Chapter 6: The Demon's Seed
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When you found me, I was already bleeding and half dead. You took me in and healed me, only to see that the blade was driven into my heart more deeply. I was trained to be strong of heart, but there is no strength to be found when the lifeblood has drained away and when pain can no longer register in the broken mind. You find beauty in shattering me, but there comes a time when the pieces are too small to be broken any more…then you will have no choice but to release me from my agony…or be dragged down with me.
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Byakuya felt small, soft hands touching his face and fought the drowsiness that surrounded him. Even as fogged as his mind was, he knew those hands…and the light, musical voice that accompanied them.
"Daddy Bya?"
He forced his eyes open and met wide gray eyes that looked like his.
"Akane!" he whispered, sitting up slowly.
The red haired girl leapt onto the bed, landing gently on his lap. She curled her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. He rested his head on her shoulder, burying his face in her thick, soft hair.
"Daddy Bya! I'm so glad Daddy Sousuke brought you to see me! I miss you when you have to be in the hospital…but he said that maybe you can come home soon and we can be a family then."
Byakuya placed his hands gently on either side of her face and kissed her forehead. He longed to take her and run, but he knew that Aizen Sousuke would not have arranged this without taking many precautions to prevent just that. He had to be careful.
"Akane, I've missed you too. What have you been up to?" he asked, fighting the tears that threatened to well up in his eyes.
"I am going to go to preschool! Mika signed me up! I am very happy I will go to school. I already know my letters and numbers and colors!"
"That's very good. And Mika is…?"
"Oh, Mika lives with me because Daddy Sousuke is working and you have to be in the hospital so much. Mika is really nice. We go shopping together a lot and she even let me have a kitty. I named him Beautiful Bya, after you. Daddy Sousuke always talks about how beautiful you are. I call him BB for short. He is a black kitty with long, soft fur all over. I would have brought him, but Daddy Sousuke said you could see him when we all move into the same house to live together."
"Oh, Akane," Byakuya said smiling gently, "I think it would be wonderful to live with you."
"As soon as you are well again. Daddy Sousuke says that he has paid for the very best doctors to help you. I hope you get well soon. Do you feel all right now?" she asked, reaching out to touch his face, "You don't seem like you have a fever."
"Well," said Sousuke from the doorway, "Some illnesses do not cause a fever, Akane."
"When I'm sick, Mika makes soup for me and we play games together. Would you like me to do that for you, Daddy Bya?"
Byakuya met Sousuke's eyes questioningly.
Aizen smiled.
"I think some soup would be very good for Daddy Bya. Why don't you go and find Mika? She can help you with the soup."
"Okay!" the little girl said excitedly, jumping off of the bed and running out the door.
Aizen closed the door behind her and turned to look at Byakuya.
"You see, Byakuya, I am keeping my promise. Akane is alive and well. She is happy and well adjusted. You should be pleased."
"Pleased that she is forced to live without her father? That you masquerade as her loving parent? That little girl has no idea what a monster you are! And Sousuke, I don't understand…I thought that you were dead…that Las Noches was…"
He broke off as Aizen flash stepped across the room and sat down next to him on the bed.
"You believed what I wanted you to…I needed you to believe I was gone, so that they would take you back to the Seireitei and put my plans in motion."
Byakuya's eyes narrowed.
"What are you going to do?" he asked.
"Please…I must not loose all of my secrets, Byakuya, but I will tell you this. My illusions were great enough to mask my reiatsu…and they were great enough hide the true Las Noches, while the Gotei 13 razed the decoy and rescued you. And you were so fogged out yourself that even you didn't know you had been moved."
"So you meant for them to find me."
Aizen laughed softly.
"Of course I did, or you would not have been found, Byakuya. I handed them plenty of dead bodies the day you were found, both shinigami and hollow. It was an exceptional way to both convince the Gotei 13 I was dead and to rid myself of some useless prisoners. And I left you there as well so that you would be taken back into the fold and healed. After all, for my plan to work, you must retain your title…and for that to happen, you could not simply stay missing. However, I found it shocking to discover the extremely close relationship you share with Abarai Renji. I had thought the two of you were only friends."
