Believe it or not, this chapter was more or less inspired by a bleach AMV to the Marilyn Manson cover of "this is Halloween" focusing on the hollows and arrancar, and the image it showed from the flash back episode of Izuru screaming as well as varying images from the early arrancar arc. However, I've also had several experiences of sleep paralysis and ever since I was a child, I've had vivid dreams, even nightmares. Yet I discovered more than once that if i realized what was happening, I could control my own nightmares in such a way that I'd wake up. And many, many of my vivid dreams I've been able to sieze control of. So I'm plunging the bleach characters into a nightmare.

Hitsugaya moaned in his sleep, he'd been having a good dream, something about baby shopping with Shinji. And then it all changed, in fact it was very abrupt. He was standing on an island, a rather smallish one, with Gin. Hitsugaya screamed, releasing his zanpakuto and charging Gin.

Only to find himself flat on his back, Gin slicing off his uniform. Hitsugaya screamed and thrashed, struggling to get Gin off him. And he found himself living out his assault all over again. Hitsugaya was screaming and yelling, before he kicked out, /hard/, jamming his head against something heavy and wooden. Except that when Hitsugaya looked there was nothing there.

The sunny tropical island had become a frozen wasteland. Suddenly Gin raised his hand. "Bakudo 61, Rikurikojo!" Hitsugaya found himself struggling as Gin started talking to him. "Shirou, Shirou wake up! WAKE UP!" Hitsugaya screamed, trying to shove Gin away. "GET AWAY GIN! DONT TOUCH ME YOU FREAK!"

Then suddenly, he was awake, on the floor of his quarters. The entire room had been frozen in ice, and his shikai lay about four feet away. "Toushiro! TOUSHIRO!" Shinji was yelling. He had a black eye, his right hand was covered in ice, and he had a minor stab wound to his right shoulder. And the room, it was covered in ice, everything frozen. Even knowing that the ice would crumble and melt didn't comfort him.

"Sh... Shinji?" Hitsugaya was rather dazed, but aside from the Bakudo and a lump growing on his head, rather unhurt. "oh my god Shinji, what did I do?"

"Uhhh, that should be rather obvious. You had a nightmare and you were blasting everything in sight with ice." Shinji told him. "Hold very, very still Toushiro."

"Why?" Hitsugaya was about to freak out if he hadn't already. "I'm SO SO sorry. It was... I dreamed Gin was trying to... again... and I was trying to fight him off."

Shinji was focused on one more thing. "Toushiro hold very very still, I saw a snake wrapped around your neck and face during the incident. Thats how this started I was trying to get it off you. It was made of energy. Its some kind of curse."

Hitsugaya felt something impinging upon his spiritual pressure, and an instant later he felt his vision begin to swim, he saw the outline of a snake looming over him, a black snake, made of energy with red eyes, and he started falling into unconsciousness.

An instant later he was awake again, and Shinji was struggling with the snake. Shinji broke the bakudo, as four Omnikitsudo officers and Hachigen entered their quarters. "What happened?"

"Someone broke in, and put a curse on Hitsugaya-taichou." Shinji held up the snake. "This thing... its seething with hollow energy, I think it was made by an arrancar."

"Twenty six minutes ago, the seireitei's security was breached by a flying arrancar who set a similar curse on the Commander General." The Omnikitsudo in the lead replied. "He set similar curses on varying officers involved in containing and studying the Fever virus or who had been infected with it. Hachigen has been ordered to hunt down and contain all the curse producing snakes that were loosed in the Seireitei and to bring them to twelfth division RSDI for analysis."

Hachigen smiled. "Urahara is rather busy, so he sent me and Tessai to do the job." He said pleasantly. "Hitsugaya-taichou, are you alright?" He held out a container made from some kind of barrier for Shinji to put the snake in.

"I've been better. My head feels like I just drank a bottle of Genshu." Undiluted sake. "And I'm... mentally I'm quite disturbed by what happened, both the damage I did and the dream I had."

Shinji delicately dropped the animal in, closing the lid over his hand and then pulling it out slowly to keep it from escaping. Shinji then carefully broke his own Bakudo. "C'mon, I'll carry you to the fourth." He scooped Hitsugaya up in his arms bridal style and Hitsugaya yawned, wrapping his arms around Shinji's neck, holding on tightly.

