Chapter 25:

Tucking into a ball, Cedric dashed forward to save his partner. He lunched himself into the crowd of Hollow Reapers, sending them flying backwards. On the bottom of the pile was Victor. They clasped hands and Victor was pulled to his feet.

A Veneno clone was coming up on either side.

"Ready?"

"Have to be."

The two stood back to back, getting ready to face their individual clones. Victor slid his foot forward and ducked down as Veneno came closer. Tucking his arms under Veneno's stomach, he threw him over his head and into the air. He opened his mouth to fire off a cero. Cedric reached straight up and tore out Veneno's throat. The other clone came at him from the front. He and Victor switched places. Now in the front, Victor grabbed Veneno's right arm and slid behind his back. Victor held Veneno from behind and pulled him off balance. Cedric saw Victor's left hand come straight through the front of Veneno's chest.

"Damn you..!"

"Not dead yet?" asked Victor calmly. "I can fix that." He moved his hand up and grabbed hold of something beating inside his chest. He tore out Veneno's heart and dropped his body to the ground.

Cedric looked around for Ichigo. "Where's the boy?"

Victor looked around as well. A crash and cloud of smoke told him their location. "I see him. He's over there."

"What will we do?"

Victor knew the answer to that. "Go find Linnette. I'll help Ichigo."

"Right."

The two parted.

"Will you join me?"

Veneno's question was outrageous. But he put up a good argument. It was easier to join him. They seemed to understand each other's pain. He promised he wouldn't hurt her. All the things he claimed moments ago made sense. Why be with people who didn't like her and only wanted her for her power? She was being used. They didn't care. None of them gave a damn. And Ichigo hated her for what she did to him and would never be her friend after that. Her guardians were only there because she made them.

But they had wills of their own. She wasn't a puppet master. They each had their own personalities and desires. And feelings. They weren't robots. Their skin may have been different, but it was still flesh. Heartbeats, breathing, warmth, love. They had everything. They loved her. But she created them to be her family. Didn't that also mean that they were programmed to love her, too?

No. That wasn't part of the contract. They were to be her family and take care of her. Nowhere did it say to love her. The feelings she had for them, too. She loved them. She did. Was that emotion fake? No way! She loved them and they loved her.

In them she could trust.

Which made her realize something else.

She looked at Veneno's outstretched hand. "How do I know you're not using me for my powers?"

Veneno's smile faded.

Just as he claimed about others, Veneno was planning on using her as well.

"You're not as dumb as I thought." Veneno lowered his hand. "Shame. I was kinda hoping for it."

Linnette backed away, feeling threatened.

"Keep this in mind, girl. You're doomed to be alone just like me. We're never going to be understood. Unless you can control them, sooner or later, they're all going to turn against you. Sooner or later, they'll all end up hurting you." He tried to flatten a strand of hair back into place on his scalp. "Face it. You and I will never be loved. Our only hope is to control and create. It's our only hope of survival."

He took another step. A hand appeared in the center of his chest and blood splattered the ground in front of his body. Veneno's spine was ripped out from the hole in his chest and he slumped to the rooftop, revealing Cedric standing directly behind him.

"Cedric…"

He wiped his hand off on Veneno's sleeve and walked over to Linnette, checking her over for injuries. "Are you alright?"

With a sob, she leapt into his arms and cried. He held her like a loving parent and consoled her.

After another minute, Cedric put her on his back and started to walk to the edge of the building. "What happened between you two?"

Linnette wiped her tears off on his sleeve, hugging him tightly. "He told me that Ichigo hates me and everyone's just using me for my powers. I'm just a tool to them and I can't get anyone to love me without force or creating them."

Cedric jumped off the building and onto the next roof. "What do you think?"

"Me?"

"Yes. Do you think it's true?"

She gave it some thought. There were things that she heard him say that sounded accurate. It may have been true. But wait. There were things that could be disproved.

"He said that no one cared about me without my powers or they were using me. That can't be right because what about my friends back home? They have no idea that you guys aren't humans. And they don't know about my powers. And I never told them that I could sing. And they're my friends."

