Revive: A Tale of Two Souls - Part Four

Author Notes: This is the fourth part of a long on-going series. Someday I would like to go back and fix up the previous parts as there are some grammar and story issues I'd like to fix but at least for now I lack the time so reading the previous parts would really help explain how things have gotten to this point. It will be much harder to understand without it but I will give a short summary.

Summary until now: Kagome is married to Byakuya after many events that lead to them being together. However, she is also pregnant with the child of the soul society's king in this world (different than the manga definition of the King entirely), Sestran. The Quincy have begun to attack the soul society in earnest and prior to now Byakuya has been transformed into a vizard by his King to help protect the soul society but he is uncomfortable with this dark power. This story arch will in part, follow some of the manga pieces of the Quincy arch. For greater details please visit the prior parts of this series.

Chapter One: Darkness Within

"The baby bat
Screamed out in fright,
'Turn on the dark,
I'm afraid of the light."

-Shel Silverstein

Explosions rocked the city. The streets of the Sereitei were flooded with warriors, the pavement was broken, the buildings cracked, and the peace it once had replaced by the noise of screams and the scent of blood. The Quincy had only waited long enough for the King to retreat to his heaven to return in force while the Soul Reapers were still licking their wounds. They'd struck the fourth squadron specifically to both finish injured enemies and keep further medical aid difficult or impossible to reach. While it didn't work as well as it would have as a full ambush it was soon enough to be effective in throwing the whole of the Sereitei into chaos. Sestran had not reappeared after his earlier fight with the Quincy leader but neither had the leader of this rabble. Instead it was many shock troops and several higher ranking Quincy battling with the central court.

Byakuya was on a series of rooftops dodging lines of fire that continued to be shot at him. An uppity brat had been sent to waylay him and not let him near the battles as far as he could tell. Each was having a difficult time pushing the other past a stand still. It didn't help that any time Byakuya began to get an upper hand this self-proclaimed 'Bazz-B' would throw a bit of fire at the troops below them and Byakuya often was throwing up Kido to help them as much as himself. Of course, he'd left himself open by protecting the others and he expected the burn to come when instead it met with a row of ice and turned into hot steam.

"Appreciated." Bykuya offered a nod of thanks to Hitsugaya before each of them returned to their prospective battles. The younger captain had given up a momentary opening to aid Byakuya and he recognized it for what it was.

"Sloppy."

Without their Bankai the Captain's were hard pressed to fight the enemies beyond it seeming a standstill…and they were likely to wear out before the enemies. Matsumoto had managed to help her Captain for a time but she'd been separated just as Renji and Rukia had been earlier. He could still feel them fighting in other areas of the city. A few streets beyond them he felt the reiatsu of Soi-Fong's lieutenant go out. Several of the enemy troops ran by from another zone screaming about the shadows from where Kyoraku had been earlier.

"Here you are getting outdone by the Captain that would rather play hide and seek."

Byakuya grit his teeth and dove in, taking a burn along the back of his arm but also delivering a deep blow inside the pit of Bazz-B's arm before being forced to retreat. The smell of burned flesh reached his nose and while he wasn't actively on fire, he felt as if he'd been. From his elbow to his shoulder his skin had been blackened. It was more of a risk than he'd calculated.

"Come on big guy, that all you got? Here I heard you took out As Nodt and this is all you are capable of?" the upstart laughed. "No wonder all the soul reapers are going to lose if you are the cream of the crop."

"You need not let such mockery stand."

He was having a harder time ignoring the dark thoughts that seemed to only get louder with his injury…but he had a feeling the plan was to get him to release his dark half. He lacked the training to actually control himself after all and they could be banking on using him losing control to actively target him.

"As if it would matter if they turned millions of blades on us…"

Several buildings crashed down where Kenpachi was battling, not surprising but they were close to where he'd left Kagome and it gave him a moment of pause. He scowled at the area, it was still too covered in dust to tell what exact buildings were in the damage but he needed to check in on her…

"Don't look away from me." Bazz sounded impertinent at Byakuya's distraction. "I've been going easy on you but not anymore."

"Danku." Byakuya remarked, buying himself a few more seconds to try and gauge where Kenpachi city damages were exactly…they were a bit wide to know for certain. Moments after the fire slammed into his protective barrier it was already starting to shatter.

"What can you hope to accomplish when your body is at its limit? I can protect her…while you cannot even reach her…"

The Quincy abilities were at a level the Sereitei was not prepared for and he knew it…he still ignored his inner voice. He wouldn't use such abilities unless he couldn't help it, besides the dark voice wasn't telling the complete truth, he wasn't at his limit yet. He'd fight with the rest of the captains to defend their own to the best of his ability without using the wretched mask…though he was growing steadily more concerned that wouldn't be an option. He'd have to trust that Kagome could take care of herself as he dodged away again, distracting himself wouldn't help either he or her right now.

Elsewhere…

A moment of respite was all Kagome received, by morning the entire Sereitei was enveloped in war, she was sitting in a closet frustrated that she couldn't help. She had been told by Byakuya to remain here while he joined the others in battle against the reinvigorated attack of the Quincy. Normally she would have ignored his orders and followed him…but this time she couldn't. She had to worry about more than her own life…it was a feeling very alien to the headstrong girl. She could feel all the energy around her, and more disturbingly, when it went out. There were people dying around her in the city but she remained despite a great desire to help because of concern for her own unborn child. She was determined to stay out of trouble but as it often did with Kagome, trouble found her.

