Ichigo flopped back on his bed exhausted. He had no idea kido could take so much out of him. He'd just gone through all the kido spells Tessai had shown him and the master was pleased. He knew that he'd made leaps and bounds today and he was almost excited to show the little captain. But if Toshiro came back to find him lounging on his bed the amount of progress he made would mean nothing. He forced himself to sit lotus style on the sheets and focus on pulling in his spiritual pressure.

This time it felt different. He was tired from the kido but he felt like he could almost touch his own riatsu as is brushed passed his finger tips on its way back to his body. It took a long time for all the energy to pull itself in but finally, he thought he had it. Unfortunately he really needed someone else to tell him.

Ichigo cracked an eye and looked around the room, waiting for the white head to pop through his window. He hadn't come back this morning but that wasn't particularly odd, he often got caught up in his research but he always came by at some point to check on Ichigo's progress.

"Maybe he actually fell asleep." Ichigo muttered to himself but the second he let his concentration slip his spiritual pressure exploded out of him and he felt his house shake. His father started shouting something and Yuzu screamed from her bedroom but Ichigo ignored it, disappointed in himself.

"Dammit." He lay back on his bed in frustration but heard the window sliding back and sat up again quickly.

"Ichigo." It was not the white haired captain but Uryu. "What happened?" He dropped into the room and stared at the mess that resulted from the shock wave of Ichigo's power.

"I lost concentration."

Uryu's face changed slightly. "Oh. Very good Ichigo."

"What? I messed up."

"No. I was on my way over here because I felt your riatsu drop to almost zero. I thought something had happened to you."

Some of the frustration left Ichigo. "Really? I couldn't tell, I was waiting for Toshiro but then I lost concentration and it all came out again."

"He hasn't been here today? Tessai said he thought you two were going to spar after training."

"I was hoping we might but he didn't come back this morning. He probably got lost in his research on the Garganta."

"Maybe you should call him. This is pretty significant progress."

"I guess. But if he's busy he won't answer. Its so annoying." Ichigo pulled his soul pager out of his robes and dialled. It rang several times and he really did not expect an answer but then there was a click and he could tell the captain had picked up.

"Hey Toshiro, where are you?"

"Hmmm? Toshiro? Oh he's a bit busy right now."

Uryu watched Ichigo's face change before his eyes. First it was shock, one slow jaw drop, then he was clutching the pager with both hands as if the voice on the other end might slip away.

"Captain Kurotsuchi?"

The voice on the other end was shouting at someone else. "Its for you little captain! I think you should take it."

Ichigo could hear a weird echo on the other end, as if the speaker were in a cave. There was a scrapping noise and then Kurotsuchi returned to the phone.

"Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Yes..."

"See you soon."

There was a click and Ichigo dropped the pager back onto the bed and met Uryu's eyes. He already had the soul badge in his hand and in an instant his body was on the bed and the room was empty.

Ice shattered down on Toshiro's head, stirring him back to painful consciousness. Nemu was still hacking through the crystal sphere that protected him but it was something else that caught his eye. He could just make out Kurotsuchi's face against his ice dome, holding something small and glowing against the frozen surface.

"Its for you little captain!" he just barely made out the words before he squeezed his blade and forced a little more ice to escape, thickening the ice that shielded his nearly paralysed body from the Captain and lieutenant of twelfth division. His thoughts began to drift again but then the electric pain of his left arm pulled him back. He looked down at the frozen limb, dead now, no use, but containing the poison that was just waiting to seep into the rest of his body and kill him.

Already too much had gotten into this veins, he probably wouldn't survive much longer. He hardly even remembered freezing his own arm to try to save himself. There had been a long darkness and then he'd woken in a melting sphere of ice with the two soul reapers hacking away, trying to reach him.

Since then he'd been in and out of consciousness, always waking when he needed to re-freeze his arm. Even now the pain was intensifying, the poison pushing its way past the congealed blood.

"Hyroinmaru..." Toshiro jerked in pain as more ice sealed itself around the limb, reaching just slightly higher than before, close to his shoulder now. He managed to drag himself to a sitting position with his right arm, his legs had failed him hours ago. He could move them slightly but he knew he could not walk.

The grating noise of Nemu's drilling arm began again and Toshiro fought off the sleep that always came. Every time he closed his eyes he thought it was for the last time. How could he have let this happen? How could he fail so miserably, the one captain left for everyone to depend on. He was pathetic.

No master. You have fought well. Now wait, and you will fight again soon."