He nodded. "True. Anything else?"

"Um…" The Soul Reapers. Were they using her? "I think he's wrong about the Soul Reapers, too. Some of them didn't know about my powers and were very nice to me. Rukia and Ichigo are like best friends and she likes me a lot and doesn't seem to hate me for what happened with Ichigo."

"And what about him?" Cedric jumped onto another roof. "Do you feel that Ichigo is your friend?"

This one took a lot of thought. She wanted to believe that he was, but there was a part of her that wasn't so sure.

Cedric put her fears to rest. "Remember when you lost your powers? Ichigo was your friend then, wasn't he?"

That was true. So what Veneno said about him only being her friend out of fear was a lie.

"He's helped you and he's trusted you. And remember this, Linnette."

She moved closer to hear him.

"If you feel that he hates you for unleashing his Hollow, remember that he's asked you to do it on several occasions. He trusts you. He's not going to hate you because of your past or your abilities. He likes you and he's your friend. Don't ever doubt that."

He was right. Ichigo was her friend after all.

"Don't buy into anything that Arrancar tells you. You know he can't be trusted. And Ichigo told us that he's been known to lie. We've seen it. He's just telling you more lies in hopes you'll join him. He wants you to hurt Ichigo and help him turn the others into Hollow Reapers. He's not trustworthy. He's our enemy."

Linnette held Cedric tightly as he leapt through the air, pressing her face between his muscular shoulders. "I know."

Even saying it aloud didn't curb her feelings. Enemy or not, she still felt the urge to help him. He was scared and lone. She pitied him.

With Victor's help, Ichigo somehow managed to gain the upper hand in his fight with the last clone. Put down by Victor's left hook, Ichigo finished him off with his sword, plunging it down into his stomach and then beheading him.

Ichigo pulled his sword back with a powerful thrust, making him stagger backwards to keep his balance. They had finished their fight on the roof of a building, keeping out of the Hollow Reaper's reach. Down below, they were clawing at the walls, trying to reach the two men on top, all growling viciously.

Looking back at the fight, Ichigo knew something was wrong. He understood that Veneno and his clones were getting stronger and that the Hollow Reapers were evolving. What he didn't understand was Victor.

"Hey."

Knowing who he was speaking to, Victor turned his head, giving him his attention.

"Back there. During the fight." Ichigo turned around, facing him. "You were dragged down. Weren't you? Cedric had to save you. Why didn't you fight your way out? You're strong enough. So why did you need saving?"

Victor's charming face showed no emotion.

"Is there something you're not telling me? Something I should know? Then tell me. Tell me right now."

Sighing, Victor turned his body toward Ichigo, walking his way. Then he stopped. Keeping his voice quiet, he gave Ichigo is answer. "We're not invincible. We do have a weakness and it doesn't involve Linnette. It's about our bodies."

So they did have a weakness. Interested, Ichigo moved closer to hear him.

"We are strong. But if we can't gain any momentum, we can't use it."

Which made perfect sense. Ichigo learned that in karate. In order to break a board of wood, he had to hit it. And hitting involved movement. He couldn't break a board by simply laying his hand on top of it and expecting something to happen. He had to move his hand. The same went for Victor and Cedric. If they couldn't move, they couldn't fight back. All those Hollow Reapers were strong and managed to pull Victor down and hold him in place. He couldn't gain the momentum he needed to break free.

"There's something else. But it's only a theory."

"What?"

Victor avoided his eyes, as if he was ashamed to tell Ichigo the truth. "Cedric and I spoke about it a while ago. He came to the conclusion that our bodies, as sturdy as they are, can only take so much abuse before they start to break. Like a stone. It's unmoving and no matter how many times you hit it with your bare fist, nothing changes. But over time, if you keep at it, it will start to weaken and then a crack forms. After that, it is more easily broken."

Ichigo remembered what happened only a few months ago when Yumichika sliced Victor in half with his sword. Normally he couldn't get cut and yet…

"Is that what happened in the city when Yumichika cut you?"

