Chapter 26: White Destruction
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You have forgotten how I passed beneath your flesh, how I sank into your depths and learned every inch of you. You think you are yourself, but I still writhe somewhere inside. You hear my voice, but cannot see me…and you wonder why. I keep you wondering. I watch you ponder and struggle, let you approach escape. I let you taste the nearness of freedom, but I promise you that it will never be yours…
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"Byakuya," Renji pleaded, barely able to contain the panic in his voice, "Would you please tell me what is going on with you? You never said anything about blaming Soutaichou for what happened to you…and yet you just challenged him to battle to the death! What the fuck is happening?"
"You studied to become a taichou," said Byakuya calmly, "Should a taichou have cause to believe that the Captain Commander is unfit for the job, it is not just his right, but his duty to challenge his leadership. As you said, Soutaichou publicly admitted that his mistake led to my imprisonment. I spent five years in captivity, suffering torments to my body, mind and heart…until I was nearly obliterated. Did you think that I would not see to the task of removing him from office? To allow him to retain his office would be a travesty."
"Byakuya, I'm not saying that you don't have the right…but…"
He broke off as he spotted Kuchiki Yoshinori.
"Hey, isn't that your…"
He was interrupted by the sound of a sudden flash step. He glanced back to find that Byakuya was gone.
"Abarai Renji!" called Yoshinori breathlessly.
"Hai," Renji answered, still looking for Byakuya.
"Abarai-san, I bring an important message from Byakuya-sama."
Renji stared.
"But…Byakuya…was just here."
Yoshinori's eyes widened.
"No! Abarai-san, that was Aizen Sousuke in disguise! He left the Kuchiki Council Hall alongside you, but used his zanpakutou to make you think he was Byakuya-sama! My cousin is imprisoned at the council hall and needs your assistance."
"Shit!" yelled Renji, "That son of a bitch! He just posed as Byakuya and challenged Soutaichou to duel to the death!"
"We must inform Soutaichou that he has done this…and we must return to my cousin to assist him in getting free of the council hall before Aizen returns to him!"
Renji sighed in frustration.
"We're not going to make it back before him unless one of us goes ahead. I will go to the council hall. I want you to inform Soutaichou about what is going on!"
"Hai, I will bring help, Abarai-san," Yoshinori promised.
He watched as Renji flash stepped away, then flash stepped into the first division office.
"I need to see Soutaichou at once," he told the guard at the door, "It is a matter of utmost importance…a matter of his safety and the safety of others as well. Please tell him that it is an emergency!"
"Hey!" said Kyoraku Shunsui from across the room, "Didn't you just leave with Soutaichou for some type of emergency?"
Yoshinori caught his breath in dismay.
"Oh my kami! He has Soutaichou!" the noble gasped.
"Who has Soutaichou?" asked Ukitake, who was standing next to Shunsui.
"It's Aizen Sousuke!" Yoshinori cried, "He posed as Byakuya and issued the challenge to Soutaichou to duel to the death…then…he must have seen me…and he…he took Soutaichou. Sirs, you must sound the alarms. Aizen Sousuke has taken the Captain Commander to the Kuchiki council hall!"
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Byakuya watched as Aizen Sousuke disappeared into the blue light of Byakuya's kido spell, then released a frightening screech of maniacal laughter. The noble froze at the sound, well aware that he had made some kind of mistake…and was about to pay for it. He called Senbonzakura to his hand.
"Ban kai," he intoned in a voice that managed to sound calm, despite the terror rising inside him, "Senkei, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."
Pink swords rose around them, creating a fighting chamber within the confines of the council room. Byakuya felt entirely comfortable abandoning his defenses.
He doesn't want to kill me, but to control me. And even with my defenses down, I can still connect with my attacks.
He breathed a quick kido spell to temporarily render himself unable to see.
If I cannot see, then the hypnosis cannot fool me.
He reached out with his reiatsu, sensing the full confines of the senkei. Aizen was still somewhere in front of him, laughing…
"So…" he said softly, "I did not underestimate you. You found a way to restore your powers. I have to say that I am impressed. You are everything I hoped you would be, Byakuya. When I imagined this…I knew I would encounter your genius for finding loopholes, for creating cracks in what would seem a flawless plan. You have made me deviate several times now. I congratulate you. But after you escaped, I realized that I had, in some ways, underestimated you…and I knew that as we approached the endgame, I had to be careful.
So…when I left you, I told you that I was going to the meeting with Soutaichou…and so I did. What I declined to tell you is that I did not return from the meeting with Abarai Renji."
Byakuya shivered involuntarily as Aizen's arms suddenly wrapped around him. Oddly, his senses were still telling him that his spouse was across the room, at the far end of his senkei.
"But if you are here…and Renji is…" Byakuya whispered.
