Shizuka sat by the window that night, staring outside at the ruckus of Karakura Town. It wasn't much...But it was a place, and she liked those...

This thought proved that Shizuka was indeed quite tired. Her eyes were burning to close and let her slip into sleep. But she couldn't. She couldn't let herself sleep...Because she sensed someone out there. She didn't know who it was, but she sensed them.

They didn't seem threatening, and if they were, Sora was laying right beside her, pretending to be asleep, so she could always kick him to wake him up. Hikari and Koi were also pretending to be asleep on the other side of the room, so she could throw a shoe at them...

And then they stepped out of the brush.

A small girl, petite and dark headed. She held a sheathed sword in her hand. Her dress was short and red with long sleeves and her boots up to her knees. Beside her was a man, with semi-long dark wavy hair and dressed as if he was from long ago. He had a cello case on his back and a bandage on his hand.

I...know...her... Shizuka thought.

Suddenly, she noticed Sora, Hikari and Koi beside her, looking out the window.

"Looks like she woke up early..." Sora mumbled.

"Yeah, I'll say." Koi muttered.

"Didn't she just go to sleep twenty-five years ago?" Hikari gasped.

Just then, the two of the people down there looked up. The girls eyes caught hers and Shizuka stared back in awe.

A name rocketed through her head like a firecracker. Images of the past invading her mind. She felt a little faint...

"They're girls..." The soft voice of the nurse carressed my worries away.

I looked up at her with wide eyes, my face displaying emotions beyond any comprehension.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"Here."

I looked over and laughed at Koi and Hikari as they each held a baby girl. I motioned for them to come closer and gawked down at my daughters.

One had an unmistakingly beautifully shaped face, her eyes bright blue and riveting. Even at birth, her dark hair framed her face perfectly.

"Diva." I told Hikari, who was holding her. "I want to name her Diva."

I touched Diva's cheek and she smiled at me, melting my heart.

But I had to divert my attention to the other...

She was also beautiful, with a soft baby-round face and the same lips as me. She held brown-red eyes that held so much strength I felt like a weakling.

I knew exactly what to name her...

"Saya." Shizuka muttered as my eyes sort of blurred.

She was surprised she hadn't swayed in her little flashback, and she looked back at Hikari, Koi and Sora to see them staring at her. Okay...maybe she had?

"You...remember?" Hikari asked.

"Yeah." Shizuka nodded. "She was the strong one..."

She looked back at them as Saya and her Chevallier stood perfectly still.

"I want to see her." Shizuka told the three behind her.

Sora sighed before grabbing her and opting to jump out the window.

When he put her on her feet, Saya was backing away. Shizuka held a hand out, as if meaning peace, and took her sheathed sword out of her belt.

"I'm not going to try and hurt you." She told her before motioning back at the other three. "And neither are they."

Saya paused and looked up at the dark haired guy.

Shizuka smiled at the both of them, wondering if she should feel protective of Saya like she did at the moment. Technically, she wasn't even her daughter anymore. And, damn, she was only 16, she wasn't ready for kids. But she felt this jerking of her chest towards Saya, like she wanted to hug her and tell her she loved her.

But not in a weird way, you know. Like a mother-daughter way.

"Forgive me for being to the point, but weren't you supposed to be asleep?" Sora asked from directly behind her.

"She awoke early." The man said anciently.

Wow, he must be one old Chevallier. I wonder if he's as old as mine...No, duh. He wasn't even a Chevallier yet when I died.

She scolded herself for ridiculous thoughts as the world seemed to forget all about her and the guys kept on talking.

"I see Shizuka has awoken early as well." The man pointed out.

"It was nessicary." Sora narrowed his eyes.

Geez, such hostility. Shizuka thought. She wanted to reach back and smack him (something she totally wouldn't have considered twenty-four hours ago) and tell him to be more polite.

"Has she regained her memories?"

"She's beginning to." Sora answered. "And Saya?"

Shizuka watched as Saya looked away from her and to Sora as he said her name, before her eyes slipped back to Shizuka again.

"She's remembering as well."

The man's eyes looked down at Shizuka, and she felt like she had way too much attention on her. She wanted to start running or--even better--go to sleep.

She looked intently at Saya as the girl looked at her. Her eyes were so sad, as if she had lost something dear to her, but they were still as strong as Shizuka remembered. At least her heart was still pure...

She took a hestiant step towards her, feeling her Chevallier dash around to stand in front of her.

"Hagi!" Hikari stepped forward and narrowed her eyes. "Come on. She won't hurt Saya, of all people."

Hagi looked down at Shizuka with caution-filled eyes. Shizuka looked up at him with something like pleading eyes. His face softened and there was a calm hand on his shoulder.

Shizuka felt better when Saya pushed him gently to the side and nodded.

Saya walked forward and met Shizuka half way. They looked at each other for a second, thier eyes meeting.

Shizuka felt warmth course through her, her lips slightly parted. Her face was soft and caring as she looked at Saya. She felt like a mother who had lost her child before she could even say hello...

But she really wasn't...was she?

"You're..." Saya's eyes got a little glassy. "Where I came from?"

Shizuka laughed quietly. "That's a strange way of putting it, but yes."

"My...mother?" Saya swallowed.

Shizuka looked down. "I don't know if you would call me that now. I...I don't remember much, about the me before. I haven't been alive all this time like you."

"What?" Saya glanced at Hagi.

"I died." Shizuka told her. "Appearantly, right after you were born. And this is me...reincarnated."

Saya gulped before looking down at the ground. "I see..."

Shizuka's eyes got sadder by the second as she reached out and touched her shoulder.