"that may be a problem, Unohana was one of those attacked." The Omnikitsudo officer replied. "We will escort you to the fourth division hospital however."

The bedroom, the hallway, most of the barracks his quarters were located in were covered in ice. And when Hitsugaya passed through the tenth's meeting hall in Shinji's arms, he had to cover his eyes, most of the tenth had been covered in a layer of thick ice, and while it was now crumbling, it was clear...

Hitsugaya, in the throws of his hypnosis, had damaged his own division's barracks. And now, when he looked towards the first, he was /really/ scared.

The entire first division barracks was in flames with its members fleeing the location.

Ichigo was out like a light, he didn't normally have dreams unless they were erotic dreams or nightmares, or memories of his mother, but in this dream he was flat on his back on an enormous western style bed, trussed up for that experimenting in gentler forms of bondage that he and Byakuya had discussed before they'd fallen asleep that night, and he could hear a shatter, something breaking, the sound was familiar somehow. But there were, so many deliciously sensual smells and textures beneath his body and around him that he hardly cared.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Even in his dreams Byakuya was hot, but there was something odd to the note in his voice. "Love are you alright?"

"fine." His tone of voice, short and flat, again so familiar, and not Byakuya.

Ichigo rolled over, giving his koi better access. "Just hurry up, whatever you were using to bind me is /itching./"

The hands were different, the voice something was off, something was just off as his koi bent over his prone body to enter him. He groaned, arching into the initial thrust. "Wait wait wait, something's wrong here." He turned around and screamed.

It wasn't Byakuya, it was Aizen, "GET AWAY!" He yelled, shoving at the man on top of him. "BYAKUYAAAAAAAAAAA ITS AIZEN HELLLLPPPP!" Ichigo began to struggle, using his reiatsu to break himself out of the bindings and shoving the other away.

Aizen frowned, and his face was replaced by Byakuya's again. "Its me Ichigo, we talked about this remember? Ichigo? Ichigo?"

"You're not him! YOU ARENT MY BYAKUYA!" Ichigo screamed, lunging for his sword. "BANKAAAAIIIII!" Things were breaking around him.

"Bakudo 61, Rikurikojo!" Aizen/Byakuya cast the bakudo.

Byakuya groaned, he'd been almost asleep himself when Ichigo began to fuss in his sleep, even talking. He'd tried to wake Ichigo up, only for him to start /screaming/ the instant he was touched. Screaming something about Aizen, and that was when Byakuya noticed the black snake, made of hollow energy, that had wrapped itself around his neck and shoved its head inside his forehead.

Then Ichigo's eyes had opened, and Byakuya had tried to kiss him to tell his koi it was alright, thinking Ichigo was awake and out of the dream. Only he didn't even recognize that simple touch. And Byakuya realized Ichigo wasn't just sleep walking, he was preparing to sleep /fight/. When Ichigo went Bankai in his sleep, that was when Byakuya took it seriously.

He had to fight easily the strongest shinigami currently alive, without harming him or his children, while he was /sleeping/ and not even able to understand that it was his koibito he was fighting, it wasn't Aizen.

He had to focus on defenses and bakudo. "Bakudo 61, Rikurikojo!" The instant the attacks started, Grimmjow and Ulquiorra appeared from down the hall. "Grimmjow! Ulquiorra!"

"What's happening?"

"Look at the snake around his neck." Byakuya pointed. "He's been hypnotized, yet I didn't sense an intrusion in our quarters."

"The window is open." Pointed out Grimmjow. "Probably did it from there see the tree a few feet away?"

"We have to sedate him and get that off." Byakuya indicated the snake.

"heh, no problem." Grimmjow straightened up, then fell into a fighting crouch.

"No." Ulquiorra told him. "you're visibly showing and halfway through, I, however, have no diminishing in speed and I have the precision that I can do it without bringing down the roof on us."

Ulquiorra then moved in beside Byakuya. "Flash on three. I pin him, you remove the snake."

Ichigo was thrashing in the bindings, sending off ribbons of reiatsu, screaming something about Aizen and repeated yells of "DONT TOUCH ME!"

Byakuya nodded. "One..."

"...two..."

"... THREE!"

