A/N: Oh my gosh I am so sorry I took so long to update, I was going to do this much sooner, but I've been stressing over so many things. I officially hate Sallie Mae, the interest rate on my loan is ridiculously high, I'm finding myself having to join the air force to gain some kind of scholarship out of that, since it is so much more difficult to get scholarships when you're already out of high school. (sigh) I so regret not applying for the Gates Millenium when I had the chance.

Well here it goes, Ch. 19, Enjoy! Next time: Last Chapter!

Three Days Later…

Ichigo and Rukia were walking through the forest in the night. Orihime had agreed to watch over the babies so that Rukia could take some fresh air. It was a new moon, and the moon's silver rays illuminated everything, creating mystical shadows.

Ichigo held Rukia's hand, and was surprised to see that she didn't pull it away. Rukia had recuperated amazingly quick; she was as slim as she was before the pregnancy, and if it were not for the dark circles still prominent under her eyes, one wouldn't know that just three days ago she had experienced one of the worst possible pains imaginable.

"Rukia, are you feeling well enough to leave tomorrow?"

"Why? Do you want to leave already?" Asked Rukia still a bit disappointed.

"No, of course not," said Ichigo brushing a stubborn lock of hair behind her ear, "but we need to."

"Why?"

"Well, we can't stay here forever."

"Yes, I know," sighed Rukia, "it's just, I've liked these past few days. Being with everyone else, and you," said Rukia, her eyes connecting with his momentarily.

"It'll be the same way when we get back."

"No it won't! Arriving there, things between you and I will never be the same again, or with Renji, Orihime, Ishida, you'll all be gone, only in my memories.."

"Why do you say something like that Rukia? We won't leave you, I promise," said Ichigo brushing her cheek with the back of his hand.

"I know you won't, it's me that will leave you," she said sadly.

"What?!" Asked Ichigo shocked; Rukia turned away from him and took a couple of steps away so that she was facing a lake in front of them.

"Two days after we get back, I will be marrying nii-sama, and then I will leave with him to the Royal realm."

"You're what…? Why didn't you tell me?! Do you even love Byakuya?! Tell me!!" Said Ichigo furiously as he suddenly grabbed her and shook her a bit; this ticked Rukia off and she frowned at him.

"That is none of your business Ichigo."

"None of my business? None of my business?! Of course it's my business! You don't even love him! Stop torturing yourself! And stop doing the same to me!"

"I do love him! You have no idea Ichigo. After the execution incident he changed! I don't know if you remember the details since with you it's always been "save this gotta save that!" My relationship with Byakuya has been growing before your very eyes but you never noticed it because of your own hard-headedness! You dismissed all the little details because you chose to ignore them!" Said Rukia furiously; then Ichigo remembered, and realized that what she was saying was true, there had been a hint of something between Rukia and Byakuya since before the baby fiasco.

He remembered now, how it was Byakuya that had saved her countless times, from Ichimaru, from the Bount Yoshi, Zommari Leroux; coming to think of it, if Byakuya hadn't been there all those times, Rukia would be dead. Yes, he remembered finding it suspicious that Byakuya had allowed Rukia to follow him into Hueco Mundo; not only that, but she blushed when mentioning that Byakuya made her wear a protective cloak. But even so…

"Do you remember now Ichigo? Now do you see?"

"You don't love him."

"Why do you keep on saying that?! You don't know that!" said Rukia bursting into tears.

"Because…I know," said Ichigo pressing her closer against him.

"You arrogant bastard you couldn't possibly-mph," she was muffled by his hungry lips. She struggled against him for a bit but then surrendered. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he explored her mouth with much enthusiasm. He ran his fingers through her hair, massaging her scalp and eliciting a soft moan from her busy mouth.

"You want to know why I'm so sure Rukia? Because I changed your life as much as you changed mine, because before you I was hopeless, cynical. Because before me you were jaded, afraid to feel, buried in guilt. Because whenever you look at me you drop the ice princess act, because I'm the only one that can get your eyes to turn a deeper shade of purple. Because, you're the only person I can imagine spending the rest of my life with, and when you hold me like this, I know that you feel the same."

