(A/N) Sorry, late, but slit my finger open, had to triage it for a couple days because I am NOT going to a medical place right now, and had to arrange for an additional 30 days of quarantine. Insanity rules the world. I'll work on it.

Soundtrack for the chapter is Family Band- Night Song followed by Mikki Echo- Smile

Chapter 22

He didn't know what had woken him up. He felt like he had been just floating in the dark for years, decades even. Everything hurt. At least when he had been surrounded by the comforting darkness, he hadn't hurt like this. Not that the abyss had been empty, quite the opposite in fact. He had been able to see her in his mind's eye, his Ippin. He could hear her laugh and see the smile that dimpled on one side. He could feel her warm press against him and her whisper of "Aisare shi-sha"- beloved.

But even in the void, even in his mind where he still felt that he could protect her, he was unable to stop her whispered words from turning into a desperate scream as he had pushed her alone through that senkaimon. The amber in her eyes had risen to a frightened glow. Her blue hair had billowed as if struck by the very waves they resembled. Her hands had reached for him, outstretched and begging.

He had wanted nothing more than to jump through with her and make sure that she landed in his arms on the other side, but he had had to protect the gate. Protect her.

Memories invaded as he remembered having to turn his back on the most precious thing in his long life to keep Ulquiorra from following her. She was protected in that guarded way, but he couldn't let the espada in. Ulquiorra came fast- fuck, he was fast- and hit like a freight train. He had hailed Zabimaru in bankai just in time to block fatal blows that were hit against him. Rukia was still barely pulling herself up as they clashed, emitting explosions that shook the very foundations of the earth. He remembered vaguely hearing buildings rumble and sirens going off as the effect of their battle was felt all over Karakura Town.

He didn't care about the crumbling buildings around them, he didn't notice the blood in his eyes, he didn't even feel the hits when they landed. All he could think about was keeping his back to the gate. He couldn't let him in. If Mara could just keep her power sealed, if none got out…

Ippin! I feel you…

Renji bolted up right with a start, eyes flying open to scan his surroundings. At least, that's he tried to do. No sooner had he jolted upright did he fall back to the bed with a groan. He noticed vaguely that he couldn't open one eye, but that realization was secondary to the pain in his core. Gritting his teeth, Renji raised up on one bandaged elbow and took in his surroundings as best he could.

He could tell it was daytime, although curtains had been lowered to dim the room, casting his surrounding in shadow. He recognized the room anyways. He had spent enough time there over the course of his career to know the appearance of the 6th squad barracks infirmary. He could see Zabimaru on a rest beside him, whole again. He noticed, as he began to reach for his sword, that even his arms were bandaged all the way down to over his hands.

"You are not supposed to be trying to move, Lieutenant Abarai," a deep voice said from across the room.

Renji stilled but let out only a grunt in response. Byakuya- why are you here?

"Captain Unohana said she doubted you would wake this week, or even next. Something seems to have stirred you early," Byakuya said, his affected tone not hiding the leading question in his voice.

Taking a deep breath, Renji carefully built his mask up. It wasn't that he completely distrusted Byakuya. They had worked together so long and knew that the captain would often deliberately arrange things so as to allow him to do what was right in the gray areas of the law. However, Byakuya exercised stringent control over everything in his life, including his subordinates. He had hollowed himself out so much in an attempt to carve out his own pain that it left him numb to the feelings of others. However, mostly, Renji wanted to protect his Ippin. Her vault, as she had labelled it, would only work for so long, and he knew that Soul Society would have something to say about it when she could no longer hide her secret. And Byakuya's response would always be in accordance with Soul Society.

Renji turned an expression back on Byakuya that was as devoid of emotion as his own. His bandaged head covering one eye did nothing to alleviate the weight he carried in his gaze now. His powerful presence was not lessened as he lay prostrate again on the bed. Byakuya feared he may have trained him too well when Renji answered, "It was most likely because you were skulking around my room…. Captain."

"I don't skulk," Byakuya replied in admonishment, "and you wouldn't have sensed me if I had. You may have improved, Lieutenant Abarai, but you still cannot match me."