In unison, Byakuya flash stepped, and Ulquiorra sonido'd, pinning Ichigo to the ground. Ichigo screamed, the bakudo 61 starting to break. Then in an instant, as he wrestled with the snake, Byakuya felt Ichigo's blade go right through his arm. In one side, out the other, not only breaking the bone but the muscles as well. "ICHIGO!" Byakuya roared, his heart was breaking as he fought to remove the snake.

Ichigo finally broke the bakudo, and the next stab was aimed again for Byakuya's chest...

...only to be interrupted by a prehensile tail grabbing Ichigo's sword arm and restraining him.

Still the snake would not come free from Ichigo's reiatsu. And then far distant Byakuya heard an explosion from the direction of first. And his blood ran cold. A bomb at first division? No, the reiatsu roaring far distant was the commander general's! Yamamoto had been caught in this? That could be a problem, a problem for which they needed Ichigo!

All of a sudden something appeared on Ichigo's face that made Byakuya's blood turn to ice. Fragments of mask were forming on his face. Byakuya thought he was going to die for certain. Or be seriously hurt. By his own lover's hollow.

Then the garbled voice husked weakly. "I'm keeping him in check... get it off me! I can't hold him forever!" Ogichi was sedating Ichigo! "I'm trying to break the curse, so is Old Man Zangetsu... you have maybe three minutes before our strength runs out!"

Byakuya raised a hand to Ichigo's forehead, sending a gentle /pulse/ of reiatsu through the snake and into him, standard procedure for breaking illusions and curses.

The snake /writhed/ the tail coming undone and hissing menacingly. Byakuya sent repeated shocks through the snake, Ichigo's body writhing beneath him with each one. The snake struggled the entire way.

In his head, Ichigo felt someone's arms restraining him. At the same time, Zangetsu kept moving between him and Aizen, but the things that the ex captain were doing to him just made Ichigo feel... violated... and being restrained was making the experience /worse./

"Ichigo..."

Zangetsu was whispering to him. "You're being hypnotized Ichigo."

"yeah by /aizen/."

"its not Aizen, think logically Ichigo, how could you have gone from your bedroom to his in hueco mundo so fast?"

"..."

"you're being hypnotized, there was an intruder in the Seireitei."

He could hear Ulquiorra's voice. "C'mon Kurosaki, I know you're thickheaded but this is ridiculous." The sensation on his sword hand was a familiar one, Ulquiorra's tail? "Keep at it Byakuya..."

It was as if Ichigo had been plunged into icewater, his mind snapped to consciousness and he inhaled deeply, gasping for air.

He was pinned beneath Ulquiorra and Byakuya, mask fragments falling off of his face, he had some minor bruises but what scared him was his bankai in his hand, and a matching stabwound to Byakuya's right arm. In Byakuya's free hand, a small black snake made of hollow energy writhing in his hand, hissing and trying to bite him. "BYAKUYA!" he cried, terrified both of his dream, and of himself flinging his bankai sword across the floor and out of the way.

Ulquiorra rolled away, breathing a sigh of relief. Byakuya groaned in relief, leaning down to kiss him on the lips. Ichigo blushed hugely. "Thank god... Ichigo..."

"B... Byakuya..." Ichigo started to cry, feeling what he recognized as a mood swing coming on. Then something else...

It hit Ichigo like a hurricane. He felt pain in his own arm, and it wasn't from any wounds. He could feel a barrage of emotions on his mind, thoughts too, he could hear Grimmjow's voice. Hope he's alright, silly berry getting hit with something like that.

And Ulquiorra. I don't know any arrancar that can use a technique like that, Aizen must have gotten someone new.

And Byakuya. got to make sure the babies are alright, he had a hardon this whole time, I wonder what he was dreaming about. then. Stop it, he's /hurt./

"GOD STOP TALKING! ALL OF YOU!" Ichigo snapped, sobbing. "You're hurting my head."

"I didn't say anything." Byakuya blinked, I have the snake, Is he hearing things because of the curse?

"Yes you /are/! All three of you are TALKING!" Ichigo cried, clinging to Byakuya as tears rolled down his cheeks. "Byakuya, your arm... I... I didn't do that to you did I? The other me, he didn't try to take over just now...?" He was terrified.

All else fails, lie. He's fragile right now. "no, it was the attacker. He did it. He put this snake on you, thats what made you go crazy. Not the hollow."

"LIER!" Ichigo cried. "I heard you decide to lie! You said it aloud! I DID THIS TO YOU! I HURT THE MAN I LOVED!"

