Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I am making no money from this. Tite Kubo owns all, I'm just playing with them for a while. I also do not own any of the quotes I use at the start of each chapter. They were all found on the internet, and if they have an author I say who it is.

Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, it's good to be back! Sorry this part is a bit later than I had planned, but lateness was caused partially by this evil little plot bunny that hopped into my house the other night and became a new one-shot. And it's even IchiHime! So for anyone who hasn't found it yet and wants more IchiHimegoodness, it's called "Barely Breathing," and is set during "I'll Stand By You," because it's a very angsty piece. It's early on in the story, after he held her the first night but before they kiss. Cause she does say that nightmares wake her up almost every night, even when he's there. Anyway, enough with the shameless plugs.

This part is also late because the wedding just did NOT want to be written. I must have tried it five different times, and was up to almost 1200 words one of those times, but it just did not work out at all. So, sorry to anyone who was looking forward to it, and maybe at some point I'll get it done and add it into the story, but the promised ByaRan wedding will not be happening in this part. I'm just skipping ahead to after the wedding, and the angst that I warned was coming. Sorry.

This part is dedicated to everyone who loved "For Her Smile," but told me that at some point Rangiku should find out. Prepare for major drama/angst. (And if you love Ran/Gin but haven't read that story yet you should totally check it out.)


Until the Last Breath

By Lady Callista

Chapter 7: Revelations

OoOoOoOoOoO

"My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?"

Albus Dumbledore in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows"

OoOoOoOoOoO

OoO Two days after Byakuya and Rangiku's wedding OoO

"I'm so glad you guys were able to stay for a few days after the wedding." Karin said with a smile as she knelt next to Toshiro, watching Orihime and Ichigo unpack a picnic basket.

"I just wish we could do this more often." Orihime said, smiling back as she set out the bento boxes. "But most of the non taicho-class get nervous when Ichigo is around for more than the little bit it takes for him to check up on you. It's so cute how they stammer around him."

"Well he's a hero." Karin said cheekily. "He's the one who was strong enough, and smart enough, to defeat Aizen when no one else could."

"I know." Orihime's voice turned dreamy. "It was so amazing how he figured out how to defeat Aizen."

"Well if you hadn't been able to bring me back I wouldn't have been the hero but another villain. Besides, I didn't really figure it out." Ichigo said with a light blush, not seeing how Toshiro's eyes grew huge and he started shaking his head. "Toshiro told me."

"What?" Karin screeched, her head flicking around to her boyfriend. "You knew, how?"

"It was…. Uh… it was a guess, just… I mean…" Toshiro flushed bright red and started stammering.

"What's the big deal, Toshiro-kun?" Orihime asked quietly, nodding in greeting as Rangiku and Yoruichi joined the group, setting a jug of orange liquid in the grass by the other picnic supplies.

"Just juice, I swear." Rangiku insisted as both Ichigo and Toshiro raised their eyebrows and frowned at her. "Why does no one believe the spiked punch you humans got at the first Remembrance ceremony was an accident?"

"Because it would have happened this year too, if we hadn't noticed in time. " Ichigo said gruffly.

Karin tried unsuccessfully to smother a giggle, looking at her brother and his girlfriend. "Is that why Orihime-nee was sick the day after the party last year?"

Yoruichi laughed even as both Ichigo and Orihime flushed before nodding.

"And as crazy as those parties have gotten, it's nothing compared to the week after the War ended." Rangiku laughed with her friend. "I think half of Seireitei was drunk for a week straight."

"Well, we did have a lot to celebrate." Yoruichi grinned. "It's too bad you guys weren't up here to party with us; I mean, without Ichigo figuring out how to kill Aizen…"

"Well, that's what we were talking about before you guys showed up." Orihime said, her eyes flickering to Toshiro as his face took on a pained expression, and she noted his grip on Karin's hand tightening. "Apparently Toshiro-kun told Ichigo how to defeat Aizen, but he won't tell us how he knew."

All eyes turned to Toshiro, who flushed. "It was, look, I just guessed, okay? I just thought that maybe, I mean… It made sense, and…"

"Wow, I think he lies worse than you do, Orihime-chan." Rangiku laughed as Toshiro trailed off.

You never promised that smirking fox bastard you wouldn't tell her.

Karin's eyes widened as she heard Hyorinmaru speak to Toshiro. She hadn't been trying to use Kyokon, but her control over her power was still incomplete. Especially with Toshiro.