Rukia looked up at Ichigo with glazed eyes, her body trembling with emotion. Ichigo smiled when he noticed that her shivering form caused her bottom lip to stick out and turn into a pout, she tried to keep her composure, but failed terribly.

"Ichigo," was all she could say as she looked into the eyes of the only man she felt could ever read this much into her, "Ichigo…I…"

"It's all right, everything will be okay Rukia, I promise," said Ichigo as he embraced her and rubbed her back comfortingly.

A sudden explosion from afar caused them to snap out of their hazed trance. Ichigo let go of Rukia and looked to the direction from which the explosion came. From this distance he could sense that one of the reiatsus belonged to Ishida, and the other…

"Oh no!" Said Rukia horrified as her eyes widened, "we must hurry Ichigo."

Ishida was doing what he could to block the attacks of Gin's zanpakuto, Shinso. Meanwhile Renji, Soi Fong, and Ashido stood in front of Orihime protectively, since Aizen seemed to be eyeing her and the two babies she held in her arms.

"This is no fun Quincy, I haven't even released my Bankai and you're already having a difficult time," snickered Gin. It was true, Ishida had been feeling particularly weak lately, the mixture of dimensions must have interfered with his ability of absorbing spirit energy for his attacks.

"You know, it really annoys me when people assume that I am boring," said Ishida; then he shot Gin with his arrow; Gin flash stepped away, but his cheek was scratched. Annoyed, Gin wiped the bit of blood, and opened his red eyes briefly in order to glare at Ishida.

"All right then, Quincy, let's have fun," said Gin.

"Yeah, let's dance," said Ishida charging towards Gin.

Meanwhile Renji, Soi Fong, and Ashido were still positioned in front of Orihime. Aizen looked at Orihime, at the twins, then back at the shinigami, and snickered.

"Stay away from my the King's heirs," said Soi Fong

"Yes, that's right, there's two of them, Byakuya, that busy boy, I am guessing the boy is the heir to the throne, correct?" Said Aizen; Soi Fong merely frowned at him.

"Stay away," said Renji through gritted teeth; he took Hideto, the boy, from Orihime's arms and held him protectively.

Aizen grinned, and in a flash he was standing before them with something in his arms that had not been there before…

"Masaki!" Exclaimed Orihime horrified as she looked down at her empty arms.

"But how…we didn't even see when he…" said Renji.

"Is this what you are looking for?" Asked Aizen dangling Masaki awkwardly from the ears of her white bunny jumpsuit, a present from Ishida.

"Masaki!" screamed Orihime; Masaki stared at Orihime through wide gray eyes, then cried loudly.

"I'll be keeping this until I find Kuchiki-taicho, I don't think it will make any difference to him which of the two is in my custody," said Aizen.

"Let, her go," came a voice from the distance; then Ichigo stood before them along with Rukia.

"Masaki!" Screamed Rukia, but Ichigo held her back.

"We'll take care of this, you're still too weak to fight," said Ichigo.

"No! She's my daughter and I-" Ichigo shut her up again with a kiss; this calmed her down.

"Stay with Orihime. And Ashido, take them away from here!" Said Ichigo; Ashido nodded.

"Kaede has another house somewhere in the mountains, I'll show Ashido where it is," whispered Orihime to Rukia; Rukia nodded.

Rukia ran over to Renji and took Hideto, who was now crying, into her arms. Then Ashido wrapped an arm around Rukia and Orihime and flash stepped out of there. Aizen was surrounded by Renji, and Ichigo, while Soi Fong ran over to help Ishida with Gin.

"Well this isn't quite fair is it? We will have to increase our numbers. Halibel! Stark!" Stark appeared next to Gin while Halibel appeared next to Aizen.

"What? Is that all? And I thought the big bad Aizen would have a better trick up his sleeve," said Ichigo looking at Aizen mischievously. Aizen glared at him but then smiled.