He nodded. "We think that's what it was. We were fighting for so long without rest. Our bodies couldn't handle the abuse forever. That cut was the crack in the stone. It wasn't enough to destroy me, but it was enough to make a dent. It was a warning. We may not get tired, but we do need rest in an intense fight like that. We can go for a long time and handle a lot but after a while…" He sighed. "We start to wear down. That's what I tried to do to Cedric after Linnette regained her powers. I was trying to weaken his body to the point where I could break him. I had no idea if it would or not, but I was willing to attempt it. After a few minutes of rest, he was fine. He just couldn't keep up with an equal in an intense fight like that for a long period of time."

"But the whole wearing down thing isn't permanent? I mean, like if you get hit again a week later, you'll be fine?"

"Not even a week. Give us a few minutes and we'll be ok. But, no, it's not everlasting, so don't worry." Victor brushed his hair out of his face as a gust of wind blew.

The gust turned out to be Cedric landing roughly beside them with Linnette. He looked from both of them and then asked, "Are we leaving now?"

Ichigo came up here to search, but seeing how bad things were, decided against pursuing it further. He didn't want to be responsible if Victor or Cedric got hurt and broke in front of Linnette. Everyone needed rest. Even Linnette looked like she had been through a lot in the past few minutes.

"Ok, let's go back."

There was no confrontation coming back. Cedric stood watch while the sewer was opened and everyone went down, him being the last to enter. The moment Ichigo saw everyone looking at him, he felt the urge to say something. He had to tell them. He had to get it off his chest.

"We have to do something. Fast."

No one answered his quiet words.

Ichigo lifted his eyes to them. "Veneno's getting stronger and stronger. We barely made it this time, even with Victor and Cedric with me."

That took everyone by surprise.

"I thought they were invincible."

"Or close to it at least."

"Well, Veneno's able to grapple with them both now equally." Ichigo walked further inside. "If this keeps up, he'll be able to overpower anyone who comes his way. We have to defeat him before he gets to be at full Arrancar level. By then, I don't know."

It seemed pointless after that. Veneno would be able to take on anyone who came his way. And being able to clone himself, each one of equal strength and power, didn't help. Soon, very soon, Veneno might be considered unstoppable.

"What do you suggest?"

"Yeah, what would you have us do?"

Ichigo only had one answer for that. "We need help."

"I'll say," said another.

"No." Ichigo turned around, meeting their gaze. "We… I need help. If we face Veneno again, we'll need backup. And…" He took a breath. "When we do find the original, we'll need help bringing him down."

"Do you have any idea where he is?"

Once again, Ichigo gave them the same answer he had been giving them the past few days. "No. But we'll keep looking."

"How the hell do we know that he's not changing directions or something? What if this guy's changing his hiding place every so often?"

"Yeah, and the fact that he's hidden away doesn't help. Do you know how many places there are to hide here?"

"That's right. The Seireitei's huge!"

"He could be anywhere."

"Exactly!"

"There's something else, too." Shunsui lifted his straw hat. "There's no guarantee that he's even in the Seireitei."

Nanao looked at her captain. "What's that?"

"I mean, think about it. If the guy wants to be hidden in a safe place where no one can get him, who's to say it has to be here? He could be anywhere in the Soul Society. Or… even in the World of the Living."

Ichigo spun around. "What?"

"You said it before, didn't you? One of his clones made it into your world. What makes you think there aren't more of him there? Or even the original himself? He could be hiding in the World of the Living for all we know."

"Ichigo," said Rukia. "Is there anyway we can check up on the town? What about Kisuke?"

He remembered what he had dropped when he came here after the massive outbreak. "He gave me like a walkie-talkie thing to communicate with him. But I dropped it when I was attacked my first day here after all this. I'd have to find it. I'm sure it still works."

One of the Soul Reapers stood up. "This is stupid!" He pointed at Victor and Cedric. "Those guys are fast and powerful. Send them out to search everywhere and kill all the Venenos they find! That simple."

"If it were that easy, then we would have done it by now."

"Get off my back! I'm sick of living down here! This is ridiculous!"

"I know it is, but what else can we do?"

The Squad members started to argue among themselves. To end their yelling, Ichigo moved to satisfy them all.

