Peace is a Beautiful Lie

Hey again everyone. I've changed the title of this story and edited the first chapter. The main change to it is that the Spirit King is now far more apathetic and detached than before since I fully agree that is probably how he should be. He's still a complete bastard though.

Anyway I hope you enjoy today's chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

"Normal speech"

'Inner speech/thoughts'

"Kido/Zanpakuto Attacks/Quincy Techniques"

"Zanpakuto/ Inner Power speech"

"Hollow speech"

XXX

Chapter 2:

When Ichigo finally managed to regain consciousness, he panicked at the black abyss that stared back at him. Slowly reaching up with hesitant fingers towards his eyes, he brushed across the soft bandages wrapped around his eyes and began to frantically tear away at them, his heart rate spiking uncontrollably as he found nothing but a black abyss in front of him. Dimly aware of a set of voices begging him to stop, as well as several hands grabbing his own to restrain him; he continued to struggle against them in a panic. As he felt the slightest of pinpricks in his arm, he felt his arms become leaden, before he slowly drifted back into unconsciousness.

When he woke for the second time, he was surprised to find himself sprawled out along one of the skyscrapers of his inner world, his sight still as clear as he remembered it.

"Ichigo…" a gruff voice spoke, drawing his attention to the spirit behind him. Standing atop the flag pole that Ichigo had come to associate him with, was the manifestation of his Quincy powers.

"Zangetsu," Ichigo greeted him with a nod of his head. "Where's your other half?"

"He was…removed Ichigo. I don't know what the Spirit King has done with him, but he no longer resides in your soul," the old man explained, causing Ichigo's breath to hitch in his throat.

While he was grateful to have the Quincy half of his power still, he knew now what the Captains had to have felt when they had their Bankai stolen from them…utter despair.

Seeing the clouds appear out of thin air, Zangetsu sighed and endured the icy rain as it pelted down on the two of them, even as Ichigo's shoulders shook and he uttered a few barely perceptible sobs. Walking forward, he placed his hand on his shoulder, trying to provide what little comfort he could at this time. As the minutes passed in silence, he frowned as a new thought occurred to him, hoping that it would at least deter Ichigo's morose thoughts for now.

"Ichigo…about what the King told you, it is only partially true," he began hesitantly, hearing Ichigo quieten down slightly. "While he was being truthful about creating the Soul Reapers, the Quincy were not created by him. Millennia ago, the Soul King and Juhabach were…'brothers' for lack of a better term, charged with maintaining this world they found themselves in."

"Their exact origins are unknown to me, as the memories I have from Juhabach are disjointed and muddled at the best of times, but they were created by another race of Divine Beings that sought to bring order to a world in chaos. As such, their titles like Juhabach and the Spirit King are merely for show and do not represent their true role," he explained, getting a muted look of surprise from Ichigo.

"Despite being the younger of the two, Juhabach found it easier to connect with the countless souls under their care and rapidly grew to care for their wellbeing. In return for his patronage, each soul gave a part of themselves to him."

"While he performed the same task, controlling the flow of souls through reincarnation, the Soul King never quite achieved the popularity that his brother had. Day by day, he slowly began to grow frustrated with his brother's growth in both power and influence. He would not act though, until the day their creators returned to oversee how their work was coming along."

"Pleased with how Juhabach was able to maintain the flow of souls, some among their creators believed that all the responsibility for this world should be handed over to Juhabach and that the Spirit King would be removed from service until he was needed again."

"Guess that didn't work out exactly the way they planned then, did it?" Ichigo muttered, watching Zangetsu shake his head in the negative.

"No, it did not. Enraged at how easily they would replace him, the Spirit King schemed to remove Juhabach from power and claim the sole position of influence. Here my memories become unclear again, but somehow he wounded Juhabach greatly and impaired his ability to connect with souls. Knowing that their creators would frown upon his actions and unable to kill Juhabach, he used their combined power and separated the world into the dimensions you are familiar with today, the World of the Living, the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo and Hell. He then banished Juhabach to the World of the Living to live out the end of his days in exile."

"You're telling me he had that much power and he was still the weaker of the two? That's just…unreal."

"Indeed, but it was done with both his and Juhabach's combined power and I doubt that he will ever be able to wield that much power ever again. But we're straying from the topic now. While Juhabach was indeed exiled, the Spirit King did not expect that with the little powers he had left, that he would raise an army to fight back against him. And thus the Soul Reapers and Quincies were born and an Eternal Conflict began."

"If they're both creations of these…'Divine Beings', then why haven't these same beings not stopped this already?" Ichigo asked his brow furrowing. "Why haven't they stepped in to save millions of lives?"

"I cannot answer that Ichigo, as neither the Spirit King nor Juhabach understood their whims."

"What about how I defeated Juhabach? I turned the bastard to ash in the end, why was I able to kill him?" Ichigo asked incredulously as he got to his feet.

"I do not believe that you killed him permanently, but merely delayed his return momentarily again. So long as one of them endures, the resurrection of the other is inevitable."

"So he wanted me at his side just to continually put Juhabach down over and over again…some fucking life that would be. But how is this supposed to help me? I can't exactly do anything about it now can I?!" he shouted at Zangetsu.

"I merely wanted to inform you that regardless of what your answer would have been, you would still be stuck in a never ending cycle of conflict Ichigo," the spirit replied solemnly, his head bowed.

Staring at the manifestation of his Quincy powers, Ichigo sighed and ran a hand through his hair, freezing after a moment. "Hang on…why am I still a teenager in here, but a child out there?"

"Your soul was fused with a younger body, so while your past dictated your physical appearance, your memories and mentality are still very much of your seventeen year old self."

