Chapter 6: Empty Throne
"You need to get back into bed," Aizen said reprovingly, getting up and helping the noble back in, "You are still weak from what happened to you. You nearly died, remember?"
Byakuya's eyes narrowed.
"I did die," he announced softly, "I know I did! How is it that I am still alive? What did you do?"
Aizen's hand drifted down to the 'v' in his yukata, and he opened it, baring his chest. Byakuya's eyes widened and his hands clenched in distress as he realized that the hogyoku implanted in Aizen's chest was fully unsealed.
"Kami!" he gasped, "What have I done!"
"What have you done?" Aizen repeated, slipping the fingers of one hand under Byakuya's chin and making their eyes meet, "You have given me a second chance to end the choke hold that those conniving roaches have on Soul Society. You said it best when you spoke of restoring the balance that had been upset."
"But you do not restore the balance of injustice with a force that is equally ruthless and unjust," objected the noble, "What was I thinking? I must have been delirious. And now..."
He caught sight of the token he had given Aizen sitting on the nightstand next to the bed.
If I can just...
"Now, what?" Aizen asked, looking into Byakuya's widened eyes, "You saw an injustice, a deep, horrible betrayal meant to destroy your family. You acted to protect your family, despite the fact that you, yourself had been doomed to death. I think it was a rather touching display of devotion."
"I think I am going to be sick," Byakuya said, his face going a shade paler.
"I can make you some tea," Aizen offered, "perhaps some ginger tea would be soothing."
Byakuya's eye strayed to the golden token again, then met Aizen's.
"Y-yes, that would be fine," he said, his heart pounding.
Aizen nodded and crossed the room to the small kitchen area of the recess. Byakuya waited until his back was turned, then reached for the token, but was forced to withdraw his hand as Aizen suddenly turned to glance back at him.
That was too close. I have to...
"Do you take sugar in your tea?" Aizen asked, "Or do you prefer honey? I find myself leaning towards the honey, although you must have noticed how it always manages to find its way onto one's fingers...quite the sticky mess, ne?"
"Wh-what?" asked Byakuya, blinking.
Aizen turned back to the tea and continued in his more casual tone. Byakuya reached for the token but was thwarted as Aizen looked over his shoulder again.
"Which did you say you preferred?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.
"I don't know," Byakuya said in a flustered tone, "Honey, I suppose."
"And a touch of lemon?" asked Aizen, "Ah, I remember now that you are not fond of things that are too sweet."
"Y-yes," Byakuya answered, biting at his lip nervously.
Aizen turned back to the tea and Byakuya took a steadying breath and snatched up the token from the nightstand. He immediately closed his hand around it and nullified it. A flush rose on his cheeks and throat as he realized that Aizen had seen and was regarding him curiously. He walked back to the bed and set the tea on the nightstand, then he sat down on the edge of the bed as Byakuya looked from the tea to the other man.
"Why did you do that?" Aizen asked, "Why did you nullify the token? If I leave, will I not need it to return?"
"Yes," said the noble, forcing his body to calm.
And you will also need it to escape this place...
"It was just force of habit," Byakuya went on, "When one protects a place such as this, it is best to practice the safest habits. I do not know if you are aware that our family library is second only to the soul king's own archive. The journals of our leaders and other documentary materials chart a history of the three worlds. And to protect it, we have placed it in a small dimensional rift. Only the Kuchiki clan leader and members of the royal family may enter this place of their own accord. All others must bear the token of entry. I charge the token to allow other family members or my attendant to enter."
"Fascinating," said Aizen appreciative, "I believe you were correct in thinking that this place would prove useful. You will have to show me around, once you are well enough."
Byakuya nodded briefly, glad that he seemed to have successfully distracted the man away from focusing on the token.
"But for now," Aizen went on, sliding back into the bed, "You need food, rest and healing, "And I need time for my powers to reach full capacity, now that they have been unsealed."
Byakuya caught himself suddenly as he instinctively turned into the other man's arms. He froze there, gazing quietly into the traitor's solemn brown eyes and feeling his heart flutter beneath his breast.
