Akari's POV:

Waking up from one of those burning nightmares wasn't fun. The jump over, the need to breath and the tremble all over my body it was something that I couldn't stop. Now, putting also that I was also injured from a life threatening experience, it was way worse.

I arched upwards getting off the quilt, suddenly it was way too hot in the room, like every nightmare. I shouted out in pain for the sudden movement, my injury in the ribs hurt like the hell I was just in. I didn't lie back in the bed, instead I was making me smaller, arching myself forward, holding in my throat the moans of pain, with my wounded hand I tried to hold the pain at my side only making it worse for the touch, both hands were close in a solid grip. Everything hurts. My hand, my ribs, my foot. Hell, even breathing hurts.

"I found you" The terrifying voice of the man in the burning palace echoed in my head. He said it like it was a play. Like he was winning. Like he was there ready to kill me. Why? Why was everything happening to me? What was going on? Who was him? Why was he obsessed with me? Why? What's happening to me? Why me? Why? Why?

"I found you and I'll kill you, Richards Akari, sooner than you think" It sounded back it my head. I screamed.

"GO AWAY!" I covered my head with my hands, shutting my eyes. Everything hurts. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. Everything hurts.

"Richards!" I felt two strong hands covering my shoulders, shaking me. He was really there? Oh God, I was really going to die? I tried move away of the hold, screamed more, the movement made everything more painful.

"AKARI!" The voice repeated. It wasn't the man's voice. It was different. Suddenly I felt the hands leaved my shoulders and hold my head, gently but firm "Akari it's me! It's Hitsugaya, open your eyes!"

Hitsugaya but…?

I opened my eyes and looked directly to his teal eyes. Those teal eyes were looking me worried, concerned. Some part of me wasn't processing what I was doing there, why Toushiro was there. But some calmness reach me to know that it was him. It was him. I was awake, I was with Toushiro.

"All right, breathe" He said. I stared at him, blinking a few times, still trying to understand "Akari, you need to breathe" He repeated, sounded scared and I felt back that I wasn't breathing right, that the air wasn't reaching my lungs. I suddenly gasped loudly, hold my breath for a seconds and then exhaled again "Ok, again" Again his hands were on my shoulders, holding me. And again I inhaled deeply, everything was getting back. Every piece in its place. I exhaled and almost felt like falling, but his hands were there, supporting me. "You are all right, you are safe" I looked back at him. Noticing that my hands were over his arms, gripping the hold. My body was tense and still everything hurt, but I wasn't terrified anymore. I let my body relax down, like lifting some weight off my body. God, what a mess I was.

"Captain! What's happening?!" A female voice said outside the room and opened the door suddenly, letting the light of the hallway creeping in, hurting my eyes, but I notice the silhouette of Rangiku confused but ready to fight whatever was in the room. She looked at both of us and her confuse state was more obvious "Akari-chan? What…?"

"Go for water Matsumoto, she needs it" Toushiro said like an order, looking at her for a second and then back to me. His shadow protected a little my eyes from the light coming inside. I turned down my head, closing my eyes again, concentrated only in breathing. I heard Rangiku's footsteps going away.

"…It hurts" I was able to say. I was surprised by how low my voice sounded even to me, low and broken.

"What hurts?" He said softly. I breathed once, twice.

"Everything" I exhaled sharply.

"We'll check that in a moment" He assured me. God, his voice sounded that everything was all right, that he could handle everything that he knew exactly what to do. I started to feel that too.

A footsteps echoed in the room and I felt how Toushiro move one arm off my shoulders and then something cold in my free hand.

"Drink it" I looked up to see the glass of water, I hold it up without problem and drunk it all in a few giants gulps. The cold water was a relief to my dried throat and a felt the temperature around me drop with it. I gasped a little when I finished. Feeling so much better.

"Want some more, Akari-chan?" Rangiku could be motherly like sometimes, the idea made me smile slightly.

"No, thanks a lot Rangiku" I looked back at her, giving her the glass, trying to make an assured smile. She reply with a good reassured smile and then look back at Toushiro, probably expecting something with what could help.

"I got it from here, Matsumoto. Go to sleep and thanks" He said back, and Rangiku only nodded.

"You are safe here, Akari-chan" She said and I could only nodded in response, with that she leaved the room, letting the lights of the hallway on and with the sound of her closing door, Toushiro looked back at me.

"Better?" He asked and again, I just nodded. I really didn't have much strength to reply.

Hissing in pain I took off my grip from his arm, when I looked at the palm there was blood in the bandages, I opened back the wound. Toushiro noticed this and was ready to get up for the first-aid kit. In reflex, I grabbed his t-shirt, without caring for the pain or if I stained it with blood.

"Wait" My voice was still low and broken, I looked at him pleading not to leave, not in that moment.

He seemed debating it for a moment, then he took gently my hand off his t-shirt, got closer to me and with a soft look, his hands caress around the wound, I felt comfort from it.