"Then who did you just attack?" Aizen finished, "I saw Yoshinori as I left the first division…and I knew what steps you would have taken as soon as you realized that your cousin still lived."
He brushed his fingers over Byakuya's eyes and the noble's vision was suddenly restored. He caught his breath sharply and realized that the one he had attacked…that he had locked within his senkei…was none other than Soutaichou, himself. The Captain Commander stood silently at the far end of the room, his power flaring around him, gazing in their direction as though not able to see them.
"I allowed your cousin to run after Abarai, so that I could take on his form and lure Soutaichou here by explaining what had happened to the elders. He does not see us, but only the empty room. When I release him from his illusion, he will see only you and your senkei. He will attack quickly, so…"
"He will only kill me," Byakuya said firmly, "I have no defenses and even my senkei is not strong enough to defeat Soutaichou."
"You won't be using your senkei for attack. It is only here to keep Soutaichou contained…while you use sakura tenrai rekka…the cherry blossom divine conflagration…a beautiful swell of white sakura blades, so fine that he will not see them, or even feel them as they pass into his body…spin…and light with divine white fire. He will feel them burn beneath his skin, and then, as he stands wondering what it is that you have done, the blades and the fire will explode and devour him, body and soul. There will be nothing left, but falling white ashes."
"I told you already, Sousuke, I do not have the power to wield that attack…"
"You didn't when you came to me…nor did you develop the ability while I held you captive and tried to force your body to adjust to its power. As a matter of fact, I am disappointed to say that had I not found another way, you would have become useless to me and I would have been forced to kill you long ago. But luckily for both of us, Gin discovered something crucial while trying to assist me in impregnating you."
His hand slid down Byakuya's body to the place beneath which the developing child's reiatsu rested. Byakuya flinched and tried unsuccessfully to twist away.
"Don't!" he gasped, "Don't…"
"Shh," Aizen admonished him, "I am not going to do anything to your child, Byakuya…only to explain what I did to be certain that, whatever your wishes were, you would bow to my will instead and kill Soutaichou. You see, while your body carries the reiatsu of a child, there is one of your spirit centers that can be obscured. When I allowed your friends to find you and return you to the Seireitei…and your body was carefully scanned for impurities, they missed the fact that beneath the child's reiatsu, this one spirit center had been altered. As you know, the spirit centers control the flow of spirit energy through our bodies, ensuring that, as we use our powers, we are not damaged. The centers widen to allow greater flows of energy and constrict to lower the level of our power. You are probably asking yourself how the alteration of one of these spirit centers could make a difference…and I assure you that when we are finished here, you will have your answer."
"You altered it to allow passage of greater amounts of spirit energy, is that it?" asked Byakuya, shivering as Aizen's hand continued to absently stroke his lower abdomen.
"In part…yes. I had Gin improve the spirit center so that you would be capable of using this attack."
"I will not attack Soutaichou…"
"You will attack. Your body will attack, even though your mind and heart resist. Go ahead and fight it if you want, but it will do you no good. I control that one spirit center and that is all I need to force you to attack."
His fingers lingered on the noble's lower abdomen.
"There is one small problem," Aizen said, opening his hand so that his palm rested over where the baby's reiatsu pulsed softly, "The passage of such great amounts of energy will, of course, destroy the reiatsu within you…"
Byakuya tried again to pull away.
"No! I won't let you hurt my baby!"
"Relax," Aizen said calmly, "I won't hurt your child…as long as you cooperate. I can remove the reiatsu…"
"No…no…it hasn't been long enough! You'll…"
"I will age the reiatsu first…then cause the child to be born. This is what I had planned to do when you were carrying my child, Byakuya. I assure you that I can do this."
Byakuya started to object again, but a sudden blast of fire from Soutaichou shot past them, forcing Aizen to flash step out of the way, pulling Byakuya along with him. The noble tore free of Aizen and called down a flurry of pink swords from his senkei. They shot toward Aizen, but were easily deflected. Another blast of fire from Soutaichou forced them to evade again then Byakuya launched himself at Aizen, slashing with Senbonzakura. The blade came down hard on Kyoka Suigetsu and Byakuya moved into a blinding flurry of swift, deadly strikes, forcing Aizen back. He turned and barely sidestepped another flash of Soutaichou's fire attack…one so close it singed the skin of his left side as he flash stepped away. He flash stepped again and felt Aizen closing in. He knew there was no way to avoid him forever, so he spun and crashed Senbonzakura against Kyouka Suigetsu again, carefully giving just enough ground to draw Aizen into the path of the next fire blast. Unfortunately, it meant he could be hit as well, but lacking any other means of stopping him…
"Byakuya! Byakuya, I'm here." Renji's voice sounded full of panic, "Byakuya, detonate your senkei. I'll stop Soutaichou and get him out of here."
