Sacrifice- the losing or surrender of something for something greater
How were you supposed to feel if you knew you were going to die? Not dying when it was time to die but rushing to it with full force while you still had things you wanted to live for? How are you supposed to feel when you knew that thousands upon thousands of people were counting on the destruction of your life? That most of them couldn't care less what happened to you despite the fact you were saving them?
Destruction- the ruin of downfall
That one word covered, told, defined most of her life. That's all she ever saw in her world and that is all she had to look forward to. Also, that was what she was hoping for. Not the destruction of her world but the destruction of her destroyers. It was all that was needed to end all this chaos. She just had to destroy a whole species to end her problems.
Hah! Ironic isn't it?
And then, there was still the ocean of mindless, emotionless eyes staring at her. They were oblivious, couldn't think about, and couldn't care about what was going on. It seemed like murder to leave all of these senseless things to die.
But didn't THEY get it?
That THEY were the soulless ones that were murdering her?
That THEY were sending her to sure doom?
She violently shook her head. It wasn't their faults. It was her choice. She chose to pull the sword from Urahara and drive it through her own heart.
But if so, why did she still feel like this? Feeling the uncontrollable urge to blame someone? Why does it sadden her so much to know of her own death? She was actually dying for this opportunity before but now, she just didn't want it.
Why does her heart hurt so much?
Why?
Why?
Why?
"Lil' miss?"
She was abruptly dragged from her thoughts of self pity and looked up from the light brown rock she was sitting on.
"Lil' miss; did you hear what I said?" Urahara asked.
She gently shook her head.
"You came to destroy the Inastinamians' 'heart', so in other words, the base or source of their existence." It didn't sound like a question but he paused and looked at her expectantly. She nodded.
"That artefact exists in this world rather than their world, correct?"
She nodded again.
"The problem here is that even though I am the 'Link', I can't pinpoint its exact location. Do you know where it is?"
Her brows knitted together and she looked down at her lap. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Almost instantly, an image of a room illuminated by dim candle light came into her mind. The doors were made of red paper and in the centre of the room was a large bed with red nets over it. That wasn't what caught her eyes though. No, instead it was a small bedside table covered with precious gems and made of mahogany.
She opened her eyes and looked Urahara square in the eyes.
"I know where it is."
"Then go get it." he said as he adjusted his hat and sat down. "The sooner you do that, the less possibility there would be that the Royal Army would have to go into battle…" He looked her in the eye here. "…and the less possibility that the one you love would die."
-O-
"Kisuke, do you actually believe that our invaders only wanted to expand their dominancy? I believe that they finally figured out that this is where their lives reside."
The man looked from the large screen before him and over at his purple-haired partner.
"Well…with the amount of those monsters in this area, I'm forced to think that they indeed figured it out." he admitted as he took off his hat and scratched his head.
"What do you think lil' miss?" he asked through his headset.
Across town, the said girl was leaning on a pile of rubble while panting heavily.
"Urahara, don't say a damn thing if it isn't going to help me." she panted.
"Well, well…" the man's voice came as a metallic buzz over the headset. "Just thought you might be interested, that's all."
The girl snorted before looking over the rubble and at the six armed monsters that were searching for her.
She turned back and silently contemplated a plan. Finally arriving at one, she took a deep breath before putting it into action.
Turning, she stabbed her blade into her hiding spot before kicking it. It froze then broke into large, uneven pieces. She immediately sent piece of the frozen rock into one of the beast, earning herself a satisfying crunch. She didn't pause but gave another monster the same treatment.
Spinning on her toes, she slashed her blade downwards. A wave of ice blasted from the tip towards her remaining enemies. One of them cocked its head and grunted before lifting its axe and crashing it to the ground. A wave of lava erupted from the earth, cancelling out the ice.
The next moment, excruciating pain tore through her left arm. One of the foul monsters had grabbed her arm, using its sharp claws to rip apart her flesh. Before she could properly register what was happening, her screams were tearing though the air.
Without a thought, she drove her blade towards its head. It easily grabbed the sword and grinned obscenely down at her. She rammed her knee into its chest and it groaned before sinking to the ground. She wasted no time in taking her weapon and delivering the fatal blow to its head. With a powerful swing of her sword, the remaining monsters stood trapped in ice. She groaned as she sunk to her knees and surveyed the damage she had been dealt.
Her arm had been given the same treatment as her comrade Kaien from her memory of the steaming cave. It hung at her side limp, bloody, shredded and useless. She gave it a disgusted look before mercilessly amputating it. A useless limb was just a burden. After taking a few breaths, she continued her journey into a white and green building before her.
