Treason

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Sephy: With Pickle's consent I have (temporarily) borrowed her account to post the remaining chapters. She's busy with a lot of things.

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the (extremely) late posting of this chapter!

I hope you'll like it!
Let me know in a review ;)

Chapter 36
- Exit -

Isshin's eyes were wide and staring into nothingness as the blade was being withdrawn to it's owner on the other side of the room, standing in the place where the door used to be. Ichimaru Gin. "My my," he spoke calmly as he walked into the room, "A subordinate that stops following orders will have to be cut loose,"

"DAd.. dY..." the brown haired hollow whined sadly as it tried to touch Isshin's vanishing body – but was too afraid it would disappear faster if they did. "No... LeAvE!"

No one had noticed Ichigo moving away from his father's body, and directly towards Gin – pinning him high against the wall in the room – slowly suffocating him. "You will DIE!" he roared as a cero was charged and would not miss from such a short distance. Gin was too surprised by the sudden appearance of the hollow and the power it possessed. In a attempt to break free Gin tried to cut through the wrist that was holding him – but the small wound just healed instantly.

Throwing Zangetsu on the floor he used his now free hand to grab a first-full of the short silver hair and opened his mouth slightly, "Byebye," he said in a whisper before giving a hard yank on it – tearing off the head in one fluid motion – roaring a blood curling howl in victory he threw the head against another wall where it split open like a watermelon.

Only when the others heard the Ichigo's roar they all looked at him, his torso and mask covered in Gin's blood – the body lying at his feet, the blood still dripping from his left claw. Turning around he walked back to the place where Isshin's body was slowly fading away, his golden eyes hazy and unfocused. "It's all right now.." he spoke gently towards his father. "He won't be able to hurt you anyMOre..." his voice getting rougher with each word – less human.

"Ichigo," Yoruichi began as she placed her hand on his shoulder, "He's already gone," A bloodied claw was slashed at her, but she was able to avoid a hit and stared back at the horned hollow, who kept growling at her – telling her to stay away. "Ichigo?"

Renji shook his head, "We should leave him alone for now," he said, knowing they wouldn't be able do anything right now.

"Don't..." Ichigo spoke slowly to no one in particular, "...like mom..." he reached out a bloodied hand towards his father – but the body had already vanished completely. His eyes widened in shock. He had been right here, with his father, and couldn't do anything to save him. The bloodied hand was still hovering in mid-air, not being able to grasp anything.

"Ichi..." The red said as he walked closer, the humans and Hitsugaya taking their distance from the hollow – not trusting it, no matter who he used to be. "He's gone," he said and reached out his hand to try and comfort his lover – but quickly withdrew when the other one let out a blood curling howl.

The teen roared loudly at the loss – he wanted to cry, but no tears came. He was lost, what was he supposed to do now?

Everyone in the room was startled when Ichigo suddenly roared, almost being able to feel the pain via his cry. The brown haired hollow cried too, but it's cry was filled with sadness from two different voices. Inoue started crying too , wanting to walk closer to try and comfort them somehow but was held back by Sado and Uryuu – who shook their head.

"So this is where you have been hiding." a voice suddenly spoke up.

"Tosen," Hitsugaya spoke with loathing as he readied his blade for shikai. A blood curling howl filled the room again and Hitsugaya backed off when he saw Ichigo moved towards the ex-captain of the 9th division.

Zangetsu lay forgotten on the ground while it's master smiled and charged a cero at the dark skinned man in front of him. "A cero?" he said mockingly, "That weak attack won't be enough to- " he stopped talking the moment the cero was fired and he sensed the power hidden in the bright red beam. Far too powerful for him to block. He tried to evade theblast but it was too fast and his body disintegrated by the sheer force upon impact with his blade in a futile attempt to protect himself.

When the horned hollow howled loudly again, it told most of the shinigami that Ichigo was no loner in control – nor was the hollow. He had lost all his sanity and was now nothing more than a slave to his instincts.

"Ichi.." Renji said as he sank to his knees, tears flowing from his eyes. It just seemed so unreal to him – to everyone else.

The horned hollow turned around and walked back to the place Isshin's body had been. He squatted down and looked around, "Da...aD..." he managed to say in a grunting manner. "WhER...e..?"

