Disclaimer- I don't own Bleach

Chapter 39

Conflicting Realities

For several minutes, not a single word had been spoken between the battling couple as they exchanged a series of skilled and brutal blows. Steel clashed with steel in loud screeches and spark-filled displays as buildings crumbled and shook from the sheer power that the two were exerting without ever doing anything more than sword fighting. There was no kido, there was no using the powers of their swords, just plain sword to sword and hand to hand to combat.

The fight was personal after all and using anything but their own power would make it far less enjoyable for them. Then again the only one who appeared to be enjoying themselves was Sayomi, she had a twisted grin on her face through most of the fighting and would laugh harshly every time she landed a blow on Kensei that managed to draw blood. Kensei on the other hand maintained a calm, but determined look while battling against her.

This wasn't just a simple fight to him, it was a fight to get back the woman he loved and he knew he had to step carefully or risking getting himself killed. There was also the possibility that he could seriously harm her, she wasn't fighting at full power, she couldn't from what he could tell. She was still recovering from everything that she had been through in the past several days. Nearly dying, not once, but twice. Having her soul ripped out of the artificial body she had been living in for almost a century. Her strength had not yet been fully recovered. Even if she wasn't using all of her power, that didn't change the fact that she was stronger than him when she was. He didn't particularly mind the fact that she wasn't fighting at full power, he was still having a difficult time of fighting her as it was. She was trying to kill him and even at about two thirds of her normal strength, she was incredibly strong.

One other thing bothered him. For a moment before the fighting had began, she had appeared to break out of whatever spell was causing her to turn into someone else and she had looked so desperately lost and broken that he was worried about what might happen if he were to awaken her from it. There was a very good chance that she would break down entirely and there was no telling what would happen then, but he doubted that it would be good.

"Hm?" Sayomi blinked, jolting slightly and taking her attention from Kensei, her grasp growing momentarily slack on her zanpakuto to look over her shoulder at the garganta that had been opened to allow the beast that Wonderweiss controlled to slink back into the darkness of Hueco Muendo and nurse its wounds.

For a moment, she was certain that she could sense not just Ichigo's spiritual pressure, but Uryu's. The two were close together, but it was Ichigo's that was skyrocketing in what felt to be a response to Ulquiorra's. The melancholy looking Espada was unleashing a great deal of energy from what she could tell and it made her lose focus and forget entirely about what she was doing or even where she was. That was until her sword was nearly spun out of her grasp and she coughed a small amount of blood when a booted foot was thrust into her stomach, throwing her slim body back several yards only to stop when she was slammed roughly into a pile of junk and garbage and then the large metal trash bin the mess surrounded.

Staying where he was, Kensei watched the dust clear from where Sayomi had landed and heard her mumbled and disgruntled curses as she picked her way out of the trash that had surrounded the bin. His amber eyes briefly flickered to where Aizen and Gin stood, Aizen was watching him with a small, but condescending smirk. Gin appeared to be engrossed in the fight that was currently taking place between the large captain of the Seventh division, Komomura, the lieutenant of the Ninth division, Hisagi and Tousen.

Shinji wasn't far away, he appeared to be simply watching everything at this point, taking in the remaining players and trying to decide on his next move. His goal was Aizen, but there was no way to get close to the man at the moment, not with the massive scale of the fight between Tousen and those he had betrayed to side with Aizen.

Returning his attention back to Sayomi as she emerged from her landing place, clearly annoyed and angry at having been tossed quite literally into the trash, Kensei's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Sayomi appeared to have regained control of herself, she was no longer distracted and the glassy sheen had returned to her eyes. He had sensed the reiatsu that had caused her moment of confusion and had ended with her completely lowering her guard to the point he that made him think she had actually forgotten what was going on around her. He just wasn't sure why the reiatsu would make her react that way, he did have every intention of finding out.

"You shouldn't let your guard down during a fight, that's a pretty stupid mistake that only rookies make. It's really hard to believe that you ever made it to captain, you're a weak little girl that lets others control her," Kensei taunted.

Narrowing her eyes, Sayomi hissed through her teeth as she glared up at the silver haired man she had been fighting before tapping her feet on the ground soaring towards him, her sword poised at her side, ready to strike. Bringing the blade down with every intention of cutting Kensei in half, she growled when her blade was stopped by his and she was pushed away from him.

"Rookies like that Kurosaki kid. I can't believe the runt is still alive and fighting," Kensei said, not missing the way Sayomi's eyes had widened and she had taken a step backwards.

