A/N: Here I am again! Enjoy!

Figure Three:

Give Out

//Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little than to break ~Jane Wells\\

"Wait a second, what's begun? What is all this?" I asked, rushing up to Hitsugaya and Matsumoto, confusion clear on my face.

"The battle... has begun." Hitsugaya said. I stared at him. What was he saying? What battle? Since when? He's not making sense!

"What battle?" I asked.

"The battle between Shinigami and Espada," answered Matsumoto. I quieted, frowning in concentration. Now that I come to think of it, Hitsugaya did seem to mention something when I was back in the 4th Division about me being kidnapped by the Espada. Did that have anything to do with all of this? If it did. If I had anything to do with the reason why the Espada are now attacking Soul Society, I had to know.

"Do I have... anything to do with this?" I asked timidly. Matsumoto's expression softened as she looked at me. She placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled gently at me.

"They tried to use you." Hitsugaya said before Matsumoto could do anything at all. She stiffened and looked up at him, a slight frown creasing her forehead. Hitsugaya wasn't looking at her, or me, but towards the wall opposite us. He didn't seem to want to look back at us. Something had happened and it involved the Espada and me. That was all I needed to know.

"I see... ok then." I nodded. Hitsugaya and Matsumoto looked confusedly at me.

"I'm going with you."

"What?!"

"No! You're not coming with us! That's ridiculous! You could get hurt, or worse, they could kidnap you again!"

"I don't care! I want to know what happened between the Espada and me. Something must have happened, and I don't remember what it is. I want to remember! I want to know! I want to... stop hurting you." My voice lowered as I looked down at my feet, frowning. I knew. He was hurting, all by himself, and he won't let anyone in. That's so like him, taking all the burden alone.

"Hurting me...?" Hitsugaya asked. I nodded.

"You're not hurting-"

"Yes I am! You think I can't tell? Every time I ask you a question about our past, you flinch. Every time I call you 'Hitsugaya-taichou', you turn away. I know you're hurting. I can see it. I can feel it... because, I'm hurting too... So I'm going with you, and I'm going to find out what happened." I said determinedly, glaring up at the two of them. Hitsugaya looked no less than shocked, but Matsumoto had a sad smile on her face. She took a step forward and put a hand on my shoulder, turning to face Hitsugaya.

"Taichou... why not let her come, we'll both protect her. You know she'll be fine." She said. Hitsugaya took a step towards me as well and sighed.

Suddenly, I was pulled into a tight embrace. I was... surprised to say the least. He's never been this impulsive before, not from what I could remember. He was always, stern and strict, never letting such things as emotions interfere with his judgment and actions. But this time, it was different. Each move he made was so filled with emotion, each word so overpowering, that I felt like I was drowning in all the feelings he was emitting. They shone brightly, like the moon and the sun, and were just as passionate and powerful. It was... him.

"No... I can't. I'm sorry. I can't lose you again. Not again..." he whispered. He closed his eyes, placed a soft kiss on my forehead and in the flutter of his haori, he was gone. The door was shut. I stood there for a moment, stunned. The place where his lips were seconds before burned. My eyes landed on the door and my heart skipped a beat. Shit...

It was locked... from the outside. Or at least that's what it seemed like. I pushed as hard as I could, but it was no use. The door just wouldn't budge. I didn't even know they had locks in Soul Society. The place seemed so old fashioned. Then it dawned on me. Kidou. He'd used kidou and locked me in. My eyes automatically flickered towards the window beside his desk. I hurried over, got onto his desk, and, standing on tiptoe, tried to push it open.

No luck. That was 'locked' too.

"Damn him..."

-Emergency! Emergency! All Shinigami to their battle stations at once! Emergency! Emergency! All Shinigami to their battle stations at once!-

I froze at the alarm. I'd heard this alarm once before. Flashes of memories flickered feebly behind my eyes. I closed them, trying to recall what had just appeared. I was sitting in this very room, waiting for Hitsugaya to return when a man with white clothing walked in. He looked familiar. I'd seen him somewhere before. He spoke to me about something... I can't remember. Come on... remember!

He was saying something about "this isn't the real battle, we're just stalling" or something close to that. And then he showed me images. Terrible images of Kyouraku-taichou, Matsumoto-fukutaichou, and Hitsugaya-taichou. All of them were injured and still fighting. At this point, I opened my eyes, horrified. If that was the Espada's definition of 'stalling'. Then what would it be like this time, when the real battle has begun? Would they use full force? And if they did, didn't that mean Seireitei is in extreme danger? These Espada... they're powerful. Even more powerful than the Captains in the Gotei 13. How could they possibly defeat such a formidable enemy?