"Tell you what Kurosaki, I'll defeat you while holding the baby in one hand," said Aizen.

"We'll see about that."

Ichigo fought against Aizen, Renji against Halibel, Soi Fong against Stark, and Ishida against Gin. Ichigo was getting ready to strike Aizen, but he placed Masaki in front of himself; Ichigo stopped abruptly, just barely missing Rukia's precious treasure.

Ichigo looked at Masaki terrified, but little Masaki giggled and grabbed his nose. Ichigo tried to grab her, but Aizen pulled her away again.

"Aizen, you coward! I could have killed her."

"But you did not, that only goes to show you how much faith I have in you."

Ichigo knew that from now on this fight would become more difficult; he had to restrain himself to not bring harm to the baby. Things weren't going very well for the others either, both Ishida and Renji were no match for their powerful competitors; the only one that was doing well was Soi Fong, who managed to seriously injure Stark after an hour of their battle. In the end, both Renji and Ishida were bruised and unconscious, Soi Fong managed to defeat Stark, and immediately ran to stand in front of Ishida to keep Gin from causing him anymore harm. Ichigo was still fighting Aizen, and neither were yet seriously injured, but the fight didn't seem to be getting anywhere.

From the corner of his eye, Ichigo saw as Halibel approached Renji to exert the attack that would finish him off.

"Renji move!" Screamed Ichigo, but Renji's unconscious state prevented him from hearing him. Just as Halibel was about to apply the final blow, Renji disappeared, Halibel blinked twice before spotting where he was.

"Byakuya, you're late," said Ichigo relieved. Byakuya appeared and moved Renji out of the way before Halibel could finish him off.

"The Espada were keeping us busy," said Byakuya as he set Renji on the floor; then his eyes became fixed on Aizen immediately. His eyes softened briefly as he laid eyes on his daughter; but very quickly his tender look switched to one of coldness and anger.

"I'll take it from here Kurosaki," said Byakuya glaring at Aizen; Aizen smirked. Ichigo was about to protest, but then nodded in understanding, and moved towards Halibel.

"Captain Kuchiki, where is my key, you are going to give it to me are you not? Your child's life is in my hands," said Aizen swaying the baby by the hood of her jumpsuit; little Masaki smiled and broke into giggles as she clapped her little hands. Byakuya's eyes narrowed, and he drew his hand away from his zanpakuto.

"Very well then," he said taking a couple of steps towards Aizen in a relaxed manner, "the key," he said reaching into his pocket.

Ichigo's eyes widened, he found it unbelievable that Byakuya would just hand over the key without a fight. But just as he began questioning Byakuya's decision, Byakuya shunpoed so quickly that no one there was able to see any of it, or even predict it, including Aizen.

"Just as I suspected, you and your followers have not yet fully recovered from the loss of reiatsu during the winter war," said Byakuya, he was now standing several meters behind Aizen, with little Masaki in his arms.

"But how did you…?" Asked Aizen surprised.

"Some things have changed," said Byakuya simply.

"Byakuya…" said Ichigo but Byakuya interrupted.

"Take, the baby and get out of here," said Byakuya.

"No, I want to fight too," said Ichigo fisting one hand on his side, Byakuya looked like he was about to argue about it, but then relaxed.

"Captain Soi Fong!" Said Byakuya; then Ichigo was shocked to the core when Byakuya threw Masaki through the air; Soi Fong had to shunpo to catch her, then she looked at him outraged.

"Captain Kuchiki she could have fallen!" She looked furious; but Byakuya ignored her .

"Get her out of here, find Rukia, and do not leave her side." Soi Fong nodded and left.

"What the hell is wrong with you Byakuya?! That's you daughter not a football!" Screamed Ichigo; Byakuya turned to look at him and smirked knowingly.

"I seem to recall you doing the same with someone else," said Byakuya; Ichigo frowned remembering the incident with Rukia when he saved her from the execution.

"If you are finished with your bickering, then let us continue this fight," said Aizen; Byakuya nodded. Ichigo turned to Halibel, and Gin watched amused from the sideline.

