a/n - Dirty dirty editing not saving... apologies
Layne glanced at his empty white hand, at Diff holding Oblivion, and back at his empty white hand, now clenching into a fist
"You son of a bitch, who are you to tell me what I can and can't use" Layne growled, switching both hands to Oathkeeper's grip, trying the stance Moll used all the time
"I dunno, maybe…the source of Oblivion's power?" Diff replied, tossing away his black Oathkeeper and switching Layne's black Oblivion to his left hand and grinning
"You don't even know what my powers are, you're so damned focused on Roxas and being some kind of freakin Rainbringer, that you can't even be bothered to work out what your other keyblade does"
"You can't take a life with water" Layne countered "I don't even know what Oblivion does, but it's evil"
"Is that what this is about, you still haven't sorted out that thing about killing Kira, it didn't seem to bother you when I was in control and trying my hardest to kill her for you"
Layne said nothing
"Evil is in the eye of the beholder" Diff continued "You're narrow-minded if you think otherwise, Water can't be good, and it can't be evil… and Oblivion is the same, it can't be good… and it can't be evil"
"You're just a shadow on my soul; you're not even alive… not really, you can't make philosophical distinctions because you're morally aligned one way"
"But you don't know which way I am aligned, and that makes you biased, to your Moral Justice bullshit, false chains of honour that you keep on yourself, restricting your ability to fight"
"My honor ensures that I don't become like you, that I remain me, no matter what happens to me"
"Hidebound, stuck in your ways, Change is the only answer, if you don't change, you lose, and die… and that's exactly what's going to happen to you, I can't be bothered to explain anymore"
Diff charged at Layne, who took the double keyblades head on with Oathkeeper
"Bet your Rain feels inadequate when faced up to the ultimate powers of destruction"
"Hell no!" Layne grunted, pushing Diff backwards with some effort
"My will is unbroken, Diff" Layne remarked "While I still got that, I don't need Oblivion"
Diff began cackling "Don't need Oblivion? Don't need me? Are you trolling?"
"I'm dead serious"
"Well, then…how about I take away your seriousness, and just make you dead"
Diff seemed to teleport behind Layne, and knocked Oathkeeper out of his hands, and pushed him to the ground
"Sorry Layne, but if you aren't willing to win at whatever price you need to pay personally, then how can you possibly expect to become the monster that you need to be to defeat the Arrancar?, to defeat me?"
Layne spat out some dirt in his mouth and rolled over
"If you can't even answer that, then just drown"
Diff kicked Layne so hard he flew into the center of the lake, a resounding splash occurring from the point of impact
"Well this is a hell of a way to go" Layne thought, as he floated down through his pool of reiatsu, unable to summon the strength to kick his limbs
"And I thought Ichigo was ugly" Shinji commented, eyeing the monstrosity that Layne had become, that Rose was currently going toe to toe with
The armor that had appeared when Layne had started losing limbs was white, and by now completely encased his body, turning him into a grotesque caricature of himself, the features unfinished and rounded in some places, and impossibly sharp in others, like a withered pillar of stone in the middle of restoration.
Layne had forgone the use of his zanpakuto and was simply trying to claw Rose's face off, and darn near succeeding too, Shinji noticed, realizing that ten minutes were nearly up
"Open up the barrier Hachi" Shinji said, tapping on it with the hilt of his zanpakuto "Last ten minutes are mine"
"Wake up Layne"
Layne rolled over and vomited out a copious amount of water, drenching the ground under him
"Fucking. Hate. Vomiting" he coughed and sputtered, clearing the last of the water from his lungs
"What in the world is this place?" he wondered, sitting up and glancing around at the featureless white walls of the round room, with a corner pressed into it
"Oh great, a bloody round room with a corner, that's my freaking afterlife is it"
"Why Layne?"
Layne stood up
"Who's there?" he asked cautiously, slowly turning his head around "Where are you?"
Light flashed in front of his eyes, and suddenly Layne stood atop the Sokyoku Hill, surrounded by Rukia, Moll and Joel who stared blankly at him
"Rukia, Moll, Joel!" Layne exclaimed in surprise "What are you guys doing here?"
"Why did you help save me?" Rukia asked emotionlessly
"What? Why did I help save you? Because you were going to die, and you needed my help?"
"You'd do better to tell the truth" Rukia said "Why did you help save me, a complete stranger to you, at the cost of everything you used to know, and hold dear?"
"Oh, I see how it is, you're not the real Rukia, and this, none of this is real is it…I'm dead aren't I, and being judged… well fine then"
Layne paced around for a couple of seconds and turned back to Rukia, who hadn't been staring at him, but straight forwards
"I saved you… because at that point, as far as I knew, I'd been abandoned by my closest friend, and following Ichigo was my only choice"
Rukia nodded and vanished
Layne turned to Moll
"And what significant life question do you have to ask?"
"Why didn't you accept the Captain's position and stay with Joel and I?"