I had to do something. I had to. I couldn't just sit here again, and wait for someone to come back with the news. That's what I did last time, and I ended up kidnapped anyways. But this time was different, I didn't want to sit and wait anymore. I wanted to do something, and I will.

I stared around the office, looking for a possible way out of this place. Knocking out the wall was out of the question, though it was quite tempting. Hitsugaya would be furious and undoubtedly, he'd make me clean it up by myself. My eyes raked the office. There's got to be a way out of this place. Then, my eyes landed on my door. There was a window in my room. Would Hitsugaya have sealed that with Kidou too? Well, won't know till I check.

Walking over to my door, I opened it and rushed towards the window. It was quite high up on the wall and I had to stand on my nightstand to reach it, but I managed it somehow. I lifted the latch and pushed. With a slight squeak of the hinges, it fell open. I grinned. Success. Hitsugaya must have been in quite the hurry if he'd forgotten about my room. It showed just how dire the situation was. Then again, it's not like I was complaining. Because of his little slip up, I would be able to get out of this stone cage, though I'm not entirely sure it would be all that nice outside.

Bracing myself against the wall, and hooking my hands tightly around the ledge of the window, I jumped up off the nightstand and managed to heave half of myself out of the window. I wiggled a bit, and squeezed myself out. I landed none too gracefully on the ground with a loud thump. A throbbing pain began to form on my back and spine.

"Itaii..." I muttered, getting up and dusting off my backside. Good, now I'm out of there, I had to find wherever the battle was going on. I made my way around the building, which took some time, considering its size. The moment I came clear of the shadow of the building, I had to duck, as something had shot a furious red ball of energy that missed but was much too close for comfort.

Turns out, I didn't have to look far for the battle. It was right outside the door. I stared in complete shock and horror at the scene before me. The division buildings were crumbling, and some were smoking from recent fires. Indeed, some of them were still on fire. Shinigami were fighting left, right, and center, though I didn't spot anyone I know. Still, there were people everywhere, brandishing swords and shouting out Kidou spells. There were no people dressed in white here. Rather, there were many creatures with white masks, jumping around and attacking all the Shinigami. I pressed myself close to the buildings and moved very slowly, for fear of alarming anyone or anything and adding more injuries to those already injured.

It was harder than I thought, this staying out of sight business. I was pretty sure that some Shinigami caught a glimpse of my black dress kimono, but they were all too busy with their battles to care. Just as I thought I'd be able to make it out of the 10th Division grounds alive, I smashed headfirst into something very solid and that reeked of acid. Not daring to run, I looked up, right into the face of a leering masked figure. It was huge. 8 feet tall or more, towering over me like a monstrous statue. Slime oozed from its mouth, dripping onto the ground in front of me and melting away at the tiles.

My body went into total lock-down mode. I couldn't even twitch a finger. I was completely frozen, staring up at this... thing. It stood there for a few seconds, looking down at me, as if wondering how best to kill me. Suddenly, it opened its great maw and roared in my face, but before it could raise its clawed hand and rip my head off, I was pulled away, into the air. I'd closed my eyes, waiting for the monster to pound me, but when I opened them again, I saw nothing more than bright orange hair, fluttering against the sky.

"Mina-chan, you should have stayed in the office like Taichou said. He won't be happy with you," she sounded dead serious, not at all like her usual, cheery self. On finding myself temporarily unable to use my voice, I simply nodded. She didn't say anything, just kept on moving forward towards an unknown destination, undoubtedly somewhere safe, where she can lock me up again, and tell me to wait like a good little girl until the grown-ups come to get me.

When we landed though, I didn't expect to see more people fighting. This time, instead of the black shihakushous flashing back and forth, I saw white haoris. This was the battlefield. And it didn't look at all like the glorious scenes all the fairy-tales had described. In fact, it was the complete opposite. It was terrifying. Blood was everywhere, soaking the ground, and unconscious figures were lying hither and dither, some breathing, others, completely still. There were people in the air, on the ground, flash stepping back and forth. Shouts and cries were only punctuated by the clash of metal on metal and the occasional thump or crash of a body hitting the ground. Explosions were going off and the whole scene was covered by a mist of dust and rubble.

