Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters. I have no excuse or witty remarks today, but regardless, there wouldn't be no way I would ever own Bleach.

The Bridge Of Silence

+---+

+Bleeding Black+

'The fear of the night that gallops silently,

The screams whisper ever so gently in the wind.

All the blood that is spilled is smearing,

And the soft chilling wind smiles softly in the night.'

-Y.I.

+---+

Ichigo couldn't think anymore, couldn't concentrate on the fact that he couldn't possibly allow his wife and sister to go with them. From the reports from 12th squad, it seemed as though there were three Espadas that were unknown to them along with Aizen's son. He stood there gaping like a complete idiot for a second, hoping and wishing to have never let this day come to this at all because it only became a heavy burden.

Hitsugaya noticed him looking solemn, sadden at the fact that he would have to fight his friend--though the feeling wasn't new to him at all. Clearly, the white haired shinigami remembered the time in which he too, fought against his former friend as well. The sudden feeling had been a setback, pulling him under a state of shock and worry. The look upon Hinamori Momo's face would never fail to leave his mind at all, even after all of these years that it had gone by.

"I can't allow Karin to come at all." The orange haired male suddenly said, turning around swiftly to leave the room. Hitsugaya trailed behind him, clenching his fists as he suppressed his feelings inside of him.

"I'll tell her about it, though she won't like it." He said, as the two captains shunpoed their way to find the women and announce the sudden change of plans.

"I know, she'll most likely kill me if I don't get killed in the real world." Ichigo tried to make a joke, but only earned a glare from his brother-in-law.

Knowing that Inoue Orihime was the enemy seemed still farfetched, a hope so far away to not having to see her again after so long, and knowing that she perhaps had a grudge against him. Despite the fact that he felt hurt, it wouldn't make a difference now since she had been plotting against Soul Society just like Aizen had, and the only thought that thoroughly confused him was the fact that Aizen had a son.

Hitsugaya found that hardly believable in the beginning, could he have being able to actually have children with a human? Well, that could be true seeing that he managed to have a child himself with Karin, but she was already a shinigami then. All of it confused him though, and he knew that his brother-in-law wouldn't like fighting this time around at all. For now, he needed to focus on how in the world he would have to face it himself as well.

+---+

The feeling of dread was keeping Karin from actually doing anything about it, how come her brother had suddenly said that she was not allowed to go with them to the real world. She stared aimlessly into the open space, finding it hard to push away that feeling , and she wanted for Toushiro to come back at the moment. Tatsuya laid asleep after she had gone to pick him up, and somehow the feeling of knowing that something bad was going to happen was haunting her deeply.

"Karin, are you alright?" Rukia asked her, putting her hand on her shoulder. The worry on Karin's face wasn't leaving, and the petite shinigami wasn't getting a good feeling about it either.

"There's a feeling that something bad is going to happen." She expressed, sighing in defeat at the fact that there wouldn't be a point on thinking so much about it.

"I know the feeling, I'm worried about Ichigo as well." Rukia expressed, looking down at her stomach and putting a hand on it. "Ichigo had his reasons for not taking you."

The dark haired shinigami groaned inwardly, punching the wall slightly feeling frustrated at the fact that her brother and husband had gone, and she knew there was a feeling of loathing coming from Ichigo towards the enemy. Inoue Orihime, that struck as rare for her knowing that she couldn't possibly hurt a fly at all because she hadn't been willing to attack anyone at all from the stories that Rukia and Ichigo had shared.

"I can't possibly think about how Ichi-nii must feel right now, facing her again." She murmured softly, gazing at the sinking sun and holding onto one of her sleeves. "Opening old wounds on his heart never ends up well, never truly eases his worries or the fact that he failed on something."

She knew well that her brother oftentimes blamed himself for a lot of things, taking up the burden of someone else's mistakes or failures was his thing, but now? Everyone worried, she remembered the time in which he would suddenly disappear to do his shinigami things, and making her worry sick about it. Karin hated that feeling, knowing that she couldn't do a single thing about it because there was no way of helping at all.

