Chapter 12: Love Undying
Aizen Sousuke's smooth, deep voice echoed in Byakuya's suddenly hazy mind as it fell into a long, dizzying spin at his wily captor's command.
"Shatter."
He knew that it was an illusion, but a sigh of relief escaped him as he felt the dreariness of Hueco Mundo fade away, and instead found himself returned to his home and walking in the gardens he loved. But almost immediately, he realized that something didn't seem right. Although everything should have been bright and colorful in the gardens, instead, he only saw shades of grey, as though the falling of night had destroyed all of the more lovely variance. Still, just that little contact with his home and the people he loved seemed a comfort after his capture and the forced journey through the hollow lands.
Lifelessness weighs heavily on the living. The constant absence of light and warmth drains the spirit. And that is why our contacts with the hollow world are limited. Our leaders know that it would damage living souls to be in a dead place for long.
Byakuya's mind was suddenly shocked with an image of Aizen Sousuke, bound in heavy, reiatsu suppressing leather restraints, and with all of his senses restricted. And even stranger was the way he was able to exit the colorless gardens and walk, unchallenged, into the prison, where he approached the bound man and observed him quietly.
"May I ask you something?" the hogyoku's voice asked, eliciting a quickening of the noble's heart as he turned to look at the humanoid form that he had been allowed to create for the orb.
Byakuya noticed a little flash of regret in the other man's eyes at his reaction.
"I am sorry," the hogyoku apologized, "I know you are repulsed by me now, because of the way I acted when Aizen provoked me."
Byakuya's lips stiffened for a moment, then relaxed again.
"You lack experience in understanding your awakened emotions and in controlling your responses. My heart tells me that you would have first killed me, then you would have realized what you had done and you would have regretted it."
"I regret even more that I have made you afraid of me. I didn't want that."
"I know," Byakuya said solemnly, "and I do not choose to feel fear of you willingly. It is natural to fear that which is a real threat to one's life. You must realize that most of your learning has been done in an unreal environment, where, if you made a mistake, you could take it back. One of the limiting factors of real life is that you can't always undo your mistakes. There are some things that you can learn through trial and error, but there are some things that you have to accept as permanent results, once your decisions are made."
"I am beginning to see that now."
Byakuya gave him a little smile of approval, then he turned his attention to the bound man in front of them.
"Why am I seeing this?" Byakuya asked, "I know that Sousuke bound me and used his Kyouka Suigetsu to begin this illusion. What is the purpose?"
It was the hogyoku's turn to smile.
"I think, with my master, you must assume there are multiple purposes for what is happening."
Byakuya nodded.
"I believe you are right."
He continued to study Aizen's bound form as the hogyoku observed him.
"How does this make you feel?" the hogyoku inquired.
Byakuya thought carefully for a moment.
"I feel regret," he admitted.
"For what?"
Byakuya closed his eyes for several minutes, considering carefully, then he opened them again.
"It burdens my heart to see someone I care about take a dark path like this. I have come to understand, as I did not before, the things that made him choose as he did, but even understanding why will not undo the consequences. If Sousuke is captured, he will be returned to Muken. And if he does not have you to extend his life, he will die there before his sentence is fully carried out. It is the waste of a life."
"Do you think his sentence was unjust?" the hogyoku asked.
"That is a difficult question for me to answer. He chose to betray his comrades. He chose to murder those councilors and to start a war."
"He would say that it was the only way to receive justice for what was done to his family."
"Yes," Byakuya said in a troubled tone, "he would say that."
"Is it true?"
Byakuya let out a long breath.
"I do not think it is true, but even though there were other paths, somehow the one he chose became the only one that he could see," Byakuya explained, "What I regret is that I feel that if I had known what he was suffering, what he was thinking back then, perhaps I could have eased his suffering and even offered him help."
The hogyoku frowned.
"You think there was a time in which you might have turned him from this path?" he asked the noble.
The area around the two flickered and shifted, and they found themselves standing in Aizen's cabin, watching as a teenaged Byakuya worked on his calligraphy at a table near an open window. Aizen entered the room and paused for a moment to admire the young man appreciatively, and the two observers could hear the content of his thoughts.
He is quite lovely, and speaking to him is not at all like speaking to other nobles. Byakuya has heart and conscience. I only wonder how long it will last. I watch, and day by day, the expectations placed on Byakuya eat away at his innocence. I can see that he understands the faults in his environment. I know he wants to make a difference. I hate that hopes like that are doomed to fail because of the corruption that taints the noble families. As much as he knows in his heart what is right and wrong, Byakuya will conform to their expectations. He will be the good noble son and, whether he agrees with their ways or not, he will accept them. I wish that I could freeze time here and stop it from changing him.