"Alright! I'm going back out there and I'll keep hunting Veneno until I find the real one. Would that settle things for you?"

"Are you insane?" Nanao stood up, stopping him. "You just got away this time and that was with their help. You're not here five minutes and then you go back out?"

"She's right, you're crazy."

"No one has to come with me. I'll go by myself."

Rukia grabbed his arm. "What the hell are you trying to do? Get yourself killed?"

"I'm trying to solve this as fast as I can! We're running out of time!"

"But you going out there alone? You don't stand a chance."

Before Ichigo could argue back, there was a splash. Someone had knocked one to the Squad members into the water dividing the two sewer walls. A fistfight had broken out on the other side of the water. Soul Reapers were fighting Soul Reapers, arguing their points in a primal manner. This time, not even Unohana's words could calm them. Everyone was on edge. Victor had moved Linnette behind him as the fighting got worse. Swords were being drawn now.

Nanano and Rangiku stood beside each other looking worried. "Do you think any of them got infected somehow? I mean, this was how it started."

"I think they're just agitated."

The fighting continued.

Linnette hid her slender body behind her protectors, covering her ears from their deafening shouts echoing off the walls. This was too much. If any of them were infected like they said, there was only one way to find out. Without being told, without permission, she started singing.

Hearing the melodious sound, Ichigo's body went rigid. His pupils dilated, expanding wider and wider. Darkness spread over his eyes.

A loud howl rang out causing everyone in the sewer to halt and turn. Ichigo was standing hunched on the other side of the water, an insane smile on his face. He locked eyes with the main fighters and lunched into the air. He was on the other side in an instant and opened his jaws wide to tear into them.

"Hollow!"

Hearing the nickname given to him by Linnette, Ichigo stopped. His open mouth was pulled slowly away from the Soul Reaper's neck. His mouth never fully closed, but his teeth were no longer showing as he turned to face the girl standing across the water.

"Don't attack them."

He blinked.

"They may have upset me, but I don't want them injured. I just want the fighting to end. Don't hurt them."

Ichigo's yellow eyes softened. With a light scoff, he turned and gave her a wide-armed bow. "As you wish, princess." He turned to the frightened Soul Reaper staring at him with a sly grin. He mockingly snapped at his face in, what he thought to be, a playful gesture before leaping to be on the same side of the water as her. Once at her side, he circled her body like an affectionate cat and hissed happily in her ear.

Needless to say, there was no fighting after that. Everyone was too much in shock for that.

Acting like a cat, Ichigo tried to curling on in Linnette's lap against the wall. Slowly coming back to his senses, he leaned into her body, resting his head on her shoulder. "Please… sing again for me. Just once more."

Linnette reached up and stroked his head. "Be a good boy and I will."

He hissed softly, satisfied with her answer and drifted away for the time being.

Ichigo, the real Ichigo, lifted his head and looked t her. Before he had a chance to speak, Linnette beat him to the punch.

"Sorry. I sang without warning you."

He wasn't angry. He nodded to her and crawled away. "That's fine. I don't care. You had to if you did it like that." He sat on the ground and looked over at the Soul Reapers giving him nervous looks. He understood why. Even if he didn't do anything, he must have looked scary. Sighing, he looked at the water. "I'll wait a while before I go back up there."

Linnette was happy to hear it. But her expression didn't match that brief moment of joy. Something was weighing heavy on her heart. "Ichigo, I wanted to talk to you about Veneno."

He turned his attention back to her. "What is it?" He was too busy fighting the clones to notice what happened to her during those short but never ending minutes. Had something happened between her and him when no one was looking?

She looked at him nervously then turned her face away. "Well, um… I just… I don't think Veneno's really a bad person."

"What?"

"I mean, yeah, what he's doing is bad and all but… But I just don't think he means it in a bad way." She started talking faster, forcing Ichigo to focus on her words very closely. "He said that he had to do this to keep Soul Reapers from hurting him. And he doesn't want to be alone so he turned them into Hollow Reapers so he wouldn't be lonely." She paused, then spoke soft and clearly. "Ichigo, I think he's just scared."