Rukia saw the pained expression on her sister-in-law's face, that void that which could only be shared between siblings because she knew also about how her husband felt guilty. She understood as well, but what could it be done about it? There was only so much that Rukia could do to ease that, to slowly stop him from blaming himself more and more.

"Ichigo will do fine, he always has." She tried to stay positive, for herself and Karin. "If not, then he'll have to respond to me and you as well."

Karin smiled a little, and nodded her head trying to push all the worrying thoughts aside. "Thank you, Rukia-nee."

"Kaasan!" Tatsuya suddenly woke up, crying.

She looked at him and smiled, she had to put her hope higher and believe that Hitsugaya would get by with it. After all, he was strong and he believed in winning all the time, and he wasn't the type to give up easily in anything at all.

+---+

Hitsugaya was attacked first upon arrival, the powerful hit made sparks fly out in the darkness. The soft chuckle of the strange shinigami that attacked him was haunting, it was far too similar to someone from the past he refused to think about. Those same brown eyes stared at him back, there was no shock knowing that the boy had to be Aizen's son without a doubt.

"Hn, you are faster then I thought." The boy said, taunting him as he kept on hitting him and blocking as well.

"…" Hitsugaya said nothing, the enemy did not deserve to hear anything from him. His teal eyes shined brightly with the moonlight.

The dark sky was filled with tiny stars, the cool breeze gently wrapping itself around them and whistling against their ears. Spring was starting in Karakura, unlike Soul Society due to how different the two dimensions were. Ichigo was fighting against an Espada named Croix, while Abarai was helping Matsumoto with another named Jeazule, and Hisagi was fighting against Inoue by himself.

Even if this was a small battle per say, the Espadas were actually strong and so much like the previous ones that had existed. The jeering screams of the Hollows, Gillian, Menos Grandes and all of those lower minions could be hear from afar. The small faint blue and red lights could be seen, along with what sounded like cannon balls that echoed in the night.

"My father's zanpaktou surely astounds me a lot of times." The boy broke the silence, as the two were staring at each other waiting for the moment to attack. "I'm Makoto by the way, but no need for you to tell me who you are, Hitsugaya Toushiro."

That arrogance was driving the white haired captain insane, so foolish and completely naïve as to treat him like a weakling shinigami. Just because he was the son of a once powerful shinigami, but that only depended on the people and their will of wanting to fight. He swung Hyorinmaru into the sky and called out for him, the dragon appeared, attacking instantly.

Elsewhere, Ichigo had gone bankai mode against the male Espada known as Croix, who looked so peaceful despite being already cut. A deep gash ran across Ichigo's chest already, bleeding slowly since it was nothing special about the cut at all. Croix was becoming annoying, throwing around a strange liquid from the goblet that he carried on his hand. Though, the liquid looked yellowish green, and as it landed on certain spots it would melt it off.

Ichigo's robes were tattered already, holes here and there, and some droplets had managed to land on his skin; causing burns. His breathing was fast, trying to regain the oxygen back into his lungs. Slowly, he raised his sword up, while his reiatsu increased instantly.

"Tensa Zangetsu!" He cried out loudly, releasing the energy to create the crescent moon-like shape.

The Espada jumped out of the way, splashing more of the endless liquid around without a reason at all. Ichigo found that extremely strange from the beginning--unless there was another attack being planned from it. Ichigo's eyes widened, it seemed that not only the liquid was able to melt off surfaces, but it continued to bubble for some strange reason.

"I see that you have noticed it." Croix smiled widely, feeling proud of himself for managing to shake the orange haired shinigami. "My power is Parásito, the liquid is a form of a hazardous chemical that would burn things it would land on."

Somehow, Ichigo sensed that there was something more to it then Croix was revealing, but what was it? Suddenly, his arms began to burn wildly and he let out a scream, it felt like his flesh was being bitten by an invisible beast.

"Punción, Parásito." Croix was engulfed in the liquid that he had dropped around him. Ichigo covered his eyes from the blinding light, but then let out a loud scream of pain.

