AN : Another sneak peak…Here, I took the concept of my Eternal Sage and applied it to Ichigo and the Hōgyoku…Obviously, there will be differences , but that is a basic explanation. Furthermore, once I am done with the bleach canon-verse, I intend to go on to show alternate realities much like I will do with the Eternal Sage. As usual, please take some time to tell me your thoughts on this story in a review down below…Cheers!

Ichigo panted as he lay in the dust at Aizen's feet, his vision darkening as he lost blood by the gallons.

After his rush attack against Aizen, the traitorous captain had nonchalantly cleaved his body in twain. Now, he lay dying in the dirt, while around him, the full measure of Aizen's betrayal was revealed to the leadership of the Soul Society.

He fought valiantly to stay awake, knowing that the sleep that beckoned him was of the eternal kind. Even the maniacal voice of his inner Hollow, whose existence he was in firm denial of, was completely silent. Yet, he felt the last of his strength fail, and slowly, his eyes slid closed.

Kurosaki Ichigo was dead.

The shinigami gathered on the Execution Hill stilled as they detected a sudden change in the air. The ancient Captain Commander was the first to understand what had set his senses off.

The air was lighter.

The ridiculous amounts of energy that the orange haired teenager had been constantly putting out had vanished.

His wizened gaze turned to the still body of the teen, lying in a fatally large pool of blood andhHe resisted a sorrowful sigh at the loss of such a young life; especially one filled with such potential.

Rukia's scream of horror tinged with disbelief clued in any of the others who hadn't yet made the connection. She struggled against her brother's hold, trying to get to Ichigo who couldn't be dead...just couldn't be dead.

Byakuya was stoic as he held Rukia's form, his tightened lips and tight gaze the only indications of his feelings.

The other captains present, especially Ukitake and Kyouraku, were silent as they took in the recently deceased body of the child who had barged into their domain, mindlessly shaking them out of their complacency. They had only known him for a short while, but they all acknowledged that Kurosaki Ichigo had been a rare individual.

Inoue had tears trailing down her cheeks, with her sobs just barely muffled by the hands clasped to her lips. Ishida was completely tensed and motionless, as his dark gaze rested on his almost friend. Chad had to fight to keep his breathing even, knowing that if he lost his head and rushed Aizen, he would be throwing away his life and failing in their years old promise to protect what the other cherished most.

Aizen had paused in his speech when he registered the absence of Ichigo to his senses. He turned an unreadable gaze on the boy he had expected so much from, and had to withhold a disappointed sigh. As he turned back to face the other captains, he caught a flicker of black at the corner of his eye.

Some of those present tensed when the ground under Ichigo suddenly cratered, their stunned gazes being pulled from the slowly fading afterimage where his body had laid, by the sounds of a choked off breath and the gurgle of internal injuries. Numerous eyes widened in shock when they saw Ichigo's black bankai blade lodged through Tousen's chest.

Ichigo's left hand blurred upwards and impacted with Tousen's torso, launching him towards the gathered captains, while simultaneously wrenching the blade out of him.

Fluidly, Ichigo spun to face Aizen, and quick as a flash, he was off.

Only the captains present were able to follow him as he raced across the ground, and even then, to a few of them he was simply a blur of black.

Aizen, standing heads above most of the captains in power, easily tracked his approach, his own blade blurring up to his right to intercept whatever attack Ichigo would launch at him. His eyes widened however, when his blade passed through the black blur as though it were cutting through air. He quickly spun to his left when he sensed an object hurtling through the air beside him, all the while his quick mind tried to understand how Ichigo had evaded his attack. He anticipated a sword strike and prepared to shift out of the way. However, Ichigo merely blew past him, his eyes focused on another prey.

Ichimaru's normally slitted eyes opened in shock once he noticed who Ichigo's next target was. He smoothly collected himself and in a flash, he struck,

Ikorose, Shinsou (Shoot to Death, Shinsou)

With a glow of silver light, his blade extended nigh instantaneously, piercing through the air previously occupied by Ichigo's chest.

Before Gin's blade could be retracted, Ichigo came out of his low swirl next to the standing form of the silver haired traitor, his black blade already on a path to bisect him, staring from his right hip and ending at his left shoulder.

With a muffled curse, Gin lurched backwards, just barely turning the fatal strike into a serious injury.

Ichigo, face still blank and eyes a fierce brown, spun towards Aizen, who was calmly looking back at him, showing in his relaxed posture just how confident he was of Ichigo's inability to even scratch him.

Ichigo took a step towards him, and then slowly fell forward, landing flat on his face, and remained unmoving.

Most of those gathered let loose sighs of relief, some less noticeable than others, when they realized that they could now sense reiatsu from him again.

Aizen moved to speak when he sensed the arrival of his escort out of there. Smothering a sigh, he silently turned his calculating gaze back to the surprising orange haired teen who was laid out, completely passed out before him.

As the negacion came down around him and Gin, he noticed that Tousen had not moved from where he had landed, probably dead. He cast his senses out and all he could feel from his body were traces of Ichigo's reiatsu, particularly around the wound in his chest.

He turned his consideration back to the captains, who were by now watching him and his surviving accomplice. With a charismatic smile on his face, he gave his closing performance and speech, all the while wondering what surprises Kurosaki Ichigo would provide in the future.