"Truthfully, not because I'm lazy, but because I was still alive, and I sure as hell intended to stay that way"
"You used your full strength as you knew it against me…why can't you do the same against a hollow?" Joel asked, as Moll vanished
Layne opened his mouth to answer, then shut it again
"I don't know"
Joel and the Sokyoku Hill vanished and Layne was back in the cornered round room
"What, I don't know was the right answer?"
The room vanished again, and it replaced itself with the rocky area of Urahara's basement just in front of Layne's house, with Kieran, Ichigo and Diff standing with him
"I'm your own brother, your flesh and blood relation, but you could kill me without a second thought" Kieran said
"You killed our Mother you sick son of a bitch" Layne spat "Every single breath you take is one more than you deserve"
"You follow me…" Ichigo began, before being cut off by Layne's quick reply
"Because you're the only person who's never given me a single reason to doubt you"
"You can't beat me" Diff stated
"I don't fucking know why" Layne growled
Layne's house vanished, and it was back to the circular room, and then it flashed to an unfamiliar place, a desert which Layne was quite sure he'd never been before, and in the distance, Layne could make out a white fortress
Kira, Aizen, Mollow and Visera
"Now how do I know that name?" Layne wondered
"You killed me" Kira said, almost accusingly
"Yeah, and I've come to terms with it, sometimes the best way to help other people is to eliminate the most dangerous of them"
"You hate me" Aizen said
"You created me as I am now, your mistake"
Mollow opened her mouth and Layne stuck his hand up
"Don't say anything, I've already failed to defeat you once, and only a failure loses to the same person twice…you're one up… and the next time we meet, I'll even that score, be it after Ichigo kicks you're sorry ass to me"
"Can you defeat me?" Visera asked
"I don't know"
The scene flashed back to the cornered round room, then to the two lone trees next to Layne's reiatsu pool, with Joel, Diff and Visera
"Why can you unleash hell on me, but not on a hollow?" Joel asked
"We made the same choice, but I had to get through... but you didn't have to stop me, Oath's made to my friends last longer than Oath's made to an organisation… otherwise you'd have the Oathkeeper"
"Why can't you beat me?" Diff asked
"Because I'm afraid that if I beat you, I'll become you, but it doesn't matter at this point does it"
"Can you beat me?"
"I don't know, but if I ever see you… I'll sure as hell try"
"Why'd Shinji go last?" Mashiro asked "He never goes last, he says last has to take the longest"
"It's been too long already" Kensei muttered "Seventy minutes is far too long for this, why doesn't Shinji call it off?"
Lisa looked over at Shinji, who looked beaten to absolute hell, but hadn't made a mark on Layne for the past four minutes
"Thanks Shinji" she whispered "But even I know when to quit"
Lisa turned to Kensei
"It's time to shut it down"
Layne threw his eyes open, and stood up, at the bottom of his reiatsu pool. Suddenly able to breath it, see through it, and move through it as effortlessly as he did through air
Layne looked up, unable to see the top of lake, and shrugged, summoning Oathkeeper to him, and rocketing upwards
"Hachi, lower the barrier before Layne kills Shinji" Love said curtly, between the eight of us we should be able to put him down"
"Wait!" Lisa cried "Look at that!"
Layne backed off, clawing at his face
"Leave the barrier up, but get Shinji out!" Lisa yelled
Hachi nodded and Love and Rose ran to grab Shinji out
"Guess you're not as weak as I thought you were" Diff taunted, as Layne emerged from the water and landed in front of him "Now that you've pulled the last of that will to continue on out, I can crush you and take over once and for all"
Layne said nothing, just smiled and beckoned
"Don't get cocky, I'll be the one sitting on the pedestal from now on" Diff snarled, charging forwards
"I see what you are now… Oblivion, the most destructive force, and yet… not evil, like you said Diff, I spose I should thank you"
Layne held his right hand out and Oblivion appeared in it
Diff didn't seem to notice, because he continued his charge
Layne's blades flashed and suddenly Diff was pinned against one of the trees, Oblivion impaled through his chest
"I'm still the boss, and until Time says otherwise, I'll be here for an eternal session"
"Sonuvaslut" Diff choked out "Can't believe I'm losing to you"
"Get used to it"
"This is different" Hiyori muttered "It's like he's still fighting the hollow for control"
Lisa nodded "But it proves he still in there"
A sudden wash of reiatsu overtook them all and they started watching Layne, who had succeeded in ripping three jagged lines along the left side of his face
And then exploded, the force straining the barrier, and blowing everyone back away from the barrier
"Did it work?" Mashiro asked "I hope Roady-tan is ok"
"We'll see" Love said curtly "seventy minutes is a long time… let the barrier down Hachi, we'll see what happens"
Hachi clicked his fingers slowly, trembling with his exertion, and once again the golden barrier shattered and disappeared, slowly allowing the dust to settle, revealing Layne, still transformed
"Ready everyone?" Kensei asked "Looks like we need to put it down after all"
The Vizards charged forwards, and Layne held up his hand
"Wait a second!" Lisa warned "It's doing something"
Layne clenched his fist and then unclenched it, the white hollow casing around his hand breaking off and disappearing into the air
The Vizards watched as the rest of the shell fell off, and Layne fell to his knees, sporting a very oddly shaped mask.