Renji walked closer towards Ichigo and tried to help him search for something, something he knew couldn't be found, no matter how far and wide they would search. "Ichigo?" he asked the horned hollow who simply ignored him and began clawing away at the wall.

When one of his wrists were grabbed the orange haired hollow looked at the one who had taken his limb and saw the red head staring at him with tear filled eyes. "He can't come back anymore..." the red head said and Ichigo pulled his arm free and used it to half-heartily slash at the red haired shinigami before going back to his wall and clawing it away – expecting to find something on the other side. He didn't remember what he was looking for, only that he had to find it.

The brown haired hollow looked away, not wanting to see the horned hollow so broken, so brainlessly slashing at a wall – looking for his father that had already died and left this world. It spotted Aizen hiding behind a wall, chanting some kind of spell. It cocked his head to the side and kept looking for a bit longer as the others tried to think of a way to kill the horned hollow.

Aizen moved out of hiding and fired whatever he had been chanting before – and it headed straight for Ichigo. The brown haired hollow didn't want to see the horned one die and moved to stand in the trajectory of the attack. Being hit instead of the other. Upon impact the brown haired hollow screamed out in pain – both voices rung loud and clear.

Turning around the horned hollow saw the other hollow fall to the ground and began to fade away, "wHY.." it rasped out and reached out one of his hands. The brown haired hollow raised it's right paw, opening the emotionless gray eye on it and looked directly into Ichigo's sad golden eyes – showing him their original bodies, standing next to each other, heavily wounded.

- o - o - o - o - o -

The small black haired girl was the first of the two to speak up, "I guess this is it then," she said jokingly while holding her broken left arm. "We didn't want to live the rest of our lives as that monster you saw before,"

"Ichi-nii.." Yuzu, the small blond haired gir,l said before coughing up some blood. "We'll go tell mom you're doing fine okay?"

Ichigo couldn't find his voice, nor the words to tell his sisters that their mother had been eaten by a hollow and wouldn't be in the afterlife – in Soul Society.

"So," Karin said, biting back the pain she felt from her wounds, "Don't make us lie to mom.."

"Stay alive!" they both said at the same time and faded away completely.

- o - o - o - o - o -

"Yuzu... Karin... Dad..." The horned hollow spoke in a shaky voice, as tears of blood flowed from his bright golden eyes over his mask. It's last strands sanity disappearing – thriving on rage and hate alone. Roaring more loudly then he ever had, he used sonido to stand before Aizen who was surprised at the level of speed the other had achieved.

The hollow slashed at Aizen's throat with a simple swipe of his claw – and was stopped by a drawn zanpaktou. Then hollow snapped his teeth at the man's face who used shunpo to get a few meters away. "Unexpected," Aizen said as he readied his blade for a second strike.

Slashing at the hollow he was confused why the hollow didn't bother to move or make any attempt to avoid harm – one of his slashes landed just above the hollows waist and almost cut him in half, only the spine keeping the top and lower half together. "You must have the devil's luck," he simply said and backed off when the wound started to fill itself with a white pus-like substance, healing the wound completely within a second.

Aizen's eyes widened at the instant regeneration and kept slashing at the horned hollow in front of him, each wound he inflicted healed almost instantly. He couldn't believe how stupid he had been to remove that spell without thinking about what the consequences might be. In the split-second he had been lost in thought his chest was slashed open.

The orange haired hollow licked his claws to see if this prey was tasty enough to kill and devour. Looking up the blood covered hollow used sonido to get behind Aizen and slash open his back. Caught by surprise the self-proclaimed God staggered forward – feeling various ribs being broken, and a lung being punctured.

Coughing up blood Aizen managed to turn around and look at the hollow – who had been charging a cero between the tips on his horns. Having no strength left to swing his blade he began chanting a Lv.99 barrier to try and protect himself from the incoming attack. Halfway through his chant the hollow fired the cero and appeared behind him once again. He stopped chanting in mid-sentence because he knew the monster he had released would kill him for sure this time. He closed his eyes and the last thing he felt were a pair of razor sharp teeth sinking into his neck.

