AN: This is almost more of a shorter part two than a true epilogue, I suppose, but I'm putting it here for the sake of keeping the entire work cohesive. This is the "unhappy" ending.

Additional warnings for this chapter include: mature themes, graphic descriptions of torture, and character death (you'll just have to read to find out who it is).


A crash of tinkling glass wakes them from deep sleep. Ichigo jolts upright as Uryuu blinks in confusion.

"Did you hear that," he whispers to Uryuu when he sits up to look around. "Sounded like it came from the kitchen."

"Where are you going? It was probably Nel knocking something over..."

"I'm just going to make sure."

He doesn't bother telling Uryuu to stay put; Ichigo already knows he won't. So they carefully pad into their hallway, across the living room, and peer around the archway bordering the kitchen. Brushing glittery shards from ripped jeans, Grimmjaw looks up and grins at the pair of them gawking in the doorway.

"Yo, Ishida. Kurosaki."

"What the fuck, man?" Ichigo yells as Uryuu wordlessly turns around and goes to grab his phone. "We don't hear a peep from your for over two years and suddenly you're breaking into our flat?"

"I got bored."

"When are you going to learn that it's never gonna happen with you and Uryuu? He's with me now."

Dialing down the grin to a sly smirk, Grimmjaw takes two slow steps forward and raises his hands in surrender when Ichigo bristles. He hears Uryuu talking with the police in the next room. All they have to do is keep the tension to a minimum until they arrive to carry this lunatic away. Breaking and entering in addition to violating the restraining order Uryuu keeps renewed just in case, he's not liable to get off easily this time.

"Actually, I came to talk to you, Kurosaki."

"Is that so?"

"Got a question for ya."

"As if I'm inclined to do you any favors when you break a window to creep in here in the middle of the night!"

"I was just wonderin' if the rumors are true. Did yer ma really bite it when you were still a brat?" Stiffening, Ichigo scowls and keeps his mouth shut so he won't start screaming. "Word on the street is they never found the maniac who did it. Isn't that right?"

"How would we know, Grimm?" Rejoining the party, Uryuu folds his arms across his chest and glares so heartlessly it chills Ichigo from seeing it second-hand. "Even if the murderer was never apprehended it's in Ichigo's best interest to let it go. Keep it in the past. Which is where I meant to leave you."

"Aw, Baby, that's cold," he chides with a fake shiver. "And here I came to give you a heads-up."

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo demands. Grimmjaw's smile comes back full-force.

"Let's just say...a little birdie told me he might be back in town to finish some business. Tie up loose ends." Both speechless, the brief silence falls heavily on their piqued ears. "So, Ishida, I might be seeing you very soon."

"You son of a—"

"And you, Kurosaki, I'll never see you again."

Before Ichigo can lunge at him, Grimmjaw snickers and hops back out the busted window he came through. Uryuu stops him when he makes to follow.

"Ignore him, Ichigo. He's infamous for his lies."

"It's true, though," he murmurs back, turning to face his partner with no small measure of anxiety. "They never caught him."

"What are the chances someone like that would remain free and alive after all this time? There's a reason we don't hear about murder sprees on the news every day."

Uryuu draws him into a comforting hug and Ichigo leans into it with a deep sigh. But the nagging panic in the back of his mind tells him this isn't over. There was too much anticipatory glee in Grimmjaw's icy eyes to discount his warning.


Two weeks later Ichigo is still thinking about it. He contacted the man who rescued him from his mother's murderer all those years ago, Urahara Kisuke. He was pleasantly surprised to hear from Ichigo, especially that he has been doing so well, but he had no extra information to impart. Although Urahara promised to keep an ear perked for any news.

Uryuu tells him not to be so paranoid. They worked out a plan of action in case of another home invasion and otherwise promised to be careful when traveling alone. Beyond that any more worry is unnecessary, according to his ex-shrink. Ichigo does his best to listen, but he can't shake the feeling that something is off.

Which is why he instantly goes into red-alert at the sight of a body in the street. They are on their way home from a late dinner party in Uryuu's car, slamming on the brakes when headlights illuminate an unmistakable shape. Ichigo pulls out his phone but frowns because he has no service. Uryuu's isn't much better.