The mouth area was pointed slightly forwards, and along the left side there were jagged rips in it, corresponding where Layne had scratched himself in hollow form, and there were three green jagged stripes from the top of his right eyehole, to the top right corner of the mask, the eyes perfectly matched his own sockets and there were two nose slits just under his nostrils
The mask fell off and Layne slumped backwards, staring at the painted sky
The Vizards approached him slowly
"How is it?" Lisa asked
"I feel like shit" Layne replied
Lisa smirked and helped him up, supporting most of his weight, before reacting in surprise to his still white right hand
"You've still got some armor on you" she said, sounding concerned
Layne looked at it, and surprisingly, the pattern had changed yet again, from a giant green cross that encompassed his hand, and this time, he recognized it
"No… that's my hand, but the tattoo is… Omega?"
"Omega?"
"The Greek letter… that's just freaking weird"
"That's so… not cool!" Orihime exclaimed, bursting into her room to see Matsumoto and Hitsugaya staring at a giant television screen mounted on her far wall "What is this?"
"Of course you'd get home right now" Hitsugaya muttered, facepalming, but not looking away from the screen
"This is Toshiro Hitsugaya of the 10th division"
"Acknowledged, patching you through" the Tv spoke back, surprising Orihime
The Tv flashed out for a second, then back in on Yamamoto
"Head Captain" Hitsugaya greeted
"Head Captain-san…" Orihime said quietly behind him
"You worked quickly in setting up this link" Yamamoto commended "as I've come to expect from you, Captain Hitsugaya"
Hitsugaya waited for Yamamoto to continue
"The only reason that we have made you set up this urgent link so fast is… Aizen Sousuke's true objective has been found"
"It's like being hungover" Layne muttered, staring at the ceiling "I'd rather gouge my brain out than live with this headache for a second longer"
"Too bad" Lisa replied, standing over the futon he was sprawled across on "You have to get up, and you have to come practice your hollow mask"
"…."
"Or I do I have to start tearing up in here?"
Layne shot out of his bed, so fast
"No… lets go practice"
"Aizen's… true objective?" Hitsugaya asked, shocked
"Indeed"
"This sounds kind of important" Orihime said quickly, walking towards the door "I'll just leave you to it"
"Wait, this concerns you humans too… so please listen" Yamamoto said gravely
Orihime nodded and stayed to listen
Yamamoto explained how they'd been searching for Aizen's research, and was about to go into a long winded explanation of the entire thing before Hitsugaya asked him to get to the point
"Of course, Ukitake discovered evidence of Aizen's research on a topic completely unrelated to the Hogyoku… but on the Ouken"
The shock Hitsugaya and Matsumoto felt was evident from their slack jaws
"Ouken?" Orihime asked "That's…"
"It's exactly how it sounds" Matsumoto explained "We have a king, but since he doesn't do anything and leaves all the operation to us, then we don't feel his presence"
"Aizen has found a way to create an Ouken, rather than the location of the one we currently have… and he needs to wipe Karakura town off the face of the planet to finish it"
"We can't… we can't let that happen… is there a way to stop it?" Orihime asked bleakly
"Even if their isn't… we will find a way, that is the purpose of the Gotei 13"
Matsumoto turned and smiled at Orihime reassuringly
"We have time, according to Kurotsuchi's report the Hogyoku will not awaken for another four months, and Aizen will not be able to mobilize until then… so the decisive battle will be in winter, and until then polish your skill and make ready for war"
"Yes Sir!"
"And… we might not be able to do this by ourselves, We will require the strength of the human world, so could you please inform Ichigo Kurosaki, and Layne Trell"
"Yes Sir!" Orihime said firmly, turning and running out of the room
Chad crashed into one of the rock pillars under Urahara's store, sending chunks of stone flying in all directions
"Come on Sado, shouldn't it be you schooling me?" Joel asked, rotating Fist of the Mountain "I did steal the whole arm idea off you, but if you're done for the day, that's cool too"
"Not a chance" Chad said, standing back up and rushing at Joel
"Good as"
Layne cracked his knuckles and neck, ignoring Ichigo getting the shit kicked out of him behind him
"Do I have to do that as well?" he asked
Lisa laughed "No, I'm a lot different to Hiyori, pass me your zanpakuto"
Layne raised an eyebrow, but tossed his sealed zanpakuto, still sheathed to her
She unsheathed them, and stabbed them into the ground, along with her own one
"Those swords don't leave the ground for five days, got it?"
"Sounds good to me" Layne replied "Let's get started"
"Alright, summon your mask"
Layne reached up to his face with his hollowfied right hand, but was stopped as Lisa flashstepped forward and slapped him
"Do it without using your hands"
"Wait What?"
a/n - ftw, done XD
Fall Back in line chapter coming up, staggering releases... lost all my drafts for it and having to rewrite is fail