Thanks again to .-RINGY rina-. for reviewing, hope you enjoyed the cookie. Same to hamohero.

Soooooo sorry it took so long to update, veeeerrry busy, school, redecorating room...

And people aren't giving me pairings-.- can't write the story properly without them. So think on them as tou read and review telling me the parings so i can write them.

Chapter 2- The Unknown

The cold arms of unconsciousness slowly eased their hold on the white haired exorcist that lay on the leaf-covered ground.

Leaves? He thought absently as he blinked into wakefulness. Allen bolted upright, remembering what had been happening before, and examined the surrounding area. After he saw Lavi, Lenalee and Chaoji still unconscious around him, he noticed the lack of Noah and further out, Krory (unconscious) and Kanda, who was now waking. He quickly looked around again and, sensing no Akuma, he went around checking on the others.

To Allen's surprise everyone seemed fine, only a few rapidly disappearing bruises. Of course he didn't know about Kanda as he'd stalked off as soon as he was fully awake.

Lavi was the next to wake, His lone, green eye immediately taking in everything around him. He propped himself up against a tree to wait for the others to join them in consciousness.

After half an hour Krory shot up, looking very confused, like something was missing that should have been there. He soon calmed down and also settled down to wait, There was a silent knowing that went between them, acknowledging the fact it would be easier to wait for everyone to wake before trying to make sense of what had happened, rather than trying to explain any hypothesise every time another woke.

Lenalee and Chaoji woke soon after, causing the others to gather with them. Lenalee was the first to speak,

"Where's Kanda? Didn't he come too?" Lavi, Krory and Chaoji all looked blank, having still been unconscious when he left, so Allen was the one to answer her,

"He was here, but left soon after he woke. He'll probably be back soon though," he added quickly, thinking on how much Lenalee always seemed to care about everyone else before herself but was also hit the hardest when something happened to them.

"But where exactly is here? and how did we get to be here in the first place?" Krory was the one to voice the questions in everyone's heads. More blank looks were shared but Allen was included in this group.

They looked towards Lavi as, being a bookman, he was the one most likely to have any clue as to their whereabouts.

"Well..." he started buying some time to gather any rational ideas together, "It would appear that some outside force has transported us to this place which seems to be outside the Ark, due to the stability of the area..." He trailed off after his super-speed ramble and looked at the faces that were still just as blank as before. He opened his mouth to speak again but was interrupted by the clashing of swords that came from relatively nearby.

Ichigo woke suddenly, in an instant he was standing, looking around warily. He stood in a clearing of the forest with Renji, Rukia, Chad, Uryuu, Orihime and Nel heaped around it. Chad was starting to stir, slowly working his way back to consciousness, Nel and Orihime were snoring softly, Uryuu was sprawled next to Renji the two of them twitching in their sleep and Rukia was peaceful, making neither move nor sound.

Chad sat himself up and, noticing the situation, settled down to wait.

Nel shot up soon afterwards and launched herself at Ichigo, knocking him to the ground and calling out a loud "Itsygo!" which startled Renji from his slumber. He looked around wildly for the source of the noise that he noticed to be the loudly crying Nel that was fusing herself to Ichigo's arm.

An irritated "tch" was heard as Kanda lifted himself from the ground, just outside the clearing, where he had previously been in a half-sleep.

Renji was the one to draw his Zanpakuto asking the identity of the newcomer, as Ichigo was incapacitated by the small arrancar that stuck to him.

Kanda ignored the question, turning round and beginning to stalk off. Renji flash stepped in front of him, pointing Zabimaru at his chest.

"I asked who you were." The statement hung between them, caught between the glares that were passing from one to the other.

Somewhere between glares, Mugen found it's way into Kanda's hand, mirroring Zabimaru's position. It didn't stay there long, knocking the other sword away with enough force to make Renji recoil. He recovered quickly to see Kanda moving away once more.

"Howl, Zabimaru!" Kanda turned and narrowed his eyes as he dodges the strange blade that could have cut him in half. He blocked the next attack but was pushed back by the power in the attack. A loud "RENJI!" was heard from the clearing as Rukia roused herself from sleep to keep everyone under control.

The spiky-haired redhead froze at the sound of her voice, the sheer volume of Rukia's shout shocked Uryuu into consciousness.

Before anything more could be said, a strange group of five teenagers burst into the clearing, stopping as they saw the odd group there and noticed Kanda standing defensively on the other side of Renji.

Orihime finally woke up as if it was the beginning of any old day, having slept through all the commotion like a log.

Allen and Ichigo, each at the head of their respective parties, glanced at each other across the clearing, turned to the melee erupting in the centre, and then back to gaze at each other. Ichigo saw a small, almost childish-looking person, seemingly defenceless, but for the scar on his face and the sadness in his eyes, he would be cute. This however did not stop the blush creeping up his face. In contrast, Allen saw a strong and muscled warrior, the kimono Ichigo wore having been ripped open to expose his muscles. A similar hot flush appeared on Allen's cheeks.

Then a clash of katanas snapped them out of their mutual adoration to run between the fighters and halt the duel.

Allen PoV

"Moyashi, move or I swear you will never get taller" spoke Kanda to Allen, slowly, softly and dangerously. From behind the ginger-haired interloper came very loud shouts along the lines of "Move yourself Ichigo, I don't care who he is I'M GONNA FINISH HIM!"

Allen wasn't focussed on the seething pile of Kanda before him, but rather on how much the ginger-haired stranger had to work out to get abs like his... He was snapped out of his reverie by the activation of his akuma eye, sensing two inhuman presences.

Kanda and the rest of the exorcists stepped back to allow Allen to search for akuma, and his eye noticed two things. The first was what appeared to be a five year old girl in a ragged green robe with half a skull on her head, the other made his mouth hang open and his heart beat faster. A monochrome version of 'his' ginger swordsman walked out of the bushes on one side of the clearing.

Ichigo PoV

As the only one of the shinigami to be facing the copy, Ichigo was the first to have his jaw hit the floor. Rukia and Renji turned around simultaneously, their jaws also falling into the leaves. The group of strangers were flicking their eyes between Ichigo and his monochrome counterpart, confusion evident on their features.

Nel was the first to comment,

"THERE IS TWO ITSYGOS?" She grabbed onto Ichigo's arm, fixing his jaw back into place, and starred questioningly up at him.

Ichigo looked around at everyone seeing the same question in everyone's face, except for Chad, whose expression never changes.

Rukia and Renji replaced their jaws and turned to Ichigo for an explanation.

General PoV

Allen activated his innocence, fingers lengthening to blades, a white cloak with silver mask settling round his shoulders. He didn't know who the interloper was, or why he looked so much like Ichigo, but he held his arm out ready to strike and was halted by the shinigami moving to confront it.

Again sorry for the lateness of this update.

I'm sorry for what i did to Allen and Ichigo, couldnt resist

please r&r, all flames are used to burn my annoying evil brother.

Kouseki