That bastard is too dangerous!"
"Wait, Ichigo," Yoruichi said solemnly, "The king wasn't always this way. Something happened to him, no one even knows what…and he became this way. You were also made into something darker…something you did not wish to be…and you were assisted in staving off a dark fate. Don't you think…that this king deserves the same thing? If we can, then shouldn't we restore him to power?"
Ichigo lowered his eyes, thinking. When he raised them again, he nodded tentatively.
"This king deserves a chance to be restored," said Kirio, "and as I am still his official consort, I want every possible attempt to be made…but that being said, if it is not possible, I wish for the throne to be taken by the king's shinigami son."
She turned to Aizen Sousuke, smiling.
"I was, I am afraid, evasive about my reasons for seeking you, of all people, once I discovered what was going on. My true reason for contacting you is because…you, Aizen Sousuke, are the king's heir."
All around Aizen Sousuke, the room went suddenly silent.