Byakuya frowned. Telepathy? Is that what he's hearing? My thoughts? then he remembered, the repeated shocks of reiatsu to the head. oh no. He realized that his own reiatsu, coupled with the curse must have done it. This was all his fault.

"B... Byakuya don't say that... I know you'd never purposefully try to hurt me..." Ichigo whimpered, clinging to his koibito. "Just take me to the fourth division, please."

"Alright..."

A group of Omnikitsudo soldiers appeared. "Kuchiki taichou, there's been an attack, those involved with the Fever virus, as well as the Commander, have been hit with some kind of hypnosis attack that causes them to attack in their sleep. The Kido corps is containing the damage at 1st."

Hachigen entered behind them. "I've come for the snake..." he indicates the one still writhing in Byakuya's hand. "Kurosaki-kun are you all..."

Ichigo howled in pain, letting go of Byakuya and clutching at his head, only to fall to the ground.

"Something's wrong with him, I think the curse, combined with the curse breaker I used gave him some kind of psychic ability." Byakuya carefully dropped the cursed snake into the outstretched container. "Thank you Hachigen, you are as efficient as always."

Hachigen knelt by Ichigo's side, scanning him. "How many repetitions of the curse breaker did you use? This particular snake feels much stronger than the other one."

"Multiple. It had formed no fewer than ten circles of its body around Ichigo's neck, and it only released one coil at a time when the curse breaking method was applied. I was pushing as hard as I dared without damaging the babies."

"there may already /be/ damage Byakuya, just from the curse and the struggle and the panic. Just because he isn't bleeding, doesn't mean they haven't been hurt especially when Psionics come into play. Orihime is enroute to fourth from the thirteenth division, between the two of us we should be able to put him right but we have to do it fast, all this stress isn't good for the little ones."

Ichigo felt his blood run cold. "H... Hachi... I..." He staggered to his feet. "oh my god i'm gonna be sick." He ran for the bathroom, the ninjas escorting Hachigen parting to let him through. Ichigo threw up, violently. "Wait outside please." Hachigen told the Omnikitsudo members. "If he is indeed hearing the thoughts of other people, your critical eye is making them worse."

"I'm just very lucky his inner hollow kicked in and held him still long enough for me to get it off him."

"Inner hollows do not want harm to come to their owners Byakuya, if I were in the same shoes, mine would have helped you too, because you were not the source of the attack, but the source of help, his hollow cooperated. It was responding to its owner's distress."

The Omnikitsudo took up positions outside the house, and Hachi waited for Ichigo to come back, his knees were shaking. "So I'm... hearing people's thoughts?" Ichigo blinked. Ulquiorra had left, flying for fourth division as fast as his wings could carry him.

"Yes, it was the curse and the curse breaker together, though I'm not sure how. It could have to do with your reiatsu being abnormally high and volitile, more so than any shinigami or vizard I've ever seen. At full power, your spirit energy is higher than even a captain's."

"What were you dreamin about berry?" Grimmjow asked.

"Aizen, he'd hypnotized me into thinking that he was Byakuya, and was... he had me tied up and he was..." Ichigo started to cry again. "Trying to have his way..." gulp. "... with me... thats why I fought so fucking hard."

Byakuya had him in his arms in an instant, holding on tightly to /his/ Ichigo. "I'm here now. But we have to get you to the fourth."

Ichigo blushed. "If I dispel my bankai I'll be naked."

Byakuya nodded. "All of you wait outside."

About five minutes later, Ichigo was dressed, and while he was able to walk, he allowed Byakuya, who was quite worried about him by this point to carry him. Byakuya couldn't help noticing either, that every time they passed a group or a crowd, hurrying to try and find the intruder, as well as to help contain the damage from the commander's outburst.

Izuru was in the hospital, curled up against Shuhei, dreaming which was something normal for him. And then he was tied up, back in bed in the third, reliving every violation that Gin had ever done to him, struggling to escape as Gin had used his obi and some bakudo to tie him up. He flared his spiritual pressure, shook free, and dove for his zanpakuto.

"Ikure, shinso..." Gin struck back, only...

Hyporankan hit Izuru instead, pinning him to the wall. "IZURU! WAKE UP! ITS ME IZURU!"