As the hollow bit down he broke the neck and used to the body as a human-shield to protect himself from the cero he shot himself mere milliseconds before. While dust filled most of the room the horned hollow moved the body closer to his mouth and tore another piece of flesh from the lifeless and bleeding corpse with his teeth – swallowing it whole. Roaring in victory he ripped off the right arm and began to eat it – piece by piece.

Before the dust had fully cleared the others could clearly hear the sound of biting and flesh being ripped to shreds. The shinigami recognized the sounds easily – having heard it more times than they wanted to.

Kurosaki Ichigo had become a complete hollow; in both body and mind.

"Ichigo..?" Renji said uncertainly as he walked closer towards the center of the dust cloud, "Can you hear me?" he wasn't fast enough to dodge the dismembered leg that was thrown at him. He looked at the limb in horror and threw it away. "Ichigo!" he yelled.

A blood curling howl came from the horned hollow, blowing away all the dust – revealing its blood covered body and mask. The remains of Aizen's mutilated body lay scattered on the floor at the hollows feet - it growled and walked towards the group; reiatsu gathering between the tips of it horns once again.

Renji didn't want to believe what he was seeing; seeing Ichigo like a hollow – fighting like one and even eating like one. But that last howl wasn't one of anger or victory. It was a howl for the loss of his family. Ichigo had seen how they were killed right in front of his eyes, and he was powerless to save them.

A new howl slowly turned into a wail of despair as the cero gained a sudden boost of power, black reiatsu now steadily circling around the horned hollows body.

Renji dropped Zabimaru to the ground and ran closer and grabbed Ichigo's shoulders tightly. "Don't hurt them!" he yelled at the blood covered mask, "They're your friends!" He yelled even harder,

The hollow turned his head to face the red head, the attack still charging.

"They came to save us from this place!" he screamed on the top of his lungs, "Away from the pain and humiliation you endured!"

"RENJI!" Rukia screeched at him, "Get away from him!"

"There's nothing we can do for him now!" Yoruichi yelled, hating the idea that hey had to kill Ichigo. Especially after what the boy had been through.

"We can go home!" Renji screamed in a final attempt to reach the teen in his berserk state.

"Abarai!" Uryuu screamed. "Get away from him! That isn't Kurosaki anymore!"

"..hO...oME..." was the soft whisper that passed the razor sharp teeth before the red stepped back – doubting if heard it right. Either way; he couldn't do anything more than this. The red could only pray that he heard what he thought he heard his lover say.

'Please Ichi... Don't give up...' Renji told himself as he looked at the hollow with saddened eyes. 'Don't leave us..'

To everyone's surprise the cero stopped gathering power and shrunk in size before it completely disintegrated. Despite this 'good' sign the shinigami kept their distance – uncertain of what the hell was going on.

"Kurosaki-kun?" Inoue said as she clung to Uryuu's arm, whose face turned red. The hollow just stood there; arms hanging limply at his side as his golden eyes were staring at them.

Because Renji was closest he was the first one to notice the eyes. Those bright yellow eyes were slowly losing their light. The yellow faded to orange, to brown, to black. The horned hollow fell forward and Renji hurried to catch his lover – if they still could be called that.

"Ichigo!" Renji screamed in a hysterical tone as he shook the bloody body in his arms for some sign of life. But there was no response. "Ichi..." he said in a sad tone before tears began to well up in his eyes again. The other survivors in the room walked closer to see with their own eyes if the teen was really dead.

Inoue didn't want to walk closer, to see the one she loved, suffer so much and die. Rukia and the others just didn't want to believe their eyes. Someone so strong, so broken, so dead.

"I'll call Kisuke to open the gate back to the shoten," Yoruichi said and walked away from the group.

Hitsugaya had walked around the room to try and find the zanpaktou of Aizen, Tosen and Gin to take back with them to Soul Society so that no one else would be able to use those blades for their own motives. As he was walking he began to wonder more and more what hat happened to Renji and Ichigo in this place – what could have happened to make Ichigo lose it like he had. He looked back at the mourning red over the horned hollow.

-CRACK-

As a loud crack echoed through the room all eyes were aimed at the origin of the sound – the mask of the horned hollow. It was cracking, breaking apart. Yoruichi and Hitsugaya returned to the rest of the group and stared at the odd development with mixed feelings

"Ichi?" Renji spoke in a low whisper as he began to try and peel of the mask of his lovers face. "Please be under this all, come back to me.." he spoke softly while pulling the hollowfied body closer to his own.