+---+

Karin couldn't stand still for any second longer, night had fallen suddenly and she couldn't fall asleep at all as much as she tried to do so. That feeling that something bad was going to happen would not leave her still, even though despite the fact that she did not want to think about it at all, but it was impossible. The old scar when the time she hadn't known that he had been kidnapped haunted her, making her fear that he would be taken away from her again.

"Damn it Toushiro, you better not fucking screw things up." She muttered loudly as she walked around, trying to tire herself out and perhaps go to sleep.

Currently, the situation was that there were a few Espadas that were alongside Inoue and along with Aizen's son. The silence was becoming more thicker, more heavier as the density of the air was thinning out and Karin's irises were becoming foggy.

'Karin, I can sense something bad.' Yozora no Kiri spoke, materializing in front of her.

"What do you mean?" She asked worriedly, turning around as she had sense someone.

'I don't know, but its not something good at all.' Her own voice was hard, confused at the strange sensation that was being hidden underneath the silence.

The dark haired shinigami stood still, closing her eyes to sense something that was bothering her, to pinpoint the certain strange sensation that was coming. That sudden feeling of worry and confusion wasn't helping, and suddenly there was an explosion. Karin ran, opening the shoji doors and looking around.

"Karin, what's going on?" Tatsuki appeared suddenly holding her son in her arms.

"Something is very wrong with this picture." She muttered, walking back inside and picking up Tatsuya up. Slowly, fire began to spread around a few buildings, the sirens blaring loudly against the silence--everything was going crazy by each second.

Both shinigami women took off, the other shinigamis appearing suddenly at the sudden explosions that were beginning to start. They arrived at the 9th squad barracks, where they had sensed Yuzu and Rukia from afar, all of the 9th squad shinigamis were running around as if orders had been given.

Tatsuki and Karin stood there, looking at all of the shinigamis leaving the barracks and were off to the open streets of Seireitei, while Hell Butterflies were fluttering around shinning in the darkness. Yuzu trailed behind the rest that were coming out, she seemed to be out of breath.

"Yuzu, what's going?" Karin asked, looking at her twin.

"There's been an infiltration on Soul Society's records." She spat out rapidly, her brown eyes opening and closing as she continued to gasp for air. "I--I was in the library looking at some records that Shuuhei wanted me to look at, and then, it happen suddenly."

"What do you mean?" Tatsuki looked at her, feeling chills running up and down her spine.

The golden haired shinigami sighed deeply, running back and forth between places truly worn one out, but at the moment it wasn't proper to think about it at all.

"I thought that I had sensed something, someone else's reiatsu in the room." Yuzu explained, carefully remembering almost everything. "I checked to see if there was anyone around, but I couldn't tell if there was or not. I was certain that there was someone else there--then suddenly I got knocked back and the explosion noise started."

Karin found that to be fishy, of course it was obvious that a shinigami needed to learn how to mask their reiatsu, but wasn't it strange for it to be used in order to get inside a place? A library was not really a place interesting enough, the hall of records held much more information; except that only captain class shinigamis were allowed inside of it.

Could there be someone working for the bad side? It was possible though, giving out information regarding how the Gotei 13 stood at in the current time, and there were only a few people that knew more then everyone else. She had more knowledge then lower seat members because of her husband and brother, nothing was hidden between them at all, but what of the others?

"Hina-mori." That was the conclusion to everything, after all, she was a master of kido and was the best of them all.

A motive existed there for her to join back, to get a feeling that her beloved Aizen-taichou still was alive somewhere, and perhaps be revived to return to his glory once more. Karin knew about it, that intimate obsession of hers with the traitor, and even after all of the bad things he had done to her; she was always devoted to him without thinking so much about consequences.

"Snap, Tobiume." The soft voice travelled with the wind, Karin managed to pull out her sword from her side and it crashed against the blade that came at her.

"Too slow." Karin expressed emotionless, while still holding onto Tatsuya and protecting him.

Tatsuki and Yuzu had shunpoed away, but were still close enough to stand there watching how Hinamori held her sword against Karin's. A petrifying look upon her face, murderous as her brown eyes stared at the small boy and at the mother--Yuzu wasn't really liking it.

"Karin-chan!" She called out, walking towards her sister. As she continued to walk, suddenly she was thrown back to the same spot she had been standing in. "W-what was that?"