"Makes sense I guess, but then that means…the Winter War, the Thousand Year War…none of its happened yet," he muttered, a strange gleam appearing in his eye. "This…this is perfect."

"Forgive me, but being thrown back into the past without the power you fought for and your sight stolen from you, hardly seems as perfect as you make it out to be," the Quincy spirit muttered, drawing a frown from Ichigo.

"Yes our situation isn't ideal, but I still have you, so I'm not powerless by any stretch of the imagination. And believe me, the scariest part about Aizen and Kisuke wasn't their power, it was their intellect. With our knowledge and a bit of help, imagine what we could do!"

"Assuming that you are able to overcome the loss of your sight and regain some of your power, changing the past slightly will drastically change the future. If we prevent an event from taking place, we might doom the future without even knowing it. Even now, your disability has changed the future drastically."

"I get that and we won't change it much more. We need the wars to happen in order to remove certain people, but that doesn't mean we can't save a few more than last time."

"And what of the Spirit King and Juhabach? You had the power to kill Juhabach, that I will admit, but the Spirit King was still leagues above you, how do you plan to kill him?"

"I don't know how to, but Juhabach has to know a way to kill him, or at the very least weaken him. It's just a matter of getting him to tell us," Ichigo argued, watching the spirit scoff and walk towards the edge of the building they were standing on. As timed continued to pass them in silence, Ichigo was about to speak again, when he heard the spirit sigh.

"If this is the path you have decided on Ichigo…I will do my utmost best to help you fulfil it," it said almost wearily. "You do understand though, to most the Spirit King can do no wrong and his actions are above reproach. If you are set on this path, I doubt you will find many allies to aid you. The friends you once had might very well be the enemies you face in the future."

"So I'm just a teenager with the weight of the world on my shoulders again, what's fucking changed about that?" Ichigo muttered sarcastically as he shrugged. "If I do this, they'll hate, curse me, bay for my blood, but I cannot afford to fail. If I do, then we're all doomed anyway and my fate won't matter." Feeling a ray of light fall on him, Ichigo looked up and smiled as several more pierced through the gloom and began to disperse the clouds.

"I find it strange how at ease you are with taking such a burden, but if you didn't, then you wouldn't be the man I was so proud of," the Quincy spirit murmured, a small smile on his face as he stared up at the sky.

Feeling fatigued from everything he'd learnt and said, Ichigo yawned and stretched his arms above his head. "I think I've lingered here long enough Zangetsu, but don't worry, I'll be back to discuss my plans with you in the future. After all, who better to help plan the downfall of someone, but that very person, or their closest kin," he said with a smirk, before disappearing from his inner world.

XXX

Back in the World of the Living, Ichigo slowly began to regain consciousness and found his body incredibly lethargic and unresponsive from the sedative they'd used on him. Fighting through the fog he felt he was in, he managed to pick out the sound of his parent's whispers.

"Karin and Yuzu will be heartbroken when they see him," Masaki whispered to his left, her voice cracked and filled with sadness and if Ichigo was correct, there would be tears in her eyes, as she held his hand gently, idly stroking the back of it with her thumb.

"Mm," Isshin hummed in agreement from his right, the sound of a page being turned following his murmur of acknowledgement.

"And we'll need to help him adjust at home as much as possible. And we'll need to rethink his schooling and his hobbies…and…and," she seemed to be unable to continue as she broke down sobbing, her tears confirmed now as they fell onto his arm.

It tore him apart internally to hear his mother this distraught, so he did the only thing he could at the moment and feebly squeezed her hand back, along with a whispered, "Kaa-chan."

Jolted out of their thoughts by his voice, Ichigo felt his mother squeeze his hand that much tighter as they moved even closer to him.

"Oh Ichigo you're awake. Please just stay still honey and don't move too much okay," she implored him, much to his confusion.

Why would she tell him to not…ah yes, he'd already ripped his bandages off once, it would be reasonable to assume that he'd do it again. Despite knowing full well what had happened to him, he knew he needed to play the part of a curious nine year old. "What happened?" he asked, his higher-pitched voice sounding strange to him after becoming accustomed to his gruffer tone of voice. 'Great, I get to go through the awkwardness of puberty all over again,' he thought, knowing that his hollow half would have been laughing his ass of at him at his thoughts if he was still here.

"There was an...accident honey," his mother said, drawing him out of his musings again. "Do you remember walking home from karate yesterday? There was a flood near the river we were walking past and you were swept up in it. You were injured by some debris and we're currently at the hospital."

'I'd almost believe that if I hadn't been there for it,' he mused as they continued to speak. "I…I can't see kaa-chan," he whispered, hearing their breath hitch in their throats.

"Ichigo…you have to understand that the doctors tried everything they could, but…but…" her voiced died again and Ichigo regretted bringing the subject up already.

"They couldn't repair the damage to your eyes Ichigo," Isshin spoke, his voice moving to his mother's side, as he probably tried to comfort her. "We won't give up though Ichigo. The doctors and I are researching other options to try and repair the damage and I promise you, I won't rest until I've found a way to give you your sight back."

It was heart-warming to hear that, but Ichigo doubted that they'd succeed. If they had the ability, then they would have done something already. The only person that he could think of that could heal him was Orihime and even then she wouldn't get her powers for another few years and even then it wasn't like he could just ask her to just use it on him since they'd just assumed that it was just a normal healing technique until the Invasion of Hueco Mundo. Unable to pay attention to them any longer, Ichigo slipped back into a semi-peaceful sleep.

XXX

A short chapter, but I didn't want to start the next bit since it'll drag this one on longer than I'm comfortable with. Out of curiosity, was it easy enough to follow the conversation between Ichigo and Quincy – Zangetsu? I didn't want to keep adding, Ichigo said, asked etc. since it just seemed unnecessary.

Till next time boys and girls.