"This will be fun to watch," said Gin to himself.

"Really? How could you settle for that? Tell you what Gin, let's finish of what we started back in Sereitei, the night Momo interfered." Gin turned around to find Captain Hitsugaya pointing his released zanpakuto at him.

"Shiro-chan, how nice to see you, it's been an awfully long time," said Gin cheerfully.

"It's captain Hitsugaya to you." And with that they commenced the fight.

Rukia, Orihime, and Ashido were somewhere in the mountains. Ashido started a fire outside of the house, and they were all sitting on the porch in front of it. Rukia sat sadly, cradling Hideto in her arms, she looked down at him to find him sleeping. 'I'll bring back your little sister', she said in the confines of her own mind.

"Kuchiki-san, don't worry, Kurosaki-kun won't let anything happen to Masaki-chan," said Orihime stroking Rukia's back; Rukia smiled at her weakly.

"She's right Rukia, that boy holds incredible abilities, and his will to protect seems to be the key to that power," said Ashido.

"Yes, I know that, it's just-"

Then it happened, after half a decade of living with him, a year of making love with him, and weeks of living with him as a couple, she could distinguish his reiatsu with and astounding accuracy.

"Nii-sama," she said suddenly; she immediately stood up and dashed towards the direction of his flowing reiatsu, completely ignoring Orihime's and Ashido's looks of panic.

She began running down the mountain, holding her baby close against her chest. What was she thinking? She knew it was dangerous, she knew she would only be in the way. But something inside of her told her to run towards him, she wanted to show him his son, his heir, her mother's heart was swelling with pride, and her female nature wanted to protect her mate; she could only blame her lack of reason on pure animal instinct.

As she ran down the considerably steep slope, she almost slipped many times, but stood back up and continued. She came to an abrupt halt, crashing against something, it was too soft to be a tree, but too hard to be an animal; she almost fell back but was steadied. She looked up to see a pair of golden eyes staring back at her. He was definitely not human, but very close to it, he was tall with long silver hair, and a crescent moon on his forehead.

He looked at her then at the child in her arms. She was in so much shock that she was completely caught off guard when he took Hideto from her and held him unceremoniously by the hood of his jumpsuit, his sheep jumpsuit. He sniffed him, then tilted his face down to Rukia to sniff her too, he sniffed the air then turned to the direction where Byakuya was.

"This pup is not a demon, yet he has the wool of a sheep," said Sesshomaru giving the baby back to Rukia.

"Well, it's just a jumpsuit," said Rukia laughing a bit nervously, but Sesshomaru didn't seem to understand, "oh, well, a jumpsuit is a type of clothing."

"I see," said Sesshomaru, "it's not very wise of you to be wandering the woods this late in the night, especially with a pup. If you were my mate I would slaughter you for putting my heir's life in danger."

"Yeah, well, I think nii-sama probably would too, if he knew," laughed Rukia nervously, Sesshomaru said nothing to her, but kept his cold eyes on her, his chin a bit high in the air. 'He really is a lot like nii-sama,' thought Rukia.

"Kuchiki-san!" said Rangiku as she ran towards Rukia with Chad, Nel, Orihime, Nova, and Ashido behind her She was surprised to see the demon Sesshomaru within such a close range of Rukia, his face merely centimeters from hers.

"Stay away from her," said Rangiku pointing her zanpakuto at him. Sesshomaru stepped away from her stoically, and looked at the group of people.

"Take her with you. True friends would never allow such a stupid woman to wander the woods after dark with a pup," said Sesshomaru, Rukia looked at him outraged and was about to say something, but Sesshomaru disappeared right before their eyes.

"I wonder, can demons shunpo?" Said Rangiku.

Metal clashed against metal, blood spilled, the earth beneath them shook. Three shinigami, two ex shinigami, and an Arrancar found themselves fighting a battle not too foreign, but nevertheless challenging. As Byakuya had stated earlier, Aizen and his followers had not yet recovered all of their power, so Ichigo and his group were at an advantage. But that advantage fell when one of their own collapsed, close to death. Everything changed then.

