Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or it's respective characters. This storyline and all O.C.s were created by yours truly.

_POV change

— forward or backward in time

"Speech"

'Thought'

"Mechanical speech"

"Hollowfied/other speech"

'Hollowfied/other thought'

—

Fractured Tales,

Book one

The Chronos Protocol

By Bleachfan16

Chapter 2:

Hueco Mundo, 2034

Uryū panted heavily as he ran through one of the halls of Los Noches, cursing Mayuri's name. Even though the creepy soul reaper had healed him, he still felt worn out. Of course he wouldn't have been if Mayuri hadn't poisoned him in the first place.

A hollow went down in front of him, Uryū's arrow protruding from his head.'Stupid psychotic bastard, poisoning enemies and allies alike.' He thought as he dispatched another hollow with his bow. Uryū ducked behind a pillar as he nocked another arrow. Jumping out into the open in a rolling crouch, his eyes darted over his surroundings and he stretched out his senses looking for more enemies.

After a minute, seemingly satisfied that he was in no immediate danger, Uryū relaxed and allowed his arrow to dissipate. Leaning on a nearby wall he slid down to a sitting position to rest.

Uryū's eyes snapped open when he felt something tightening on his arm. He looked down to see three eyeless, inky, black snakes, coiling around his left arm. 'What the hell?' Uryū grabbed his seele from his waist and tried to stab at the creatures with it. Though the creatures had no visible eyes, they sensed him, and they easily shifted to avoid his attack.

Large mouths appeared and split into large Cheshire grins filled with many hollow-like teeth. 'Shit, Wraiths!'

Ishida cried out in pain as they bit down hard, breaking skin on his arm. He felt them begin feeding on his reiatsu.

Not for the first time, Uryū thought of that old saying that says you are your own worst enemy. While it is meant in an emotional or intellectual sense for most people, it is quite literal for Quincys. Unlike a Soul Reapers Zanpakutō, which cleanses a Hollowfied soul and allows it to move on to either Soul Society or Hell; the energy from a Quincy's bow destroys a hollow, ripping apart the soul it once was. The soul fragments they leave behind often turn into Wraiths; parasitic beings, with low intelligence, that are similar to hollows but with a more aggressive and animalistic hunting nature. Depending on how powerful the hollow was, it could actually produce multiple wraiths

upon its death.

Wraith typically infected and killed their victim over time, due to their small size. Most human doctors were unable to sense riatsu, hollows and the like, and so would chalk them up to mysterious illness. As a Quincy, Uryū had been infected twice before; once as a child while accompanying his grandfather, and once when slaying a hollow, as he was the closest soul for the wraiths to latch onto.

'What the hells going on? I shouldn't have to purge yet!'

He thought quickly to himself about what could be making these wraith develop so much faster than the ones before.

'It must be this place' he decided with a start. 'The very air here can sustain hollows, so why not wraiths? That must be it! The riatsu in the air is feeding them and making them grow!'

Uryū knew he had to act fast. Gathering riatsu from around him, he let it build under his skin, while avoiding the arm the wraiths were latched onto. Having fully enveloped the rest of his body, he redirected all of it to forcefully rush to the afflicted arm. 'Let's see you dodge this.'

The wraiths screeched as they were blasted back into the opposite wall. Drawing his bow, Ishida fired three bolts in quick succession and watched with satisfaction as the wraiths were skewered to the wall. They squirmed like worms on hooks for a few moments, before finally going limp and disintegrating into black particles that floated away on the wind. Breathing a sigh of relief, he leaned back against the wall for a moment then jerked his head up as he felt large spikes in riatsu coming from above him; one of them belonging to Kurosaki.

It looked like he was up against a strong opponent.

'He might need back up' he thought but then smirked. 'Knowing Ichigo he's just as likely to be happy for help as to tell me not to interfere.' Nodding to himself, Uryū decided he should go try to help anyway. "Hold on Ichigo, I'm on my way" he said aloud and ran towards the large spikes in riatsu.

In the shadows of the pillar Uryū had just vacated, four more wraiths slithered out and in the opposite direction from Uryū. Wraiths intelligence less than humans, but even animals knew when to run away.

Unmei no sekai, 2016

To say that Ko was a little irritated would be an understatement. No sooner had he lost Hokori, thanks in part to Ikari-chan, than he ran into a new problem in the form of his fathers treasury guards. He belatedly recalled how his advisors had gone on and on about expanding the treasury, during one of those boring meetings he had recently been forced to attend for his "Royal training". He hadn't seen any point in paying attention to a bunch of old geezers droning on about architecture then, but now he really wished he had; maybe then he'd know when and where the expansions would take place, and he wouldn't be in this situation.