Renji remained silent as he stared at the man who had been a paragon, a goal, for most of his lifetime. Byakuya could tell the silence wasn't in acquiescence to his statement, though. Renji simply wasn't dignifying him with a response.

"I believe what woke you is this new spiritual presence that we all feel, and currently it is still growing…" Byakuya said, striding purposefully toward the bed, hoping to see a shred of the old Renji that could confirm some of his thoughts. "Do you recognize it? It almost feels like the Whole you sent crashing into my garden… but she was powerless, yes? Barely a flutter over any soul wandering the Rukongai."

Good girl. Didn't open for anything… why are you opening now?

"Hm," Renji muttered thoughtfully, detesting the game of cat and mouse that seemed to always be at play amongst the ranked shinigami, "How long has this strange presence been going on then?

Perturbed by the lack of opening, Byakuya replied, "10 minutes- this time."

The bandage aided Renji in keeping his eyebrows from raising in question. "There have been other times then?"

"Only one, about 6 days ago, but it was very brief."

SIX DAYS! Then how long have I been out? She has got to be freaking out. I'm so sorry, Ippin!

Renji could feel his expression start to slip as he pictured Mara, scared an alone while he had been wasting away in a room so near, so he covered the worry with an expression of curiosity. "Six days? Then how long have I been in care?"

Byakuya's eyes narrowed as he tried to see what Renji was thinking before responding slowly, "Eight days, the first 4 of which were spent inside Captain Unohana's Minazuki."

Renji nodded slowly, having successfully schooled his features again. "Didn't realize I was in that bad of shape, damn Gentei Kaijo," he grumbled as he fought to adjust his position.

Realizing, he was getting nowhere in his leading questions, Byakuya changed tracks. "Indeed," he seemingly pondered out loud, "you are quite hurt. You have only been gone few short years, Lieutenant Abarai, surely you haven't lost all your skill. What did you face that could cause such injuries? Why would you need a Gentei Kaijo?"

"Espada," Renji replied tonelessly.

"Tch," Byakuya sniffed with disdain, "That should not have been a challenge now. All of the espada that Aizen created with the Hogyoku are gone." Almost all, Byakuya added mentally, a certain, unwelcome, blue-haired visitor popping into his mind but he did not mention that remaining espada at this time.

Renji narrowed his eyes at his captain. "I know Ulquiorra when I see him," he spat out in defiance, "Your sister was there to fight, too, ask her."

Byakuya couldn't help the shock that flashed across his face, rewarding Renji with the knowledge that Byakuya broke first in that small, undeclared battle of wills. "But…"

"That was my reaction at first as well, Captain," Renji stated lowly, taking pity on Byakuya and the underhanded shock that he had just given him, "but there was no mistaking. Don't worry, Rukia is fine. Inoue took over her healing… but she isn't coming back anytime soon, I don't believe."

Byakuya gave look filled with false disdain, as if he didn't care and this boring news wasn't enough to warrant his attention. But he did care. They both knew it.

"So," Byakuya led in, "You tossed a powerless Whole down my personal gate, opening it during a battle with a supposedly dead espada- putting Seireitei at risk, I might add- while fighting side my side with my estranged sister whom you can't stand. Seeing as how you have not mentioned it, I am assuming that said espada is still alive, and both you and Rukia survived this encounter, but you were badly injured enough to need to come through my gate for help."

"Yes," Renji said nonchalantly, closing his eyes to more closely feel the fluctuations of Mara's rietsu. He could practically feel Byakuya's right eye twitch with annoyance.

"And Ulquiorra Cifer just left?" Byakuya fought the growl in his voice.

Renji's visage didn't falter as he replayed the final moments of the battle in his head.

.

Rukia was down in a fresh pool of blood. Much to Renji's surprise she had also called on bankai, forming a vision of white. It would have taken his breath away, the power and the purity, if he hadn't had moving death attacking so close at hand. Blood showed up so well on white, however, and now she looked like the sick renderings of killer had taken on physical form.

