The Chemical Reaction

Atagoki: Thank you for all your sweet reviews everyone, I truly appreciate it.

Warning: None for this one aside from minor language.

Disclaimer: See chapter 5.

Chapter 6:

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. — The Wonder Years

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Rukia chewed on her lower lip as she stabbed her salad with her fork, then twirled it upside down and looked at Rangiku. "Rangiku-san, what do you think about Kurosaki escaping?"

"Mhpm!" her friend groaned as she choked on the piece of food she was chewing. She swallowed her bite, then washed it down with her drink. "Excuse me? I mean...I think it's pretty stupid how the security system was down, but he obviously did some planning."

"I suppose that's true. The security system has been going down a lot, hasn't it?"

"Yeah. And the thing is, I've run the program millions of times but I can never find what's wrong or debug it. It's like there's something going on internally. I think someone put a virus and messed it up or someone has been downloading something ridiculous like porn and screwing up the system."

"Yeah."

"Rukia-chan? Are you all right?" Rangiku asked, touching her friend on the hand.

Rukia looked up and pulled her hand back. "Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Just...disappointed."

"It's understandable. But remember, it's not your fault."

Rukia resisted the urge to snort.

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The thoughts of what happened that night encircled Rukia's mind. It was like a poison, intoxicating her every being and causing her to become it's hypnotic slave. Every waking moment was spent on her thinking about her actions, about her feelings, about what she wished she had said.

"Ichigo, come on! We don't have much time left!" Rukia called to him, running faster and down the hallway.

"You're crazy! Why are you doing this?"

"Stop asking questions and follow me!"

"All right."

Perspiration continued to build up on Rukia's forehead. She felt uncomfortable and at one point, she felt her heart beating so fast she was scared she would pass out. Her breath became heavy, but she neared the door and pushed it open, then inhaled the fresh air. "We're here." Rukia managed to get out, then let the fresh air force it's way into her lungs and she breathed steadily.

"Here?"

"Here. Now...take this..." Rukia said, lifting her arm up with a piece of parchment. "It's directions...to a man...named Urahara Kisuke. He'll...help you escape...this area and make...sure your family remains...safe. Also...ask him to check on Inoue...Orihime. Then tell him I said we're...even." she continued, pausing in between her phrases to pant and take a breath.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Just promise me you'll destroy all your evidence and computers and the instructions I gave you and never under any circumstance are you to contact me ever again. And if I may ask you a favor...please, can you make sure Inoue stays safe. They may suspect her of helping you and I don't want her to undergo what you did. She deserves better."

"And I didn't?"

Rukia forced a smile, then pulled her hands off her waist and lifted her eyes from the ground to his eyes. "Ha ha, funny, Ichigo. Now go...and if it's any consolation, you were right about this place. My loyalties were misplaced and I obviously put too much faith into something. I was blind to see the changes of the ways of this place Thank you for opening my eyes."

"No. Thank you, Rukia."

Rukia felt her eyes get heavy with tears. She didn't mean some of what she said. Truthfully, she wanted him to come back for her. To rescue her. To save her from her work. She wanted to be as far away from here as possible. But she didn't deserve his rescue or anything like that. "I'm such an idiot." she hissed at herself, placing her elbows on her desk and burying her face in her hands. "Please, Ichigo, forgive me. I don't know why I did it...I just did because...I don't know. I don't know what this feeling is. And it scares the hell out of me. I want it to stay and go away at the same time."

Her office door knocked and Rukia looked up, then wiped away her tears and tried to compose herself. She opened the door. "Yes?"

"Kuchiki Rukia." Renji. But he never used her full name. And her brother was behind her. Rukia shivered slightly. "You are hereby under arrest under suspicion of aiding and abetting, hacking into classified files, and..." Renji paused, which in turn, made her shiver more.

"Treason." her brother finished.

Atagoki: OMG. LOL. Weren't expecting that, were ya? Or maybe you were. LOL. Anyway, short, I know, but this is the main point of the rising action. There's more to come, I can assure you. And I actually like this chapter.

So...read and review. And for those of you who are curious about updates in my writing career, do check out my profile. If you don't want to, I will let you know that I plan on writing a new IchiRuki story, Fairytales Are Fiction. ;)