Chapter 23

Rise of the Voidwalker

"Zahhak?" Ichigo asked. "The same Zahhak that Kaveh spoke of?"

Senna's father chuckled, looking down and covering his face as best as he could. He knew that they were clueless about the events surrounding them, but as he went to speak, he held his tongue. Maybe it was better this way, they would need his knowledge if they were to stand a chance, and he could finally seize his moment. He would not let this unique opportunity pass him by without ensuring he would benefit. There was much that they did not know.

"The very same. Though, the one you know of could be quite different from the one I know of..."

"What are you talking about father?" Senna asked. "Kaveh is helping us defeat Aizen and your plans. You're done."

"Oh, I sincerely doubt I'm out of this game quite yet..." Senna's father replied. "Though, I have to agree that talk is pointless right now. Come daughter, let us see what you are truly capable of."

Senna's father threw off his ragged robes revealing a grotesque form, long arms and legs that bent backwards, both ending in sharpened claws. His limbs grew with a sickening crack as his face contorted and twisted into a pale comparison of what it once was. Erupting from his skin, exposed bones, was a mass of snake like tentacles. He writhed on the ground and began lumbering toward the duo with a chaotic an unnatural fervor. Ichigo jumped in between him and Senna knowing that her strength was at a distance. Senna's father turned to face him and raised an elongated, clawed hand, and as is possessed by a rabid hunger slashed at him.

"What the fuck?!" Ichigo shouted, unprepared for the force behind his strikes.

"Indeed, Zahhak has blessed us all!" Senna's father spoke with a dual toned voice. "Come, join me! Together we shall become whole!"

Ichigo leapt between a stunned Senna and an incoming tentacle, blocking it with Zangetsu. The force of the strike reverberated through his body, sending a cold shiver down his spine. Ichigo pushed back, and quickly turned to grab Senna and leap safely away.

Senna was fixated on her father. Twisted into a being that was far worse than she could ever imagine, she steeled herself when she felt Ichigo grab her shoulders and move into her vision. His amber eyes focussed on her pale-yellow ones with a protective, yet gentle intensity. She felt herself relaxing in his grip and allowing herself to get lost in his eyes. He felt himself growing more comfortable with her, her eyes alone enthralled him, and he completely forgot about their situation.

"Senna, come on, we have to fight. I know it's going to be difficult, but-"

Red splashed in her face, and when she looked down a tentacle had pierced Ichigo's shoulder. Senna felt concern and anger wash over her as she drew her Quincy bow and severed the tentacle. Ichigo fell forward, covering his wound and grimacing in pain. While she knew that he was by no means out if the fight, the thought of him in any kind of pain bothered her. Her own protective instinct kicked in and any fear she had of her father vanished. Finally, able to separate the feelings from her ability, she acted as she had with Nanashi, and began loosing bolt after bolt.

"Ah... the little one has teeth!" A deep, rumbling voice taunted. "No matter, a Quincy could prove to be a-"

Senna wasted no time in readying another shot and loosing it toward her "father". The mass of snake like appendages shifted wildly yet was organized enough to move cohesively. It moved clear of the bolt only to be met with another one severing a tentacle. Ichigo has turned to face him now, and together they fought. Similar to the one another, they balanced each other's abilities out. Senna corralled him in one central location, while Ichigo dealt with the mass of tentacles, looking for any opening to strike. They pulled back, realizing that they were getting nowhere, and Senna thought about their plan to deal with Nanghait.

"Ichigo, Quick!" Senna exclaimed. "Distract him while I get this ready!"

"Get what ready?!" Ichigo asked, swinging his sword to deflect more tentacles.

"Just do it!"

Sighing, Ichigo jumped back into the fray, his shoulder had stopped bleeding, but the throbbing pain echoed through his body. Like being repeatedly hit with baseball bat, he avoided using his dominant hand to avoid the pain. Senna had a plan of sorts, so he would have to try his best, yet while they fought a cold feeling assaulted him. As he narrowly dodged the erratic movement of the tentacles, Ichigo began to slow. Senna was silent, and largely out of view, yet she was present enough to feel. Ichigo severed limb after limb, yet they kept on coming as if they existed without an end. He pressed on, shifting his focus from outright combat, to evading the mass of chaos that assaulted him. He just needed to buy her time to do whatever it was she was going to do. Short of asking her and giving it away, he looked around to try and find her. When she made herself seen, Ichigo saw her laying down a small silver cylinder into the ground, seemingly at random. Remembering a certain other Quincy, he knew what the plan was.