"Is that really what he was thinking?" Byakuya asked.
The hogyoku nodded.
"Remember that my experience was gained by examining his life and reliving his experiences. This is exactly what he was thinking as he looked at you."
"And I did live up to that expectation," Byakuya concluded, "I just wonder if there is a way now to turn us off of the path we are on and to find an alternative to him returning to Muken or dying."
The hogyoku gave Byakuya a look of surprise.
"You still love him? Even with everything he has done?" he asked, "Even with what he is doing now?"
Byakuya let out a long sigh.
"One does not stop loving a person, just because that person has made mistakes. I have made mistakes too, and I hope that I can overcome them. I just…look at Sousuke and wonder if he has passed the point of no return. Are we so far along this path that he cannot be saved?"
Byakuya looked on curiously as the hogyoku retreated into his mind for several minutes, his face reflecting deep thought and careful reflection. He longed to ask what the man was doing, then realized he already knew.
The hogyoku's power is to be able to read the deepest desire of our hearts. He is reading our hearts and the open pathways. If there is any way to know if there is a viable path to Sousuke earning his freedom, then he will find it.
Byakuya's eyes widened as a sudden look of fear and torment passed over the hogyoku's handsome face and he shuddered in reaction.
"Are you all right?" he asked quickly, laying a hand on the hogyoku's arm.
The hogyoku remained silent and looking quietly down into Byakuya's worried eyes for a moment. His fingers traced the noble's frowning lips, then curled around his cheek.
"You still care for a soul that wanted to kill you out of jealousy?" he asked, looking surprised.
Byakuya nodded.
"You made a mistake," he explained, "And although it could have had horrible consequences, we avoided them. I think you have learned something from that mistake. If I can, I want to help you."
"Why would you want that?"
"Because we are friends."
"I don't know how to be a friend," the hogyoku said, looking away.
"I think that you do," Byakuya persisted, capturing his face and making their eyes meet again, "Isn't that what you were doing when you examined our desires and tried to find the path I was hoping existed?"
The hogyoku paused, considering.
"I care about you also," he confessed, "that is why I looked for you."
"And what did you find?" Byakuya asked, a look of cautious hopefulness rising in his eyes, "Is there a way to free Sousuke and to give us a future without him continuing his destructive plans?"
A little shiver passed through the hogyoku's constructed body.
"There is."
He felt a deep ache of mingled happiness and devastation as renewed liveliness flooded the beautiful noble's face and body. Inexplicably, Byakuya smiled genuinely and the hogyoku's heart melted. He captured Byakuya's lovely face in gentle hands and offered him a tender, lingering kiss. Byakuya made a sound of surprise as the hogyoku's constructed form began to fade.
"What is happening?" he cried, staring in dismay.
"Don't worry," the hogyoku assured him, "everything will be all right. I promise you."
Byakuya found himself in sudden darkness and silence, unable to move for fear of what lay in the gripping blackness. As he stood, feeling the heavy, fast pounding of his heart, a warm hand took his and led him away.
"Sousuke?" he queried, "Where are we going?"
"I am using your light to find the way," Aizen answered in a strange, echoing voice, "Ah, this is it. This is the path we want."
"I don't understand," Byakuya said, blinking his unseeing eyes, "There is no light. It is dark all around us."
"No," Aizen assured him, "It is just that we can't see our own light. But we can see each other's. Look and see mine."
Byakuya took a steadying breath and peered in the direction of the other man's voice. As they moved forward together, a soft glow began to illuminate Aizen's body, easing the tension inside the noble and allowing them to proceed.
"Where are we going?" Byakuya asked, "Are we dreaming?"
"We are and we aren't," Aizen said, leading Byakuya into what looked to be a large, handsomely furnished bedroom, "You remember, I used Kyouka Suigetsu to create this illusion."
Byakuya frowned.
"You mean, what happened before with the colorless scenes, with the hogyoku, that was all part of this illusion?" asked Byakuya, an edge of disappointment seeping into his voice.
Aizen gave him a curious look.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, "My illusion just brought you here. If the hogyoku spoke to you, it was not part of this. This, Byakuya, is what you asked for."
