AN

Hey all! Sorry for the delay but the idea of "What if they lost" got stuck in my head. So I started another story! Worry not, this will be updated (we're getting close to Ulquihime land...), but if you hit the button on the bottom it'll make me happy and inspire me to write more.

Shameless, I know.

Well here's the new chapter. Big thanks to VioTanequil who beta read this chapter a lot faster than I wrote it!

AN

Moonlight spilled through the windows of her room in the Kuchiki Mansion, illuminating Rukia's sleepless form. Even though it was long past the time when she should have been in bed, she still couldn't sleep. She knew she was being silly, that if the relief squad was summoned, they would be at her door instantly, but she still couldn't close her eyes without seeing everyone coming back safely, everyone except Ichigo, Byakuya and Renji. She'd rather not sleep than deal with that image.

Silently she left her room and made her way to her sister's memorial garden. She always forgot how much bigger Byakuya was than her. The scarf he had left in her care was draped around her shoulders; it looked far more like a shawl on her. She made her way down the path and to the gazebo that housed her sister's final resting place. Stepping inside she looked at the headstone of the woman she couldn't remember. She pulled the scarf a little tighter around her shoulders in a failed attempt at comfort, unable to reign in her raging emotions.

"Hello again," she said softly, toying with the band around her fingers, "So they're in Las Noches now trying to save the world. Or, rather, Byakuya is, Ichigo's outside. Though I suppose if something goes wrong it won't make that much of a difference who's outside and who's in," she sighed, "It's really unfair though for them to leave me here. I mean, I saved them both enough it just feels like there's something I should be able to do to save them," she sighed, "I know they're strong but I feel so helpless, I hate feeling helpless," she sat down angrily, "It's not fair that they left me here."

The grave had no answers for her. Rukia scooted back until she sat against the stone and hugged her knees to her chest. She couldn't decide which felt more strange, the scarf or the ring. Probably the ring. She had never thought in a million years when she stabbed Ichigo that they would be at this point. Sure he had saved her and she had saved him and they were very close but still, a part of her had always just sort of assumed that he would eventually fall in love with Orihime and go live a normal life with her. When they met for the first time—again—she had told him to go and save Orihime, to put someone else before her.

She hadn't known he'd get himself killed.

When he confessed his feelings it had been the second most heartbreaking time for her. She had known he was going to die, she had held him as he slipped away. Then they had won the battle and not even an hour later, Orihime and Chad came limping into Soul Society, Ichigo lying limply over one of Chad's massive shoulders. Because he had been fighting in spirit form, his wounds were still present. But Unohana wasn't Captain of the Fourth Division for nothing and she had healed him. The other two remembered but there was no guarantee that Ichigo would. And then, in what always would be the most heartbreaking moment of Rukia's life, he had painfully opened his eyes and breathed her name.

It was heartbreaking because she knew, in that instant, that her heart would never really be hers again. It would belong to someone else.

Then he called her 'midget' and she knew everything would be alright.

Her eyes went to the ring once more as she twisted the simple band around her finger. After telling Ichigo she'd love to be his wife, they had dinner to celebrate Ichigo's release (for the second time) from the hospital. Without a word or anything he slid the velvet box across the table to her, muttering something about it being his mothers and her wanting her to have it. She had bobbed her head in meek agreement, unsure if it was an engagement ring or not. He had answered that question by getting up and coming around the table, sliding the ring onto her left finger and making their engagement official for all the world to see.

"Did you feel like this when Byakuya proposed?" she asked the gravestone, "I mean, I'm mad that he's making me so happy," she shook her head, "I hate worrying about him so much," she sighed, "Now even when he calls me midget my heart flutters," she leaned her head on her chin, "I wish I could stop smiling like an idiot."

The servants found the interim Head of the Kuchiki Clan at dawn, curled up at her sister's memorial with a smile on her lips and her left hand cradled against her heart.

Break

"What was that?!" Nel gasped, her eyes flying around. Renji felt the massive Spiritual Pressure fluctuation but he was having trouble figuring out who it was.

"I don't know," he said, "We gotta keep going," he added.

"But they need help," Nel protested.

"You can still feel their Spiritual Pressure right?" he said, she nodded, "Then they're alive," he frowned, "It's stabilizing," he looked at her; "We gotta hurry and get that key before anyone else gets hurt."

"Right," Nel said looking around, "Come on," she grabbed his hand and tugged him down a separate corridor. As she walked she seemed to be counting. Renji wanted to ask what she was doing but didn't want her to loose count. Finally she stopped and frowned, her eyes looking side to side. Without any warning she used a Flash Step to bury her foot with heightened force into a specific spot on the wall, "There," she crossed her arms at the dent with a satisfied smile.