"Yoruichi-san.." Inoue asked confused, "When hollows die – don't they fade away like the other one did?"

She looked at the big-breasted girl in shock; she was right. When hollows die they fade away like Isshin and that other hollow had done, yet Ichigo's body was still in one piece. Because of the number of strange events in the last couple of days they didn't realize something so basic. "Yeah, they should."

The garganta leading back to the Urahara shoten had opened up and Hitsugaua walked towards it. "We should go back and report everything that has happened here to Yamamoto-sou-Taichou and the Central 46 so they can take the necessary steps."

"What about Kurosaki?" Uryuu asked as he walked towards the garganta – wanting to leave this massacre behind him.

"Leave the hollow here," he said coldly as various stares were aimed at him.

"You plan to leave him here?" Yoruichi asked confused, "It's not even certain he's DEAD!" she began to get agitated at the short captain and didn't bother to hide it. The others nodded in agreement.

-crack-

A less loud crack came from the horned hollows mask – this time it didn't stop with one crack. The various cracks grew larger and soon covered the whole body, mask and horns. Renji stared at the others skin in horror – afraid it would break apart like a very brittle statue.

On the other side of the room various walls collapsed due to the fights that had taken place in this room not that long ago. The ground shook and one of the horns on the hollows body broke apart – revealing bright orange spiky hair underneath. "Ichi..go..?" Renji spoke in a shaking voice as he began to carefully brushing away the white mask – as if he was digging op a precious treasure that had been buried in a desert for ages. One piece after another fell to the ground and turned to dust -

"What the.." Yoruichi began as she saw Ichigo's original body return from under the thick hollow skin as it crumbled away, leaving the seemingly healthy body of Kurosaki Ichigo behind, sleeping soundly. No visible traces of a hollow mask or hole in his chest. Nothing.

"Ichigo!" Renji said happily as he bend forward and kissed the orange haired teen passionately, making Inoue and Rukia's ears turn red. But the teen didn't wake up or even made any indication he was the slightest bit awake. "Ichigo..?"

Inoue walked closer to try and heal any wounds that may still be on Ichigo's body, but his hollow-form had already healed all wounds; internal and external. "I'm sorry Abarai-san," she bowed as a apology. "There is nothing for me to heal."

"It's okay Inoue," standing up he tried to lift Ichigo's body so Urahara or Unohana could take a look at him to see what the hell was wrong. "We'll just have to get him back to Soul Socuiety,"

"Abarai!" Hitsugaya shouted at the red head, "You are NOT taking that monster back to Seireitei!"

"He's not a monster!" Renji countered in a equally loud tone.

"Look at what he did – ALONE!" the short captain said as he motioned to the demolished room they were standing in. "Just look around you! Do plan to set that monster free in Seireitei!?"

"Right now I don't give a rat's ass what you think about Ichigo!" the red shouted, too agitated that it didn't matter Hitsugaya was a higher ranking officer. "Give him around the clock protection for all I care – He's coming back with us, with ME!"

Yoruichi and the others walked towards Renji to show the short captain they all agreed with the red. "He is alive Toshiro-kun," Inoue said, "He doesn't look like a hollow anymore either."

Sighing in defeat Hitsugaya stepped into the garganta, "Fine," he grumbled and led the way. Sado walked closer towards Renji and lifted Ichigo,

"I will carry him back to Urahara – you should rest," Sado said and carried Ichigo bridal style through the garganta.

The red was shortly amazed that the tall Mexican actually knew how to talk, he snapped out of it because Rukia softly smacked his head and offered to help him walk through the garganta if he needed help. "I'll be fine," he said with a smile. "I'm going home." he said as he tried to run after Sado – wanting to be close to Ichigo in case he would wake up.

(x) – None =D

Notes;
(1) - I suck at action scenes, I'm sorry,
(2) - I dislike Tosen.. A lot.. Only good thing is his voice actor.
(3) - Sorry if Aizen is OOC, but he had been most of the story anyways Xp
(4) - I must really love the word 'crack' .
(5) - I have no idea how long it has been since I've written this chapter. Probably 3-ish years?

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