"Clever girl..."

Ichigo backed off his assault even more deciding that it was time to draw this creature into a false sense of security, slowing his own defence to block in time while giving the illusion that he was beginning to falter. He allowed it to get close to striking him again in the hopes that it would follow through and make a mistake where he could show him that he was still very much in this fight still. Despite his intentions Ichigo knew that one false step could spell his doom and ultimately Senna's as well. They were human after all, and while they had a power beyond that of a normal human, they retained their mortality. Moving slower allowed him to conserve some energy as well, which he could then use if needed to finish off this creature. Senna had told him much about this man, nothing so explicit had stayed in the forefront of his mind more so than the sick pleasure he took from torturing her. Even though he was not witness to these events, seeing how he spoke to her and her reaction confirmed all he needed to know about this monster.

Monster. That was the best description of this man. He took and took until there was nothing left, and then moved onto the next unwitting person with no regard for anything other than his next victim. The very thought of Senna being subject to this creature sickened Ichigo, and as his normal self he blamed himself for not being there for her, taking on the responsibility of protector even though they'd never even known about each other while it happened. Ichigo let those feelings, those thoughts push him forward even as

He caught Senna out of the corner of his eye laying down what he counted as the fifth and final one of the cylinders and backed off even more.

"Father!" Senna spoke. "You don't know the kind of shit you put me through as a child. Your 'lessons' as you called them scarred me in ways you can never imagine. But this ends here."

Senna raised her hand revealing an ignited Seele Schnider. She pointed it toward the ground and thrust it into the final spot. Ichigo leapt away knowing what was about to happen. Senna pulled out a small silver capsule and opened it. Pouring it onto the Seele Schnider and a pale blue tether grabbed hold of Senna's father, holding him on place. All he could do was struggle against his bonds while the inevitable eruption destroyed him.

"This ends here. Sprenger."

Pale blue light erupted from the five Seele Schnider and cascaded toward the creature. Senna shielded her eyes as the final explosion of reishi engulfed him. The echoing scream soon faded as the booming sound of the explosion blocked any other sounds. Fully closing their eyes now, they waited for the reishi to subside and slowly it did. When it finally finished, the body of Senna's father was gone, nothing remained save for a charred black tentacle. Ichigo rushed over to Senna and before he could check on her, the wall next to them began rumbling. A uniquely different, yet familiar cold feeling began flowing past them, and then soon felt the cave begin the shake around them.

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Nanashi lay on his back yet again, battered by Nanghait, and nearly broken by that last attack. Nothing was working, and they were running out of time. He rose, and looked to Rukia, whose shihakusho was torn, and missing a sleeve. He felt himself loosing hope that they would be able to win here, and while facing his end was something, he was okay with, facing her end was something he could not bear. He felt a surging power begin to take hold of him, yet dissimilar to the cool Void power he had felt. This was empty, hollow, and at the same time, cold. Far colder than the void yet comforting in its entirety.

"Nanashi." Came a familiar voice. "I finally got through to you... it's about time."

"Who are you? Why are you so clear now?" Nanashi asked.

The voice paused, yet Nanashi felt himself building up power as the silence grew.

"You care for the woman? I knew you would. You always have, ever since you met." The voice replied.

Nanashi lunged toward Nanghait, his sword met his mass of tentacles again and again. Exchanging blows was frivolous, and he knew that expelling this amount of energy was very well useless, but the thought of giving up was unacceptable. He would be condemning Rukia to a long and painful death which was something that he refused to allow while he was alive. He would throw himself in front of Byakuya's bankai before that happened.

"I don't have time to explain, just trust me when I say you are on an extremely dangerous path. Take this power, your true power, and be done with this vile creature. When we speak again, I will reveal all. Good luck."

Nanashi felt himself being lifted, and a dark blue and black aura erupted from him. He looked down at the Zulfikar, and the aura began swirling around the blade. He returned to the ground, and as the aura faded, Nanashi erupted toward Nanghait. Moving its tentacles, Nanghait tried to block him, but felt its limbs being severed. While it did not experience pain, it did feel the fear that accompanied death. Nanashi tore into the limbs with an almost reckless abandon as he drew closer to the centre of the mass, where Nanghait's body rested. Nanashi thought if he could get to the centre, he would be able to end this fight, and his new power guided him as such. He finally allowed himself to be lost in the fury and almost erotic nature of combat, giving in to his most basic desires and freeing them without regard for himself or anyone around him. His power caused thoughts to play in his mind like an old tape, flashing in his mind for a second before moving onto something else as quickly as they appeared. He felt a pressure build behind his eyes as he sifted through the images for any semblance of sense when he focused on the final image of Rukia. She was looking at him, smiling softly while she held her stomach, while he held onto an infant.