"There wha—" Renji stopped as the wall cracked along the dent until it formed three very specific sections that split to reveal a hole.

"It looked much bigger when I was little," she said regretfully peering into the hole, "We should fit though," she looked back at him, "Come on." She motioned for him to follow her.

The hole led to a rather decrepit tunnel. It looked a good deal older than anything else he had seen in Las Noches. It also happened to smell rather like a sewer. Given the fact that Renji had just been riding on an eel that came from Dondochakka's stomach, he figured that the tunnel they were in was probably a sewer. Nel seemed to give no mind to it, only seem rather infuriated that she was too tall to walk and had to crawl through it now. He may have been a loyal Vice Captain but the Fraccion took loyalty to a whole new level if they were willing to play a game that involved crawling through sewers. The thought of Byakuya in a sewer made Renji laugh.

"What?" Nel demanded looking over her shoulder at him.

"No," he shook his head, "I'm just thinking about my Captain crawling in a sewer."

"You're Byakuya's Vice Captain, right?" she asked. He nodded, "I don't think he would," she said turning forward again, "That's why he's with Bel-Bel in the tower," she continued to crawl, "Are you sad that his sister's getting married?" she asked abruptly.

"Am I what?" he demanded, stunned.

"Well I'm just wondering since you always seemed to be near her," she said, "and Orihime's sad because of Ichigo choosing her—though I can understand that one—so I'm wondering if you're sad Rukia chose him."

"Not really," he said, a little uncomfortable, "I mean, I'll probably always care about Rukia, we grew up together. But the truth is that she chose Ichigo a long time ago," his eyes narrowed, "What about you? You seemed to be in love with Ichigo too."

"I was not!" Nel cried indignantly, blushing a rather fantastic shade of scarlet, "I just—I thought he was cute," she glared ahead before turning around on her heels, "Besides, you've been in love with Rukia for much longer."

"So?" he said, "It doesn't make a difference. She never loved me back."

"Boo hoo," Nel said sarcastically, "We all had people who we loved," she crawled forward again, "At least yours didn't smack an axe into your forehead."

"Hold on, you loved the guy who did this to you?" he questioned.

"Yes," she said, almost sadly, "I loved him, as best I could. Doesn't change the fact that he was an asshole or that he only wanted me for one thing and it was not my mind," she sighed, "I knew he was capable of a lot but still," she shook her head, "I didn't think he'd do that," she was silent for a moment, "I should've killed the fucker when I had the chance."

Renji laughed at that. It seemed like Nel was becoming more and more like an adult. He had been half afraid that if she decided to act like an adult she'd be like a green-haired version of Halibel but she seemed to be a personality unto herself. Even though they were crawling through the sewers, he somehow didn't really mind that much anymore. Finally the tunnel widened before a sliver of light appeared. Nel slammed her fist into a spot and the sliver smacked open, revealing the room they were supposed to be in. She hopped down and dusted her knees off. Renji did the same and looked around the room.

"Shit," he said suddenly, "Nel what does the key look like?" he looked at her.

"What does the—you don't know?!" she shrieked. He shook his head, "How could you not know?!" she looked at the room that looked like an old storage room, "We don't even know what we're looking for—" she stopped and breathed in sharply, "Okay, what would Aizen use as a key?"

"Well he was after the King's Key," he said to her.

"He was definitely arrogant enough to have his office key look like the King's Key," she said, "Okay, so its either a key or, or something else."

"An orb maybe," he said, "like the Hougyoku."

"Right," Nel looked around, "Do you have any idea how we go about finding that?" she glared at him, "Don't you have some kind of spell for this?!"

"I'm actually not good at Kido—"He grabbed her by the neck of the robe as she marched over to beat her head against the wall, "Would you stop it?! It's not like you've got your helmet on to protect your skull."

"Good! Maybe if I hit my head hard enough then that'll start to seem like a good idea again!" she hollered in return before Renji clamped a hand over her mouth as well.

It was too late. The room was suddenly swarming with Hollows. None of them were Arrancar, not yet anyway, but there was enough so that they were in for one hell of a fight. He glared over at Nel and released his hand from her mouth.

"Oops," she said.

"Oops?" he demanded, "All you can say is 'oops'?! Are you fucking serious?!"

"Well what do you want me to say huh?" she demanded grabbing Gamuza, "Declare! Gamuza!"

"Howl! Zabimaru!" he ordered and turned back to her, "Something other than oops!"

"How about—"she frowned and then grinned, "Ulquiorra's in love with Orihime!"

Renji almost dropped his sword in shock. His eyes widened before the sentence settled in his brain and made a horrible kind of sense. They had all noticed Orihime's reluctance to spend time with anyone else since her return from Las Noches. It was also rather obvious that Ulquiorra didn't necessarily want to murder Orihime like he did the rest of them. But still, in love? The idea was baffling to Renji's mind. After all Ulquiorra had imprisoned Orihime both physically and mentally. Of course he hadn't really tortured her and aside from being sadder, no real harm had come to her.