Inoue was already in motion before the tear in the sky had completely vanished, her fairies flashing towards Ichigo to set up her healing bubble. She got there and turned his body onto its back and failed to stifle her horrified gasp at the severity of his wound. Stunned that he had been able to move so fast when he was so injured, she began the process of putting him back together.

By this time, Unohana had made her way towards the two teens, along with an anxious Rukia and a worried Renji. Ishida and Chad were not too far behind either. The captain of the Fourth division knelt beside Inoue, her hands glowing green, as she prepared to aid in the healing of the surprising young man. She just barely kept her eyes from widening when a tanned hand was suddenly gripping her right arm. She turned her gaze down to meet the calm brown eyes of the previously unconscious teen, and noticed the motion of his head, which she followed to see Tousen's still body.

With the faint stirrings of suspicion in her mind, she got up and made her way over to his body. The others, except Inoue, looked up from whatever they were doing as she stopped to kneel beside the body of the traitor. Before their surprised eyes, her hands glowed green and came to rest on his punctured chest. Before any could protest her actions, Tousen arched up and began to cough as his body fought for air. Unohana merely placed one of her hands on his forehead and forced him into a healing sleep.

Her healing kidou removed the foreign reiatsu that was clogging his wounds, and it was then that she realized just what Ichigo had done.

His sword had pierced through Tousen's chest, severing his Saketsu (Binding Chain) and his Hakusui (Soul Sleep), stripping him of all his Shinigami powers, and forcing him into unconsciousness from the shock of it all. The remnants of Tousen's rapidly fading reiatsu had then been masked by the residue of Ichigo's own overpowering reiatsu in the wound, leading all present to believe that Tousen had died.

At a gesture from her, some of the arriving members of her division took his body into custody, where he would be healed under the watchful eyes of some guards. She spared a moment to glance once more at the now sleeping form of Ichigo, before she turned to tend to Renji's wounds.

The being, once known as Kurosaki Ichigo, surveyed the destruction of the inner world he currently resided in.

Once magnificent skyscrapers lay in ruins as far as the eye could see.

He turned his considering gaze to his hand to find it wrapped in dark grey bandages, as were his chest and the lower parts of his face. From the corner of his eye he noticed that his hair was black and at least waist length. He simply took in a deep a breath, and on exhale, fully accepted the merge that had just occurred.

He then turned his attention back to the destroyed world around him and set about fixing and upgrading it. He spared a moment to feel grateful that this time around, his present manifestation still wielded the same zanpakuto that he had used in his first life, all those eons ago.

Rukia sat in the seat next to Inoue, both of their gazes focused on the teen who had been bed-ridden for the better part of four days. She was glad that this time around, wounds weren't randomly appearing on his body.

The first time it had happened, Inoue's screams had brought a handful of captains rushing into the room. They had all stood in shock as they watched bruises suddenly appear on Ichigo's skin, and even in some cases, blood from his lips and nose. Unohana's examination had revealed nothing concrete, save for the speculation that something was happening in his inner world.

They could do nothing but watch and heal him whenever the injuries appeared. Unohana's theory had been further strengthened when Ichigo's enormous cleaver-like sword had shone with blinding light, and then shrunk to the form of an O-katana. The sword now possessed a black handle with dark red tassels on it, a reflection of his bankai form no doubt.

The healers had reported that things had been peaceful for the past few hours, so they were all hopeful that he would wake up soon.

The past few days had been crazy; it wasn't every day that three Captains of the Gotei 13 revealed their treachery, and then defected. The Captain Commander had been furious that they had all been taken so completely by surprise. He had initiated a state of emergency after the slaughter of the Council of Forty-Six, thus granting him uncontestable command of all of Soul Society until the traitors were dealt with and the situation resolved.

Rukia's thoughts were promptly scattered to the four winds when she heard the shuffle of clothing from the bed. She held her breath, noticing that Inoue was in a similar state, as she looked at Ichigo's face, hoping that he was about to wake up.

Ichigo's eyelids fluttered open, and his gaze immediately zeroed in on those by his bedside. The room was silent as Rukia and Inoue took in Ichigo's aware form. Then the tableau was shattered by somewhat choked words from Inoue,

"Kurosaki-kun...you're...you're awake...I'm so glad."

Rukia smiled fondly as she noticed the happy tears in Inoue's eyes, before she stood to let the captain of the Fourth division know that her patient was awake.

Ishida shot subtle glances at Ichigo as the group travelled via Urahara's flying carpet back to their respective homes in Karakura town. He couldn't get over the fact that something fundamental had changed in his frie – rival – after the events on the Execution Hill. When they asked him what had happened while he was in a coma, he merely gave them a small and unreadable smile and said,

"Spring cleaning"

No matter how they had pushed, he had not budged, merely replying with such vague responses and generally leaving them dissatisfied.

He had to fight the blush that threatened to rise on his face when he remembered Ichigo casually mentioning that Inoue's healing ability could probably restore his Quincy powers. He had been too distracted by the sudden surge of hope to question how Ichigo had known about his condition. Later, he wrote it off as something he must have heard from some of the others.