Aizen smiled at him, leaving him with the odd feeling of having several errant hell butterflies flitting about in his stomach.
"What is it?" Aizen asked, turning his head so that his breath tickled the noble's ear, making a soft blush rise on Byakuya's fine skin, "You look surprised at your own actions, Byakuya. But surely this isn't such a surprise, ne?"
"I don't know what you mean," said the noble, taking a steadying breath.
"No?" said Aizen, turning his head so that his lips were tantalizingly close to Byakuya's, making the noble blush more pronouncedly, and making his heart skip painfully, "You and I have just been through a life altering experience...one in which it seems we took turns protecting each other. You protected me from the men who were taking advantage of me in my weakened state. Then, you pulled me out of harm's way when part of my cell would have collapsed on me. I cared for your injuries, inasmuch as I could while not having powers, and I helped you come to terms with the betrayal you had suffered at the hands of the same ones who altered the path of my life. You chose to believe in me, handing me my powers and trusting that I...a known criminal...would bring the three worlds back into balance. And in the end, I convinced the hogyoku to breathe life back into your fading body. Although I am not one who likes to depend on others, even I see how it makes sense that, after walking this path together, we might seek shelter in each other, even now that, for the moment, anyway, the danger has been thwarted."
Byakuya's lips tightened and his gray eyes darkened.
"That is never going to happen!" he hissed furiously.
"You sound quite convinced of that," Aizen observed, "but the way your body is reacting to me says something different."
"Do you expect me to forget who you are and what you have done?" he asked sternly, "I would have to be a fool to forget how you turned on the ones who trusted you...the ones you led to believe that you cared about them."
"I do not expect anything, Byakuya. But I will ask you to do something, as much for yourself as for me."
Byakuya looked back at him skeptically.
"What do you want me to do?"
Aizen's eyes locked on his, freezing him in place.
"I want you to place your trust where you always have. I want you to listen to a source that would never lie to you."
"And that is...?" the noble asked breathlessly.
"Your own heart," Aizen said, closing the distance between them.
The quiet recess they occupied, the archive, the whole of their world seemed to stand still and silent as Aizen lips claimed his. The unexpected warmth and tenderness in the exchange roared through Byakuya's tensed body, making his heart pound hard enough to burst and his hands clench where they had tangled themselves in the other man's yukata. He broke away again and turned his head aside, blushing brightly and wanting to be furious, but curiously unable to connect with the emotion.
"Th-that is easy enough for a h-heartless man to suggest," Byakuya objected.
"Your heart feels it," Aizen breathed into his ear, making it blush as hotly as his face, "the way our fates have become entwined. We have both been betrayed. We were marked for death by the same people, and our spirits yearn for justice that we cannot find using the normal channels. Byakuya, whether you are ready to admit it or not, if you are going to protect those people that you asked me to spare, then you are going to also have to accept that right and wrong have been upended here. If we want justice for ourselves and safety for our loved ones, then we are going to have to win it from these people."
He paused and touched the hogyoku, where it was fused to his chest.
"Neither of us is strong enough to do that on his own, but together, we have the power to overcome this enemy."
"I am not going to join you in committing treason!" Byakuya hissed, trying to pull away.
Aizen locked his hands tightly around the noble's slender wrists.
"Come now," the traitor growled softly, glaring into the noble's widened eyes, "You and I both know that treason and justice are relative terms, depending on who is claiming them."
"Is that how you rationalized turning traitor on all of us? Using our own loved ones against us? Cutting down a young woman who you made to worship you until she forgot her own identity? That is the worst form of treason!"
"I am not asking you to commit treason. I am asking you to join me in a quest for justice. And yes, I will benefit from you doing so...but so will you and your clan. So will all of Soul Society."
He brought his lips close to Byakuya's again.
"You want justice for them, ne? For the ones who were murdered in that prison? Councilors who were pure of heart and wanted only to see to the protection of justice under the law?"
"You murdered and impersonated some of those seekers of justice, yourself!" Byakuya said sharply, "How are you any better than the others who committed like atrocities?"
