A/N: Sorry this took so long, but it's finally here. I've been busy lately, among other things because I just started on FictionPress, so yeah, I've been doing lots, and it's just taken a while to get this up. Anyway, here we go:

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch20: Assault Some More

Ichigo hurried up another flight of steps, reaching the 13th floor of 25. Behind him, Renji was busy busy spraying the guards from the floor below with a hail of bullets. As Ichigo ran to the next flight of steps, Soi and Yoruichi pulled out their pistols and took down a fair few of the guards on the floor they were on, while Toushiro doused the rest in liquid nitrogen, freezing them to the spot.

Ichigo made it up to the turning in the staircase, then as he turned saw a group of guards stood at the top. Ten seconds later, Ichigo was loading his next clip as he ran over the fallen guards, with the others in his team following closely behind him.

They reached the 15th floor and Ichigo signalled for them to stop. There did not seem to be any guards on that floor at the moment: they were probably lying dead on unconscious on one of the lower floors. Uryu ran about patching up the cuts that his friends had acquired.

"Soi, Yoruichi, set the bombs here, on the staircases up and down. That should stop anyone following us down when we've got lower. Try to set them in a way that won't make the whole building come down though, okay?" Ichigo said, and the two girls nodded and obliged.

Once set, Yoruichi handed a detonater to Ichigo. "This'll set them off, and I have one too just in case. Press the big red button for an instant explosion, of the green one for a ten second delay. The range is about 100m, so we should be fine."

Ichigo nodded, before turning to the others, "Ready?"They all nodded, and Ichigo turned to the next staircase and started to run up it.

"Oh dear, this isn't good."

"What is it Gin?" Aizen asked his 'friend.'

"We've lost contact with nearly all squads between floors 15 and -8, except on floor 0, and they've sent us a message that when they tried to get to the entrance the corridors blew up. They seem to be getting pretty close to the bottom, they're only 2 floors away."

"I'm not too worried about them, but that other group seems to be making quick progress up here. Contact all teams from floor 16 up and tell them to move to floor 24 and concentrate their fire down the moment anybody comes up."

"I'm sending the order... now." Gin tilted his head as he read the information on the screen in front of him. "We've lost contact with floors 16 to 19. And 20." He added the last part as another flashing word appeared on the computerised blueprint in front of him on the 20th floor. "The remaining teams are moving as fast as they can... and 21 is gone too."

Aizen sighed, "Have the Arrancar ready themselves, prepare for a very hard fight."

"22 is gone, and I'm relaying the order now."

Isshin and his group reached the tenth basement floor: the lowest level. The guards had been quickly taken care of, and now the group were frantically searching for the twins.

Isshin passed door after door, looking for some sign from one of them that it was where they were held. Eventually he noticed a door with a newer lock on it than the others, meaning it had probably been changed recently. Isshin turned his gun to the lock and blew it off. He pushed it open to see inside, and found nothing. There was absolutely no sign of anybody being held there. Isshin continued to run through the hallways, while the others assisting him went through checking every door in turn.

He came up to another door at the end of the hallway, and kicked it off it's hinges. Inside it was black, but he heard a mufled gasp. He quickly pulled out a torch and flicked it on. He saw the twins, both tied down to chairs back to back, and with gags in their mouths.

Isshin shouted back to those behind him, "They're in here, come help me!" Then he went over to them and pulled out a knife.

Yuzu flinched, and Isshin remembered that they could not see his face. He pulled the balaclava off to let them see, then cut the ropes binding Yuzu, who immediately jumped at him, throwing her arms round his neck and crying into his shoulder. He hugged her with one hand, while he cut Karin free with the other. Karin was more calm than her sister, but only a little, and she pretty much jumped her father too. The other members of the group came to the door, or what was left of it, but waited outside.

"Dad... Dad... you came..." Yuzu said between sobs.

"Yeah, and your brother's here too, upstairs getting Rukia."

"They got her too?" Karin, who had pretty much calmed down by this point, asked.

"Yeah, but don't worry, Ichigo'll get her back, now we need to get out of here."

They all stood, and left the room, but Isshin noticed something, "Yuzu, your clothes..."

Yuzu looked down. The night dress she was still in had several rips in them, the most obvious one going right across her chest. "One of them... he... he..." Yuzu broke down again. Isshin picked her up and hugged her. Then he proceeded out, carrying the still weeping Yuzu, and the others followed, along with Karin.

Ichigo was on the 23rd floor when the radio he had been given bleeped, signaling that somebody was trying to call him. He took it from the pouch he had been carrying it in and put it to his ear, "Ichigo here."

"Ichigo, I've got good news and really shit news," Isshin spoke through the radio.

"Gimme the good first."

"We've rescued the twins, and got back about halfway to the ground floor."

"Good, I'm on the 23rd floor at the moment. Now what's the bad news?"

As Isshin gave the reply, Ichigo's fist tightened and threatened to break the radio.

"Dad, do you want the joy of killing the bastard, or may I have the enjoyment of it?"

"Feel free to do whatever you want to him."

"Thanks, now I'd better go and finish this." Ichigo ended the conversation and put the radio back in its pouch.

"Everything okay?" Toushiro asked.

"Not really, but one thing, please don't any of you kill Aizen, I want that very special pleasure." There was a manic look in Ichigo's eyes as he said that, and all any of the others did was nod.

Ichigo turned to wards the stair and began to ascend them, this time only walking, as his fury emanated from him. All the others followed meekly behind.

Bis Bald

BW