"I need to close the wound" He cooed "It's going to be a second" Before I could reply he turned on a night lamp, illuminating softly the rest of the room "You are safe here, Akari" He repeated and I nodded again. With that he stood up and went to the bathroom where we left the kit, it didn't pass a minute and he was back with it.

With the light I was able to notice a spot of blood that I marked in his arm and t-shirt. I looked around while he was getting everything out and found the watch, showing that it was 3:30 a.m.

"I'm sorry" I mumbled out "You shouldn't b-"

"Don't" He cut what I was going to say "You just passed from a horrible experience tonight, it's understandable that you are scared"

I denied with my head. He didn't understand. It wasn't for tonight. It wasn't me being scared from the attack. It was me scared for some man in my dreams hunting me down. For that repeated nightmare. How could I tell Toushiro? He wouldn't understand.

"It's not that" I said "I just…" I cut it. It was insane. I was insane. He wouldn't believe me.

"What?" He asked, while starting to get off the bandages in my hand. He wouldn't understand. He wouldn't believe me.

"I can't say it…" I stared at how his skilled hands were working, only focusing on that.

"You shouldn't keep it to yourself" I didn't look up to him. I didn't want to. I couldn't.

I bite my lips as response. I hated this part of myself. So weak and terrified of what other could think of me. Because I was a freak. That's what I was.

"Akari" He cooed again. Waiting for my response. With one of his hands he went to my face and move my hair off it in a caress, then went to my chin and made me look at him. With the soft light his teal eyes looked more vivid. Determinant. "Tell me what's wrong"

A second passed. Then another. "You'll think I'm a freak" I said.

"I won't think that" He replied without hesitation.

"You don't know that" I keep denying the idea. I was starting to raise my voice.

"You can't hold that to yourself" He didn't raised his voice, it was the same as he was sure of everything.

"You won't understand!" This time I shouted at him, frustrated. He didn't flinch at my reaction, he was with his same intense stare.

"Try me" He answered with the same firm tone of voice. Confident. Sure of himself and that could take whatever I throw him. That made me laugh bitterly and look away from him.

"For God's sake, you are worse than Kazui" I spited out.

"It's something about spirits?" He asked and I felt how my body tense about it. He didn't need more affirmations "Have you told something to Kazui?"

I waited for a moment, thinking. He wasn't going back to attend my hand until I answered.

"No" I told the truth. I keep looking away from him. If I looked back I lost.

"Why?" He keep asking. God, he was insistent. I felt again how his hands were moving, disinfecting the wound, a bite my thong and shut my eyes when the alcohol touched the wound, when the direct sting passed, I looked back at Toushiro. He was all focused in attending me. I give up.

"I don't want to be the crazy one of the group" If he was surprised that I actually answered, he didn't show. He just looked at me, waiting for me to continue. I didn't wanted.

"I know Kazui for a long time, I don't think you'll be worse than him" He chuckled a little with the thought "Besides, you see the group I'm with, they are not better"

That made me chuckle a little too. It was soft and short. But it was more relieved than before. Maybe he was right. I sighed. I hoped that I wouldn't regret this.

"Ok, I'll tell you" Well, there it goes…

Toushiro's POV:

"What I told you earlier from the attack, how I got a bad feeling and such, I lied" Richards started telling me, I looked at her to continue "Well, more or less, It's something I've been feeling lately, trice to be exactly that I could remember, it's like a heavy pressure in my body, that doesn't let me move at all, like I'm lifting something really heavy, I can't really explain it" If she was talking about what I think she was, she was able to feel a heavy reiatsu around her, probably the same as today and has been following for a time now, I frown at the idea "I don't know what it is, but in the end, is a bad feeling, the first time it happened was the day before you arrive to Karakura, I was going to my grandma's and suddenly that feeling, I thought it was a panic attack when I notice that nothing happened. Then the next morning I was in a rush to get from my grandma's to my house and then to school, and while that in a parking lot, happened again and that's how I got burned in my arm" So that's why there was a strange reiatsu when we meet her. That's why she was changing the story of how it got it.

I finished bandaging her hand and focused all my attention to her. Making my best to keep all the information she was giving me.

"With that in mind, I knew that if I felt that again, I could be in danger" She continued, now moving both hands "I felt it tonight again going home. I was way too scared to be home alone after I felt that weird pressure and I was yet far away to cross the river so I decided to come here. Now that I think about it, it could be dangerous for you both, not a great idea…" She was starting to ramble about it, I focused back in the story.

"Don't think about it, with what you are telling me is comprehensible that you didn't want to be alone and it seems it doesn't attack when you are with someone" It seemed for now, but I didn't know how long that could last.

"That… that I don't know anymore" She sounded doubtful about it, looking down at the quilt as if it was interesting "I don't know if you all are safe with me anymore"

"Why you say that?" I hated to play the mortal that didn't know anything. Everything could be easier if the Kurosaki's had told her something earlier, my limit was with what she knew and for the look of it, she knew more than the Kurosaki's had guessed.