By the time I finished taking in all of this, Matsumoto was again immersed in a fight with a dark-skinned man with blazing red hair. I just stood there, not knowing what to do when someone suddenly charged at me. I didn't even get a chance to see who the attacker was before I was swept off my feet once more. Though this time, the figure that had saved me was much smaller, and had a crop of unruly white hair.

Hitsugaya looked beyond pissed as he set me down on a rooftop, a ways away from the battlefield. He looked a real mess. There were numerous scratches on his face and his clothing was torn, showing various cuts and bruises. His mouth was bleeding and a black eye was blooming spectacularly on his face. He was panting heavily and looked worried, tired and angry.

"I told you to say in the office!"

"Yeah but –"

"Didn't I tell you I won't be able to stand loosing you again? Why are you doing this to me?"

"I'm not! I didn't –"

He sighed and I stopped midsentence, looking at him. For the first time in a long while, he just looked like a regular kid. A kid that's been beaten up by a bunch of bullies and just got home. My heart clenched and on pure instinct, I pulled him in for a hug, tears swimming in my eyes. I held his head and ran my hands through his hair. They were so soft... even when tainted with blood. And he was so warm and comforting. I could still make out his distinct, sharp smell under the metallic odor of blood. He was here, he was still alive...

"I'm sorry... I just... couldn't stand the thought of you getting hurt. I don't know... exactly what happened last time, but I do know that I had something to do with all of this. I wanted to be with you... I wanted to see with my own eyes that you were going to be fine. I –" but he wrapped his arms around my waist and nuzzled his head tightly into the crook of my neck.

"Thank you..."

I smiled and let go, my hand cupping his face. I searched his eyes. They were soft.

"Please just... stay alive..." I pleaded. He nodded, and with a determined look on his face, jumped off into the battlefield once more.

"For me... "I said, watching from the rooftop as he was immediately jumped on by a group of people in white masks. He seemed to be moving with renewed vigor and speed. Though it didn't seem to do him much good when surrounded by nearly a dozen enemies. All he could do was hold his own; they gave him no chance to attack.

It wasn't long before I was noticed though. Just as I got to my feet, about to go and find a safer place to watch the battle, another masked creature flew at me with alarming speed. On reaction, I jumped aside and watched in a strange mix of amusement and confusion as it crashed right into the place where I had been moments before, driving a hole through the tiling, and falling into the room below.

Well, that certainly was strange... I thought as I climbed down from the roof. Now came the hard part, figuring out where to hide until the battle was over.

I scanned the area. There was nothing that immediately popped out as almost everything was either smoking or crumbling from the current battles.

By nature, there wasn't a lot of greenery in Seireitei, so I couldn't hide in any kind of shrub or tree. All the buildings were either being used as a temporary battle arena or falling into pieces. I didn't have much of a variety to choose from, but I spotted a small nook between two fallen houses. The walls were still partially intact, and it would hide me sufficiently enough.

Crouching as low to the ground as possible, I began to make my way towards the little nook. It was easier said than done. I had to dodge out of the way of oncoming projectiles and whatever other weapons were being hurled around in the air, and more than once, I had to run off completely because something was trying to attack me. When I finally got to my desired hiding place, and wedged myself between the two walls, two more houses had exploded and another one was being crushed by an Arrancar.

I scanned the area, looking for familiar faces, and there were a lot of them. Ukitake-taichou was shunpoing through the air, dancing around a yellow-haired girl, Nanao-fukutaichou was fending off a skinny man with very large teeth, and Soifon-taichou was immersed in an intense battle with a bespectacled man. I saw a flash of orange hair, and spotted Matsumoto, still locked in dead combat with the dark-skinned man. I frowned, trying to find Hitsugaya, but he was nowhere to be found. I gave a sick-humored smile.

Maybe he's too short to be spotted, I thought, trying to suppress an unidentifiable urge to burst out laughing.

"Bankai!"

The sudden command made me jump and look around widely for the source of the scream. Looking up, I found myself staring up at a very familiar scene. Ice wings, enclosing the small form of a boy with snow white hair. It was beautiful, majestic, and terrible. And in a flash, he was gone, appearing a mere half a second later, behind his enemy, who dodged to the right.

The fight continued, and I sat there, mesmerized by the moving figures. They dodged, dashed, and struck with all the gracefulness of a dancer. Watching it made me feel like I was watching something that had been practiced and planned out beforehand. All of the movements were so perfect and precise. No slip-ups were made. But that was to be expected. In a fight like this, one wrong move, and the perpetrator would be run through, or killed in an instant. It was only to be expected.