"Ichigo." the word escaped in a puff of breath that lingered in the sub zero air for a moment before dissipating. He didn't know what to hope for. He couldn't leave this burden for the boy to face alone. But if Ichigo came to save him, he risked getting killed himself.

There is a reason you've been waiting for him. You know he has a role to play in this battle, he will not fall here if he comes for you.

"It would only take one mistake. I made it, he could too."

You were alone. Ichigo has another power.

"What's that?"

His friends.

"I'm not letting you go alone."

Ichigo looked back over his shoulder at Uryu.

"You know you can't come. You have to stay here in case there's trouble."

"Then Orihime and Chad will want to go with you."

"What, you called them?"

"They have to be warned if we are both gone."

"Damn you."

"So who will it be? Me or them? You know only I have the speed necessary to follow you."

"Fine. You can come. But be careful. If something happens to me–"

"I know, I'll come back. But with me watching your back, you'll be fine."

Ichigo met the eyes of his companion. He never knew where he stood with the quincy, they were reluctant allies an even more reluctant friends, but the events of the last few weeks had pushed all of that aside. He knew he could depend on the other no matter what.

"Thanks, Uryu."

"Okay, let's get going."

Tessai opened the Senkeimon and two stepped through.

Ichigo knew where to go. There was no doubt that he would find the awakened soul reapers in the twelfth division lab. The problem when he got there, was how to get in. He met a wall of solid ice at the very top of the stairs.

"This is going to slow us down." Uryu muttered.

Ichigo put a hand to it and pushed. He frowned.

"Maybe not. This is not as strong as usual, Toshiro must be weakened."

He took a step back and raised his sword. It only took one blast from Zangetsu to break through.

"He must really be in bad shape." Uryu said as Ichigo hurried down the steps. They had to repeat the task several times, discovering that there were a number of ice barricades along the way. It seemed like the little captain had attempted to freeze the whole place but large pockets had been left untouched. At least it made it easier for them to reach him.

When they finally made it to the bottom level they found the entire room blanketed in snow and at the centre was a dome of ice. It was very dark but the computer consoles still lit the room enough for them to see the shadowed figure inside the half sphere.

"Hang on Toshiro!" Ichigo raised his sword but Uryu stopped him.

"Ichigo, he did that on purpose, like he was protecting himself from something."

Ichigo lowered his zampakuto and looked around.

"Kurotsuchi?" There was no reply and no sign of him.

"I sense nothing." Uryu said and Ichigo returned to the dome.

"Then I say we grab Toshiro and get out of here."

This time he was more cautious and instead of just blasting the ice he dug the tip of his sword carefully into the frosted surface.

"Stay still!" He called, unsure whether the captain could even hear him. Using the control he'd been learning, he let just a fraction of his spiritual pressure slide down the blade and into the ice, splintering it along one side. He withdrew the blade and pushed against the weakened spot. It fell away easily and he stepped into what was left of the dome to kneel next to the little captain. His eyes were still open but he did not speak and his body shook not from the freezing cold but from pain. One shoulder bled heavily and the other arm was frozen from the fingers right up to the shoulder. Ichigo reached to touch it but was startled by Toshiro's soft voice.

"Don't."

"What happened?"

"P-poison. Kuort-su-chi..."

"Ichigo, let's go."

Uryu leaned in and saw the state of the captain. He recognized what Hitsugaya had tried to do in freezing his arm but he also seemed to understand that it had not been enough.

"We need to hurry."

Ichigo didn't argue. He scooped up Toshiro and then noticed the bag and took that too.

"Okay, let's–" Uryu's words died on his lips. He fell forward, his back bleeding and the slim figure of Nemu appeared in his place, her arm soaked with his blood.

"Shit." Ichigo set Toshiro and the bag back down and tried to counter Nemu without hurting her. It was a challenge.

"Careful Ichigo." Uryu struggled to his feet behind him and generated his bow, looking for the other. He knew well the challenges of fighting both the captain of squad twelve and his lieutenant but now they were not his enemies by choice but dolls that Aizen would sacrifice on a whim. It was a different game.

Uryu heard Ichigo grunt in pain and saw blood.

"I don't know what to do." He called to Uryu. "I can't stop her without hurting her."

"That's the whole point!" The whining voice sounded right beside Uryu. Even with his quincy speed, he was not fast enough. He let fly an arrow but it whizzed past the captain and his hand was around his throat.

"Uryu!" But Ichigo was having enough trouble dodging Nemu without striking back.