"That's… That's my nightmares" She continued, holding for a second her breath and then exhaled "I've been having these weird, and when I tell you weird is weird, dreams or nightmares, or whatever for some time now, from like... summer past year" Now we are getting to why she was always sleep deprived.

"Like tonight" I just wanted for her to confirm it and she nodded.

"There are two dreams that goes with a few changes every time, but its just two dreams. One it's a dream, like I don't wake up like this scared, I'm just tired, because it's like I'm in a desert alone with nothing around me. Nothing except two giant columns holding a chained woman, dress all in red and with red claw marks like tattoos, but she's terribly injured and she tries each time to tell me her name, but I can't listen, it's the wind, it's the chains, the sand, I don't know, there's always something stopping me from listening and sometimes is not hearing her name, it's me looking desperately for something in that desert, I don't know what it is, but it seems important"

I was glad at the moment that she wasn't staring at me, she was looking at everything except me and really I was glad. My surprise for what she was saying it was something that was probably showing in my expression, I made the best to keep a focused face and show nothing more. She was telling the truth and she was talking about what it sounded like her inner world. The woman could be her zampakuto spirit, there was no doubt in that. But how? It wasn't common for a human to reach that level of concentration with the inner spirit. Even Kurosaki need it the powers of Kuchiki for releasing his shinigami powers, but Kazui didn't and for what I know, he had the same case as her. The same case as me. Having a great amount of reiatsu that could permit that, but probably that was also what was leaving her without resting, only visiting it in her dreams when she doesn't know how to control it, she probably waste a lot or reiatsu in it.

"And you know, I started thinking" I returned my focus in her story "Maybe it's a different form from talking to spirits, I don't know! Names are a powerful things, my grandma always says, so maybe if I listen just once she'll be free or whatever of that place and would leave me alone"

"It sound possible" I could only reply. I bite my thong of saying anything else. I need it to talk to the Kurosaki's later about all the problem, Richards need it to be in, need it to know everything. And was also necessary that Head Captain Kyoraku know about this too. "But for what you said, that dream wasn't the case for now"

"No… That's the other one, that's not a dream. Fuck, I won't even say it's a nightmare, it's more like a hell" She stared at me and this time I could notice that she was terrified about it "Those are more recent and happens less often, but every time I wake up, I'm waking up terrified. Those feel so real" She stopped for a moment. I got closer to her and took her hands careful, showing that I was there supporting her, but that I understand if she wanted to be slower telling this one. She gripped my hand with her good hand.

"Take your time" I said, assuring her that I wasn't going to leave her, that she was safe in there with me.

"I'm in a palace" She started with nervousness in her voice "Is one of this big old palace, like the Imperial Palace, but… Everything is burning, like everything is on fire and I'm just there between the walls of the entrance and the palace, the heat feels so real like it's burning me even if I'm a far from it, there's people running everywhere, trying to save their lives and I'm just there watching, not knowing what to do"

She stopped and look down at our hands. She hold my hand with the good one, probably thinking what to say next.

"There's also a man there" She continued without lifting her head, her voice like a whisper "He doesn't care about what is happening, he doesn't mind the screaming, the fire, anything, he is focused in me" The grip with her hand became stronger and I just responded the same way, letting her know I was listening, that I cared about what she was feeling and what was happening in those dreams "He knows who I am, each time he calls me by my name, he is expecting something from me I still don't know what it is, he treat me like a thief, he thinks I stole something very important from him and wants to know where it is and each time he is treaten me, it's way to real" Her hands began to shake and I had the feeling that it would be enough for that night.

"You don't need to tell me more" I started "I can't imagi-"

"You are not understanding!" She cut me with her voice was also shaking but it was firm "It's not just a nightmare, it's not in my mind! It's real!" She lift up her head and she looked frustrated, her brown eyes starting to get blurry from the tears "I had that dream tonight, he was aware of what happened tonight Hitsugaya!" She shouted and I couldn't stop my surprise from what she was saying "H-he hold me that what happened tonight it w-was nothing! That when I less expected h-he would kill e-everybody in his way and k-kill me! He say that! 'I found you and I'll kill you, Richards Akari' He say it! And he… And he could kill you H-Hitsugaya, just because you are protecting me, he could… Why?!" She started crying and sobbing, not handling the idea anymore. I hold her and put her closer to my chest. She was trembling again and only her sobbing were echoing in the room while my mind was thinking about the situation.

It was even possible? A man capable to enter in your mind while getting actions in reality? Someone capable to orchestrate that seemed way to powerful and there was no more clues than her dreams. He was the same who control the human hours before? Or there a group and he was the leader? Who were they, what would they want with Richards? And again, why her?

The situation has gotten way worse that I had expected and still couldn't figure it out what we were against.

Early Sunday update! :D

How are you doing? Do you like this chapter? I love writing this few last chapters, it was something that I always had on my mind when I started with this story, I hope you like it!

I have one more chapter already written and then I'll update as soon as I write, let's see how it goes, I hope it goes well, but well

That's it, I hope you like it! If you could write reviews I would really love it to learn and improve :D

See you next week!