a/n: sorry for the delay, life happened. There's a bit of heirverse lore in this chapter, but i did really jut write this for me for funsies - hence the lore and voice being a dick - anyone else enjoying this fic is just a bonus for me :)

As soon as Ashen Eye was gone, a cold, icy dread filled his insides. Here he was, with only a few hours until sundown, and no real clues to go on. Invisible serpents coiled around his lungs and squeezed tight, while a horde of invisible, nasty insects clawed and scratched the walls of his stomach.

There was no hope. No hope at all of finding them. He knew it. Ashen Eye knew it. The voice knew it.

Now he knew it, too.

"Fuck," he whispered. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! How in the three worlds am I supposed to find them? They could be anywhere!"

He paused. Tried to breathe.

"He could even be in the Place of Nightmares," the voice spoke, instilling dread in his heart. "The Hollow World."

But he needed his person back, and if loathe though he was to go there, he'd venture to the heart of that wretched place if he had to.

Anything to get back what he'd lost. Who he'd lost.

"But he could be anywhere. You said it yourself," the thought, the voice, echoed again. The coldness of it settling deep within his bones.

"That's even if he's alive at all."

He shook the grim thought off, refusing to let his mind wander down that path. If it did, he'd lose what little hope he had left, and he couldn't afford to give up. Not when the stakes were so high. He might not remember who this missing person was, but he knew they were important. And there was a vague sense that things just wouldn't be the same without them. Or him, if the voice was to be believed.

If it could be believed at all.

He took a few deep breaths to steady himself, when the ungodly voice interrupted again.

"What's the matter, Sousuke?" It asked, feigning innocence. "I thought you liked games."

It laughed at its own joke and Sousuke exhaled. Knowing from experience not to argue with it. Not to rise to the bait or the lure. More lessons learned the hard way. The costly way.

Not this kind, he answered calmly. Keeping his expression unreadable. Another trick learned from another such monster.

Show no fear, he told himself. It ended up becoming his mantra for dealing with the voice. The Monster within. Show no fear at all, or it will be used against you.

Hard, when someone very important to you had been taken hostage by a malicious hollow over a millenia old. Hard, but not impossible. Not for him. Not now.

"Pity that." The voice answered, almost sounding genuine. Almost. He knew better.

Yes, Sousuke answered, matching the faux tone of the voice. A pity. I'd wanted to keep that one.

He could feel the voice's desire to argue that, but the tone of Sousuke's answer told him he wouldn't get very far. Instead, it said, "You can still get him back, you know. She gave you a change to reclaim him. So you should get searching?"

And where would I look?

"Wherever you can."

But he could be anywhere.

"And?"

I can't sense him.

"Ah... yes. That is a problem."

Yes.

The voice said nothing to that, so Sousuke started thinking of where his person might be. His clue lay in the cryptic riddle Ashen Eye had left him with, which was certainly the key to finding who he was looking for. His... partner? - friend, wherever they were hidden. And he had to hurry. The last of his memories were already starting to slip through the cracks. Until he figured out the answer to that riddle, he'd just have to search the old fashioned way.

Beastly nose, he repeated the words the hollow had used. Beastly nose... what does that even mean? I don't have a beast's nose. He frowned. Unless...

He thought harder. Unless she means...

Images of the Monster came to him. The white grizzly bear skull. The sharp teeth. The red eyes. The cursed reflection staring back at him every time he looked in a mirror. The very reason he hated mirrors.

The beast.

He knew what Ashen eye meant now. And he knew how he was going to get his beloved... friend back.

It would be at a very high price, but it was one he was willing to pay. He'd get his friend back. Cost what it may, he'd pay it gladly.

"Jacinto," he addressed te voice – the monster he'd made a pact with all those years ago for his power. And the beast's interest piqued.

"Yes?"

"I need your help."

The Monster – Jacinto – chuckled darkly. Oh? He smirked. You? The great Aizen Sousuke, need my help?

"Unfortunately yes."

The voice snickered to itself again. "Well, little Sousuke, it's like I told you before, it grinned, I do nothing for free."

Sousuke's heart sank a little more at that reminder. Yes, of course the Monster did nothing for free. The power he had now had been paid for dearly. He was reminded of it whenever he caught sight of his reflection.

It was why he hated mirrors.

The law of equivalent exchange, Jacinto had called it. Though somehow, Sousuke couldn't help thinking he'd got the raw end of the deal.

And enlisting Jac's help would only entrench him even deeper into debt.

Cost what it may, he exhaled slowly. Cost what it may.

"What do you want?" Sousuke asked it.

The voice grinned. What can you give me?

Sousuke knew what it was really asking: How much is his life worth to you? And the voice knew he answer: Everything.

The Monster smirked just that much wider when Sousuke didn't answer. "Tell me, how badly do you want to save him? To have him returned to you safe and sound? I already own your mind. Your soul. Your body. Well, part of them, anyway."

Sousuke stood in silence, forced to listen to the Monster's litany because it held the only key to getting his friend back safely from whatever prison Ashen Eye had put him in. thinking carefully about what the Monster didn't already own. His body the fiend could possess at will. His mind was the Monster's place of residence. His soul in essence had already been sold for power.

There was really only one thing the bastard didn't have.

"What about my time?" Sousuke queried, his voice detached and even. Cost what it may, cot what it may, I'll pay it.

That got Jac's attention.

The Monster materialised like smoke blowing through the air, black fur appearing first, followed by the white grizzly bear skull. The red, glowing eyes appearing last of all, adding a subtle horror to the image.

"Your time?" it asked, jaws open, head tilted.

"Yes," Sousuke answered. "My time. The years I have left."

"And how many will you give me?" the hollow grumbled. "It has to be worth it, you know."

He nodded. Of course. Law of equivalent exchange. "A quarter. A fourth of the years I have left."

The Monster considered this for a moment. "That's not a very long time. I'm not sure I want to live so long stuck inside your pathetic little mind."

Sousuke bit back the cutting remark he wanted to make by reminding himself what was at stake here. His friend. The person who'd leave a gaping hole in his life if they weren't returned.

"Half then," he conceded. "Half the years I have left, after a shuffle off this mortal coil and possibly end up in Hell. Is that adequate?"

The Monster thought on that for a minute, and for that whole minute Sousuke was sure it'd refuse. After all, what did it really stand to gain by agreeing? The creature by itself was a walking, talking Armageddon.

Finally, it sad, "It is. But are you quite sure you don't wish to grow old?"

Sousuke just smiled, forced though it was. "I was never meant to grow old." Not without my person, anyway.

The Monster nodded its assent. "And what seemingly harmless thing do you want in return?"

Sousuke didn't miss a beat. "I need your form. I need to shapeshift."

"Hmm. A simple enough request. I can oblige that." It opened its huge jaws in the widest smile it could manage, as its black-furred body began to vanish into a plume of black smoke, its skull disappearing last of all. "Consider it done," it said in parting. "I just hope he's worth it."

When it vanished back into the dark caves of his mind again, Sousuke didn't need to say that he was.