He frowned, was that because of Ulquiorra? He supposed it would be rather easy to have an 'accident' happen with the Espada around. He thought Orihime was a bit too emotional for Grimmjow. Besides if the rumors were true, the former Sexta was going to be promoted from the 2nd Division's carpets to Soifon's personal property very soon.

"I wasn't supposed to tell you that," Nel said abruptly, "I promised."

"Something tells me that if we get out of this the whole world's gonna know," he told her as the Hollows prepared to charge them.

"Don't you mean when?" she demanded glancing over at him.

"One step at a time," he said.

Nel drew back her hand and thrust out Gamuza, catching the first Hollow in the stomach and throwing him aside.

"Go for the heads!" Renji shouted.

"Right!"

She swung one blade down and whacked the Hollow's head. She took out a handful more before her Spiritual Pressure began to fluctuate. Renji frowned and watched her fight before he realized that the Hollows were not acting normal. They were coming between the two of them, forcing them apart. Nel hadn't ever fought Hollows, at least not to kill them. Renji couldn't give her advice if he couldn't reach her. He had no idea what they were going to do if the two of them were separated, only that it couldn't be good. He turned his head to look at her as she ducked under an attack and turned to him. Whatever the key was it couldn't be that fragile and it was already broken. Figuring that there was little more damage they could do, he made his decision as Nel's power built up.

"Bankai!" he shouted, throwing Zabimaru into its final release state.

What he was not expecting was what happened next. He felt Nel's Spiritual Pressure build though he had no idea where she was getting it from. He recognized what was happening, remembering it from when he achieved the same release state. Most of the time there was a difference between someone's Spiritual Pressure and that of their Zanpakuto. When they achieved Bankai the two were in perfect synch. Nel was close, she was very, very close.

"Bankai!" Nel shouted.

For a moment nothing happened. Long enough for him to exhale the breath he didn't know he held. Then, like a cannon going off, Gamuza synched with her and her Spiritual Pressure took out an entire wall with the force of its release. Nel seemed just as shocked as him but quickly hid it. Bankai didn't look as cool if you were surprised you achieved it. She wore black armor that glinted green in the light. Her skull mask was back in the form of a helmet that she pushed up to her head. Horns lined the forearms of her armor. Gamuza had also transformed into a darker green. One end of the lance retained its small blade while the other had been replaced with a wicked-looking half-moon of black metal.

The Hollows all seemed unsure of what to do with the two of them in Bankai. Renji quickly swung Zabimaru, enveloping most of them. Nel swung Gamuza through them, destroying them in rapid succession. When the dust settled the two of them stood there, Nel breathing hard. Finally she turned and thrust the smaller blade into the dust. She lifted it, revealing what looked like the head of a golden key. She turned to Renji and smiled, flicking the key towards him. He caught it easily.

"Power down your Bankai," he instructed, doing the same, "Come on, let's get to Hitsugaya and Hinamori," she nodded and together the two of them took off towards the main office.

Break

Halibel's patience seemed to have reached its limit. As soon as she and Byakuya got into the corridor, it attempted to close them off. Halibel had rolled her eyes, flicked her fingers and arranged the corridors to suit her needs. Wisely, Byakuya had said nothing and followed her into Las Noches. She made no move to speak which suited him fine. In fact the walk to the tower was rather anticlimactic. He had a feeling she sealed the hallway off from any would-be attackers.

Byakuya felt rather naked without his scarf or kenseikan. He did not regret naming Rukia as his future heir. In fact, he was surprised he had not done it sooner. Part of him had always seen her as a child, as someone who needed to be protected. He knew that she was more than capable of taking care of herself but still… Now it seemed as though he finally was accepting her as an adult. Even though he still would not mind if she changed her mind about the Kurosaki boy.

Frowning, Halibel slowed her pace and looked around as though deciding the best way to go.

"There are ten Hollows on this side," she said, "but it is the quickest way."

"Can you open a small portion of the wall?" he asked, "I can take care of them."

"Very well," she said and drew a circle with her fingertip.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura," he said releasing his Zanpakuto. The blades flew through the hole and destroyed the Hollows, "It is clear."

Halibel nodded and widened the hole until they could walk through side by side. They crossed the room to the wall. Halibel removed her Zanpakuto and sliced the pad of her finger, catching a few drops of blood on the blade. She pushed the blade into the wall and turned it as though unlocking a door. In a way, that was exactly what she did. The wall split apart and the two halves slid back to reveal a surprisingly messy room. It hit Byakuya that they were in Halibel's private room. He had to restrain himself from turning bright red.