Unlike most of the other buildings around it, this one had hardly any damage dealt to it. Although she didn't know the exact location of her target, this place was definitely her top candidate.
The first floor was simply breathtaking. The walls were painted in an elegant yellow with white designs. The floor was oaken with a few small holes from the chaos that went on earlier. Statues of beautiful creatures that man should never see erected from the floor. They were all so different and so alive that she couldn't help but stare. That was her mistake.
A blunt, solid object rammed into her back. Rukia was forced forward on impact and a low, gasping sound pulsed from her throat. She hit the ground and rolled over to see a large, grey object falling towards her face at a lot of speed. Reacting quickly, she rolled over and the object slammed into the ground, creating a small crater.
Her eyes moved from the attempt murder-weapon to the attempt murderer. This being was made of a material similar to the concrete that made up the statues around her. It resembled a woman who was crying from the chest upwards but the rest of its body was like a horse's. Many long, slimy, tentacle-like limbs hung from its lower half and spines burst from its back.
With its tentacle-like limbs, it lifted the object from the floor and struck out at her again. Rukia dodged the object, which happened to be something like a large, concrete jar. The attack sent wood flying towards her face, scratching her smooth skin. Instead of it bleeding like usual wounds, her skin seemed to crack like ice. From reflex, her eyes instantly shut and her right hand flew in front of her face. This was soon proven to be a mistake.
One of the creature's many tentacles lashed out at her. It felt just as it looked, hard as rock and as heavy as a log. Saliva flew from her mouth as the appendage crashed into her ribcage. The skin on her stomach cracked painfully and left a trail till the bottom of her lips.
With saliva still trailing down her lips, she grabbed the monster's limb in an attempt to freeze it. It realised her intentions and mercilessly shot another limb out at her neck. It then found the pleasures of curling the tentacle tightly around the said body part. She let out a chocked gasp as it lifted her off the ground, watching in pleasure as she helplessly squirmed in its grasp.
She clawed wildly at the limb, making small, frozen patches in the areas her nails touched. The beast, realising that its tentacle was slowly being frozen, heartlessly flung her into a wall. A loud crack confirmed the fate of the skin on her back.
Her body fell limply to the ground and the alien creature came towards her, its limbs making holes in the ground with every step. Rukia forced her body to face her attacker. Her skin was changing from pale-blue to paper-white rapidly.
Without any hesitation whatsoever, it mercilessly lifted one of its appendages then sent it flying towards her to deliver the fatal blow.
"Foolish thing."
It realised her location but couldn't react to it. The tentacle slammed into the faux body, sending a wave of ice towards it.
"Really foolish thing."
Rukia circled the victim of her ice. Her hand was holding the area of her back now blackening from the blow she received. That was the first and only damage she was actually dealt by the monster.
She lifted her fingers to touch the ice. Her eyes studied the creature with a hard cold stare.
"A failed experiment using the lesser species of that world." she thought in disgust. "Its reason for destroying is that it was probably trying to quell its pain. It probably lost its mind a long time ago."
Squeezing her hand into a fist, she caused the ice to shatter, ending the existence of the mutated beast. With a sigh, she turned and continued on her quest.
-O-
He stared out of the palace windows, scanning the city. There was a huge mass of red that could have been seen to the west, exposing the location of the Inastinaminans. Looking downwards, he could've seen the wholes with attack magic in front of the palace. That is where he belonged. Behind them were hollow soldiers followed by the magicians who controlled the hollows. Following that were the whole soldiers. All together, it was a very large army of people; nothing compared to the sea of red in a distance.
"Rukia…"
He knew he should be worrying about his own life but found it nearly impossible to do. His mind was constantly drifting to the possible locations of his raven haired girlfriend. He hoped that she had somehow managed to survive the wave of lava; he hoped she was in someplace safe. He especially hoped that if his previous wishes were granted, she wouldn't be found by the strange monsters.
"Hey, Ichigo, we got to go!"
He sighed as he turned to face Ikkaku.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ikkaku asked, his face showing disgust. "Stop giving out that weird, constipated vibe."
Before Ichigo could say anything, it clicked inside of Ikkaku's head.
"Oh you're worried about that 'priestess' woman…"
At that moment, the whole foundation of the building shook. Ichigo grabbed wildly at something for support while Ikkaku simply stood there.