"I don't know what the hell you're trying to do," she snarled viciously, her pale eyes darkening as she crouched partially and then flung herself at him. "But Ichigo is dead and it had nothing to do with him being a rookie," she shouted angrily, all the while raining blow after blow down upon Kensei who blocked them all, to her extreme annoyance.

"So that's what you think, huh," he muttered, stepping out of the way of a graceful sweep of her sword arm to flash behind her and quickly say, "Bakudo, number nine, Geki. Hado, number one, Sho."

All she could do was make a noise of surprise as her body was engulfed in red light and she was suddenly thrust towards the ground. She landed in the middle of a deserted street, her impact causing a small crater form around her.

"Dammit," Sayomi cursed, trying to remain calm so that she could counter the paralyzing kido with her own as she coughed in response to the thick cloud of dust that was writhing around her.

A soft growl leaked from her lips when she heard Kensei's boots stepping down on to the roadway not far from her, the dust was making it difficult to see him clearly, but she stared hatefully at the shadow she could see just beyond it.

"I find it hard to believe that the most sensitive person in our group can't tell what's real from what's fake. Ichigo's not dead, Sayomi, or are you so deep under his control that you can't even figure that out for yourself," Kensei asked her somberly.

"I'm not under anyone's control! I saw him die, Kensei, I saw the sword plunge through his heart and then I saw it ripped out when it was the only thing keeping him standing upright as his eyes glazed over with death. I saw Uryu and all the others brutally murdered and why?! For what?!" She screamed, her chest rising and falling rapidly as tears filled her eyes.

The dust that had swallowed her was clearing now and she could see Kensei clearly once again. He was standing a few yards away looking at her with the a look that was so familiar that she had to shut her eyes in an attempt to shut him out. The gesture did her no good. Instead visions of night nearly eighty years passed filled her mind. The night that Kensei had finally had enough of Sayomi's sulking and depressed mood and confronted her about it because he loved her and had loved her for a very long time. It was the same look.

"Stop it," she shouted, her voice cracking with emotion. "Just go away...You-you're in the way!"

"In the way of what," he asked. "Aizen's plans to make you an obedient lap dog? Your friends aren't dead, Sayomi."

"Shut up! What would you know?! I saw it, Kensei, I saw them all die and all because the Soul Society didn't trust them and blocked their escape back to this world."

"Then why would they send captains to help them, Sayomi, snap out of it already, you're being-"

"They weren't sent to help them," she snapped. "They were sent to kill Orihime and I. They weren't there to help."

"That makes no sense and you know it," Kensei challenged.

"Whether it makes sense or not, it's what she believes."

Sayomi's eyes widened and she tilted her back as the paralyzing spell that was placed on her was released. "Gin," she said questioningly as she struggled to sit up in the rubble of the broken street that surrounded her.

Kensei's stance became defensive and his eyes hardened as he turned towards the newcomer. "What else does she believe."

The thin man sighed and scratched at his head. "That Capt'n Kuchiki no longer loves her and that he tried to kill her. That I killed him. That's all easy enough to disprove an' all, but she also believes that she can trust Aizen."

"Wh-what's...going on," Sayomi stuttered, her eyes wide and blank as she stared at Gin in confusion.

"Nothing, kiddo, but jeez yur a mess. I take my eyes off of ya for one second and look what happens." Gin shook his head as if he were addressing a child that had fallen into a mud puddle.

There was something behind Gin's words to him, Kensei knew it, but he wasn't sure what else there was to gather from the man's statement. He could tell that Gin wasn't all that pleased with the state Sayomi was in either. In fact, he seemed rather upset by the entire thing, angry almost, but there was something holding him back from doing anything about that anger. That's when something seemed to click in his head and he realized that Gin couldn't do anything to help Sayomi regardless of how much he wanted to. He was bound to Aizen and not only that, there was no way he alone could stand up to him, especially not with Sayomi around and believing that she had to protect him.

His thoughts were cut off when Sayomi cried out suddenly. Looking over at her, he saw that she was clutching onto the hilt of her zanpakuto with one hand while the other was holding her head. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut and her teeth smashed together.

"Well, that's enough of that," Gin stated, walking towards Sayomi as she began to shake her head and mumble to herself.

"What are you doing," Kensei growled. "Get away from her."

"Now don't be difficult," Gin chided lightly. "She's gonna hurt herself if she keep this up. Besides, you should worry about yourself first."