'Geez, all I wanted to do was play hooky for the day, and now this. Is one day to myself too much to ask?'

In truth, all he had to do was just stop and let them see who he was, and they would release him…right back to Hokori's care, then back to his chambers. And of course his father would assign extra guards to him to make sure he actually went to his lessons, without straying away; so that idea was out. His only option was to get away from these guys so he could go back to doing what he wanted with his day.

'It couldn't get any worse right now' he thought before turning the corner and running into a dead end. "Oh come on! I didn't even say that out loud!" he griped to whatever fate had cursed him.

"Maybe if I hurry, I can double back to that last fork in the hall, before the guards catch up!" Ko turned to go, but the sound of heavy footfalls told him it was already too late. Resigning himself to another boring day of lessons, Ko leaned back against the wall and slid down into a sitting position, to wait for the guards. He let out a sigh of frustration

'Well, guess it was fun while it lasted." He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall, not registering the soft click as he did so.

Silently and smoothly the wall behind him rotated one hundred and eighty degrees along with the floor beneath him, leaving an identical empty section of wall where the the young prince had just been.

The footfalls of the guards grew louder and they turned the corner a few moments later to find the space empty. The first one was chubby but obviously muscled, and was easily seven feet tall. His face held a cheesy grin that quickly turned to a look of great confusion. The other was short and skinny with a sour look on his face as if he had just sucked a lemon dry. He came up to about the big ones elbow.

"Huh?" Said the big one scratching his head "I was sure I saw them go this way." The small one clenched his fists and snarled, then jumped up, very high for someone his size, and proceeded to slap the first guard hard across the back of his head; making him squat and hold the spot where he was hit.

" OW, THAT HURT! What did you do that for Oroka?"

"Dami, you DOLT! I told you he went the other way. Come on" he said running back the way they came. "Let's double back. I know a short cut that should let us get ahead of the guy, and cut off his escape."

Dami stood up and looked at the empty wall once more frowning. "I was sure I saw him come this way." He repeated. He turned then, snapping out of his reverie, as he heard Oroka call for him to hurry up. "Oh yeah! Hang on I'm coming!" Dami thundered off after him.

The thundering footsteps on the other side of the wall behind him faded into the distance as Ko sat there in surprise. After a few moments, his shocked expression gave way to a giant grin.

"I don't know how that just happened, and I don't care. My day is back on track!" Ko jumped up and down whooping with joy at his victory.

Lights flared to life above him, and Ko immediately dropped to a crouch, eyes wide and hands over his mouth. A few moments passed and when Ko heard no blaring alarms, or thundering footfalls, signaling the arrival of more guards, he relaxed.

Ko slowly stood up and took in his surroundings. He found himself in an empty white room with only a single door on the other side of the room. A quick inspection of the wall behind him revealed no clues as to how to activate it once more, so that was out. "The only way out is through I guess" he muttered to himself.

Turning back to the door, he approached it slowly, wondering how to open it; as it had no obvious handles or keyholes to speak of.

"Open sesame" he tried half smirking to himself. He didn't expect it to do anything, so he was a bit surprised when a feminine mechanical voice emanated from above the door.

"Request received. Please stand by. Scanning." A blue cone of light shot down from the ceiling to envelop him, turning green after a few moments and fading with a ding. The voice returned. "Facial recognition confirmed, Reiatsu signature confirmed, ID match." The door slid open with a hiss. "Welcome Prince Ko."

"Hidden entrances, and security checks? Damn I must be in a restricted area. That would explain why the guards were so hell bent on catching me."

Ko snapped out of his musings when the voice returned "Warning! Door closing."

Ko passed through the door quickly. He was momentarily surrounded by darkness as the door slid closed behind him, but then had to shield his eyes against the blinding light that flared to life from all around.

As his eyes adjusted, he found himself in an enormous multi-story hall that stretched as far as his eyes could see; and it was absolutely filled with doors on every level. Some were small enough you would have to stoop to enter, while others were large enough to accommodate a C-130. Although, how they would get the aircraft in the hall let alone up ten flights was beyond him.

Looking around, he picked a door at random and opened it; and found himself staring at a goose the size of a horse. It raised it head to look at him then honked loudly and charged. Ko quickly slammed the door shut . He proceeded to the next door, and opened it to find dozens of squids swimming through the room. Ko jumped back in alarm, but the water didn't rush out the door like he expected. It seemed as if it was content to stay right where it was, and just throw a big middle finger to the laws of physics. He edged closer, shutting the door and moving on. He passed room after room of oddities. A room full of chocolate covered horseradish's here. A room full of tiny clothes there. Winged shoes here , cats there , armor, cats armor, armored cats, cats tap dancing.