"I don't actually care what happens to me out there," Ikkaku spoke up as the building stop shaking. "But if this place has any chance of surviving, that stupid noble better be right. If she's the one saving this place, she better be hurrying to do it right now."
-O-
A sigh of relief left her mouth, she had finally found it. She stood in the beautiful red room illuminated by red light. Everything was just as it was in her vision; expensive and delicate. Her eyes scanned for the bedside table she had seen and almost immediately found it. The next moment she was sliding the drawer open.
She unintentionally squinted at the glare of the bright, red jewel inside. The gem was hanging from a chain of pure gold and on the inside of it, there seemed to be continuous movement.
As her fingers curled around the gold chain, she felt her heartbeat speed up. She heard thousands of angry voices screaming at her from under the sound of her own pulse. Her head started going light as blood flowed from her ears and nose. She dropped the gem and staggered backwards.
Her body dropped to the ground and she tried to wipe the blood flowing from her mouth.
Although her vision had blurred, she could see long legs clad in black stepping over her. The person leaned over and picked up the gem.
"Well, aren't you that supposed 'hero'? Aren't you going to stop me?" an all too familiar voice cooed. Rukia weakly lifted her head, trying hard to make out the figure before her.
"You…"she growled weakly. "You're that noble."
"Noble?" the person asked before letting out a feminine laugh. "Oh, that woman? I just simply killed her and took her body. I was hoping to have you killed at that trial."
Rukia's sight danced in and out of focus. She made out white sandals and black skin-tight pants. The person was wearing a white top and hair fell down over her shoulders. Higher up were icy-blue eyes staring down at her in sadistic amusement.
"You killed her?" Rukia asked in disbelief.
"Why, yes. Is it so hard to believe?" the strawberry blonde asked as she flipped back her hair.
"When?"
"Oh…I'd say a little while before I killed your sister…"
Rukia's eyes widened. "You killed Hisana?"
The 'noble' gave her a twisted smile. "What? Did I stutter?"
The next thing 'Rangiku' knew, her face had been slammed into a wall and Rukia's small hand was making sure it stayed there. She felt blood oozing out from the spaces between her teeth.
"Rangiku isn't your name, monster," Rukia spat. "What is it?"
"Elishina," she smirked despite her position. "Elishina the Faux."
Rukia tightened her grip on the monster's hair before pulling her head back and slamming it again into the wall. After repeating this a few times, Rukia pulled Elishina back to see her disfigured face.
"Do you mind telling me why you are smiling, beast?"
"This." the monster smirked before long claw-like appendages burst from its back and grabbed Rukia. With ease, she threw the small woman across the room and she crashed into the antique bed, destroying it.
Her head pocked out of the rubble just in time to see a long, large beast burst from Rangiku's body. It was red, scaly and had four long claws. Seven horns stood erect on its head and its face seemed to be a long jaw with small eyes at the top. It stood on the tail of its large body and its skin secreted a weird substance.
It tossed its head back, flinging the substance onto the wall. The wall started to sizzle and smoke as soon as the substance touched it. Rukia got into a stance, holding her blade in her only hand.
The creature shook its head in mock pity before smirking.
"Stupid thing."
-O-
Ichigo stumbled back as the person next to him was blasted into pieces. The remains of the corpse were engulfed in flames as it fell to the ground. He lifted his hands and a wave of dark energy burst from it. His enemy merely smacked it away as if it was a rubber ball.
"Shit!" he cursed as he took a step back. He tripped and came face to face with Ikkaku's lifeless body.
"Damn it to hell!"
He quickly looked up to see the monster's axe falling towards his head.
Suddenly, an icy wind was felt and the beast froze on contact with it. From the corner of his eye, Ichigo saw a large creature flash across the sky.
"Kurosaki, stand up!"
He immediately scrambled to his feet.
"I'm sorry, Sir Hitsugaya."
The short, white-haired noble climbed from the back of a large, red eyed creature made of ice. He looked at Ichigo before speaking.
"These monsters seem to be vulnerable to ice. I'd have my winged-serpent hold them off." Hitsugaya stopped and stroked his pet's back. It growled in pleasure. "But there are so many of them. Hyorinmaru is strong but with a mob this big, it doesn't matter how strong he is." He turned sharply to Ichigo; his words were cold and sharp. "You know what that means don't you?"
Ichigo looked up into the sky that was being clouded with black smoke.
"It means we need a miracle."
-O-
Rukia barely managed to hold back a scream as she felt the monster's acid slowly eat through her thigh. Elishina let out a sadistic cackle as she tightened her grip on Rukia's leg.