Dying wish or not…she deserves to know.

Rangiku continued to talk, and under the cover of her loud voice Karin leaned over and said quietly to Toshiro, "Who was the smirking fox bastard?"

Unfortunately, Rangiku finished talking halfway through Karin's sentence, and as a result everyone in the group heard the softly murmured phrase 'smirking fox bastard.'

Then three things happened at once.

Toshiro moaned and dropped his head into his hands. Yoruichi, Ichigo, and Orihime froze for an instant, then in almost comical unison spun their heads around to stare at Karin. And Rangiku fell to her knees in front of Karin, gripping the younger girls hakama as the glass of juice she had been holding fell unnoticed to the ground.

Karin had no idea what she had just stepped into. "What?" She asked in confusion.

"What about him?" Rangiku asked. "What does he have to do with… with how Toshiro knew?"

"It doesn't matter." The boy mumbled through his hands, then let out another groan.

Rangiku's eyes seemed to darken as she turned to Karin, and Ichigo noticeably tensed as if he thought his sister was about to be attacked.

"I… I don't know." Karin whispered, very confused but knowing that now was not the time to ask questions. "Toshiro promised him something, or rather he didn't promise, but it… it was a dying wish."

"You were with him when he died." Rangiku said softly, her body and face shifting to face her taicho, who still had his head in his hands. "But why would he have told you how to defeat Aizen? Did he have some last moment spurt of conscience?"

Orihime gasped, her hands flying up to cover her mouth as her eyes suddenly shone with tears. Clueless though she could be at times, understanding other people's thoughts and motivations was one thing she had always been good at. She was the first one to understand the truth.

She was also the first, and only, one to notice the pulse of reiatsu from Yoruichi as the flash goddess embraced her nickname and suddenly vanished from the clearing.

Through a light sheen of tears, Orihime noticed Karin trying to get her attention without anyone else noticing her, and the younger girl mouthed, "What is going on?"

Not noticing his sister's gaze, Ichigo pulled himself away from the incredibly tense scene the instant he heard his girlfriend gasp. He turned to her immediately, slipping an arm around her shoulders as he watched a look of horror slowly grow on her face. "What?" He asked quietly.

Orihime ignored them both, her eyes now locked on Toshiro.

"Yes, he's the one that told me." Raising his head to meet his fukutaicho's stormy eyes, he spoke for the first time since Karin's revelation. He knew there was going to be no way out of this. "He didn't want you to know."

"He didn't want me to know what?" Rangiku asked heatedly.

"Wait, Ichimaru is the one who told us how to beat Aizen?" Ichigo had finally put it all together, and he gaped at Toshiro, one arm still around Orihime. She had started to shake her head back and forth slightly, and he wasn't even sure she was still listening to the conversation.

Yoruichi, a very annoyed Byakuya in tow, had returned just as Ichigo started speaking. Her eyebrows shot up, and she instantly sank back down into her position in the circle of sitting friends.

The look of annoyance vanished from Byakuya's face as he understood why he had been abducted without a single word of explanation. A careful expression on his face, he stepped up behind his wife and laid his hands on her shoulders.

"Why would…"

"Please, he thought it would be better for you if you didn't know." Toshiro whispered, the hands he held fisted in his lap tightening.

"But how could…."

The abrupt arrival of a jigoku-cho made Rangiku trail off, and when it stopped in front of Toshiro he lifted a hand to it, grateful for the interruption. He knew they were going to finish this conversation one way or another, but some time to think would be welcome.

"Hitsugaya-taicho, report to Yamamoto-soutaicho's office immediately."

With a loud sigh, Toshiro started to rise, keeping his eyes on his fukutaicho. "You know I have to go. I'll be back as soon as I possibly can. I promise to explain."

Rangiku's eyes lost a little bit of their heat when the word 'promise' passed his lips, but her face still showed her confusion as Toshiro took a shunpo and was gone.

Orihime startled out of her thoughts when she heard Rangiku whisper her name.

"Orihime. I can see something in your face… but I don't understand." Rangiku whispered. "He had to have changed his mind… If he's the reason we won… Why wouldn't he want anyone to know? Why would he specifically not want me to know?"

"No, don't any of you see?" Orihime whispered, glancing at Ichigo and Yoruichi before finally addressing herself to Rangiku. "Don't you see, Rangiku-san? He is the reason we won, but… but he didn't change his mind."