Still, seeing it all happen like this, in such proximity and clarity, was something that I'd never even dreamed of ever happening.

From a distant corner of my mind, I can only faintly recall sitting in front of a TV with my eyes glued to the screen, watching the figures dance about, lashing out once in a while. It was all so distant back then, but not anymore. I was the one in the middle of the fight now. I was the one that was in, although not immediate, danger. And the moves were real. All of a sudden, the truth of all things hit me like a tidal wave. Everything was so frighteningly real. The blood the screams the piles and piles of dead bodies... Thinking about it made me nauseous so I pushed the grueling thoughts out of my mind. Instead, I tried to remember what it was like back in the world of the living. It all seemed so far away.

What would all of my old friends say if they could see me now? They probably wouldn't even recognize me. I looked so different. I, as a person, have changed, both internally and externally. I've seen and experienced so many more things, that I doubt any regular person could ever dream of. I guess I was never really meant to be what people like to call normal. From day one, my life's been on a fixed course, and my introduction to the Shinigami world, was merely a fork in the road I chose to take. I don't know what would have happened if I'd decided to go the other way, and quite frankly, I don't think I care much anymore. I was happy, despite the fact that I had to see all of my closest friends fighting for their lives. I was content, although I was crouched and cramped between two fallen walls, watching the goings-ons, unable to do anything to help.

Somewhere inside me, I knew, that this is where I truly belonged.

"Look out!" I stood up, eyes wide with fear as someone tried to pull a sneak attack on Hitsugaya. He turned just in time to dodge it and shunpo away.

"Ara ara! Lookie what we have here!"

I turned. Damn it... I mentally cursed as I lifted my eyes to meet the bright yellow ones of a pale, fat man. He was completely bald, and had a rather ugly wart on his over large nose. He was leering down at me, bring his fist to his palm, chuckling menacingly. His teeth were pointed, and a sickly blue liquid oozed from them. I had no doubt that they were poisonous.

Crap, this is bad, I thought, biting my lip. Hitsugaya was too tangled up in his own battle to come save me again, and so was Matsumoto. I can't keep relying on people to save me all the time. But my powers were useless here. What could I possibly do?

"Well, don't you look adorable there, chibi-chan? I wonder how much cuter you'd look screaming in pain." It lunged. I did the only thing that made any sense at all, and screamed the first thing that came to mind.

"STOP!"

Something hot and sticky splattered onto my face. It smelled of iron. I opened my eyes.

A very large hole had appeared right in the middle of the Hollow's chest. It was smoking. I blinked. What? I thought my powers were unusable when I was in Soul Society. Didn't the spirit particles mess with the flow of my magic or something? Or that was what they'd said...

"But I think, that if you're in great danger, you're powers will respond. I don't know for sure though, it's just a hunch."

That's right... Urahara had said that when I asked him about my powers. Why didn't I remember till... oh right. I had my memory wiped clean...

The Hollow crumpled in front of me, creating a cloud of rubble. It must have been a small fry to be killed by that one hit. I coughed and looked around. The fighting was coming to an end. There were more bodies than ever, lying on the ground. Some were grotesquely malfigured, others seemed to be just sleeping, but I knew that their insides could be no less contorted and ripped apart as the buildings around me. There were still a few Shinigami, holding on, and continuing to battle. The Hollows were dwindling too. Not nearly as many of them were moving as there was before. But they still had the Shinigami outnumbered two to one.

My heart began to pound. There's got to be something I can do! But what?

A/N: YOU GUYS ROCK. 4 days... and I got 20 reviews! I LOVE you guys. TWENTY FRICKIN REVIEWS! That's a large number of reviews! And here are the ones that made it happen:

KungFu Ninja-Miko, Mai-x, KurokamiHaruhi, WinterVines, erina destiny, CRdragonPyro, Shina no Miko, Arin-chan, Sweet Nightmare's Good Byes, I'llxBexUrxEnigma2010, Naishou, -Mistress Muguruma Miku-, icedragon205, Aqua4, Sorii., GothicCinnamon, HeadstrongNozomi, Hikari6007, Jenjenjojo1012, IkuXYori

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It's also been decided that I will write a HitsuxKarin fic next. Whether or not you guys choose to follow it... well, that's up to you guys, but I sincerely hope that you all will remain to support me. XD And again, I LOVE YOU GUYS.

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