Renji launched another attack, but he couldn't pull from his drained power anymore and it appeared there was no one even listening to his petition for a gentei kaijo. He was running on empty when he hadn't even started on full. He glanced quickly at the gate behind him. It was still there, still vulnerable. He swore if it was his last act, he would hurl his own dead body through that gate to close it so that she could be safe.

It appeared that death was imminent and approaching swiftly. Ulquiorra moved like lightening as he dove under Renji's feeble strike, breaking the bone shards of Zabimaru with but a flick of his wrist. Renji stepped back, lining himself up with the entrance of the senkaimon as he braced for the surely fatal blow. He didn't want to leave the real world to this monster, so he had held off. He had fought with everything he had, but he just couldn't do it, especially not when Soul Society hog tied his powers. He could do no more, and so waited with a cold and fearless look for death to make his last act worthwhile.

But the blow never came.

A shield of amber light had formed between the dueling men, as big as a building, as a gentle voice whispered "Shoten Kesshun, I reject." Inoue Orihime had calmly walked into the destruction like an angel, hair floating on the streams of power that lingered in the air.

Ulquiorra had frozen his strike before hitting the shield, almost comically recoiling from his own momentum to stand on his side of the barrier. His dead eyes watched the woman approach, unreadable. Renji leaned, hands on his knees as he fought to stay conscious, blearily taking in Orihime's approaching figured coming onto his side of the shield, facing Ulquiorra.

She said nothing, just staring at the espada until he lowered his eyes in acquiescence. Renji watched in shock as he placed his hand against the barrier, raising tortured eyes up to the auburn-haired woman in front of him.

Slowly, Orihime raised her hand to lay against his on the other side. "All I asked you for was no more killing. You promised, when I gave you that heart… that piece of my own," she said in just above a whisper, "You promised."

"They are not dead, Woman," Ulquiorra replied lowly, "but I cannot stop what will be coming. I can make no more promises."

Renji watched as Orihime didn't move a muscle except to move her fingers through her own barrier to intertwine with the hollow's. Ulquiorra gasped, but his eyes fluttered closed as his face took on an expression that Renji had never seen before. Contentment. Completeness.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at Orihime with a sadness that made Renji's heart clench and his breath come in racked sobs. Reaching up, Ulquiorra turned his head away as he plucked out his own eye and crushed it within his fist. He did not look back as he disentangled his hand and snapped to summon a garganta. "I make no promises, but they will not see you through me."

Ulquiorra didn't look back as he stepped through the garganta, nor as it shut behind him, but Renji knew he heard the whisper. "Goodbye, my Heart".

Renji turned confused eyes to Orihime as she watched the garganta close. He noticed a single thin tear track down the middle of her cheek, an echo of the espada whom she had just defeated with a look, as she dropped her shield and turned back to him. "We need to heal you," she said decisively.

"No," Renji said with a guttural groan, "Heal Rukia, she is worse. I have to go after Mara."

"But Renji-kun," Orihime tried to argue, but Renji cut her off as he turned and held on to the senkaimon gate.

Renji looked hard at Orihime. "Save Rukia. I have to go."

Swallowing her emotion, even the worry in her eyes, Orihime nodded at Renji. He nodded back as he pushed off the gate and fell through the tunnel there, carried by the Hell's Butterfly. He knew she understood. He wouldn't tell a soul.

.

"Yup," Renji replied dryly, "He just left."

Byakuya didn't believe a damn word of it. Even if the espada had left, why battle for nothing? Arrancar didn't come to the real world without a significant draw. And why send the girl through the senkaimon when she wasn't under any threat at that spiritual level from an Espada? "His leaving had nothing to do with girl you sent through the gate? Or with the spiritual pressure that we are now feeling? This didn't start until she arrived and you came back."

Renji didn't reply, instead still just feeling as the tugging insistent waves of Mara's rietsu sent chills through his blood and left goosebumbs on his skin.