"NOOOO!" Nanghait screeched as Nanashi carved his way closer. "You don't know what kind of power awaits you!"

With one final swing, dark blue and black aura erupted from him like a jagged, and chaotic flame. It crashed into Nanghait, destroying the wall behind him and evaporating his remaining tentacles until only half of his torso remained. As Nanashi returned to his feet, an odd feeling of serenity overtook him. Like returning home after a long trip away, the familiar feeling was a welcome one. He found himself lost in his thoughts about the voice, and his "real power" but for now, rejoiced that Nanghait was for all intents, dead. He could relax enough to deal with the issue of the images that carved themselves into his memory. Flashes of what seemed like a long-forgotten past, or maybe an alternate future. There was pain, sorrow, anger, yet also happiness. Something struck him in these images, when an image of Rukia flashed in his mind, it shone brighter than anything else he had seen before it, and yet there was a serene calmness about it. He was embracing her from his knees, his ear pressed up against her stomach as if...

"Nanashi?" Rukia's voice came, breaking his thoughts. "What the hell was that?"

"I... don't know."

"And what about that final image? Of you and me... holding a baby?"

"Wait, you saw that too?" Nanashi asked.

Rukia moved her hands to her stomach, quietly replying. "Yeah... almost as if..."

"HEY!" Senna's voice called out. "You guys okay?!"

"Yeah! Are you?!" Nanashi called back.

"Nanashhh..."

Nanashi turned back to face a pale, limp Rukia falling toward him. He caught her before she hit the ground, and he began fearing for her life and what could be happening to her. The warning from Kaveh played in his mind over and over and while her was panicking, the ground of the cave began to break away and collapse. Nanashi picked her up and tried to get away but the ground was giving way too quickly, and he fell deeper into the cave and into the darkened Void below.

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The dust settled, and Rukia was brought into a blinding light. Opening her eyes and squinting in discomfort she realized two things: One, she was floating in an area devoid of anything save for the blinding light, and two her shihakusho was torn. She looked around for any sign of Nanashi, and when she spotted him floating in the same pool face up, she breathed a sigh of relief. She examined herself for injuries and knew that she had a gash on her arm that would still be open thanks to Nanghait, and her eyes widened when the cut that was bleeding before they fell had healed. Rising to her feet, she trudged through the waist high water toward Nanashi's unconscious body relieved to see his chest rising and falling in a familiar rhythmic motion. He was alive, and that was enough for her. She did not want anything to happen to him, she could not lose him like...

Truthfully, she had not thought about him in a long time, and she still could not forgive herself for what she did. She saw a lot of him in Nanashi, from how he carried himself to his attitude. He could have even passed for him if it were not for his hair and eyes. She pulled him out of the water and onto the rocky floor of the cave and because her feet were wet, she slipped and fell onto her behind. The rock, unforgiving and cold, hurt to slip on, but the actions pulled Nanashi's head into her lap. She took a moment before leaning back into the wall and resting, closing her eyes and recalling the moment she ran her zanpakuto through him. It cleansed his soul but plagued her own. She knew it was the right thing to do, the humane thing, but it did not make that easier in any way.

Opening her eyes, she looked down to the man resting on her lap. She carefully moved a few errant strands of hair from his face and found herself tracing her hand down the side of his stubbled jaw.

"An enigma wrapped in a mystery..." Rukia thought.

His shihakusho had opened, revealing his chest and a certain scar that she had seen before. Careful not to disturb him, she pried the white undercoat aside, and traced a finger along the scar. The unusually soft skin was damaged by a special flame used to brand traitors, that much she knew, but to see the effects this close brought up feelings that she could not place. To know that this man had been a Shinigami previously, and an Orchid at that, was shocking. The Gotei 13 liked to not only control the Shinigami in the living world, but any lost ones were usually out down. So why was Nanashi different? Maybe he was on a secret Orochi mission that he could not talk about.