"A combination of poor weather and the remote location," he mumbles up at the rumbling clouds as he tosses his phone to the dash. "I'm going to go check on that person and administer first-aid if necessary. Keep trying to call an ambulance."

"Uryuu, wait! I'm coming with you."

"Ichigo—"

"I'm coming."

"All right," Uryuu concedes, sensing his alarm.

They get out together, leaving the car running and the headlights on. Crunching gravel on the woods-adjacent back road, Ichigo calls out to the brownish lump as Uryuu kneels down to check for a pulse. He snatches his hand away in surprise.

"What is it?"

"He's stone-cold," Uryuu glances up to announce. "Been dead for hours."

Ichigo goes rigid. "Get back in the car. Now!"

As he says it, the Saab goes quiet and dark, shut off by a tall figure draped in black. Ichigo darts over to grab Uryuu and pull him close, glancing all around just in case. Without the headlights, their rural surroundings are pitch black. Why do they have to have friends who live so far from the city?

"It's all right, Ichigo. Stay calm; this may be a misunderstanding. If nothing else, there are two of us and one of him." Raising his voice to address the man slowly straightening from his crouch over the driver's seat, "Are you hurt? We'd be happy to drive you to a hospital. I'm a doctor if you'd rather be treated here."

"Doctor..."

The word hisses out with in a rough baritone that raises the hairs on the back of Ichigo's neck. His face is obscured in the folds of a low hood. Uryuu takes a hesitant step towards him and Ichigo tightens his grip on his forearm.

"Uryuu, don't."

"He could be a victim of a car accident or something like that. What if this is his friend and he's been waiting out here for help all night? These roads aren't frequently traveled."

"Yeah, but-"

"Do you need help?"

"Help..." the stranger croons. Uryuu nods and steps closer.

"Let us help you. I'll tend to your wounds now and we can go into town for—Ah!"

Gasping with wide eyes, Uryuu reaches a hand up to his chest, where a red-tufted dart sprouts from his heart. Ichigo shouts and catches him as Uryuu drops like a stone. Hot-cold panic spikes through Ichigo as he plucks the little metallic thing out and lowers Uryuu gently to the ground. Tears spring to his eyes and he wipes angrily at them for clouding his vision. A few drops patter to Uryuu's sleep-slackened face but do not wake him.

"Uryuu? Wake up, Uryuu!"

"Doctor down," confirms the robed man from beside Ichigo. "You next."

He jerks his head up at that and flinches as he is shot with the same sedative. Ichigo barely has time to gasp in a breath before the burning chemical eclipses his consciousness.


An uncomfortable combination of rough metal, cold concrete, and harsh light gradually pulls Ichigo back to wakefulness. He blinks stinging eyes and waits for them to adjust as he tries to roll to a sitting position. Heavy chains bind his hands and feet to a sturdy ring bolted into the wall beside him. He dimly realizes that nothing short of unhinging that anchor will free him, since he can't get the manacles off his ankles without a key. Immediately tugging at his restraints, Ichigo scans the room for Uryuu and their captor. His actions still as he finds them.

Uryuu is still knocked out, tied to a metal chair on the far side of the cavernous space. The ceiling is low and the plain walls lack windows but there is only one simple door barred from the inside. The stranger stands before it and glances at Ichigo before striding towards a narrow table near Uryuu. It's too far to see what that surface supports, but he can make a morbid guess.

"Who the hell are you?" Ichigo shouts to shift the focus to himself instead. "Why are you doing this?"

No response is forthcoming. The room is so quiet that Ichigo hears the tiny snap of smelling salts soon used to rouse Uryuu. He coughs and shakes his head, leaning away from the offensive odor. Then he freezes as his eyes lock onto the malevolent form lurking in front of him.

"Doctor," the creep cheerily greets in that slow, garbled cadence. "Nice nap?"

"What have you done with Ichigo?"

"I'm here!" he loudly answers. "I'm okay, Uryuu. Did he hurt you?"

That monster's fiendish chuckle halts Uryuu's reply, but his expression says it all: not yet. Ichigo growls and rips at the chains as he stumbles to a teetering stand. His fuzzy brain pounds from the sedative's after-effects but he does his best to breathe past it. He'll be damned if he's going to sit by and let this happen!

Solid footsteps echo around their prison and Ichigo looks up to watch the robed man heading over to him.

