Hello everyone! Very quick update for you, but also a very short one.

This is definitely a lead up chapter but I still felt it should end where it did. I am already at work on the next chapter and should have it up within the next few days!

Thank you so much for your loyalty and patience with this story.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bleach or any of it's characters

Here we go!-

I collapsed against the wall when I was out of sight of the Center. My hands shook as I braced them against the smooth stone to steady myself. Keeping my head down I blink a few times, trying, and failing, to clear the dark spots in my vision.

My heart felt slow and heavy in my chest, every strained beat echoing through my entire body. Making my skin feel like it was pulsing against my spasming muscles.

I cursed under my breath.

I was of no use to anyone in this state. When I could barely get out of bed, and come near to collapse after one easily won battle. If the woman in black found me anytime soon, all these years of training would get me no where. I would be dead within a beat of my own weak heart.

Gritting my teeth, I straightened. The world, thank the Gods, stayed still, but just to be safe, I kept one hand braced on the wall as I continued walking.

I would give myself one more week to heal, hopefully I had that much time.

"You know, I would have thought someone who has survived so many battles and wars would have a higher sense of self preservation."

"If I had any sense of self preservation I would have butchered you and your friends the moment we met."

Ichigo considered it, "Fair point." He thought harder on it as he stepped up behind me. "You mentioned that you were sixteen when the Southern rebellion began… I've read all sorts of counts of those crusades, and, though I wasn't there, they painted a pretty vivid picture.

I winced and leaned closer to the wall, sneering, "Can I expect a point to be made?"

I could feel the heat from his palm, not quite touching me, as Ichigo reached out a stable hand. He must have thought better of it, for the heat disappeared only seconds later. "How did you survive? Sixteen years old, fresh out of bootcamp, and all alone in an army of Northerners."

I stopped walking.

"I have a knack for sneaking where I'm not allowed. Your father's war records were hard to find, so preciously tucked into his private office, but it seems to have been worth it. Why did he send you away to the trenches while Sam and Devon sat warm and fed by his side miles away from any battles?"

"A good soldier goes where they're told. I never felt the need to ask."

"Not even when your legion was directly attacked in the dead of night? Or when all 3,000 died in the shitstorm that followed? You were the only survivor weren't you? Your father's records pronounced you MIA. Likely dead and buried in a mass grave somewhere far south… Until, of course, you strolled up to the gates of Lockhorn, dressed in chains and rags, and burned the whole city to the ground."

I could still smell the smoke, I could feel the ashes fall onto my skin. The screams and the blood. I remembered it all.

"You could have gone anywhere, become someone completely new. But you came back… and gave three severed heads to your father as a returning gift." A self proclaimed King, his Crowned Prince and loyal General. One for every thousand. "Why? Why come back at all."

"Even a beaten dog loves its owner."

"The fact that you're even talking to me, knowing what you know, proves otherwise."

I huffed a chuckle, "What is it you expect me to say? That I have some righteous reason for coming back here? That everything I've done has been apart of a grand scheme that I have been plotting for years? I burned that city down because I wanted to. I cut off their heads because it pleased me to do so. And I have become the Iron Fist of the West because it is who I was born to be." I looked over my shoulder, meeting his stare, before continuing, "I am not the person you believe me to be, I have said as such since the very beginning. Accept the things you read in that file, or don't. Look at me as your savior, your princess, it means nothing at all to me. But just remember that I have been protecting myself my entire life, and when it all comes down to it, I will cut off as many heads as necessary to ensure mine stays precisely where it is. And that includes yours."

Damning the blurred vision, screwing the unsteady ground beneath my feet, I stood tall, letting all contact with the wall to cease, and strolled down the hall, looking to all the world that I was centered and proud, all the while I shrunk inside.

Ichigo waited for me to take ten steps before he took even one.

Somehow I had let myself forget the trenches. Forget the Northerners and my time within their ranks. It swam now. Up from the depths of the sea within me. The size of a whale, pushing against my insides, threatening to burst me apart from the inside out. Why must everything feel so heavy in a moment like this? Why must my body quiver and shake in strain, right when I needed it the most.

It shouldn't shock me that Ichigo had gone searching for more about my time in war. I was to play a big part in what was to come, and if the roles were reversed I would have studied up on him, as well. Whether he planned to share all he had learned from my father's files was yet to be known. And, of course, I had ruined my chance at learning more.

If i had simply kept my mouth shut, Ichigo could have spoon fed me the information in bursts. All the while thinking he was pulling information out of me. I had let his words get to me, to bring up old memories buried at the bottom of the dark sea. He was not likely to share much more now, after my outburst. A foolish mistake.

I had so many other things to think about. Time pressing, life threatening things.

I had not seen Clark since that night in my chambers, and I needed to seek him out. Relationship strained as it was I needed to put my claws into the strategy of the upcoming battles. I was his General after all, if I kept too much distance, like I desperately wanted, things would seem off. People would look too closely. And my back was not yet healed. I needed time.

Ichigo had been to my father's office before, evidently, and he slowed when he noticed the direction my steps were leading us. And when I reached the door he was so far behind he was out of my line of sight. I knocked twice. Though i pretty much pounded my fist against the door. It relieved some of the tension from my shoulders.

I saw Ichigo peek his head around the corner, and I jerked my head to the side and he just stared blankly at me. I was about to face him more firmly when I heard a very quiet voice usher me to enter. I kept my eyes on Ichigo's half hidden form as I pushed the door open, making sure to shut it fully so he could not overhear. I debated locking it when something rolled over in my stomach.

The stench had lingered in my mind for weeks.

I whirled, and found her standing five feet in front of me. Her smile looking more like a snake opening its jaws to devour me whole.

The woman in black.

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A bit obvious I suppose, but oh well.

Orihime is in the wolf's den!

Please review and let me hear what you think about it! I love every review I get.

Till next time-