An extra long update because I may or may not be updating again for another month.
Chapter 25:
They had left the door open. They had taken the collar off. They had let him run. But for what? For what?! He was panting, tripping over his own feet as he struggled for the one door he knew he had to get to. That door was the key to his release. Behind him, loud yells and whoops could be heard as his chasers raced after him, slamming away at each other to see who could get to him first. He was their prize in this cruel game and he knew there was no way he could win.
Just a few more steps, just s few more steps but something white blocked his vision as a cold, roughed hand grasped his slender arms and threw him off balance, pulling him so hard he bit his lip to keep from crying out as he felt his shoulder tear. Just as quickly, he was thrust into the invader's chest, and arm quickly placed on his neck while the other hand came and covered his eyes.
"They will be punished for this." The cruel whisper chuckled in his ear and now, he would rather be taken by whoever caught him as a prize than by the current victor. Screaming echoed down the halls as he felt the vengeful wind blew past him.
"Yare yare. Ya didn't have to do them in that harshly." The snake stepped out from the shadows, the feral grin on his lips never leaving and Byakuya could hear the sarcasm and feral pleasure dripping from every word that he said.
"It was your idea then I'm guessing."
"Ya know me all too well." A long pause went between the two before he felt that he was being dragged in the opposite direction.
"I'll be taking him with me seeing as how, I did win this little game of tag."
"Ah, of course."
No, just let him die here. Let the others come back. He shut his eyes, the only way he knew that he could defy them still even in the least bit. He felt the voice come closer to his ear, warming it with its unwelcome presence.
"I promise that you will take no pleasure in this tonight my little Byakuya."
That night he was happy for the gag. He was happy for the bit on his tongue, the ball in his mouth, the clothe that wrapped itself around his entire face. Because he knew that if those had been removed, the screams that echoed through his mind would have echoed through the room and shattered him then and there.
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The screams that echoed through that room had the entire fourth squad on there knees pleading for it to stop. Isane and Unohana both held the sealed ex-captain down, trying any number of spells to see if they could cease whatever it was that tormented the broken man. Even when several spells to render the subject unconscious were tried, the screams still continued. That was the situation Kuchiki walked into. It the young woman running through the corridors, barging into door ways, colliding with cowering fourth members demanding to know just what was going on. Crashing through one door way to the other, she came upon heavily laden fourth division members surrounding a heavily Renji.
"Oh god," Rukia rushed forward, nearly knocking aside a surprised Richiki and caused the newly appeared Hanataro to nearly jump out of his skin from surprise.
"Rukia-san, you actually came." Another agonized scream came from down the hall, causing the entire crew to cringe.
"What is going on?"
"Kuchiki-sama," apparently the honorifics were still to be employed with Byakuya no matter what. "He woke up completely disoriented. Unohana-taicho and Isane-fukutaicho are with him right now trying to calm him down."
"Well whatever it is that they're doing," Rukia cringed again as another scream ricocheted off the walls, "isn't working. But that wasn't the only question. What happened to Renji."
"Kurosaki-kun scared him or something but Senbonzakura came out and was about to engulf the entire barrack but Abarai-taicho tackled Kuchiki-sama out of it but in the process was butchered by the attack."
The figure on the bed stirred but then proceeded to hack up a fit of blood.
"RENJI!!" The room was in chaos as the small woman stumbled out of the room and balanced herself against the white wall. She went almost at a snails pace down the rest of the corridor to the last door. She knew it was the last door because it was where she had stayed after the Aizen ordeal. Clinging to the wall for dear life, she was fighting against the slipping of reality as she felt the floor tilt and vision blur. Another scream crashed into her eardrums as she felt tears spring to her eyes. Gripping the doorknob, she turned and braced herself for what was to come.
Lying on the bed was the ghost of the person she had once thought herself to have known. Tightly closed eyes that she knew hid the beautiful grey color now spasmed as if being electrocuted, twitching every which way without a way to stop it. Long, pale limbs, too skinny to have been healthy were not coated with bruised and lacerations, blue, black, festering, each one echoing a hidden pain buried inside the trembling body. Another scream ripped itself from a pale throat but Rukia's eyes widened at the markings around the skin. There had been a collar. Unohana and Isane had sensed her presence and they turned to her now just a violent tremor rocked the broken body, as if trying to wrench it from the haven of the bed and onto the cold, unforgiving floor. She launched herself at him.
"NII-SAMA!!"
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They were gone now. He was gone now. He was drifting, drifting on the comforts on the soft sheets, the fluffed pillow, the darkened curtain. All of it was mocking the act of brutality that had just occurred. His jaw hurt, his wrists were heavy, his legs felt amputated. Maybe they were. How he had laughed at him. Laughed even more when he sealed him. He couldn't scream. He could barely even whimper now. He needed to get out of the bed though. He needed to get out of here. If he stayed here, worse things would keep happening. He had to get out. He had to get out. Why weren't they letting him out. His power was sealed again. No! No more. PLEASE NO MORE!! He screamed again. He had to get out. He had to get out. LET HIM OUT! Why weren't they letting him out. The voices were coming back now. That cold cruel voice, the voice of the snake, the smooth rich voice, and the emotionless voice, each mocking him, pushing him back down, invading him, lapping his sweat, his tears, his every scream, cry, and whimper. Please let him out. Let him get out. They were drowning him now, consuming him, crushing him underneath their weight no matter which way he turned. They screamed, laughed, cried, cursed, grunting in very since of the way into his ears. He wanted them ripped off now, he didn't want his ears anymore. He couldn't breath, he could only beg them for mercy which they never heard. No, it just made them laugh louder. He couldn't breath, he was fading, fading down into the abyss that he knew he would only return from for more pain. He didn't want to go. The voices shoved him down, down into their midst. He didn't want to go. What would she think of him now? Big, blue trusting eyes filled his blackening vision. He last time he had thought of her was the time when he had left and saw those eyes full of confusion, betrayal and hurt. No, he knew what she thought of him now. But that's when he heard it.