His eyes strayed to the hogyoku, which had begun to pulsate with soft, white light as they had kissed.
"And why don't you just use that abomination in your chest to do whatever you want? You do not need me. My power is nowhere near that of the hogyoku. Why would you desire my assistance? That is, beyond your obvious lustful intentions?"
Aizen smirked.
"I cannot deny the lure of your charms, Byakuya," the traitor confessed, "but…I am not the one who determined that you were needed for this venture."
The noble went silent for a moment, his startled grey eyes traveling from his disgraced former comrade to the now glowing stone fused to his chest.
"You mean…the hogyoku?" Byakuya asked breathlessly, "But that is not possible!"
"I am sure you know that it was the hogyoku that saved your life, not so much me, ne?"
"I gathered that," acknowledged the noble, "but I imagined that you merely commanded it, and it obeyed you."
Aizen blinked slowly.
"May I remind you," he said softly, "that the hogyoku no longer accepts me as its master?"
Byakuya stared back at him wordlessly, his eyes wide and questioning.
"The reason that Kisuke's seal was able to activate, in the end, was because the hogyoku sensed a need in me...a weakness that caused it to reject me as its master. We are still fused together, so I continue to enjoy immortality. And it still senses my desires and sometimes chooses to fulfill them. But I am not the hogyoku's master."
"Then, who is?" Byakuya demanded, "Is it Ichigo, because he defeated you? Urahara, who invented the original hogyoku? Who?"
"You know that the hogyoku is a device that Urahara, and then, I constructed to link to the most powerful shinigami it could find, and to bind its powers with that shinigami's to bring about the greatest of the shinigami's ambitions."
"That is what I was told," the noble acknowledged.
"And it is true. However, the hogyoku is also a sentient being, meaning that once it was brought into existence, it acquired the ability to learn from its experiences. So, as it fused with me and battled for the crown, it learned several important things. First, the hogyoku learned that in addition to granting the desires of others, it had its own desires. But I will get to what those are in a moment. The other thing that the hogyoku learned was that even the strongest shinigami can be defeated by a weaker opponent whose heart is more complete."
Byakuya frowned.
"Gomen nasai, but what do you mean?" he asked, his body relaxing slightly.
"Ichigo was not more powerful than me. He simply pushed me to the ends of my strength by sacrificing his own. It was in that moment that the hogyoku realized a mistake that both Kisuke and I made in its definition."
"Its...definition?"
"The hogyoku was made to seek and join with one shinigami soul...the most powerful soul it could find. However, if you think about the strategies of conquest, it is not always the strongest person who achieves victory. Power, strength, conviction, all of them are important in determining if one is capable of reaching one's desires, and remember that the hogyoku brings to life those desires we have the potential to unleash."
"But, how did all of this convince the hogyoku that I was needed? If it was the hogyoku's own desire to save me, then…why did it choose me? Why continue to work with you when it would not before?"
Aizen's smile warmed unexpectedly.
"Why does anyone work together?" he queried, "We work together when we have interlocked desires that are mutually supporting. I want justice for what was done to me and my family, you want justice for your family members who were taken from you."
"And what about the hogyoku?" Byakuya wondered aloud, reaching out with tentative fingertips and lightly brushing them against the crystal, "If it is sentient, and it has its own desires, then how can we know what those desires really are. The hogyoku is not a human or a shinigami, Sousuke. We have no idea how its mind works, so we do not know what its true intentions are, even in saving my life."
Byakuya's eyes narrowed.
"And...you think that I will...?"
"I did not command you, Byakuya," Aizen said, looking into his eyes, "I asked you. Will you join your power with ours to see to the justice that we both want?"
"You...?" Byakuya whispered, staring, "You want me to...?"
"I want you to follow your heart. You have said that you want justice...and when I kissed you, I felt the leaning of your heart. You know that what I am saying makes sense."
"But...even were I to agree that I want justice, and even if I indicated a willingness to join with you, how does that fit in with all of this? What does the hogyoku want in exchange? It must want something? Has it told you?"
