A/N: I'd like to thank all those read the prologue--whether they reviewed or not. And to answer a few of your questions, Yes, is a AU Chapter story, and yes I'm aware it's OOC, but I promise there's a method to my madness (...I just haven't found it yet, lol.) I hope it's not so much out of character it becomes unbearable to read. Tell me what you think--Is it good or should I give up writing all together. I'm admittedly still a novice and critisim is the key to growth. So in other words, Review Please...

Disclaimer: I, in no way, own Bleach... After all, I only use Tide Color Safe when washing...

Chapter One - The Beginning is the End is The Beginning…

…And the Embers never fade,

In my, 'City by the Lake',

The place where you were born;

Smashing Pumpkins - Tonite Reprise

Sweat dripped from his every pore, as he shot up from the lump he called, 'a bed', like he just heard the piercing wail of sirens. The sheets fell haphazardly over his partially nude body and stuck to him due to the sweltering, midsummer night's heat. Night had fallen hours ago, and the evening sky was painted in an array midnight blues and milky whites, the stars were devoured by the large--billowing--night clouds leaving the sky in stark contrast in the late midnight hour.

Hitsugaya shifted under the oppressive, weight of the sheets, throwing them off of his person with a noble, grace. He move towards the window in measured steps, easily calculating the best course for minimal effort, to stand unmoving--after placing one hand on the windowsill--before the night.

The room was shaking, swaying from side to side, in a soothing, rocking motion that usually calmed his frayed nerves--even under the most stressing of circumstances--but now, it only lead to irritation. After all, he wasn't the type to get sick…

"Soon," he said, tracing imaginary lines on the old wood under the window. "I'll return. After all this time, I'm finally to return to the only place I've ever called home…"

He sighed, as he searched for the moon from his cabin window; it seemed ever elusive from his sight. He wondered how something that seemed so close …could be so far away--constantly eluding his grasp with ease; but Hitsugaya loved a challenge, so he continued to look, knowing the best things were always hidden to the naked eye.

"…W-will you be there…?" He questioned the darkness; its answer was received in the solace of silence. "If I were to come…, no--seek, would you, …comfort me? Could you save me…?"

After a few moments of searching in vain, he turned his back to window, running a hand (that didn't shake--thank Kami-sama!) through his ivory tresses--it was a comforting gesture, he did far too often. Those who knew nothing of him would consider him vain--his hands, always running through his hair, painstakingly fixing it--and he'd let them thing that, but to him, it was a comfort, something a mother would do without thinking, but he could only comfort himself.

Quickly throwing on his outfit, he made his way of the door, pausing for a second in the doorway--his hand still on the handle--to look back at the window. There was a faint smirk on his face when he noticed a sliver of the moonlight shining effulgently behind a cover of white. He turned, righting himself swiftly, and made his way.

If I came, could you protect me…?

Even from …myself?

Off the coast of Italy; 4:36 A.M.

"Ya' know, it figures it'd be here…" He said, walking across the seashore. A sardonic expression flitted across his slender face, but with his eyes closed it was hard to determine his true feelings. The strong coastal winds were whipping a halo around his head, sending silver locks scattering like cherry blossoms in spring, while he walked. The thunderous cacophony of the night was silenced as his feet touched the first drops of water.

"The irony …is not lost on me," His companion murmured, beside him. He precariously fixed his glasses on the crook of his nose, and smiled agreeably. His flowing white cloak danced with the wind as he stepped to his partner; their shoulders brushed. "In a place, such as this, the home of a fallen empire--a power, lay dormant, with the means to revitalize to world, and shape our very existence." he spoke with a booming voice--brimming, like an overflowing goblet, with awe--his face, lit with a fire he had never felt, seemed to shine in the late hours of the night like a beacon to those lost at sea. He was ecstatic; He was overwhelmed; and he loved it! A subtle, but in no way faint, power pressed against him--warming his body like a well-worn cloak--and he welcomed it; embracing it like a long, lost love returned. He was made for this one moment.

"The time is upon us, Gin, let us make haste and retrieve destiny--Our Destiny--and show the world our Souls."

They walked out in to the sea, but they wade in the water …they stood. Stood like Higher Beings; and the fish, and other sea urchins, their lowly subjects to behold the magnanimous grace of their wonder. They walked with purpose, paying no mind to the sounds and goings of the night and sea, blazing a path none hath foregut.

"Isn't it a little late for you to be up, Shui Zhen?" The blonde woman teased, mercilessly, as soon as she noticed Hitsugaya on deck. She clung to the small frame of the white haired boy. Her arms wiggled and wrapped around his neck--a vice grip, in his opinion--and her breath, stinking from her cheap commercial beer, assaulted his space--just like her body. He sighed in annoyance and swatted at her with a sideways glance. "Or is it? Could it be Laoshi-Ren forgot your bedtime story? The scoundrel… Well, don't you worry a 'pretty lil' hair' on your head, Mei will tuck you in just right--with a bed time story ta' boot!" She said smiling coyly.