"A barrier, only the most skilled kido specialist are able to create one like that." Tatsuki could easily see the barrier, even if it was invisible.

Both shinigamis stood there gazing at the other two, neither of them looking like they were moving at all and just looking at each other. Karin hated Hinamori to say the least, for always treating her husband awful in the past and for being a traitor, and she had been attack while with child in hands. Tatsuya seemed to only gaze at his mother, the look upon her dark eyes showed anger, and he started to cry.

"Now, look at what you did stupid bitch!" She shouted at the woman, stepping back and trying to calm the white haired baby down. "Are you trying to kill him as well?"

The shinigami stood there, panting hard as she looked at the woman she despised with all existence, and for taking away the man that had promised to protect her from harm. The betrayal had woven a wound inside, gripping tighter and tighter, and growing in amount. Now, the opportunity had come in which she had willingly given information to Inoue Orihime, telling her about how strongly Hitsugaya and Karin would be for their experiment, and in hopes of getting Aizen-taichou back to his right place.

"Kurosaki-san…Shiro-chan…Tatsuya-kun…Kurosaki-taichou…Kuchiki-fukutaichou…"Hinamori said in a singsong voice. "Are…only…pieces." A malicious chuckled escaped her, then stopping as she raised her sword up, getting ready to attack again."

The dark haired shinigami only had seconds to think for a plan, one that could save her son from being hit by whatever it was that the other shinigami would do, and it was only a matter of seconds. You can do it Karin, don't be afraid. Yozora no Kiri's voice spoke softly against her ear. Call out for me, and the barrier will be broken. Trust me.

"Fade…Yozora no Kiri!" Karin called out, her blade dissolving in thin air, and then cutting the barrier for an opening.

I apologize deeply for the very, very late chapter, and for it being a short chapter. I lost some motivation to continue with this story, until recently, when my friend told me that I needed to get done with it. The process of writing this story has become so time consuming, plus on top of that I have school, two exams next week--so I've been under a lot of stress. Anyways, hope that this chapter isn't so bad because I am rather horrid at writing fighting scenes. Well, I'll like to thank for those who have stuck to this story and for keeping up with it, it also helps me on my motivation to continuing writing it. To be more precise, I think this story will come to an end pretty soon since there's other ideas I'll like to work on--and I'm thinking on going on a Hitsu/Karin crusade of writing fanfictions for them 'cos they are honestly my favourite couple. Totally besides the point...

+happygirl24- 'Thank you so much for reviewing, I would bake you some cookies and send them too you, but I'm afraid that they wouldn't be edible at all XD. Hope that you enjoyed this chapter, it was extremely hard to write.'

+Tsukihime nee- 'Its alright, I understand technology problems. I'm glad that you liked the chapter though, and my apologies for this short chapter.'

+WatermelonPrincess- 'Woah...lot of stuff happening in your life. Small advice, take a deep breath :D. Hope that everything is okay though, and I understand what its like to have homework being piled up along with projects and such--I was in high school once too lol. And hope that your friend is doing better, sorry that I can't say much but it helps that you are there for her. Its alright, I'm just glad that you take your time to read and review my story, makes my day to be more precise. Sorry for the short chapter though.'

Punción-Puncture, Parásito-Parasite--I'm not sure if that would be alright, but I'm not creative so much with the Espada thing, so those are the translations. Karin's zanpaktou details are still in development, but I think I like the idea of the 'fade' part since its mist. Yuzu will also participate--don't worry, and you'll see what her power is going to be like.

The OC Espadas were rather hard to come up with, so kindly don't take too much mind into them 'cos I did not feel like using some of the original Espadas and such for this chapter. I'll probably won't go into depth with the fighting scenes 'cos they are really hard to work with, and I don't much fancy them either.I don't know what else to say really, but most likely I'll only write on more chapter regarding fighting scenes and all of that, and something good happens along the way for our star couple. I will make a fighting scene between Hinamori and Karin though--wouldn't you agree? Well, that's all I have to say for now. Like it? Review it. Hate it? That's alright.