"You seem rather unconcerned about the growing spiritual presence here, Lieutenant Abarai, when it seems as if it may be connected to the girl you sent through my gate," Byakuya said lowly. If you hadn't known him as well as Renji, you may say he sounded tired, but Renji could tell when frustration was beginning to form around his clipped words.

Renji looked back at his captain, emoting a look of confusion. "It seems like the possible association to Mara would be an easy one to answer. I assume since she landed in your garden and became your responsibility, that you are caring for her. Ask her," Renji said simply.

"I can't," Byakuya grumbled, nearly petulant, "She is under Captain Hisagi's protection."

Renji's sharp gaze flew over to the brooding captain in surprise. "What do you mean? Why is she not here? I sent her through YOUR gate," he ground out through gritted teeth, his own rietsu beginning to infinitesimally leak out.

Byakuya stoically noted the rise in his lieutenant, feeling the unknown rietsu rise in violent peaks as well. Were they linked somehow? It donned on him that what Captain Kyoraku had said in the meeting may have been accidentally prophetic. Perhaps Renji's ties to the girl were not just of a soul reaper and a Whole. Perhaps they had nothing to do with her apparent lack of power. Could this new, cold lieutenant have feelings for the girl. It would explain much, and gave Byakuya the opening he had been waiting for.

"Oh yes, you had not arrived yet. Apparently, Captain Hisagi was quite taken with this Mara. He was the only one able to calm her incoherent babbling. He pulled her to his unit to recover after declaring a love at first sight, comparing the girl to… Hisana." Though he stumbled over her name, Byakuya delivered the heart-rending news with all the fervor of delivering a weather report. He watched Renji's face carefully for any change. While his expression was set in stone, the lieutenant's eyes were awash in emotion, quickly flicking through anger, pain, disbelief, horror, sadness, and back again.

"After being told she would need to be questioned, Captain Hisagi declared he would do anything to protect the woman he loved," Byakuya pressed "to point that they are now betrothed."

Byakuya watched as Renji's stoic façade began to shatter. "You cant believe that love occurs like that! You just bowed to the whim of…" Renji's voice began to slip away as he thought of his old friend. Hisagi… Hisagi didn't do anything without reason. Hisagi wouldn't stop to make something right. And Hisagi…

"Believe… I have lived that feeling, Lieutenant Abarai, so I surely could believe that. The question seems to come in the choice of where this love has fallen. Should I not believe Captain Hisagi?" he asked seriously.

Renji felt like he was suspended in a trap designed to break him. Not only did his heart feel in tatters but Byakuya had managed to trap him. Again. He wanted to scream and yell and say that it had to be fake. He wanted to rail against a system that had so easily taken Mara from him. He wanted to shout at the unflappable man in front of him for releasing his precious Ippin to this politicized and uncaring world to be scooped up by the first lackey that wanted to, but he couldn't because he knew Hisagi. He KNEW him.

"Hisagi doesn't lie," he managed to reply in a voice laced with incalculable pain.

The admission broke him.

Byakuya watched with worried eyes as Renji smoothed over the broken features re-assuming his mask. It was impossible to guess his thought with it in place again, and he watched, wondering what this could mean for the future, as the light in Renji's eyes extinguished.

Seemingly in response, Mara's rogue spiritual pressure went eerily silent, leaving Renji utterly alone to his thoughts and his heartbreak.

What good will finding her do now? He emptily questioned himself. I lost her within minutes. Before the battle was even done. Nothing will ever fucking change will it? Ippin...

Byakuya rose and silently left the room, leaving Renji to himself. They both knew that Renji would resume his duties, probably in a matter of days. They didn't to say anything more to each other. Things would be so normal, but they never would be normal.

Renji stared with a disconcerting emptiness into the dark of the room. He knew that Hisagi would win her over. How could he not? He couldn't be angry with his friend for loving Mara at. He would have to respect Mara's choice. He would have to let her go and slip into his old role like nothing had changed. But for her to be alive, it was still worth it. He just had to learn to keep his distance and let her live on her own. He knew he destroyed everything he touched, he couldn't bring that to her. He had to stay away.

But can I?