He wasn't sure why Renji's voice was able to reach him again, but had little time to wonder as he found himself being taken to the ground again as Aizen's arms took hold of him and pulled him out of the path of Soutaichou's attack. He heard Renji's voice and remembered the redhead's plea. He gathered himself and focused on the pink swords around them, but was distracted as Aizen dragged him to his feet and into a series of flash steps that circled them closer to the Captain Commander.
"You nearly got both of us killed," Aizen admonished him, "If you want to protect that mongrel brat you're carrying, you'd best step more carefully."
"We're not getting out of this place alive," Byakuya gasped, "My life and the life of my child have already been made forfeit by your recklessness, Sousuke…Simply put, you have put me in a position where there is nothing left to lose…and now I have no choice but to take us both down."
Brown eyes sought and searched his for a moment, then widened and grew angry and feral.
"Well then," Aizen said coldly, "I think it's time to end this…before you grow too full of yourself and really start to think you can kill me. I warned you…"
His words were stopped as the senkei around them exploded and the screech of Renji's skeletal snake filled the air. Fire exploded around Byakuya and Aizen, and only a brutally fast flash step saved the two from being incinerated.
"No…Soutaichou, don't!" screamed Renji, "You'll kill Byakuya along with him!"
The Captain Commander's eyes shocked the redhead with their sadness and understanding.
"Hear me, Abarai Renji," he said solemnly, "In truth, we lost Kuchiki Byakuya five years ago. As soon as he fell under Aizen Sousuke's power, his life ended and simply became part of Aizen's evil plans. Byakuya understands this."
"No! No, you're wrong!" Renji screamed, "He's fought tooth and nail for every minute of that time. He hasn't given up and neither should you! Please, allow me to try to save him! If I fail and he dies, then let it fall on me…but if he can be saved and Aizen's plan can be stopped, I have to try! Please, Soutaichou, at least let me try to save him!"
The Captain Commander looked from Renji to where Aizen stood, holding Byakuya in front of him like a shield. Power was rising around the two now, white, hot and unforgiving. Soutaichou lowered his eyes and sighed heavily.
"I cannot allow him to release this attack. It will destroy everything it touches…"
He lifted his old eyes and felt them burn, not with the fire of his impending attack, but with sympathy for the pale noble who was about to be engulfed.
"Ban kai…" he said quietly.
"Byakuya!" Renji screamed.
Instinctively, he sent the skeletal snake flying toward the noble. The fire of Soutaichou's attack made everything disappear into flame. The room shook wildly with the force of it and hot flames licked at Renji's skin as he was grabbed by the Captain Commander and pulled back.
"Byakuya!" he screamed again.
He couldn't see through the flames anymore…then he couldn't see through the tears. He was falling and being held protectively, still screaming his lover's name over and over. He felt his skeletal snake explode and the building started to come down around them.
Across the room, Byakuya felt Aizen's reiatsu fire itself into his body through the manipulated receptor. His body reacted reflexively, creating a shield around the baby's developing reiatsu and forcing the incoming reiatsu to flow through the rest of his spirit centers. He felt Aizen's hands tighten on him.
"This is it, Byakuya," he whispered, his face pressed close to the noble's, "This is what we've worked for. I'm sorry that I could not remove the reiatsu of your child. He will be lost, but we will gain unimaginable power. And I promise you, when we sit side by side in the royal palace, I will give you as many children as you want. I will treasure you for all eternity for what you are giving me now."
Byakuya felt an odd spinning in his mind. He fought the sensation, but he felt his mind shutting down, something gripping it and forcing its way in. He wanted to scream, but was left unable as Aizen's mind forced itself inside his and dragged the words from his lips.
"Ban kai…Sakura…tenrai…rekka…"
As the terrifying power of the attack swelled in the air, he felt the jaws of the skeletal snake take hold of him and tear him away from Aizen. As he was lifted away from the traitor, he felt the horrifying swell of power shifted back to his control. There was no stopping or even controlling it. All he could do in the last split second was to shift the target of the attack from Soutaichou to Aizen Sousuke. As he did, he felt the sudden presence of others around him and hands taking hold of him, arms and flares of reiatsu wrapping around him protectively. Then the Captain Commander's attack struck them and everything disappeared into a hail of screams, flashes of white petals and blinding red fire. The last thing he saw as the skeletal snake exploded and he and the ones holding him started to fall was Aizen Sousuke's expression, which for the first time he could remember, had contorted into something that looked like fear. He sensed Aizen's flash step, but laughed because he knew it was too late. His own life and his child's were forfeit, but they were not leaving the three worlds alone…
"Renji," he sent through the flickering link, "Aishiteru yo…"
Renji's mind screamed his name in desperation. Then everything went suddenly silent around him and he felt light touches of white ash falling onto his skin.