Something was pulling on his neck, pulling something free. Then Izuru felt almost as if he'd been drenched in icewater. He gasped, took in a deep, hard breath, and then as his vision cleared, Shuhei started pulling the rods from the bakudo down. "Izuru, are you alright?" He had something in his hands, wriggling and hissing. "This thing... there's some kind of attack going on..."

Izuru couldn't see well, but he felt some kind of explosion of fire and reiatsu. "My body... shiiiiittt... I'm still being modified. That must be why I was so easy to subdue... was that the commander's reiatsu?"

"yeah, not sure whats going on." Shuhei kissed his koi, prying the last rod free and scooping him up.

Suddenly, reiatsu from the direction of Unohana's office. Several powerful kido blasted the area, blowing the roof off of Unohana's quarters. "Where on earth did she learn Hado 88?"

"dunno..."

Hachigen appeared. "I came to collect that snake gentlemen, others are on their way to come to Unohana taichou's aid."

Unohana was mentally stuck in her own private hell. The espada had laid waste to her hospital, /her/ hospital, her patients, and her friends, and those who depended on her slaughtered. She was cornered by all ten of them, and they were going to kill her. Not only that, but Grimmjow had taken her zanpakuto, it was beyond her reach, strapped to his back.

She was firing wildly, the darkness of the night time making it hard to see as the Espada, at least as she had known them during the conflict in Karakura, attacked mercilessly and then flitted back into the darkness from whence they came and Unohana struggled to get Minazuki free from Grimmjow but she remained out of her owner's reach.

Suddenly a prehensile tail darted out of the darkness, tapping her between the eyes. Two big furry hands reached out of the darkness and grabbed her. "Retsu!" It was Komamura. "Retsu speak to me."

Unohana looked from Komamura's corpse on the ground, bloody and mangled, to the hands that were holding her. "its an illusion Retsu, you're dreaming."

"S... Saijin..."

"Unohana-taichou, its me... ulquiorra." The tail pressed to her forehead could suddenly be traced to an owner, there were two Ulquiorras, the one in the dream plainly visible, the other in shadow, though his form was slowly becoming clearer. "This will only hurt a little bit. Please I've almost broken the illusion. Trust the hands on your shoulders, not the corpse you see on the ground."

"Help me!" Unohana cried in the dream. "Help me please I'm stuck!"

The tail gently pushed a shock of reiatsu through her, before trailing down to Unohana's neck and slowly unwinding something.

Unohana screamed, comparing the inhaling of breath and sensation of ice water down her neck and face to that of a near drowning. Ulquiorra was in his segunda form, a long, hissing, wriggling black snake made of energy clasped in his prehensile tail. "Its some kind of autonomous curse being. Some hollow and arrancar can make these tiny creatures, parts of their own body, that serve different purposes in attacking. This one appearantly hypnotizes its target into some kind of nightmare."

"in which the target attacks his surroundings, believing himself to be under attack." Unohana looked towards the burning first, where a fresh jet of flames met Kido corps members hurrying to barrier the first and twelfth and fourth division members evacuating the staff. "Then the Commander must have been the target of one, and released Ryuujin Jakka."

Unohana shivered. "I know I was just rescued, but I must go to the front lines, I will be needed." She gathered her things, and thanked the Kami that she had fallen asleep in her uniform.

Minazuki? The spirit hummed. You wouldn't let me use you to attack the fourth is that it? there was a soft croon of confirmation. Thank you. Thank you very much I'm so glad.

The two of them took off from fourth. An instant later Hachigen entered. "I came for the snake." He indicated the creature held in Ulquiorra's tail. "I'll drop this off at 12th and then meet you at the first. Ulquiorra-kun, be careful for the babies, if it looks like you will be hurt enough to miscarry, fall back to the barrier."

"Understood." Ulquiorra disappeared, flying towards the first. There was a jet of flame again from the clifftop, and Ulquiorra beat it back with a controlled Cero Oscuras. "He's very strong, even my cero Oscuras couldn't completely quelch the flames."

Unohana appeared beside him, riding on Minazuki's back. "Ulquiorra, a controlled gran rey should part the flames and the barrier long enough for help to get in. Please make an opening for us, aim for the fire, not the person."

"Understood." Ulquiorra repeated and took up a hovering position and watched as from one end Unohana approached the flames, from the other Ukitake, Komamura, Shuhei, and others from the Omnikitsudo approached the first.