"I'm using the weakest acid I could make, you know." It laughed. "I really want to hear you scream as you feel your leg corrode; I really do."
Rukia heard the blood dripping from her lips splatter onto the floor. Her face was flushed red and her head felt light. The blood trailing from her forehead didn't make her feel any better.
Elishina jerked Rukia's foot upward, causing her body to jolt painfully. The monster again let out a cruel laugh.
"What is it, Miss Hero? Weren't you the one with so much spirit only a few minutes ago?" It let out another wicked laugh and held out the gem tauntingly. Rukia reached weakly at it. "You want this now don't you. Well…too bad!"
The woman could only see the jewel blurring above her. Damn it, she felt so weak!
She faintly reached up to grab her knees. The monster lifted a brow.
"You can still move? Ch! Pitiful!"
Rukia didn't listen, she just let a small wave of ice from her fingertips through her skin and down into her blood.
"What are you doing?" Elishina asked as she saw the girl's leg go rapidly blue. It shrieked and dropped both Rukia and the gem as it felt ice burst from Rukia's skin and latch onto its body. Rukia quickly scrambled for the gem and froze it.
Elishina looked at her in panic as it tried to beat the ice off its claws.
"Goodbye bitch." Rukia whispered loudly before pounding the gem onto the ground with all her might. The jewel shattered into thousands of tiny pieces immediately. Elishina's eyes widened in horror.
"NO!" it screamed as a bright light dispersed from the remains of the gem. Rukia dug her nails into the floor as the power dispersed from the gem caused Elishina to be destroyed.
-O-
She had to hurry; she could already feel her existence being painfully pulled apart. Her entire body felt a dull, pulsing pain and she felt as if blades were dancing in her chest. A groan escaped her as she tripped over a corpse. Solider or Inastinaminan; she couldn't care.
"Ichigo!" she screamed as she continued to limp down the bloody road. She could hardly see a thing but she had to find him, her soul wouldn't rest until she did.
"Ichigo! Ichigo, where are you?"
She couldn't walk for much longer. Although her will was strong, her body was unable. Her body crashed barely three steps later.
God, she didn't want to die like this. She had to see him again. Please, just one more time.
Strong arms pulled her up and a warm hand patted her face.
"Rukia? Rukia, damn it! Wake up!"
Her eyes cracked open and her sight danced for a couple of seconds.
"Ichigo…?"
He looked down at her, his eyes showing panic, sadness, anger and need.
"Yes, Rukia, it's me. Damn it! Don't leave me!"
She tried to force herself to smile and only managed to muster a pathetic looking one.
"Ichigo, I'm sorry. I have no choice."
"No Rukia! I said you are not fucking leaving me!"
He picked her up and leaned her up on a wall. His knees hit the ground and he buried his face in the crook of her neck, his shoulders shaking violently.
Her head fell onto his shoulders and she sighed.
"I don't want to die." she admitted.
"Then don't!" he shouted into her shoulder.
Her hand reached up to play with his hair and she inhaled his scent. God, he smelled good! He pulled away from her shoulder and looked at him with a tear-stained face. She smiled weakly and crashed her lips onto his. He tasted as intoxicating as always. Damn, she didn't want it to end.
As they shared their kiss, millions of glowing purple orbs drifted down from the sky and came to rest on the millions of hollows of the Atalanian kingdom. Each orb contained part of Tazen and by travelling to this world, he found a host as the hollows of this kingdom. As a result, all of the hollows were given the ability to handle their own hearts and so became wholes.
Rukia broke the kiss and looked into Ichigo's eyes lovingly. She could hardly see and so around the edges he looked a bit fuzzy but still, he was the most beautiful person she had ever seen.
"Rukia, I love you." he gasped.
"I know. And I also love you."
She smiled and leaned into his ear to whisper something. His eyes widened. She leaned back onto the wall and smiled a truly happy smile.
"I love you, Ichigo."
Those were her final words. Her fingers got cold and fell off her body as a small heap of snow. The rest off her soon did the same. Seasons would change and years would pass but the snow never melted. The solider gathered the snow and put it in a bottle next to his heart. After seven days, he returned home after treating his injuries at the palace. The next day they found him at his home, dead. A small, serene smile was on his face and in his shirt was the bottle of snow.
_0_
Okay...I took really long to put this up and I'm sorry. Please leave me a review telling me what you think. I might be putting out a next chapter but I have exams next week so...
Again, please tell me what you think.