"Saya..." She muttered. "I'm sorry I left you all alone."

Saya nodded before looking up. "I'm still not sure exactly what to do. I feel...angry that I was left alone all those years, but it doesn't seem like that was much of your fault. And I feel attached. I think...I can feel better knowing. Which is why..."

Saya looked up at Hagi and he only looked away. She gritted her teeth and looked back at Shizuka.

"I'm going with you." Saya told her.

"Saya." Shizuka shook her head. "It's dangerous."

"I've handled Chiropteran before." Saya told her. "I know how to fight, and my blood can kill them, too."

"I don't know..." Shizuka swallowed hard, her eyes beginning to get blurry at the sleep she needed.

Suddenly, there were arms around her, holding her up. She thought they were Sora's, but was surprised when she found that they were Saya's.

"Are you...getting near your sleep?" Saya asked her, worried.

"Shizuka doesn't sleep like you." Sora explained as he picked Shizuka up easily, feeling her curl into him.

"You mean, she doesn't have a thirty year sleep?" Saya's eyes were wide.

"No." Hikari smiled and shook her head.

"Lucky..." Saya muttered.

"Come inside." Hikari said. "You can stay in our room, it's plenty big enough. I'm sure Urahara-san wouldn't mind."

"Okay." Saya smiled at her.

She walked forward, her spine tensing when Hagi lingered behind.

"Hagi." She said as she looked over her shoulder. "Come."

He kept his eyes on the ground. "As you wish."

And he followed her.

She knew she was remembering in her dreams again. She felt the familiarity of deja vu, like a reality slap to the face.

She wasn't in control of herself, but she was herself. She was doing what her old self would do. Not her now.

The prescence of Hikari and Koi behind her are what kept her going steadily through the streets of London. She wore a long, dark green dress that she had gotten from a nice store in Dublin. Over that she wore a dark cloak with her hood pulled up, not because she was afraid of the sun that loomed overhead, but she didn't want to be recognized.

Hikari touched her sleeve and Shizuka glanced back.

"Is that him?" She asked her.

Shizuka looked forward to see a dark haired man walking down the street with his eyes on the ground. His hair was a little past his shoulders, hanging in his dark blue eyes. He was pale and his face was some sort of sad, nonetheless, all the women seemed to be staring at him.

Shizuka notted to Hikari and the two of them quickened thier pace to walk in front of her. Shizuka gulped as they approached him. He nearly jumped ten feet in the air when Koi and Hikari stepped in front of him.

"Byakuya." Koi said as she smiled at him. "Long time, no see."

"There was a reason I kept my distance." His eyes glanced behind them where Shizuka still kept her eyes on the ground.

"You don't need to be scared of us." Hikari told him sincerly. "We know what you're going through. You look pale, when's the last time you ate?"

"None of your buisness." He told her sharply.

"Byakuya, if you don't...eat, you'll die." Koi whispered.

"I don't care." He spat.

"I do."

Hikari and Koi turned to look at Shizuka, thier eyes weary.

"Shizuka-sama, please, we can take care of him." Koi murmered.

"He's obviously not listening." Shizuka raised her head, looking into Byakuya's dark blue eyes with her own hazel ones. "Why do you insist on commiting suicide?"
"Because." He glared at her. "I just do."

"You shouldn't." Shizuka gave him her own narrowed eyes, stepping forward and catching his sleeve when he tried to back away.

"Stay away from me." He demanded.

"Byakuya, please..." Shizuka clutched his arm. "You don't have to live like this."

"I chose not to be a monster." He ripped his arm away from her.

She growled as he ran down the street, taking a turn into a dark alley.

"Stupid." She muttered before running after him.

She had gotten faster since she had first awoken. She was now flashing between her obsticles, turning around the corner in mere seconds. She saw Byakuya stumbling just as she saw the dark figure that hid in the shadows ahead.

"Byakuya, no!" She called.

But it was too late.

The Chiropteran lunged at him, tackling him down to the ground instantly. She was suddenly there as the monster ravaged his throat. She unsheathed her sword and let her blood run down the blade before cutting into the creature and watching it fade into the wind.

She collapsed next to Byakuya as Koi and Hikari were suddenly there beside her.

Shizuka pulled Byakuya's head onto her lap.

"Byakuya, open your eyes." She nearly demanded.

Those dark blue orbs fluttered open and he looked up at her wearily.

"You know that Chiropteran was there, why did you come this way?" She asked desperately.

"You know why..." He whispered.

Shizuka brought her wrist up to her lips, biting down and feeling the blood emerge. Byakuya caught it before she could put it to his mouth.

"Please, Shizuka..." He reached up with his other hand and touched her face. "Just let me die."

"No." She shook her head, trying to unblur her eyes so she could see his face.

"Shizuka..." He whispered, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Her heart was breaking, shattering before her. She wanted him to live, but he refused to. Why couldn't he just live?

"I still love you." He breathed as she quietly sobbed. "I just can't live like this..."

"But I do!" She argued. "I don't like it, but you don't have to kill for food, Byakuya. Please...."

"I just can't, my love." Byakuya whispered. "I just can't..."

"Why...? Why can't you be with me?" She pleaded as her head drooped to his chest.

He ran a hand through her hair as he felt himself slipping away.

"I will always love you." He whispered.

She lifted her head and pressed her lips to his softly.

"I love you." She said brokenly when the light in his eyes faded away.

She watched his head limped back, his body immobile in her arms. Her heart disintigrated for a moment, only grief left to hold her together.

"Byakuya..." She whispered. "Please...come back....Byakuya!"