Aizen smiled.
"That goes back to what I said about the hogyoku learning of its own desires. What the hogyoku learned is that, like the living creatures who created it, it longs for life...love...freedom to choose its own path. You see, Byakuya, the hogyoku wants to leave the safety of the crystal housing I placed it in. The hogyoku wants life."
"May I remind you that even though you and Urahara created that thing, neither of you could either control it or destroy it! Given that, how do we know what manner of creature it would be if given a body, life and powers? We could be unleashing disaster upon our worlds! Many have played with the idea of creating new life, new souls, but they all share one thing, Sousuke. The Mod Souls, the Bount, and the list goes on. Every time…every single time it ended in disaster. I want no part of something that could cause such destruction. And neither you nor that thing in your chest are going to convince me to do so! If that was a condition of being saved by the hogyoku, it can just take my life right now!"
He came to his feet and started out the bedroom door, but stopped as it closed in front of him. Byakuya stood with one pale palm pressed against the closed door, and his furious eyes lowered. Aizen looked at his back and smirked.
"Where are you going?" he asked knowingly, "The moment you step out of the archive and reveal yourself, you are a dead man, Byakuya. There is no way out. And in fact, I am committed to seeing this through to the end. It was the condition on which the hogyoku agreed to save your life."
"What?" Byakuya gasped, turning to face the other man, and his eyes going wide, "I thought that you agreed to free the hogyoku from the seal in exchange for it saving my life!"
Aizen shook his head and smiled more affectionately.
"No, Byakuya. I did agree to release the seal on the hogyoku's powers, but it was not that which convinced the hogyoku to save you. The hogyoku would only agree to save your life...if I would convince you to help me give it life. That was our bargain."
Byakuya looked back at him with a stunned expression and his reiatsu rose until it shook the room forcefully.
"Sousuke Aizen," he said in a hard, threatening voice, "if you DARE to lay a hand on me or try to force this on me in any way, I will find a way to deprive you of your immortality and KILL YOU!"
A hard blast of kido shattered the door and Byakuya flash stepped madly away.
"Byakuya!" Aizen called out, flash stepping after him, "You're only going to get yourself killed. Stop!"
To his surprise, the noble turned, not in the direction of the archive entrance, but towards the back of the chamber, where he approached a gold framed door and seemed to just pass through.
"What…?" Aizen mused, sliding to a stop and carefully examining the door in front of him.
I am a transcendent, but there are some things that could deprive me of that and kill me. I sense heavy enchantments around this door…
He reached out and touched the finely crafted golden frame, extending his senses curiously. He expected that the contact might set off some kind of trap or security feature, but when nothing happened after a few seconds, he stretched out one hand and touched the door itself. His breath caught as he felt the touch of heavy reiatsu, then his hand simply passed through.
"Fascinating…" he breathed, stepping through the shielded opening.
Byakuya stood on the other side of the door, his face sheet white and his eyes widened in disbelief. Aizen's eyes cast around the room they were in and he suffered a sound shock as he realized.
"We…are in the soul king's archive," he whispered incredulously.
"Impossible!" Byakuya responded, finding his voice again, "Sousuke, this cannot be. The only people allowed to pass through that door are the Kuchiki clan leader…and members of the royal family!"
Approaching footsteps sent the two flash stepping back through the door and into the Kuchiki archive, where Byakuya stood, gazing at the structure as though spellbound.
"Sousuke, tell me, there is no chance you have Kuchiki blood in your family, is there? I know of most of the lines of descent in the main family and subfamilies and I never saw anything that suggested a connection. Then again, if what you told me before is true, then your whole identity since you arrived in the Seireitei is a lie! Who are you? And how in kami's name did you get through that door?"
Byakuya was soundly shocked at the genuinely somber look in Aizen's dark brown eyes as he answered.
"I think the more telling question is…why won't we be followed back here."
The truth rang in their ears though neither spoke it aloud.
There is nothing left now of our royal family. The very ones charged with protecting them…let them die…and do not want them to return!