An explosion shook the earth and the ground beneath her opened up sending her tumbling into the darkness, it was several bounces before she hit something solid enough to hold her body but it also knocked the wind from her. Kagome coughed, then gasped, then coughed again. She pushed herself up holding her sleeve over her mouth to try and keep from breathing in the dust in the air. She could barely make anything out around her except for crumbling rocks but she could feel that the floor was worked, it was too smooth to be a cave. Had she fallen into the sewers? It didn't smell…so a lower level then?

Another rock twice the size of her head slammed into the ground next to her and she stumbled forward, not wanting to get crushed by any other debris dislodged by the continued quakes taking place above. At the same time, she didn't want to wander too far, Byakuya was bound to come looking for her…

She summoned the one spell she could cast reliably and threw a light spell into the air revealing a long hallway. There was dust caking the floor and a few benches in the halls…though this was obviously the first time it had been disturbed in a long time. Kagome walked further in as more rocks came down…a little concerned the destabilized roof would fall in. Several of the doors lead to more halls, she paused to wipe off one of the labels near a doorway. "Record Keeping" Inside she could see several shelves but they were open and empty with a few scraps of parchment here and there beneath the dust. She frowned at that and moved to the next one. "Offices" It was another hall of doors but she could guess by the label where they lead. The following door was closed and there was a lock but it came free when Kagome pulled only a little…the whole place was deteriorating from age. Kagome wiped off the label. "Off limits."

Curiosity got the better of her and she opened the door, it was yet another hall of doors and she frowned, how large was this underground area exactly? The war above sounded like a thunderstorm down here, and dust fell from the ceiling with another large boom. Thankfully despite the decrepit state of the area the infrastructure of the halls held. Then she heard voices behind her.

"She mu…len into th…et her." It wasn't a voice she recognized. Whoever it was they were likely up to no good. She frowned and slipped into the off limits door, doing her best to move away from the central area quietly. She slipped into another door and closed it behind her when she heard someone walking in the first hallway. This was not good…not good at all.

"Kagome? Are you all right?" The voice was familiar…she definitely knew it. What was he doing here? "It's Ishida, Byakuya sent me to look for you."

She almost fell for it. She was about to walk out but she remembered that Ishida was a Quincy…was he working with the enemy then? She turned back to the room she'd gone into…it seemed like an office for several more doors. She dashed toward one, wanting to get away from this possible threat and entered what looked like a laboratory. The research squad used to have space under the 6th? She coughed again and held her sleeve tighter over her face, the smell of chemicals was mixed with the dust. There were several tubes with wires and cords coming from them but the staleness of the smells showed how long it'd been since this place had been open. No one would probably even know to look for her here.

"Kagome. I can see your trail of where you've been in the dust. This place isn't stable, we should get out of here and talk somewhere safe." Ishida sounded honest in his concern but Kagome was still wary…why would he even be here if not to help the other Quincy? It's not as though the squads would have asked mortals or other Quincy for help. She rushed across the lab after spotting another door…perhaps she could find a weapon somewhere.

In her rush she tripped over one of the many tubes in the room, coughing as she was forced to remove the cloth from her face to catch herself. She glanced back, tempted to kick the offending cord but then realized it was a leg. There was a mummified corpse that had fallen off of one of the research tables. There were still dozens of wires and iv's attached to the body but all of the fluids had long run dry, this environment must have caused the corpse to mummify. She didn't have time to dwell on it, getting up to continue running.

"There you are, where are you going?" Ishida's voice drew her up short of continuing her run. He had reached the room. "Come on, we should get out of here."

His clothes were similar enough to the uniforms the invading army wore that she felt her nervousness was more than reasonable.

"What are you doing here Ishida?" She asked, still glancing around the room for something she could use as a weapon. She really had to do more combat training with her husband sometime…she knew she could do a little but Ishida was more trained than her…and who knew what he was willing to do now…

"Byakuya asked me to find you." He said, walking closer then raising a brow at her as she backed up. She was smarter than he gave her credit for…then this was an order he hadn't really had time to prepare for. Still, this was what he had to do. "We can talk when we get out of her…come on, this place could come down if Kenpachi's fight moves overhead."

"Stop Ishida." Kagome commanded aloud when the boy started to walk again, happy that he did. "Tell me what they want, there's no way Byakuya sent you."

"I will tell you…but not here…" Ishida insisted, he moved toward her again reaching a hand out toward her and Kagome was about to knock his arm away when Ishida was tackled from behind by the mummified body…it was alive? She stared in shock as the near corpse slammed Ishida's head into the floor hard enough to knock him unconscious then bit him. Gulping sounds left little wonder as to what the corpse was doing to Ishida…what sort of monster was this?

End Chapter

I was torn between starting this as a new fic or continuing it here. Eventually I decided this should be its own story arch – partly in thanks to comments from my reviewers so thanks for that :). I hope I continue to have a little time to work on it. We'll see where my muse takes me but I've been in a mood for Bleach lately.

-Aura

To my reviewers:

I'll remark here as needed to questions/comments that I feel everyone might benefit from.