"We were just friends. We might have moved in the direction of something more, but that was halted when I became your prisoner."
Aizen frowned.
"Prisoner is such a harsh word, Byakuya. Remember too, that you were no longer a prisoner once you agreed to marry me. From the day you agreed to be my life partner, you could no longer claim to be held against your will."
"We have nothing that resembles a marriage, Sousuke," Byakuya said, lowering his eyes, "You kept me unconscious except when you wanted to torment or impregnate me. I would hardly consider that a marriage."
"It was necessary for me to set boundaries for you. You needed to understand what was and was not acceptable. I assure you, I have always had a broader view when it came to us, Bya. It is, however, something that must be grown over time. I had to establish dominance…for my own safety…before embarking on a longer term relationship. In truth, that I want this as much as I do came as a shock. You should know…I originally planned to kill Akane and you."
"And you aren't planning to now?" Byakuya asked with thinly veiled sarcasm.
"Why do you think I told her that we would soon be a family, Byakuya? Why would I involve myself in her life at all if I did not plan to follow through? It would be a waste of effort…and I do not waste any effort where it is not necessary."
Byakuya sighed in frustration.
"Why would you desire life with me? I am an unwilling partner at best…and you have done nothing but beat me down from the moment I became your prisoner. There is not enough left of me to make a worthy partner, Sousuke."
Aizen placed a hand on his face and kissed him. Byakuya neither resisted nor returned the gesture.
"I may have broken you," he said, kissing Byakuya more firmly, "but it was merely a means of controlling you. Now that you have been made obedient, there is no reason that once you give me the child you agreed to bear for me, that we cannot live together as a family."
"You mean to leave Las Noches?" Byakuya asked softly, "because you know no child is safe there…not mine and not yours."
"I will leave Las Noches…and you will help me to do that. I have great plans for you now that you have returned to the Seireitei. Once we leave here and you return to the healing center, we can begin to work in that direction. But there is work we must do here, first."
"What are you talking about?" asked Byakuya, staring.
"Simple…I allow you access to your daughter and you and I will conceive another child together."
"Sousuke, I have already failed eight times to give you a child," Byakuya managed in a trembling whisper, "and though the last thing I would ever want to do is to conceive a child with you, each failure sets more weight on my heart. Not that you would concern yourself with my peace of mind…not that you would ever care an ounce for me…but I can no longer bear the weight of loss. You aren't even giving me time to mourn what I lost less than two days ago. I know you need to keep me beaten down…but everyone has their limits. I have reached mine."
Aizen's expression softened and he curled an arm around the noble's shoulders. Byakuya shivered softly, but did not resist.
"Byakuya," he said, touching his face gently, "now that you belong to me…I have no desire to beat you down…or to cause you pain. I do only what I must to see to my plans, but I assure you, I do not wish to show you cruelty."
"Sousuke…there hasn't been a day I've spent with you that you have not caused me pain or shown me how cruel you can be. Why would I believe for one moment, that you would stop?"
"What are you talking about?" Aizen asked, frowning, "It's not as though you are subjected to torture. As a matter of fact, I never once had you tortured."
"You didn't have to," whispered Byakuya, tears threatening, "Your own cruelty caused me more pain than torture could."
Aizen furrowed his brow.
"What…you can't mean…our lovemaking?"
"For it to have been lovemaking, there would have to have been some desire on my part to join you in it. I assure you that there never has been. You have only taken me by force or coercion…never in a way that suggested affection. You do not know the meaning of the word."
"And you do, Kuchiki Byakuya?" Aizen asked pointedly, "You who forgot his promises to his wife…who turned his sister over for execution?"
"I realized my mistakes and sought to correct them," Byakuya said firmly.
Aizen nodded.
"And now I will do something quite similar…but we will get to that. I must ask you first…How long will Renji's seed remain viable inside you?"
Byakuya sighed resignedly.
"Three days," he answered quietly.