The barrier was strong, but he closed his eyes, focusing his gran rey cero into his mouth, something he typically only used for when he had to make the shot count. "Get ready!" The roar drowned out any other instruction he may have given as he /blasted/ the gran rey at both the barrier and the flames.

It broke, parting just long enough for Unohana to fly in from above with Ukitake, Komamura and Shuhei flash stepping in, however, of the dozen or so Omnikitsudo fighters that had gathered, only four of them made it in.

"Sorry, I can't sustain it as long /and/ control the damage it does." Ulquiorra coughed. "And the smoke..." He landed, falling on his knees dry coughing. One of the ninjas pressed a spare ninja mask to Ulquiorra's face. "Thank you." He backed away from the barrier, the coughing subsided but his throat felt raw.

The rescue party pelted through the flames, releasing their zanpakuto one by one as they went. Komamura rushed in... and beheld the commander general in the grips of his personal nightmare.

Yamamoto was in his inner world, which was being /invaded/ by Zephly, he was a young man again, he hadn't had his bankai and he was /outraged/ that an arrancar had somehow gotten into his mind. He was on the ground, being /violated/ again. But this time he did something about it. "Turn everything to ash, Ryuujin Jakka."

Yamamoto began burning everything he could reach, he kept trying to fight off Zephly, yet no matter how many jets of flame he aimed at the enemy, Zephly always somehow seemed out of his reach. This was a young Yamamoto, a Yama who thought he was invincible. And his incredible spiritual pressure was wreaking havoc in an effort to kill an arrancar that was not there.

Komamura darted in with Unohana on one side, "We'll restrain him, get the cursed snake off his neck! Hurry!" The commander's eyes were vacant, his face as close to furious as Ukitake ever saw him get. Komamura and Unohana came at him from behind, Komamura's furry hands grabbing him. "COMMANDER!" Unohana cried. "Please hear my voice, you're being tricked!"

"COMMANDER!" Unohana cried, he couldn't hear the rest, the flames were too powerful, too loud.

Two enormous furry hands reached out from the fire, grabbing his shoulders. Komamura? But who was that?

Komamura had grabbed him, and was trying to pull him away from Zephly. To the commander, who's limbs and body felt young, and strong again, who's mind had more or less, during the dream, reverted to that of the flippant, impatient twenty something he'd appeared to be when he was in his youth, the hands on his shoulder seemed familiar.

All of a sudden. "BAKUDO 62, HYPORANKAN!" A bakudo snaked out of the darkness. RESCUE! But why? Why was he being attacked?

It was a trick! The arrancar was trying to make him think his own people were attacking him!Still, he couldn't get free.

"Bakudo 61, rikurikojo!" Bound twice!

"Commander you are being tricked, open your eyes!"

"Get that thing off him, pry it off if you have to!"

"Retsu, the curse breaker, quickly!"

Hands were grabbing him, keeping him restrained, someone was applying some kind of healing reiatsu to his neck and forehead, repeated, gentle shocks of energy, the standard technique for breaking hypnosis based techniques. Hypnosis? He could hear a snake hissing, snarling, snapping in an effort to keep its prey.

The commander's attacks with flame slowed, and zephly disappeared from the illusion.

To his credit, the old man didn't scream. A soundless gasp escaped his lips as he drew in one powerful breath, it felt as if ice water was poured over his head. As if he'd been held under water and then suddenly been allowed to come up for air.

The commander saw the flames, saw his own quarters and the first burning. He was held in Komamura's strongest restraining hold and two bakudo. Which were quickly snapped. "Commander, we have to go!" Komamura was lifting him up off the ground, Ukitake running beside him.

Yamamoto realized he was burned in places, by his own power. He'd been injured by his own fire gone out of control, but that was only the start of the sort of miserable realization that had made Ichigo physically ill. He'd been hypnotized into attacking his own.

And so he didn't resist as he was carried back to fourth division on a stretcher, and unfortunately, as the medics carried him away, Yamamoto Shigekune Genryuusai had a very good view of his own division burning from fires that /he/ himself had set. And the fact that he'd been hypnotized when he did it, in his heart didn't matter...

He felt sick, and the medics would have seen tears falling from his eyes, the only outward sign of the Commander's distress.