Kensei leaped out of the way of Gin's blade that shot out at him and though he hadn't gone far it gave the silver haired man the time he needed to place a hand on Sayomi's head and with a small pulse of green light, put the distraught woman to sleep. He then picked up her fallen zanpakuto and sheathed it, sliding it into his own obi before picking the small woman up and turning to walk into a garganta that opened up behind him.

Her head tossed from side to side, her forehead was coated in a shiny film of sweat and her chest was rising and falling rapidly as she struggled to take in full and deep breaths. She could feel several clashes of powerful reiatsu, many of which belonged to people she thought to be dead. They were fighting ferociously to live and overcome the obstacles in their paths.

Just as she was trying to desperately brush away the fog that covered much of her mind and made it hard for her to tell what was reality and what was nothing more than false images and feelings that had been inserted into her mind. Reality had no meaning in the fog, but she struggled to find it anyway.

Writhing in the bed she laid in, she tried to sort through what she thought to be the truth and what she could sense. Her senses were telling her that Ichigo was alive and so was Uryu, Chad, Rukia, Renji and even Byakuya and Grimmjow. The stronger her senses felt that what they were telling her was real, the thicker and more dense the fog that covered her mind became until she found it hard to even recall where she was, let alone who she was.

'You are not this weak, Sayomi-sama, you must open your eyes and see for yourself. Do not let yourself be controlled and used like this. You are better than this.'

Gasping, her eyes flew open and she sat bold upright, her eyes staring blankly at the sheets that covered her. 'That voice. I know that voice,' she thought to herself, her small hands curling into fists as she clutched at the sheets.

'You can hear me again. I was beginning to think I would never reach you.'

Shaking her head in an attempt to clear the voice from it, Sayomi made a choked sobbing sound and laid back down, curling into a ball with her hands clutching at her head. "Go away. You're interfering."

'You don't really believe that, little hime, do you? I have only ever tried to protect you, why do you doubt me now?'

"I...I don't...I don't know what I believe."

'Do you trust me, Sayomi-sama?'

"Trust you?" She questioned slowly, her eyes opening and her body growing slack as the words set off a reaction in her mind. A vision formed in the fog and she saw herself sitting on the floor of the dungeon that Byakuya had been held in, Byakuya's body behind her.

"I need to know if you trust me," Aizen asked, standing over her and offering her his hand.

"Yes, I trust you."

"I trust him," she said shakily as the vision faded back into the fog. "I trust Aizen."

'So do I not have your trust any longer then? What have I ever done to make you lose faith in me?'

"Shut up," she pleaded, curling into herself again. "Please."

'Is that really what you want, Sayomi-sama, for me to leave you? We've been together a long time, but you have never once wanted me to leave. You and I have always been close, closer than most and I would like to think that you wouldn't banish me into the darkness because you have forgotten our time together. Besides, I made a promise when we first met, didn't I, that I would never leave you?'

She groaned in protest when another scene began to change the fog around her once again. This time it formed a serene mountainous landscape below her while she stood on a fluffy white cloud in a vast blue sky. In front of her stood a man that was beautiful beyond words, with long white hair and crystalline blue eyes. The longer she stared at him in his blue hakama and white kimono, the more real the scene around her became. It was when the man chuckled at her that she realized she could feel a cool, calming breeze caressing her cheeks and she closed her eyes, relishing the feeling that was overcoming her. She felt peaceful again, as if she had finally found the place where she belonged.

"Fuyukaze," she whispered, the name suddenly forming in her mind. At the same moment, the vision distorted as the world around her heaved violently. She whimpered softly as tendrils of fog began to crawl up the man's legs and her own, trying to pull her out of the world that had become very real to her. "No," she mumbled, her voice vibrating with panic as she tried to pull her legs free, but couldn't. "Fuyukaze!" She shouted, her eyes shutting and tears spilling down her cheeks.

"It's alright, Sayomi-sama, I'm right here. Open your eyes."

With the voice came a sense of weightlessness and Sayomi opened her eyes to see that Fuyukaze stood before her, completely unharmed and untouched by the fog that was swirling around him. He reached out to her and carefully pulled her free of the fog that was attempting to pull her back into the part of her mind that had fallen prey to Aizen's will. All she could do was stare at the man as he gathered her into his arms and smiled warmly down at her.

"It's rude to stare, you know," he told her with a chuckle.