'Oh no!' thought Rangiku, her eyes widened, but she refused to say anything to anyone else there. Everyone was outside, except Rukia who was sleeping with her children inside the house.

"I don't like this, there's plenty of us, we should go help them," said Soi Fong impatiently.

"No, those guys are in a completely different level, we would only be getting in the way," said Ashido.

"Yes, he's right," said Rangiku; Orihime noticed there was something wrong with her; she was about to ask her but then opted not to.

"Go check on Kuchiki-san! Make sure she's not trying to run towards the fight again!" Said Soi Fong to Ashido suddenly, she was frustrated, she was powerless, and hated feeling this way. Ashido nodded and stood up.

Rukia was inside sitting up on the futon wearing a beige sleeping yukata she had found in one of the drawers, she was breastfeeding Masaki while Hideto was sleeping soundly on the futon. She combed Masaki's hair with her fingers as she suckled on her hungrily. Rukia's eyes widened when Masaki's placed her little hands on her breast and suckled harder, she was apparently very hungry.

"Slowly now, you wouldn't want to choke," smiled Rukia. Just then Ashido walked into the room; he immediately got red in the face.

"Oh I'm sor-"

"It's fine, nothing you haven't already seen" laughed Rukia.

"Well," said Ashido scratching the back of his head nervously.

"It's fine, really, come sit," said Rukia; Ashido sat on the floor in front of her. He struggled to keep himself from looking at her exposed left breast. Ashido had been attracted to Rukia for quite some time, it was something that all the shinigami that went on the mission to Hueco Mundo during the summer already knew, including Rukia.

He looked at Rukia's face, and noticed she looked very different, the shy girl he had accidentally ran into while she was dressing, was gone, perhaps motherhood or being with Byakuya all this time had changed that.

"You shouldn't run off like that again, it's dangerous," said Ashido after a long moment of silence.

"I know, and I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking I…I'm not very sure why I did that, I guess I really wanted nii-sama to see Hideto, and make sure he was safe," said Rukia thoughtfully; Ashido smiled.

"What?" Asked Rukia curiously.

"You've grown up. You were such a tomboy and now look at you," said Ashido.

"What are you talking about I was never a tomboy," said Rukia irritated, a vein pulsing on her temple; Ashido laughed. They were silent for a while; the only sound in the room was that of Masaki's suckling.

"Do you think Ichigo and nii-sama will be all right?" Asked Rukia suddenly.

"Of course, they're powerful men; the way Byakuya is now, he's probably more powerful than Aizen," said Ashido.

"I hope you're right," said Rukia.

The sun was peeking through the mountains, and the first rays were beginning to shine through the dense forest. Everyone was asleep except Rangiku, who sat outside staring up at the sky. A little while later, Orihime walked outside and sat next to her on the porch.

"Rangiku-san, what's wrong?"

"Nothing in particular, I just…yesterday I felt my captain's reiatsu weaken, I wonder if he and the others are okay," said Rangiku.

"I'm sure they're all fine," said Orihime smiling at her optimistically. Just as Orihime said that, two silhouettes appeared through the sun's rays; it took them a while to make out who they were, but after a while they saw that it was Ichigo and Byakuya. They both looked very tired, and were bruised and bleeding, but neither were seriously injured. The two women in anticipation as the two men approached them.

"Kurosaki-kun, what happened?" Asked Orihime.

"Where's Shiro-chan?!" Asked Rangiku immediately.

"He's fine, he was too injured to come with us, so Kaede's taking care of him, Ishida, and Renji right now," said Ichigo.

"And Aizen and the others?" Asked Orihime.

"Did you kill them?" Asked Rangiku fearfully; Ichigo knew it was because of Gin.

"No, they'll be unconscious for a couple of days though, that gives us more than enough time to get out of here and seal this dimension to keep them from escaping," said Ichigo; there was a genuine look of relief on Rangiku's face.

"Itzugo!" Screamed Nel running towards Ichigo. She dashed towards him in full force knocking him to the floor.