"I do not understand." Byakuya spoke softly, his hands still resting comfortingly on Rangiku's shoulders.

"I… I think I do. I know what it's like to be seen as a traitor because no one knows why you did something, they only know what you did." Orihime said softly.

"I never thought…" The arm Ichigo had around her tightened, and he turned his body towards her, his other hand reaching out to touch her cheek.

Orihime flushed, and turned to face him. "I know you didn't, Ichigo, but…"

"Not all the Shinigami believed it, but she's right that most of them did." Rangiku whispered. "But once they found out how you'd been forced…"

"Are you saying…" Yoruichi spoke up, her face burning with thought, "Did Aizen somehow force Ichimaru to…"

"No. I think it's worse than that." Orihime flushed bright red, then began to babble, "But I could be wrong Ran-chan, and I don't want to have you worry about something that isn't true, and… and I really think we should just wait for Toshiro-kun to get back."

"Tell me!" Rangiku snarled.

"Hey, back off!" Ichigo growled back at her as a single tear slid down Orihime's face. "You don't know how she feels when she's forced to remember…."

"Ichigo-kun, it's okay." Orihime whispered. "But… please Ran-chan, let's just wait for Toshiro-kun to get back."

Rangiku let out another snarl, but didn't try to interrogate the girl. Instead she got up and began to pace, every step punctuated by a progressively courser swear word.

Byakuya started to rise, then settled back on his heels, his expression openly anxious. His eyes tracked her as she paced, but he recognized that she needed to burn off her energy somehow.

"What the hell is going on?" Karin's voice broke the silence after about a minute, although her voice was very subdued.

Orihime turned to answer her, but Yoruichi shook her head and gestured to Ichigo as she slid closer to Karin and began to explain the backstory.

His arm still around her, Ichigo leaned in and asked Orihime in a whisper, "Can you tell me?"

"I actually really hope I'm wrong, but…" Orihime leaned in to breath almost silently in Ichigo's ear. "I went with Aizen, and didn't tell anyone, because I didn't want any of you to get hurt."

Ichigo nodded, remembering the day she had told him the whole story.

"Because I didn't want you to get hurt." Orihime continued. "I could have tried to leave a message. I could have tried to let you know that I wasn't going willingly. But the best way to keep you safe was to not tell you anything. And the only way to make sure you didn't come after me was if you thought I was a traitor, and hated me."

"You should have known I would never think that of you." Ichigo whispered, brushing a hand through her hair. "Even before I knew I loved you, I don't think you could have done anything to make me hate you."

Orihime allowed herself to nuzzle in against his neck for a moment, drawing the warm, spicy scent of him around her as if it were a favorite blanket. As always, his scent combined with his arms around her both calmed and comforted her, and gave her the courage to add, "But I think there's a difference. I went willingly in a way, but only because the only other option I was given was unthinkable for me. I think Ichimaru… I think he decided on his own. I don't think he was ever really on Aizen's side, but I think he wanted everyone to think he was."

"But that makes no sense." Although it remained soft, Ichigo's voice showed his frustration. "Why wouldn't he want to be vindicated in the end?"

"Before you changed into a full Hollow for the first time… When I thought you had died for me, I no longer wanted to live. It wasn't just that I couldn't imagine my life without you in it." Orihime's voice reflected the pain of her memories. "I couldn't imagine living knowing that the person I loved gave his life for mine."

"You're worth more to me than my life." Ichigo replied, his voice barely audible.

"I feel the same way, which is why I did what I did." Orihime's eyes shone with tears again, although for a different reason than before. Even though they'd been together for nearly two years, her heart still melted when Ichigo said things like that to her. She shook her head a little to clear it, knowing he'd given her the perfect opening to make her point. "But if you had a choice, wouldn't you rather I didn't know? You've told me how you felt when I was missing. Anytime something bad happens to me, you blame yourself. You're willing to die for me. But how would you feel if I died for you?"

"I wouldn't want to live." Ichigo said simply, realizing he was echoing her earlier words. Then he gasped, choking in the process, and pulled back enough to look into Orihime's eyes. "You think he did it for Rangiku-san. You think he saw it as the only way to be certain Aizen would be defeated, and… and to make sure she was safe Aizen had to be defeated. But that it would be easier for her if she hated him."

Orihime shook her head a little. "I think he knew he couldn't make her hate him. Just like I could never hate you, not even if you had done what he did. And if he loved her that much, to do that for her, he probably found it hard to hurt her more than he had to. But…."

