Hi! Sorry for the wait. I keep saying that and I'm afraid this story is hitting a bit of a block. I feel so stupid for not being able to keep the flow of ideas, but I am trying to sort out what's happening in my head right now. I swear I'm gonna do my best to keep this story alive. I hope you find it interesting. Bleach isn't mine...which is probably a very good thing.

Byakuya felt a dull throbbing in his skull as he returned quietly to consciousness. It took him a minute to realise something was wrong. He could hear nothing, but could feel the spooked reiatsu press against his skin. He opened his eyes He eased himself up, wary of his wounds. He needn't have been. No pain registered. He looked down at his (previously bandaged) chest and arms, his lips quirking upwards as he saw pale, unblemished skin. She really had done a good job. Quiet appreciation and gratitude washed over him. He looked around. Makki was creeping quietly across the room towards him. There was something in his eyes that unsettled the noble. Makki approached with all the stealth of Yoruichi Shihoin, gently helping him to his feet. Then, they padded over the wall. He pressed a finger to his lips and his hand skated over the surface of the wall. A black spiral appeared at his fingertips, spinning and growing in size. The wall it encompassed within it vanished with a soft whump, revealing a very narrow corridor. Byakuya raised an eyebrow questioningly, but Makki didn't turn to face him, moving down the newly revealed passage. Byakuya hesitated for a minute before followed him in cautiously, turning back as to look behind him. Paranoia set his nerves on edge. He heard a soft rumbling as the wall span itself back together, the entrance getting smaller and smaller, the corridor darker and darker until everything was pitch black. He didn't miss the fact that it was slanting down, like he was going downhill. Listening to Makki's fading footsteps; Byakuya put one foot in front of the other and raised his right hand, placing it on the wall, like one does in a labyrinth. He hurried down the passageway, feeling slightly claustrophobic. The walls seemed to close around him, getting narrower every second. Feeling unsettled, he sped up, hoping to catch up to Makki. Suddenly, inexplicably, Byakuya felt the wall curve away from him. A pale light flickered into existence above him. His eyes went wide. He had walked into a huge, circular room...its dark-stoned walls riddled with tunnels. His eyes narrowed. Perfect.

He tried searching for Makki's reiatsu, but his search was fruitless. Stymied, he tried again, but still was unsuccessful. He tried searching for a familiar reiatsu, anyone's, but still there was nothing. He looked around. Which corridor had he entered through? Something crackled above his head. He looked up. Instead of a ceiling, there was a screen. It was full of static snow. The bandaged face of the Betrayer appeared- those purple orbs devoid of emotion.

"I'm sorry, Shinigami-sama," she said, voice flat, "The Shinihana have breached the house. They are probably after you. It will only be a matter of time before they find the corridor entrance. I would not spend too long picking an exit."

Byakuya glared up at her icily.

"How am I to know which exit is the true exit?" he asked, eyes narrowed, arms crossed, "It could be any of these."

He couldn't see her mouth, but he guessed she smirked. "Well, it shouldn't confuse someone of your calibre for too long. In any situation were threat is present, I've noticed that Shinigami have two reactions. I won't insult you by telling you what they are. Use them! Don't take too long, Shinigami-sama!"

The screen fizzed out.

"Does she have split personalities? I swear... she never does what I expect. It makes it very difficult to trust her." Byakuya fumed, silently. He replayed her words in his head. What did Shinigami do in the presence of threat? And anyway, how would tunnels threaten him? It wasn't like it was a hollow or anything...

He felt the beginning of an idea forming. In situations of threat, Shinigami did either two things, attack or retreat. Since he could remember where he had come from, retreat was out of the question. Attack it was, then. He extended his palm.

"Hadō 33: Sōkatsui!" he intoned, firing multiple blasts around him, down the tunnels and at the walls. The ones that hit the walls, dissipated into nothing, however, the ones he fired down the tunnels had another idea. They shot back at him, cutting through the pitch-black tunnels like a katana through paper. His eyes widened and he threw himself to the side, covering his head as they whipped past his head and down…the…other…tunnels.

Wonderful.

He hissed as they rebounded back at him, trying his best to dodge all the Kidō that flew back. It seemed to pick up more speed the more it rebounded. This was bad. At this rate, it would speed up too much and he'd get hit with his own attacks. He could feel his pride shudder at the thought. He continued to dodge, his mind racing faster than his feet. Attacking, as he had just discovered, was fruitless. That left him with retreating, but to where?!

That was when he heard the footsteps.

They were quiet, barely audible over the hiss of the Kidō, but they were there. So she hadn't been lying about the Shinihana. Perfect. His head whipped around, still dodging the Kidō, searching for a way out. Makki had disappeared in seconds, so it was obviously nearby.

The Betrayer watched him with worry. She had sent the other Shinigami away some time ago. She didn't want them to see this man, the Fukutaichou they obviously respected, fail. She knew he wouldn't want them to see it either. She couldn't say she wasn't impressed, though. The way he flitted around, dodging those balls of light she could barely see, searching for an exit was promising. Suddenly, she saw his eyes widen. He glanced upwards, towards her, and smirked.

It was too obvious, in hindsight. Byakuya had been too focused on the tunnels to notice the real exit. It had hit him like a ton of bricks.

He had shunpo'ed particularly close to one of the tunnels when he'd noticed. He thought someone was running at him, so he'd slowed down slightly to look again. The approaching figure slowed too. It had struck him as odd. He shunpo'ed away, still dodging his own attacks, but had returned there swiftly, this time noticing the Shinigami uniform the figure was wearing. Funny, they seemed to be the same height! That's when he realized he was looking in a mirror. He quickly shunpo'ed around the room, checking for reflections in the tunnels. Theoretically, only two tunnels shouldn't have reflections. The one entrance and the one exit.

However, he only found one tunnel without a reflection. The entrance. So… where was the exit?

That's when it had hit him.

He glanced up at the screen and smirked. How had he been so slow?

The footsteps sounded again, but he ignored them. They didn't belong to anyone. He'd have seen their owner in the mirror. It was all a deception.

Ignoring the now-fading Kidō, he launched himself at a wall, feet first, and jumped from wall to wall until he could touch the ceiling.

He took a breath. Falling wouldn't be advisable now. He jumped once more, hand gliding along the surface…

Until he found a very small handle.

It would never have been noticed from the ground, it was tucked away neatly where the wall met the ceiling, but as soon as he grasped it, he pulled. A little trapdoor opened soundlessly, and he used his other arm to grab hold of the ledge inside. Smirking, he pulled himself trough and pulled the door shut.

He was in another corridor, but there was a soft light not too far ahead. He walked towards it, wiping the smirk from his face. His heavy breathing soon quietened and his footsteps seemed rather loud in the heavy silence.

The light got bigger and bigger, brighter and brighter, until he emerged into a well-lit room. One wall was dominated by a huge screen, which showed the empty room he'd just escaped. The others were blank. There was a small wooden desk with a deactivated computer screen on it facing him. In front of the desk was a chair, with a high back.

"Well done, Shinigami-sama," the Betrayer said politely, getting up and facing him, "Very well done indeed."