She delicately traced the circular scar with her fingers, and a completely different and new sensation washed over her. His normally cold presence warmed her, and she felt her cheeks flush ever so slightly. This single man had completely changed her view of the world in just a few short months. He had laid everything in the line for her without expecting anything in return, and as far as she had hoped, he cared for her. Going as far as to... The feelings of Aka Manah returned with renewed vengeance. She had used her form to sleep with Nanashi, and as far as Nanashi knew it was her. As hard as she tried, she could not shake the feeling that he was taking advantage of the moment.

Then she stopped and recalled his actions and her own thoughts. She realized that she cared for him before Aka Manah kidnapped her, but even she did not realize the extent of it. Given their promise, her situation, and everything surrounding it, maybe she felt like he did? Maybe she wanted to be with him just as much as he wanted to be with her. She thought about it more, and the feeling just seemed right. It felt like it was supposed to be, like it was predetermined, or that they had had a life before and these feelings always existed. The blush on her cheeks darkened, and she moved closer to his face to take him all in. The relaxed face failed to hide his wrinkled brow, and she traced those with her free hand. His scent filled her with a warmth that she could never place but felt so familiar with. Beside his eye lay a fait scar ending just before his hairline and running down his cheek.

"I see you are finally realizing who he is to you." Came a voice.

Rukia's shot her head up in the direction of the voice and saw a hooded figure. She recognized the robes and as gently as she could placed Nanashi's head into the floor and slowly rose to her feet. Luckily for her, Sode no Shiayuki had stayed tightly to her side and she rested her hand onto it. She would give as much to protect Nanashi as he had given to her, as long as she held breath, she would defend him.

"Please, don't be alarmed. I come in peace." The woman spoke.

The woman lowered her hood and the first thing that struck Rukia was her white hair, yellow eyes, and dark scar on the left side of her face. She certainly looked like a Void Touched, but why was she here? More importantly why did she wear the same robes as Aka Manah and Nanghait? There was a familiar sense to her that Rukia was stuck on, unable to place it anywhere. Nanashi never mentioned her, nor did he seem to know much about himself, but maybe there was more to his knowledge than he let on, he said he recovered his memory after all.

The woman paced closer to Rukia, confident that she was not going to react negatively to it and spoke. "Well, as you have probably guessed, he and I are both Void Touched. And as such, we can communicate with each other telepathically. It takes a lot out of us so we can only do it sparingly

"I know you know who I am. We worked together after all." The woman stated. "Who do you think was the one who tipped Nanashi off about his power? That blue and black aura? The voices he has been hearing. I know he told you that much and well... you saw the other one."

"You're the one he's been hearing?" Rukia asked more as a formality. "But why? How?"

"Calm down, I'll explain everything, but it will be easier if you remain calm." The woman stated.

"Nothing about this cave has been particularly peaceful, so you'll forgive me if I maintain my guard." Rukia asserted. "If you come in peace, why have you come?"

The robed woman stepped forward more, her bare feet echoing in the darkened cave. "I come for you, of course. To deliver a message to you both, though it appears my... Nanashi, is unconscious at the moment, so I can only stay for a moment."

Rukia remained as guarded as ever, knowing that at any moment she could spring into action. As the woman paced, Rukia remained stationary and stoic. Like a mother bear protecting her cubs, she would not allow anything to harm Nanashi. She watched intently as the woman knelt and grew quiet. She clasped her hands together almost as if in prayer and sat quietly. Rukia felt a familiar yet intrinsically different reiatsu, like it was a sibling's energy. She felt Nanashi's begin to stir and slowly the man opened his eyes. Rukia dropped her guard and rushed to his side.

"Nanashi!" Rukia exclaimed. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

She pulled him up to a sitting position, and he looked around. She forgot about the woman for a moment, and enjoyed seeing Nanashi rising to his feet, standing well over a foot taller than she was. It was oddly comforting for her, but she could not understand why that was. She was a capable Shinigami, and as strong as some of the lieutenants, yet she found comfort in his size. She found herself staring into his eyes again and loosing any sense of worry and self control and she leaned into him more.

"Rukia, what happened? Where are we?"

"The cave collapsed. We were floating in the water before she-" Rukia spoke turning around.

The woman was gone.

"Wha... She was just-"

"A woman was here, wasn't she?" Nanashi asked.

"Yeah. How did-" Rukia asked.

"She spoke to my mind." Nanashi spoke with a happy tone. "Her name is Shimako, and she's my sister."

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Hey, remember Shimako from the first story? I never forgot about her. Turns out things happened with her too.

Stay safe everyone!

-Atlas