"Nel!" At that moment Chad, Ashido, Nova, and Soi Fong walked out of the house.

"Where's Ishida?" Asked Soi Fong trying to hide the worry in her voice, but failed miserably.

"He couldn't come because he's being treated by Kaede, but he told me to give you this," said Ichigo; he handed Soi Fong the beaded rosary that Ishida always wore on his wrist. Soi Fong smiled, then she noticed the saddened expression on Orihime from the corner of her eye, and for once, she actually felt bad for her.

Taking advantage of the fact that the others weren't watching him, Byakuya sneaked away from them and walked inside the house. He found the room in which Rukia was and stood by the door watching her; he gasped surprised when he noticed that there wasn't one, but two babies; she held them both protectively in her arms as she slept.

Byakuya entered the room and slid the door closed behind him. He walked towards the futon, and hesitated a bit before lying on his side next to her. She was facing away from him; he draped an arm over her waist. He nuzzled the back of her neck and then placed a soft kiss on the side of her neck.

"Good morning Rukia," he whispered in her ear; Rukia's eyes immediately shot open. She turned to face him, and immediately buried her face in the crook of his neck as she embraced him, taking him by surprise. He stilled for a moment, but then relaxed in her embrace.

"You're back," she mumbled into the skin of his throat; he could hear her sobbing.

"It's all right, everything will be fine from now on," he whispered in her ear as he cradled her.

She tilted her face up to look at him, then pressed her lips against his. Byakuya smiled, and responded to her kiss in earnest, entangling his legs with hers, and dipping his tongue inside her mouth as he pressed her closer against him.

She moaned into his mouth, and feeling encouraged, his lips made their way to her throat where they began to suck on her pulse point. Rukia sighed happily, but knew she had to stop him when a calloused hand squeezed one of her breasts.

"Stop nii-sama, I just gave birth to your children, and already you want to re-impregnate me," giggled Rukia; Byakuya stopped, but not because she asked him to, but because of a word used in her sentence, a word he didn't want to hear, a word that stung "nii-sama", she still called him that, it made him wonder, if to her, that was still all he was…

But his thoughts were interrupted when she sat up and prompted him to do the same. She then took Hideto and placed him in Byakuya's arms; then she took Masaki and placed her in his arms as well. The look on Byakuya's face was priceless, he actually looked…scared, the all mighty Byakuya Kuchiki, scared of babies. He pressed them closer against him awkwardly, unsure of whether he was doing it right; he looked over at Rukia as if asking for help; she giggled and took Masaki from him.

"Like this," said Rukia showing him how to hold them; Byakuya mimicked her movements and soon found himself at ease. He looked down at his son who was now awake and smiled, a rare and very different smile that Rukia had never seen on him before.

"Ready for the other one?" Asked Rukia with a goofy grin on her face; Byakuya nodded. Then Rukia carefully placed Masaki in one of his arms; he looked at her and smiled again.

"Children, say hello to your father," said Rukia, that large grin still plastered on her face.

Then she heard something and turned quickly; she saw the door opened, someone had walked into the room and seen them, but whoever it was had been here only a little while. 'Ichigo' she thought, and her smile turned upside down. She was interrupted from her thoughts by Masaki's giggles; she turned around to see Masaki pulling on Byakuya's hair; Byakuya looked surprised and clueless, she couldn't help but laugh.

Ichigo was sitting alone on the porch. What was that back there? He never thought something so simple as seeing Rukia and Byakuya together with their children would break his resolve. He knew it would be painful, but not this much. The sight, if witnessed by anyone else would be deemed heartwarming, but to him, it was the most abominable sight in existence. She looked so happy, was he wrong to think things could still work out with Rukia? Perhaps he underestimated her feelings for Byakuya. Who would she choose? Would it be fair to make her choose? Now that he saw how happy she seemed, he couldn't help but feel like the bad guy.

A/N: I'm sorry if it's not all that great, but I've been seriously stressing, I might take a week or two to update the last chapter.