"Where are you going?" Uryuu demands with a hint of panic in his tone. "Leave him out of this. I'm in this chair for a reason, aren't I?"

Gaping in shock, Ichigo shouts, "Shut up, Uryuu! Don't encourage the murderer to attack you!"

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" he cries and starts straining against the tight cords holding him in place. "I can't let him hurt you any more than you can let him hurt me! And this chair is bolted to the ground..."

By the time the man reaches him, Ichigo hasn't dislodged so much as a tuft of dust from the loop in the wall. He snarls at his captor and gets backhanded to the floor for his trouble. Uryuu yells his name but Ichigo is too busy spitting out a mouthful of blood to calm him. A knee pushes against his chest, pinning him in place and making breathing difficult.

"Kurosaki Ichigo," the killer ominously intones. "I have come to kill you, Kurosaki Ichigo."

"Fuck you!"

"So many years I searched for the bright-haired boy whose pretty mother I took."

He speaks with the strained pace and awkward diction of someone unused to casual speech. At this distance, Ichigo can see him clearly, the same bone-white mask and piercing, soulless eyes from that day by the river. Indistinct stains splotch across that mask, now much dirtier than it had ever been before. A smothering terror begins to set into him.

"Urahara should've killed you when he had the chance," he pants past the rising fear. "He should've let me bleed out and chased you down instead. How many more lives have you taken because he saved me?"

"Urahara," comes the thoughtful grunt of someone adding to a list. "He injured me. Set the dogs on me. Forced me into hiding."

"Good!"

"Ichigo, stop antagonizing him!"

"He's not letting us go anyway. Might as well make him suffer as much as possi—Gah!"

The bastard rises to kick Ichigo in the stomach. He coughs and braces his arms over his middle, curling inward, but the heavy heel lands on his unguarded shoulder. The crack of a thin bone is lost in Ichigo's startled shout.

"Stop! Leave him alone!" Ichigo grits his teeth to silence himself and looks over at Uryuu, seeing him put on his patent calculating face. "You wanted to hurt me first, didn't you? You want Ichigo to watch."

"NO!" he screams as the man grins at that. "Don't you touch him!"

But he is already clomping towards Uryuu. Ichigo bites back agonized whimpers as he yanks futilely at those cursed chains. His collar bone is fractured on the left side. It is in serious danger of snapping in half if he keeps struggling, throbbing with warning fire and acid, but he can't bring himself to stop trying.

"How did you find us? You said it took you a long time to find Ichigo. They never printed his name in the papers when his mother was murdered, did they?"

"No."

"Because he was a minor, and because you were never captured. How did you escape?"

"Underground."

"You've been living off the grid, homeless, all this time."

"His fault!"

The quiet groan of pain from Uryuu hurts Ichigo more than any physical injury ever could. His renewed pleas go ignored as he watches the demon from his nightmares strike the savior of his dreams. Blood oozes from a shallow cut on Uryuu's pale cheek and from the corner of his mouth. His breaths come shallow and tight between blows. Still he doesn't cry out.

"Ichigo's escape infuriated you," Uryuu tenaciously continues when the man backs off for a moment. "You couldn't enjoy the deaths of other victims knowing that little boy was healthy and whole in spite of you. You had to find him."

"I'll make him wish he died with his momma!"

"Uryuu, please," Ichigo chokes through a crushing wave of misery as his words incur more punishment. "Please stop talking."

He knows this ploy because it was his plan, too. Take the criminal's attention off his lover while trying to break free or just desperately stall the inevitable. Uryuu is more suited to it, though, since he has the training to navigate psychotic murderers better than anyone. If that means he has to take the abuse, Ichigo would rather he didn't even try.

Ichigo knows now that he won't be able to get loose on his own. There are limits to human strength when confronted with stone and metal.

"The papers printed his name and a mug shot after the incident with Aizen and Ichimaru. That's how you found him."

"Yes," he disinterestedly confirms, turning to the table to grab what looks like a long knife.

"But the way you used to do things wouldn't work this time. You couldn't just snatch him off the streets in broad daylight or you really would be caught." The silver gleam of that blade glints in the fluorescent lights and Ichigo can't even summon the will to scream. Uryuu's voice is pinched with anxiety but he continues to stare straight at that evil mask as he speaks. "Taking your time, you gathered your resources—weapons, allies, this building—and made a plan. It took two years to prepare and find your way to an opening in our schedule. Staging an accident in the road was the easy part."