"You have to chose boy." Kurotsuchi sneered as he squeezed the life out of Uryu. "Sacrifice us or sacrifice yourselves."

"Neither is an option." Ichigo said, spinning toward the captain as he sent Nemu flying with a well placed kick. She would not be down for long.

"What will you do when you have to fight someone you really care about, say, Rukia Kuchiki?"

"Shut up." Ichigo threw himself into Kurotsuchi, trying to pull him off Uryu without hurting him too badly but he wasn't succeeding.

"You're going to have to use that sword boy. What will you do? Cut off my arms? I'm Aizen's puppet, you know I have no control."

Ichigo gripped Zangetsu but didn't swing. He was torn.

"Do it." Uryu wheezed.

"Dammit."

"Too late." Kurotsuchi hurled Uryu into Ichigo, sending them both sprawling and before they realized, Nemu was on them. She drove her hand into Ichigo's stomach. He grabbed her wrist to stop her progress but her whole arm began to spin like a drill. He roared in agony as Kurotsuchi laughed and a barely conscious Uryu struggled to help his ally.

I can't let this happen. I can't let these children die in front of me because I'm too weak to do anything. Toshiro screamed in his mind.

"Master, you're dying."

I know. Help me, Hyronmaru.

Toshiro clutched his blade close to this body and used it to help him stand. He leaned back heavily on the ice dome, almost certain his legs could not support him. But something was burning inside him: a rage, at Aizen and at his own weakness. He would not let it all end here.

"Who are you kidding Hitsugaya? You're long dead. That poison will just keep leaking into your body until you can't move a single muscle, not even to breath." Kurotsuchi sneered.

Captian Hitsugaya said nothing but slowly took his weight off the blade and swung it up to rest against the shoulder of the frozen limb. It wouldn't take much, just enough pressure and it would shatter.

"You'll cut off your arm even though you know its already too late for you?"

"No. I'd cut off my arm to save them." Kurotsuchi's eyes widened as Toshiro pulled back his blade and slammed it against his shoulder with as much force as he could muster. He felt the ice pull away from his body but there was no pain, the limb had been dead for many hours and it was nothing more than ice when it fell from his body. Even still, the shock to his system and the disorientation of losing a limb set him off balance enough to bring him to his knees. He looked back up to Kurotsuchi and the other read his intentions in his eyes. "Screw you Aizen."

Kurotsuchi screamed and ran at the little captain, Nemu left the humans and tried to aid her captain. But neither could challenge Hitsugaya's power. With no more poison seeping into him, he raised Hyorinmaru toward the two brainwashed soul reapers and called on the rest of his strength.

"Thousand year ice prison!"

Both figures were stopped instantly. Gigantic pillars of ice closed around them, swirling closer and closer until both were obscured completely. There was one high pitched scream before the pillars touched and became solid ice, trapping their victims inside.

Only heavy breathing could be heard in the silence that followed. Uryu held his hands over Ichigo's stomach, the teen pale but still awake. Toshiro dropped Hyorinmaru and clutched his shoulder unconsciously.

"You killed them." Ichigo finally breathed.

"Doubtful. They both have unique bodies that are almost impossible to destroy. I am sure they will revive when it is safe to unfreeze them. But I am afraid the same technique could very well be fatal for others."

"Then we need to leave, now." Uryu said.

"What if..." Toshiro's voice had become weak again, he was fading quickly. Ichigo nodded and took over the pressure on his stomach so Uryu could get closer to the little captain.

"What?"

"What if the rest of them wake up? Aizen could make them kill each other. He could send them to your world he could–"

"I get it. But you won't last much longer and Ichigo needs help. We have to get back."

"The bag..." Uryu picked up the black bag and tossed it over his shoulder. Toshiro spasmed and he knew death was close. "I don't think I can make the gate safe, you'll have to–"

"Run for it, I know, I'm used to it now." Uryu didn't hesitate any longer. He picked up Toshiro and helped Ichigo to his feet. The teen soul reaper was in rough shape but he'd fought through many injuries in his short life and he could endure the pain long enough to get home. He hung off Uryu's shoulder and the three made their way through the surface and to the Senkeimon.

Hitsugaya had just enough strength to open the permanent link between their worlds before passing out completely. "Hold on everyone." Uryu gripped the captain tight as well as knotting a fist in the back of Ichigo's robes to ensure he would not be too slow. He jumped into the black tunnel and the Soul Society and all its sleeping inhabitants became nothing more than a distant light behind them.