'…someone has an unhealthy obsession with cats' he noted as he sweat-dropped nervously.

The strangest room so far though, was a few doors down. Ko opened the door and just stared. There was an entire suburban neighborhood, straight out of a fifties American film; except Ko was pretty sure they weren't filled with sharks mowing lawns. One of them saw him watching and stopped to wave before continuing on. Ko sweat-dropped and waved back, before slowly closing the door.

"…what kind of treasury is this?"

"This vault holds treasures of time rather than riches" came a voice from beside him

"How are lawn mowing sharks treasures of time?"

The voice sighed heavily. "It's a long story, don't ask."

He was still curious, but Ko relented for now. "Hmm, ill take your word for it I guess."

Ko yelped and jumped back as he finally realized someone was next to him; or rather some…ball!? There was literally a beach ball floating next to him smiling; Yes smiling, it had a face.

Ko smirked nervously"…umm, were you just talking to me?"

The ball turned to face him. "Yep, I was, that I was."

Ko eyes went wide"AHH! Who are you!? How are you talking?"

"Ah, hey no need to be scared. I'm not a bad ball, boing!" The ball giggled to himself as if at some private joke. "Allow me to introduce myself. My designation is B011G253E, but you can call me Tama!" Tama said cheerfully.

Ko thought for a moment "…Hey Tama?"

"Yes?"

"Your name is Tama?"

"Uh huh"

"Which means ball?"

"It does"

"You're a beach ball?"

"That's right" Tama smiled

"Whose name means ball?"

"Yep"

"You don't think that's a little too on the nose?"

Tama frowned "I don't have a nose"

Ko scrunched up his face in frustration "No that's not what I…never mind." Ko sighed and looked around at all the doors once more "So, Tama, you said this place holds treasures of time right? Is this part of the treasury then?"

"Ahh! Well yes and no. While we are housed in the same area, this place is a separate entity into itself. Our treasures are of a much sensitive nature"

"So what exactly is this place then? Do you live here?"

Tama beamed "Oh me? I work and live here too. It's sort of a live in job type of thing." He explained. "As for what this place is…" Tama paused for dramatic effect. "Welcome, to the Vault of Time! I am your friendly Time Vault facilitator"

"Facilitator?"

"Yeah you know, managing records, housing, operations, directing guests, ejecting intruders, decoration, cleaning, cooking, origami; you name it, I do it! We proudly contain over one million aberrations here!" He stated

"Wow, that sounds like a lot." Ko said "where's the rest of you team?"

"Oh there isn't a team it's just me."

Ko blanched at that "What? All by yourself?"

"That's right. I do it all!" Tama beamed

"For how long?"

Tama peered thoughtfully into space. "Hmm, well you know I haven't really thought about it, but if I had to guess. I'd say…about five hundred years, give or take a decade."

"Five hundred years by yourself? I know time runs differently for us than it does for humans but that's still a long time by yourself! Isn't that lonely?"

"Oh well the king comes by every fifty years or so for inspection,so there's that."

"What about your friends?"

Tama looked down "Friends? Well I don't really have any, but I've heard they're nice."

"You don't have any friends?" Ko asked in disbelief

Tama looked a little crestfallen "No"

Ko looked thoughtful for a moment.

'No friends?' he looked back at Tama and nodded determinedly. He stood with one hand on his hip and the other pointed right at Tama. "Yes you do. From today on I, Prince Ko, will be your friend!" He yelled triumphantly.

Tama's eyes lit up and he began talking really fast. "Really? Y-you mean it? Would you come and visit me everyday? We could play games? Tell stories?"

"Hey now easy. I can't come everyday, I have to show up to lessons sometimes." Ko laughed "but I'll still come as often as I can."

"Hai that's okay. As long as you come visit often. Oh! I could even show you around if you want! There's lots of cool stuff." Tama was literally bouncing around with joy at this point.

"Cooler than lawn mowing sharks?" Ko laughed

"Way cooler! There's so much here, I could literally show you more than a dozen new things every day, and we'd still be looking for hundreds years!"

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Ko grinned

"C'mon I'll show you!" And with that Tama took off, bouncing away so fast that Ko would be hard pressed to keep up with him.

"Ahh! Hey Tama wait for me!" Ko exclaimed and gave chase.

A/N: Welcome back everyone, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. A little peek into the human world this chapter, with more to come. Tama is definitely a fun character to write, I had plenty of laughs when coming up with him. Did any of you catch the Easter eggs? Let me know if you found any in the comments. Please rate and review, and be sure to favorite and follow if you like it, to make sure you don't miss upcoming chapters. With all that being said dear readers, I'll see you in the next chapter. Read on y'all.