He couldn't remember the last time he had been in another woman's bedroom. It was not something that he thought about often. He never really went in other women's bedrooms. Now being in one, the awkwardness of the situation surprised him.

Halibel's bedroom was surprisingly messy. He could make out a few uniforms stained with blood and sand that had been tossed carelessly onto the floor. The bed was unmade and he could see a hook in the wall where she obviously hung her Zanpakuto. There were a few shelves of scrolls and books that were up against one corner along with a desk. The room looked as though it had not been touched in her absence.

"This is the quickest way," Halibel said coolly as though she had strange men in her bedroom all the time.

She led him over to the bookshelves and pulled one out. The book only came halfway off the shelf, releasing a hidden mechanism and allowing the shelf to pull away from the wall. Inside was a large room, the center of which was a stairwell. Halibel stopped a good deal away from it and outlined a square with her fingertip, encasing both her and him inside of it. A portion of the floor came free and rocketed them upwards towards the top of the staircase. Byakuya agreed with her logic but his stomach seemed to think a bit differently. The platform pulled level with the top of the stairs and they got out, stepping onto a wide landing that overlooked the surrounding desert. Above them a spire disappeared into the blackness of the night sky.

"We should assume this key of Aizen's is similar to the King's Key," he said.

"I agree," Halibel replied, "Aizen was certainly arrogant enough to not want anything else," she looked around, "there is not much gold in this place," she continued, "hmm."

Byakuya followed her gaze upwards. Glinting at the base of the tower's spire was their piece of the key. Knowing well that the place would be bobby trapped, Byakuya released his Zanpakuto and used it to push the key up from the tower and carry it over to them. The landing they were on lurched violently as soon as the key hit his hand. Halibel dropped to her knees, pressing her palms flat against the floor as the walls on three sides fell away. Terror flickered in their eyes for only a moment before they got it under control.

"Go first," Halibel ordered, "get inside the tower."

"And you?" Byakuya looked at her, unwilling to leave her behind.

"Hold your hands out," she said, "this landing is not part of the main castle. I should be able to hold it inside."

He nodded and walked as quickly as he could until he was inside the tower. That floor started to shake. Halibel surged forward with an eerie sort of grace and locked one hand around his extended one, her other slamming into the floor with enough force to fracture the bone. She cried out leading Byakuya to believe she had. Instantly she bit her lip and the floor stabilized. He pulled her up with little difficulty and her free hand instantly went to the ground. The same square of floor dropped out, this time it took them down to the main room. Though she was a good deal paler than before Halibel led them back to her bedroom. She walked over to a wardrobe Byakuya hadn't noticed before and extracted a scarf.

He didn't ask why she had something like that there. Instead he took the silk garment from her fingers and wrapped her arm in a make-shift sling. She breathed a barely noticeable sigh of relief.

"Thank you," she said, "I should not have hit my wrist so hard," she shook her head, "We need to get the key to the Captains."

"Of course," he agreed, "Will you still be able to walk and maneuver the corridors?"

"It should not be an issue," Halibel said, a rare smile twitching at her lips, "After all, if it's just a wrist, I have two."

He nodded and the two of them walked out of her bedroom and towards the center of the palace where Hitsugaya and Hinamori waited for them, Halibel manipulating the corridors deftly. Byakuya frowned when he heard footsteps, but Halibel shook her head. Walking towards them was a less-than-happy looking Grimmjow. He had his piece of the key in his hand and on his back was a half-awake Soifon. He seemed surprised to see them but not so surprised that it replaced the look of annoyance on his face. Halibel and Byakuya stopped to let them catch up to him. Soifon's foggy eyes rose to look at Byakuya before she gave a smile that was far too happy to belong on her face.

"Poisoned?" Byakuya questioned.

"I hit her with her Zanpakuto," he said, "She said it'd help," he held up his piece of the key, "We got our part of it," he gave a humorless laugh, "Aizen's one cocky bastard," he added before his eyes went to Halibel's wrist, "What happened?"

"Banged it," she said.

"You okay?" he asked. She nodded, "Let's get this to Hitsugaya and Hinamori—Nel!" he called. The green and red figures at the other end of the tunnel stopped. Together the four of them walked over to them. The two seemed to be arguing but stopped quickly when the four of them reached them.

"What happened to her?" Nel asked looking at Soifon.

"She'll be fine," Halibel said, "as will I," she cut Nel off.

"That's good," Nel beamed happily, "did you guys get your keys?"

"Yes," Byakuya said as they all showed their parts of the key, "We are missing Ulquiorra and Orihime."

"Maybe they got to Hinamori and Hitsugaya before us," Nel said, doubt in her eyes.

"Yeah," Grimmjow snorted sarcastically, "Or that bastard's losing me a lot of money."