"Three days," repeated Aizen, "So…for three days, we will remain here with your daughter. You will see her by day and lie with me each night. For the first two nights, I will seek to change your impression of my feelings for you. I assure you that I am both willing to express affection for you…and desiring to do so. On the last night, we will make our child. After that, we will return to the Seireitei and complete my plans."
"And we will not be missed? Not me? Not Hiromi?"
Aizen nodded.
"I have seen to that. We will have the time we need."
Byakuya shivered again and his voice shook when he spoke again.
"Sousuke, I cannot do this…and…if you truly wished to convince me that you felt anything for me…then you would abandon this. We have Akane. Can't that be enough?"
Aizen stroked his hair and leaned forward to kiss him.
"I am sorry, Byakuya, that I must force this last thing upon you. But I can promise you that I will not ask you for another child if you do not wish it. I need our child to complete my plans. There is, I am afraid, no other way…"
"So…if I were to refuse…"
"Then you would only end your life…and hers…and I would force you to watch her die. Do you want this, Byakuya?" he asked softly.
Byakuya's eyes closed, the agony rising up onto his face. He paused, fighting to maintain control and shook his head.
"Can't you just let her go?" Byakuya whispered, "Will you torment me until there is nothing left? And how do I know you will ever let us be together? You make promises, but they are like your illusions…they mean nothing…and only unhinge me further. Aizen Sousuke, what did I ever do to you to make you hate me so…to make you want to cut at my flesh, tear apart my mind…and shatter my heart? There has to have been something that made you want to hurt me like this. Why do you never tell me what I did to you?"
His head dropped onto his spouse's shoulder and his hands clenched tightly and rested against the other's chest. Aizen's fingertip touched his face just beneath his eye, capturing a tear.
"Bya…" he said softly, "I never hated you. But I did misjudge you at first. I made the assumption that you were what you seemed to be on the surface…one of those stuffy nobles…an empty, cold hearted, emotionless shell of a person…a servant of that vacuous king who sits in his royal palace and does nothing for our worlds but to let them run themselves…"
He released an unhappy sigh and nuzzled closer to Byakuya.
"But you surprised me with who you truly are. You don't accept that the rules of our society are fair or that they should be enforced as written. I know you have to have had your questions, Byakuya. You married a peasant. That means you see the world in a different way than the rest of the nobles. You don't hold yourself above others for no better reason than where you or that person was born. You see the unfairness in our worlds."
"Perhaps," Byakuya admitted, "but I cannot overlook your callousness in using people and committing murder to achieve your goals."
Aizen shook his head.
"Throwing off an unfair system of government is, by its very nature, something that requires some callousness, Byakuya."
"But not cruelty, Sousuke. You indulge in cruel displays of manipulation and torment simply to amuse yourself. Say what you will about your reasons for overthrowing our king, but the truth is…you desire power to manipulate even more beings. And I do not believe that being king will end your cruelty. It is instinctive for you to be cruel to others. Do not delude yourself into thinking you can simply turn a corner and suddenly become kind or gentle. You might wear them as a mask…but you are neither…and eventually, you will always return to being the cruel manipulator you are."
"I know that I have done much to convince you of that, Byakuya, but I think that, given time…and genuine affection, you will learn to see me in a different light."
The door opened and Akane walked into the room, carefully carrying a tray holding three cups of soup. She set the tray on the nightstand and handed one cup to Byakuya, one to Sousuke and took one herself.
"This is my favorite soup when I am sick. Mika makes it usually, but she told me how, so I could make it for you. It has chicken and vegetables and rice. Then you add some spices to make it taste really good."
Byakuya sipped at the soup and smiled warmly.
"This is very good, Akane," he said quietly, "I think I feel better already."
Akane smiled widely.
"Maybe tomorrow we could take a walk together," she suggested.
Byakuya's eyes took on a sad look.
"I…don't know…" he sighed.
"Oh," said Aizen, "I think a walk might be a good thing for you, Byakuya. We will all go tomorrow, then."
Byakuya looked up questioningly.
"We must improve your health," Aizen said, his eyes meeting Byakuya's warmly, "We want you to be able to come home to us as soon as possible."