Why was she always like this? Was it a birth defect or something? He wondered, turning his head towards the flighty-flirt. Maybe she was dropped on her head as a child, or ate paint chips… I'd say there's a rational explanation for this, but there's absolutely nothing rational about her. He thought as he continued to babble. Did her mouth have diarrhea or something? He prayed to Kami-sama, and any other deity of any denomination listening that all women weren't this …exasperating.

"Knock it off, Air-Head. I'm not in the mood--" he rasped, walking a little farther out on deck.

"Wah! Why are you so cold, Hitsu-chan?" Mei asked.

"Why are you such an air-head, Beer Breath?" he shot back, innocently. She was rubbing the hand he smacked, delicately. The boy needed to lighten up. It was like he had a glacier up his a-- "…So, what's up with you, anyways? You're never up this late; you know, we've got a big day tomorrow; so something must be bothering you…"

He debated whether telling her it was none of her business was a wise idea or not, but for civility's sake, he answered. "Couldn't sleep, is 'll, nothin' much…"

Mei Jia Yun jumped on to the topic, as soon as it fell from his mouth with all the grace of a two-ton brick falling in the middle of a busy intersection. When Mei Jia Yun got excited, not even God could protect those surrounding her. She was a force of nature, and a self-sustaining one at that!

The Gods aren't cruel, my ass…

"Excited, eh? After all the countless hours of work, we're finally here--just a few hours away from Japan! Feels great, doesn't it, Shui Zhen?"

"I thought, I told you, stop calling me that." He said, shooting his fiercest glare her way, hoping his stern stare would cow her, but unfortunately, like most things, it floated right over he head. …Damn Blondes…

"Why, Hitsu-chan? It fits you like a suit…"

"It's a girl's name, baka! How many boys do you know named, 'Zhen'--"?

"--Just as many as I know with hair of snow…"

"--Narcissistic, air-head--"

"--Ha! Cotton swab!"

"If you two have the energy to bicker," a voice said from the back of the ship. "Then you can go through your routine."

They inhaled simultaneously and bowed lowly. "Ah, Ren Laoshi, sorry we woke you!" They said almost concurrently. Shame was written across both their faces as they stared at the hard wood below them.

"Come now, children, let our practice begin…" He prompted, walking towards the center of the ship. His wrinkled pajamas cling to his slight form in the humid night. His quick eyes took in the beer bottles and looks that flitted athwart his pupil's faces and accessed the situation. Hitsugaya most likely came across the drinking girl and was teased mercilessly to the point of infraction, a conflicted ensued and thus he was woken.

From a very good dream, at that…

He sighed, running his hands through his hair. He was getting too old for this…

"You know what to do." He waved his hand distractedly in the air as he made his way towards his cabin, and more importantly, towards dreams that involved Hamasaki Ayumi and hot chocolate syrup…

They stood on top of the water with the city's lights over their shoulders, peering down at the almost opaque waters, rapt, grinning silently to themselves as they looked down. The russet-manned man with glasses covering his eyes was the first to move, reaching his hands out, a gesture that could have been mistaken for longing, though in fact; it was a command. His finger was spread; taunt and his hands were almost twitching, like his face, as his called forth a power beyond imagination.

His lips moved in intervals, over syllables, in rhythm, but the words were lost to the ears, as the Power drowned everything out.

"You know," a voice spoke behind them, almost in a whisper. "If the Pope were to see this--men walking on water--he'd have a piss-fit…" He said in an affable tone. There was a smile on his face and a glint in his eyes, Ichimaru noticed when he turned, and his brows were lifted slightly, in humor. Though when he looked behind the glasses covering the boy's face the noticed his eyes were burning, fierce.

He smiled.

"The ol' man would have to thank us--" he waited a beat--for his cue--it came in form of a cocked brow and cant head. "'im bein' that ol', it's a pleasure ta' know ya, can still piss on yer own…" He grinned.

Ishida clucked his tongue, agreeably, at the man's humor, but tensed when he switched his sight.

The bespectacled man's aura was mind-boggling; it battered his senses like his mind was sent through the spin cycle. He gritted his teeth, and watched his intricate motions. Suddenly realizing the depth of the shit he would be in if he allowed him to continue, Ishida willed his bow into existence and fired off a gigantic arrow without warning.

Lazily, his head snapped towards the intruder's presence; in his glowing hand he restrained the arrow, but not without effort, Ishida thought--scraping for the remnants of his dignity.

"You impudent fool! Have you any idea what you've just interrupted?" He rolled his fingers to change the arrows course, but held still, waiting for the fear to come. "Fools like you come far too many; when I remake the world, I'll make sure to cleanse it of impetuous swine like you!"

Ishida's eyes were saucers as he watched the arrow race towards him. His own arrow, he thought, slew by his own weapon? How embarrassing… He closed his eyes.

…But the arrow never hit.