"But if she knew that he did it for her…." Ichigo chose that moment to be insightful, and his shock at the revelation made him raise his voice enough that the other four people in the clearing all turned to look at him.

And it was at that frozen moment that Hitsugaya Toshiro flashed back into the clearing.

"Did Gin die because of me?" Rangiku's voice was emotionless as she instantly stopped pacing and faced her taicho, not even bothering to ask what business had called him away.

"Rangiku…" Toshiro whispered.

"Ran-chan…" Byakuya said softly, and actually took a step backwards when she whirled to face him, her face looking wilder than he had ever seen it.

"Don't… don't call me that right now." Rangiku pleaded. "Please… Toshiro... Please tell me."

"He did tell me how to defeat Aizen. And he begged me not to tell you. To not tell you that, and to never tell you that he had never been on Aizen's side." Toshiro took a step closer to her, pain on his face. "To never let you know that the only way he could be certain Aizen would be defeated was to pretend to be on his side."

"And the only way he could be sure I would be happy was to be sure Aizen was defeated." Rangiku whispered as tears streamed down her face.

Then her face shifted from pain to rage, and with a hiss she yanked her necklace off and threw it at her taicho. "You should have told me! That smirking son of a… that complete bastard… that… There had to be another way. I deserved to know! He didn't have to…"

Toshiro caught the necklace as it flew at his face and simply stood there holding it, having no idea what to do or say.

"Kisuke and I tried another way, and spent a hundred years in exile." Yoruichi spoke for the first time since she'd returned with Byakuya. "Aizen had Kyoka Suigetsu… Ichimaru couldn't tell anyone, because anyone could be used against him."

"He could have told me. I would never…" Rangiku spun to include her friend in her tirade.

"I think he might have, if he thought the odds of him getting out alive were good." Orihime whispered, bravely risking turning her friend's attention to her. "But he knew how much it would hurt you if you knew he died for you. If you knew he died to make sure that you were happy."

"You understand." Toshiro whispered, although Rangiku looked murderous enough that he didn't dare look away from her as he spoke to Orihime.

"I know how I felt when I thought Ichigo died for me." Orihime replied, her voice radiating sympathy. "And I know why I didn't leave him any hint when I was persuaded to go to Hueco Mundo."

Rangiku let out a particularly crude curse word and started to pace again, muttering angrily to herself.

"I… I died for Yuzu, kinda." Karin said softly. "I love her, and I knew only I could save her, so I did what I had to do… something I knew I might not survive…"

"When he first talked me into being a Shinigami, he said that the reason he wanted to become one was…" Rangiku let out another string of curses, then sobbed as she said, "Was so that everything would end without me having to cry. I'd rather have died myself. I would rather have died than have to live with knowing he died not only because of me, but for me."

And with that she briefly wrapped her arms around herself, almost like a hug, then viciously yanked the pink scarf from around her neck and tossed it to the ground. Without another word, she took a shunpo and was gone.

"Rangiku…" Byakuya rose with the intent of following her, but a sudden blast of reiatsu from Ichigo made him turn to face the younger man.

Ichigo rose and looked at Byakuya. "Do you know where she went? Where she would go?"

Byakuya gave a curt nod, not noticing that Toshiro did so as well.

Ichigo stroked his hand over Orihime's hair. "I know you want to go after her… I know that if it was Orihime… But please let me go talk to her. I know…"

Orihime gripped his hand in support as his voice choked off. She knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"My mom died for me. Died to protect me. And Orihime almost did the same. I know how Rangiku is feeling…"

"Please let him try." Orihime whispered, barely flinching when Byakuya's stare focused on her. "I'm sorry, but she… she won't want to talk to you right now."

Although his face stayed hard as stone, Byakuya didn't make another move to leave.

"Give me half an hour." Ichigo said softly. "Please, Kuchiki-sama."

Byakuya gave a long blink as he was addressed formally by Ichigo for the first time in, well, ever. "Before she became a Shinigami, her and Ichimaru lived in a small house in Rukongai." He told Ichigo the general area, knowing that once the boy was close enough he'd be able to sense her.

"Thank you." Ichigo said simply. And with a shunpo he reduced the number of people in the clearing to five.

"Good luck." Orihime whispered as Ichigo vanished, her heart breaking for him. She knew how difficult the conversation he was about to have would be for him, in more ways than one.

TBC…