Blinking rapidly, Sayomi looked away and noticed that they were still standing in the sky above the mountain range, but what she had at first thought was a peaceful and tranquil mountain range was nothing of the sort. The howls and screams of the wind that were ripping through the area below them were so loud that she didn't know how she hadn't noticed them sooner.

"What's going on," she asked in confusion, watching as winds, full of tiny, but sharp fragments of ice and snow whipped through the mountains at incredible speeds, tearing rocks from their places in some cases and hurtling them through the air to smash into others that tumbled down the faces of the mountains.

"The winds have been trying to get their master's attention, but it has been hard for them to make themselves heard. They were being forced to obey the will of someone that was not their master and so they grew destructive, hoping to destroy the one that was keeping them from her."

"Obey the will of someone else." Her eyebrows knit together as she continued to watch the dizzying blizzards. "They must really have missed their master."

"They have, but I think they will be quieting soon, don't you?"

She looked up at Fuyukaze and there was a moment that she was unsure of what to say as she gazed into the man's deep blue eyes, but then she smiled and nodded. "Yes, I think they will."

"Sayomi-hime?" Fuyukaze asked worriedly as the petite woman's eyes grew briefly unfocused and she paled drastically.

"I..I feel..." She began to say, her breathing becoming forced and shallow as her eyes closed in hopes that the way the world had abruptly began to swirl and twist would stop when she did.

Instead the feeling intensified and she felt as if she were being pulled in several directions at once. She could hear Fuyukaze's voice calling out to her, trying to keep her with him, but it was beginning to fade away.

"Sayomi!"

She sucked in a large breath, her eyes opening at the sound of her name and she could see a face hovering above her. Her vision cleared and she was able to see that the person above her wasn't the same as the one who had been holding her just a few seconds before, but the frowning face of her brother.

"Gin?"

"It's about time ya woke up, ya had me worried, sleepy head," he said, ruffling her hair playfully as he grinned at her.

"Ah," she gasped, her eyes growing wide the air was knocked from her lungs and she felt as if she were being crushed from all sides. Her hands grasped at the fabric of her shirt in a useless attempt to alleviate the pressure.

Gin watched her, but did nothing to help her even though it would have been easy enough for him to use his own spiritual pressure to combat the ones that were pressing down upon her. Helping her would be counter productive, if he helped her then how would she realize that she was no longer restricted from using her powers in Los Noches, after all.

The pain of feeling as if she were being stepped on like she was nothing but a tiny ant, was almost unbearable, but there was a cool breeze that pushed the pain aside and with a deep breath made the pressure disappear. Opening her eyes, Sayomi looked at Gin, puzzled by the fact that she had been able to use her own reiatsu when she was aware that they were in Los Noches.

"Thought it might be a good idea for ya to be able use your soul power while here, ya know, just in case," Gin explained with a proud grin and a shrug.

"The reiatsu just now that was Ichigo's," she said, not understanding how someone she had seen die could possibly be unleashing such an insane amount of energy. The mixture of feelings and sensations was almost too much for her to handle. Her body was fighting with itself, trying to decide what to believe. Her senses or the voices that were telling her that Ichigo and the others were dead, accompanied by flashes of each of their deaths.

"And Ulquiorra's, the two are fightin' above the dome. It ain't a very pretty scene to be honest," he replied, scratching at his cheek with his index finger.

"Ichigo...he's losing control of his inner hollow."

"Yup. Ulquiorra's pushed him to his limit. Your Quincy friend is tryin' to help, but it doesn't seem to be going to well for 'im."

"But...they're dead," she said shakily, her breaths growing erratic and her body trembling.

"They're not dead, Sayomi," Gin informed her.

Her head felt as if someone where trying to crack it open, the pressure was immense and she didn't know what to believe. All she could do was sit on the bed and rock herself until she stopped abruptly, her head cocking to the side and her eyes growing distant. A low growl rumbled out of her throat before she leapt out of the bed, grabbing Fuyukaze as she went and flash out of the room.

Gin sighed, scratching at his cheek as he stared at the now empty bed. "Well that wasn't very effective, now was it?"

She had no idea how much time had passed since the she had first stepped foot in Karakura Town with Aizen, but somehow she didn't think it was very much. From what she could tell, Byakuya hadn't moved far from where she had last seen him and he was having his wounds healed. It was what wounds he was having healed that she was uncertain of. She remembered seeing him slice through the tendons and muscles of his own arm and leg, but she also remembered that Gin had speared him with his own zanpakuto earlier. A part of her knew that what she had seen while in the dungeon was not real, but just an illusion that Aizen had wanted her to see. But that didn't make it any easier to ignore the rage that she felt towards him even though she knew that the emotion was forced upon her and was nothing but a fake.