"Smart doctor. Pretty necklace."

The whining rip of fabric makes Ichigo jolt. Chest exposed, Uryuu heaves and clenches his jaw in preparation for the initial slice he cannot prevent. Ichigo holds his breath in abject horror. It comes in the seeping shape of a vertical line dead-center along his sternum. Uryuu huffs a short, strangled sound and snaps his eyes shut.

Before he raises his hand for the next cut, Uryuu mutters, "You think this will fill the void inside you? What will happen when the only goal you've held onto for nearly two decades is completed?"

His words bring momentary pause. Then the man sets the blade back to his skin. Slowly, one slice at a time, a perfect pentagram matching Uryuu's grandfather's necklace is drawn in thin red lines. Uryuu lets his head droop forward as the monster steps back to admire his handiwork. Ichigo doesn't even realize he is crying until he tastes salt in his open mouth.

"You sick bastard," Ichigo whispers, then repeats as loud as he can muster. "Pathetic excuse of a human being! I'm so glad you've suffered. I can't wait to see you in Hell!"

Toting the knife back towards Ichigo, the demon stoops to peer into his eyes. He can't see the expression beneath the mask, but he imagines there must be a wide, malicious grin involved. Then the man stabs three inches of the blade into Ichigo's thigh. Wretched laughter rivals his bellow of agony.

He forces his eyes open to watch the monster hovering over him just in time to see those gleeful eyes flare wide in surprise. Ichigo watches him fall to his knees, gurgling grotesquely under the mask, and Uryuu is standing behind him with a deep grimace of hatred. Reaching ineffectively behind himself, the man dribbles blood down his neck and chest. He cries out as Uryuu gives a wrenching twist of the large knife he has jabbed directly into the left lung.

Uryuu mercilessly rips the blade out and allows the man to tumble at his feet in lieu of unlocking Ichigo's cuffs with a key he must have swiped from the table. They get all four opened and Uryuu carefully removes the knife from his leg. He whips off his tattered shirt to use as a tourniquet.

"You got loose," Ichigo says to distract himself from the fresh surge of pain. "I didn't think you could."

"If I was anyone else, I couldn't. Turns out all that sewing and stitching came in handy and I was able to loosen the knot. Not fast enough, though."

"Are you kidding? We're alive, Uryuu! That's all that matters."

Ichigo presses an appreciative palm to his cheek and meets his watery gaze. Uryuu presses a grateful kiss to his forehead and murmurs an apology. Then he turns to the slowly suffocating beast on the ground and deliberately slides the knife between his ribs and into his right lung. Ichigo gapes at him.

"Just in case," he says as if he didn't just purposely deliver a mortal wound. "This...thing doesn't deserve prison or a lengthy trial. It doesn't even deserve a swift death."

Although he couldn't agree more, Ichigo is concerned with any mental repercussions this may have on Uryuu later. Yet, the cold expression Uryuu adorns as he waits for their tormentor to expire tells him that won't be a problem.

"Your chest."

Ichigo goes to take off his own shirt to press against the stark wounds but cringes as his fracture is stressed. Uryuu stops him with a gentle hand to his.

"They're shallow. The bleeding has already stopped. See?" Ichigo nods in understanding, though he still doesn't like it. "I'm more concerned about your leg."

"It's fine; missed the bone."

Both of them jerk their attention back onto the criminal as he gives one last rattling exhale and a disturbing series of full-body twitches. He quiets and Ichigo leans forward to push up the edge of his mask. It clatters to the ground with a hollow thump. Beneath that macabre mask, he is just a man.

"Not a real demon after all."

"He'll be one soon," Uryuu swears. He gives Ichigo an assessing look. "In Hell where he belongs. Not you."

"Let's get out of here."

"Ichigo?" he calls to get his attention, helping him limp out of the abandoned building. "How do you feel?"

"Anxious. Afraid. Fucking furious." Ichigo takes a steadying breath as they step into the street and head towards a cluster of street lights and business signs. "Relieved. Lucky. The nightmare has finally ended and we've survived."

"We always will."


AN: Argh! I guess it ended kind of happy after all. Oh, well. This is officially the end and I hope you enjoyed the ride!