"NII-SAMA!!"
He reached for it, fought against them and reached for it. The emerging light blinded him but the warmth on his arms told him that he was safe. He was back. The blue eyes looked at him now, full of hurt, full of tears. Red eyes replaced blue for seconds before blending together as he raised a weak hand to wipe away the tears.
'Don't cry Lili' ran through his mind.
"Don't… cry…Rukia."
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She was a sobbing mess and he looked like he had just been doing paperwork with no sleep for 200 years. Unohana grinned at Isane as the later trembled and both quietly left the room. They may not have been really brother and sister but the blood relation had nothing to do with the moment of reunion between the two. No words aside from those already spoken as they two clung to each other, breathing in each other's presence, trying to soak in as much of the lost time as possible.
"You really are back." Rukia whimpered, small hands digging into the thin white material of a patient's robe as Byakuya dropped his chin onto the crown of her head in a rare showing of affection.
"Ah," he whispered, thin arms encircling her trembling body as the rest of the sobs racked her small frame to the core. Then again, he smirked to himself, he shouldn't be the one calling anyone else small at this point.
"You're real this time." She laughed softly, realizing that she was babbling, repeating the same thing and probably annoying the other. Instead of a retort or a softly spoken dismissal, she felt the slim arms tighten around her as another soft "ah" was whispered into her hair.
She remembered just hours ago, she had yelled at Hanataro that she didn't care at all about the man that was holding her now. She remembered how she had steeled her heart to everyone around her, even Ichigo and Renji until just a few months ago. But now, in those few small seconds before, she realized she had been fooling no one but herself. She never wanted to hear those screams again but then, those grey eyes opened themselves once more to the word and the soft hand, the one that she had longed to hold and pull along with her on those crazy adventures but she had been too afraid to ask, lifted itself to her face and the voice she thought she would only hear in her dreams spoke to her and told her not the cry.
She hesitated before venturing to ask, "what are you thinking about."
Another soft breath passed through her hair before he replied, "about how hard…I'm praying… for all this not…to be a dream."
She knew then that they had made it. She knew then that somehow, they would be okay.
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"Why is it that I feel like I just got mauled by Ichigo along with 1000 other hollows?" Renji groaned, sitting up, holding his head to see if he would be able to get the world to stop spinning anytime soon.
"RENJI-SAN!! You shouldn't be moving around so soon!!" Richiki crash tackled through the door the instant he saw that the man he greatly aspired to be was up.
"Richiki, not so loud." Renji grinned, causing the other to eep then laugh at the red head's antics.
"How do you feel?"
"Like Ichigo decided to use me as target practice with Grimmjow's assistance."
"That can't be too good then can it?"
"Never ever, want to go through that again."
"Again…?"
Renji blinked and shuddered. Luckily for him, he has never gone through it once. Looking around himself, then examining himself, his brain went into function mode again as the robe clad figure leapt out of bed and out the door before Richiki could even say, "what?" The door at the end of the hallway slammed open, causing both figures in the room to jump, the smaller one giving an indignant yelp before scrambling to stand.
"Renji what on earth--?"
No one got a word out as the red head collapsed into a heap on the floor, fresh blood pooling everywhere.
"EHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!" Rukia paled, dropping to her knees and yelling for help as the ward exploded in commotion. Richiki was already there trying his best to staunch the flow as the sounds of Hanataro tripping down the hall became apparent in the room. All the while, wide grey eyes watched the scene, focusing on the red that was being consumed by his own puddle of red with growing, what most people would say, looked like a look of amusement. The emotion of the eyes was confirmed when the slight, pale figure began to chuckle. The room froze at the small sound and all eyes widened in amazement as the former noble, Kuchiki Byakuya, despite all his injuries, began to double over in muted laughter.
"Nii…sama?" Rukia stared as she watched her stoic brother in this rare fit of emotion. "Are you alright?"
Byakuya for his part did not respond, but he did look at her, then to Renji. On trembling legs, the ex captain stood and stumbled in his usual grace over to where the prone Renji lay. The bleeding had stopped now and the cuts were once more beginning to heal.
The slender hand gently set itself on the other's naked back, momentarily tracing a thick one of the tribal tattoos before remaining still between the shoulder blades.
"Abarai-Fukutaicho."
"Hmmm," the figure on the floor stirred but did not move.
"Stop doing things so recklessly."
"Yeah…sure Taicho…sure."
Byakuya stood and nodded to the others who quickly carted the passed out new captain back to his room. Quiet once more reigned through the corridor as grey met the widened blue, brother stared at his technical sister. Rukia stared in awe. Her brother, missing, tortured, betrayed, now stood in his usual, small in height but with an enormous atmosphere that commanded respect. The thirteenth division captain stood and walked slowly over to the one person she had torn her heart out for just to put it back in. She walked to him and he wrapped his arms around her.
"I'm sorry about what happened to Ukitake."
That was all she needed as the barriers crashed down and she sobbed anew. There was no way in which she could ever say that she did not care for him. The red head in the other room and her, she laughed to herself, were tied to this man. No matter what he did, not matter where he went, she knew they would follow him to the ends of the world.