'If you calm down, little hime, and focus you just might be able to figure out what is real and what isn't. I know that doesn't sound easy and I know that everything is very confusing, but you shouldn't do anything rash.'

'He betrayed me.'

'He did, but not the way that Aizen wants you to think.'

'I know that Fuyukaze. I know that and I still can't stop myself.' She came to halt in the sandy dunes that surrounded the tower that Aaroneiro had claimed for his home. There were bits and pieces of the fallen tower scattered throughout the landscape and there was even still ice clinging to some of them. Her eyes roamed over everything until they came to rest upon the man she had been searching for. He stood atop a small dune, looking down at her with steely gray eyes that narrowed ever so slightly when he caught sight of the look in her eyes.

"So what Aizen said is true then," he inquired blandly. "I'm surprised that you would let yourself be controlled so easily, Sayomi. Especially by the likes of a traitor like Aizen. I didn't think you were that weak."

"Just shut up, Byakuya," she seethed. "I know I'm weak and that I've let myself be controlled, but unfortunately there isn't anything I can do about it now. I suggest you draw your sword, I can't hold back the hate that I feel towards you for trying to kill me much longer."

"Trying to kill you," he repeated, a thin black brow arching upwards.

"An illusion, but a very real one and one that I'm having a very hard time disbelieving." Sayomi took a firm hold of Fuyukaze's hilt in her right hand, holding the sheath in her left as she prepared to draw the katana from its holder.

"Your hands are shaking, are you sure you want to fight in that condition. You will lose."

"Stop acting so high and mighty, Byakuya and fight me!" Pulling Fuyukaze from his sheath, Sayomi launched herself into the air at Byakuya. She wasn't at all surprised when the nobleman calmly blocked her blow without a single emotion present on his face.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura."

Sayomi smirked, but jumped backwards as Byakuya's blade broke into hundreds of pink pieces that floated on the air as if they were nothing more than harmless cherry blossom petals. With a graceful flick of her wrist and a quick spin of her katana, the pink blades that flew at her were knocked away by an unseen wind.

"It seems you really have gotten weak, Sayomi, you used to be able to block them all," Byakuya said casually, his eyes on her left side.

"What," she questioned, looking down to see that her sleeve was tattered and almost completely gone. Her arm was covered in scratches and even her side had several that were leaking little streams of blood, staining her white kimono. "Impossible, how," she muttered.

"Is it really that hard to understand? You're distracted, you're not only fighting me, you're fighting yourself and you appear to be losing. Otherwise, you might actually be able to fully control your own powers."

'He's right, hime, you need to decide what you believe before you get yourself killed or fall into the darkness that Aizen has created for you,' Fuyukaze spoke up.

'What do I believe?' She thought, staring at her trembling hands blankly and trying to sift through what she knew to be real and what she knew to be fake. It was easier said then done, after all perfect hypnosis, is perfect.

"Ban-kai," she mumbled, letting Fuyukaze slip out of her grasp, the blade slowly spinning until the tip touched the sand. "Fuyukaze, Ruler of the Frozen Lands."

There was an explosion of reiatsu and gale force winds, snowflakes joined the mix as the temperature plummeted and icy tendrils began to creep their way over the sand.

"I will show you what I believe," Sayomi stated coldly as the winds around her died down and her blue eyes that were now lined by frost covered lashes looked icily up at Byakuya. "That anyone who betrays me, should die!"

"Have it your way then. Ban-kai, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."

Meh. This didn't come out quite the way I had planned. I was wanting it to be a little more emotional and such, but I was having issues. Not to mention I wanted to write better fight scenes, but I had issues with that too. Well, depending on how it goes, there may only be two chapters left to The Night Beauty. Then again, there was supposed to be a bit more to this chapter, but if I kept it going then it's highly likely that there would only have been one chapter left after this.

Anywho. Thanks go out to.... shinoluver, cheeky half-demon, gagboy, creativelyspacey, XxXLIFEafterDEATHXxX, KizunaCho, sun-sun kat, sweetpinkcaramel, EvilBoyzR2Cute, Tobi-luvs-itachi, BleedmetoINSANITY, PokeMariah, momoirotan, and Uzumaki Saya, for all reviewing the last chapter. I appreciate it very much!

Please review!