"Scared?"

"I mean, yeah. He doesn't want Soul Reapers to hurt him anymore so he did all this. He said he did it to protect himself. And the Hollow Reapers are his family." Her eyes fell to her hands, tightly gripping her skirt hem. "He created a family. Just like me."

Like Veneno, Linnette was forced to create her own family so she wouldn't be lonely anymore. Lonely and scared. They were a lot alike.

Maybe like Linnette, Veneno needed help. Ichigo didn't believe it at first and knew it wouldn't be easy to convince him if that were the case, but the look on Linnette's face and her words told him that that was what she wanted him to do. She wanted him to speak to Veneno and help him in the same way he did for her.

She wanted Veneno to be saved.

The quiet of the Seireitei was broken by shouting from one of the top floors of a tall building. Livening things up in his own way, Veneno had spent the past hour amusing himself through a game he invented called chair-surfing. He grabbed a stolen stool from Squad 4 with wheels and used it as a skateboard to ride up and down the long hallways of the next building. It was more or less to reduce his boredom. So far it proved to be very amusing. Now he spent his time going up and down the hallway, trying to increase speed each time, cheering himself on. He preformed several tricks, praising himself and laughing. This was a lot of fun. The only problem was he had no one to share it with.

The stool reached the end of the hall and he pushed off from the wall with his foot to keep from crashing, slowly sliding backwards. He sat down on the stool with a short sigh. "Whew! That was awesome!" He kicked his legs in the air, leaning back. The stool creaked. Having gone through so much abuse, being used for something that it wasn't intended for, had made the stool weaker. It started to give under Veneno's weight. Veneno didn't weigh that much; only about 132 the last time he checked. The stool wasn't in danger of breaking just yet, but to be on the safe side, he got off. "Now I need to find a new game. Or a better board."

A wandering Hollow Reaper stumbled into the hall. It was a seated officer from Squad 5. The man looked at Veneno, moaning. His body ached so much. Going through such a massive transformation was hard on the body. He wasn't meant to be this way. His body was rejecting the change it was helpless to fend off, making every movement and breath so very painful.

Veneno stood behind the stool, looking back at him with a grin. "What do you think? Desk-surfing next? I could take that desk in that room over there and go down the stairs on it. What do you think?"

The Hollow Reaper only moaned again. He couldn't speak and he couldn't comprehend what Veneno was asking of him.

Sensing this, Veneno gave up on getting an opinion from him. He put his foot up on the broken stool, lining up the shot. "Hey, catch." He kicked the stool hard and fast at the Hollow Reaper.

The Hollow Reaper caught it in his face and was slammed into the wall behind him by the force. The stool fell to the ground, one of the wheels was broken off and rolling down the hall. The Hollow Reaper slumped over but did not fall, his face cut and bloody from the strike. He didn't react. Only moaned.

Veneno scoffed and turned away. "You're boring. Too stupid." He looked at the wheel rolling around his ankles and watched as it tapped the side of his foot and fell to the side, motionless. "Which is why I wanted him so bad. I can't talk to you guys. You may be all I have but you're just too boring."

He lifted his foot up, moving the wheel gently to the side.

"But since we don't see eye to eye… It's probably for the best. I mean, I would want to talk to him and hang out and all but if he doesn't want to, I can't force him without getting a knife in my back. We think too differently. He doesn't understand."

Veneno kicked the wheel down the hall where it ricocheted off the wall and into a room where it bounced off something else with a clang and then the sound of glass shattering as the wheel ended its journey.

"I'll be betrayed. Which is why it's best that you control them. You don't get hurt that way."

He turned back at the Hollow Reaper who was now on all fours, lapping up the blood dripping from its nose. Veneno almost pitied it. This thing was harmless to him now but would attack his sworn enemy, the Soul Reapers.

Looking to cheer himself up, Veneno turned and started walking towards the room where the wheel crashed. "Well, that's enough of that. If you're not going to entertain me then fine by me. Now where's that desk? Think I'll throw myself down a flight of stairs."

Please review! ^-^