The light around Byakuya brightened, bringing the room into focus and illuminating it so that Byakuya could finally see normally again. His breath caught and his eyes widened as he took in the hauntingly beautiful sight of Aizen Sousuke, redrawn as one of the enchanting and deadly hollow vamps, his pale flesh gone white and his wicked brown eyes infused with sparks of malevolent red and gold. And like those ghostly, undead hollow spirits, he seemed to float instead of walk as he closed in on Byakuya and slid chillingly strong arms around him. He smiled, revealing sharp, white fangs, and Byakuya felt the man's eyes glaring into his, the dulcet, seductive sound of the man's voice luring him so that he gave no resistance to being borne down onto the bed and very slowly deprived of his clothing.
He laid, naked and staring helplessly into Aizen's rapturous gaze as his smiling mouth opened to reveal shining white fangs. Still holding Byakuya with his paralyzing stare, he moved closer to first run lascivious eyes over the noble's pale, sweet scented body, then to use just his fingertips to trace the beauty laid out in front of him.
Will you make me live again? The vamp-Aizen's voice hissed in Byakuya's confused mind, Or will I kill you?
Aizen's head bowed and he brushed icy lips against Byakuya's warmer ones, making them blush as the two men kissed. He opened his mouth, exposing the sharp, white fangs again, then froze for a moment, marveling as Byakuya's lips parted and his soft, pink tongue ran over the threatening fangs, tempting Aizen mercilessly.
"You don't know what you are unleashing," he warned the noble, "but you are about to learn."
He bared his fangs and snapped at Byakuya's pale, exposed throat, biting down and beginning a desperate, frenzied feeding. Byakuya gasped at the sudden shock of pain, but almost immediately, the hollow vamp's venom made his body relax. He looked up into the voracious gaze of the feeding vamp, his heart pounding as his lifeblood was stolen away. It should have terrified him to lie frozen, beneath the vamp's body, fully aware he was dying, but trapped in the chilling beauty of his slow demise at the vamp-Aizen's hands.
He could see that his own skin was going paler and beginning to look as white at the vamp's. And as his life seeped away, he began to be able to move again. And instead of pushing away, he clung to Aizen, snapping back with his own fangs that had formed, latching on and feeding until both were sated and left lying in each other's arms.
The vamp-Aizen's eyes found his and fresh chills moved through Byakuya's undead body as a more erotic hunger rose in the other vamp's lurid gaze. Aizen's mouth sought his for a bout of blood-tinged kisses and his cold hands caressed Byakuya's slender body as it reared up against his. Aizen rose up and knelt on the bed, pulling the vamp-Byakuya onto his lap and invading his body slowly, watching the rising lust in the vamp-noble's possessed eyes and feeling an unusually deep connection opening up between them. He held Byakuya in place, letting him adjust for a moment, then his hips moved and Byakuya made a sound that ignited everything inside him and made it impossible for him to think anymore.
All he could do was to hold on tightly to Byakuya's soft bottom, encouraging as it rose and fell, delivering dizzying friction and melting throbs of pleasure. Byakuya, too, seemed to lose himself in the exchange, writhing hard against Aizen and moaning helplessly in full surrender. He threw Byakuya down on his back, watching raptly as the noble's body impacted with the bed and his hair splayed out on the white sheets, and lacing their fingers together as their bodies joined roughly again. Over and over, he plunged into the noble's body, watching as the wanton hunger in his lover was slowly fed and taking his own measure. Their pleasures crested, and a gripping shiver passed through them. There was a long moment in which they looked into each other's deadly eyes and Aizen's vamp illusion broke apart. Then, they were suddenly back in the hidden hollow base, naked and wrapped around each other, entering a final fury of hard, fast thrusts that made the pleasure explode through their undulating forms and left them collapsed in a tangle on the bed. They crashed down into slumber, sleeping for hours before Byakuya woke and turned towards the man holding him.
He left me unbound.
I could probably bind him well enough to make sure he is captured. Why would Sousuke, who doesn't trust anyone be so reckless?
Byakuya's eyes suddenly came to rest on the hogyoku's orb and he heard the hogyoku's voice in is mind.
Because he loves you.
I understand now why it is that you could not open your heart to me. You are in love with him too. You know this. It's why you asked me the question that you did. The die is cast and we are walking the path you wanted. Make your decisions carefully. There are still things that could undo all of us.
"Hogyoku," Byakuya whispered, reaching out and touching the orb with gentle fingertips.
An odd chill went through him at the silence he received in reply.
He noticed then, that Aizen's eyes had opened and were watching him closely.
"Are you all right, Byakuya?" he asked, "You look unsettled. What did the hogyoku say to you?"
Byakuya froze for a moment, his heart skipping at the feeling of danger in that moment.
"The houyoku told me that we are in love with each other," Byakuya answered quietly.
Aizen nodded.
"And so we are," he answered, pulling Byakuya close and renewing his conquest.