Quetzal - and heres chapter 8! A little shorter today but I couldn't resist ending it where I did (Smiles ominously) Anyway, I hope you like it. Oh and I'v made Zangetus a little more..hm...sarcastic? It seemed to fit his normal attitude (which I didn't want to change to much) but he so two dimensional in the anime and such I wanted to give him a little more character since he's going to be a major one in this story!

Well onward then and feel free to curse my soul at the end! HAHAHAHAHAH!

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Chapter 8 - Dark side of the Moon

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Zangetsu waited patiently for his wielder to wake, he knew this was his fault, he had tried to push Ichigo to far to fast, and the entire situation had blown up in their faces quite literally, he glanced over to the left at the rolling shadows that now consumed the base's of the sky scrapers that made up Ichigo's mind, the first dozen or so stories had disappeared into their grasp when he had bound them to the vampire. Through no fault of their own, both of their chaotic, corrosive powers were warping their respective natures, trying to find an equilibrium of some kind. The backlash itself had done a significant amount of damage as well, the windows in almost all of the skyscrapers were cracked to some degree and many looked a bit scorched

Almost the moment the seal had stabilized he had pulled Ichigo into his inner world to save him from some of the pain the back lashed energy had caused him. Hence why he found himself sitting on the ground, Ichigo resting half in his lap unconscious, he smiled down at this stubborn young wielder, it was hard to believe sometimes that he was only 15. "You've slept long enough Ichigo." He said quietly. "It's time to wake." Ichigo twitched slightly but seemed unwilling to leave the painless dark of sleep. "Ichigo." He repeated drily, with a slight groan the orange haired boy cracked his eyes open, making Zangetsu smile faintly.

"Wha...?" He winced at the bright light that met his eyes upon waking.

"Nice of you to join me Ichigo." Zangetsu said amused the boy blinked up at him confused.

"Who...?" He asked confused Zangetus looked at him with a raised eye brow.

"I should think you know who I am Ichigo." He answered drily.

"Uh...Oh!" A look of understanding crossed the boys face as he recognized the voice he had only heard for the first time a short while before"Your my Zanpoktou!" He said Zangetsu nodded a faint smile on his face.

"Indeed Ichigo." He agreed Ichigo grinned a bit tiredly.

"Nice to finally talk to you but...where are we?" He asked looking around puzzled.

"This is your inner world, the deepest part of your soul, it is where I live."

"Hm...Why is it sideways?" He asked getting up with a wince and looking around, Zangetus quirked an eye brow standing as well.

"It was like that when I first awoke here, its possible your just odd." He answer smoothly.

"Wha...HAY!" Ichigo glared at him as the spirit smirked. "Very funny." He snarked

"I thought so." Agreed the zanpoktou amused, the spirit was silent for a moment before speaking once more. "You did well earlier." He said Ichigo blinked confused.

"Earlier? What happened?" He asked Zangetsu looked up at the cloudy blue sky for a moment before answering.

"We attacked the hollow, remember?" Ichigo frowned for a moment before nodding. "Though we were successful in forcing it to retreat, our attack backfired on us, you were harmed and would have died had Seras not tired to save you. I tried to help as well and although what I did worked...I may very well have caused more problems then I solved." He added tiredly Ichigo merely looked puzzled.

"Uh...What did you do?" He asked not entirely sure he wanted to know, the spirit winced slightly at the question.

"I used the partial seal on Seras power that was left behind by her masters blood, and warped it, binding her to you in the process."

"What? Why?" Asked Ichigo startled and a bit horrified. Seras had told him about her master before and about the seal that had enslaved him, he wanted nothing to do with something like that.

"Calm yourself Ichigo, I only used the original seal as a base, and though it was a rather hurried job, you'll find it bears little resemblance to the affects of the original. You do not control her, not like the other seal would. I am uncertain really of exactly how it will behave though, modifying an existing seal like that can have...unforeseen consequences.(1)" He finished.

"What kind of consequences?" He asked tensely.

"For the most part that remains to be seen, but there is that." Zangetus said pointing 'down' at the shadowed streets. Ichigo looked in the indicated direction and blinked looking taken aback at the rolling darkness.

"What the hell is that?" He asked.

"That is the representation here of the power you absorbed from Seras upon the formation of the seal, she received some of your own as well, I'm uncertain what it means at this point. You may gains some of her abilities or new ones of your own we will have to wait and see."

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Seras groaned and cracked her eyes open looking around herself in confusion, wondering where the hell she was. Dark tree loomed up around her partly blocking out the light of a bright full moon that hung far larger in the sky then it ever could in the real world above her. After a moment she pulled herself silently to her feet looking though the dark undergrowth for a clue as to how she had arrived here. When nothing presented itself, she moved into the shadowed trees feeling strangely at home in this place, she felt like nothing could possibly harm her here. After a few minutes she paused tilting her head to the side before looking sharply to her left, a pair of gold eyes glinted back at her with amusement from the darkness between the trees, for some reason she couldn't see though the shadows though. Ever since she had learned to use her vampiric senses properly the darkness had been no to barrier to her, so why couldn't she see what that was? In a flash the eyes vanished with a slight hiss of disturbed leaves Seras giving chase without pause. Over the next hour the creature led her on a chase threw the forest giving her only the occasional glimpse of its form in patches of moonlight.

Finally, she burst out of the undergrowth and skidded to a halt as she took in the beautiful creature standing in the center of the clearing. It was a fox, but the size of a horse with two tails waving lazily in the air behind it. The fox was mostly black in color with a sort of collar of white fur around its neck, both of the two tails ended in white as well. On its head was a white bone mask, looking rather like a smooth helmet reach to the bottom of its jaw and wrapped around the back of the head with two holes for a pair of long ears to poke through, but that left its snout and face uncovered. Several minutes passed with neither seras nor the fox breaking eye contact before finally the fox bowed slightly. "Its nice to finally meet your Seras." It said amusement glittering in its eyes, Seras frowned looking a bit uncertain.

"Who are you?" She asked the fox looked quizzically.

"How are you worthy to know who I am, when you don't even know who you are? As to what I am, well, that is simple enough. I am your zanpoktou." Seras stared at the fox in confusion.

"Hows that possible? I'm a vampire! Not a Shinigami!" She snapped tensely ready to fight with this creature that would claim something like that. The fox merely sighed looking amused.

"But what is a vampire Seras?" She asked smoothly flicking a tail in emphasis, Seras frowned.

"What do you mean, what is a vampire?" She answered uncertainly.

"Its simple enough little Draculina." The fox drawled making Seras bristle, only her master was aloud to call her that! "A vampire is a cursed soul yes? But in what way is that soul cursed? Think little Draculina for a moment of your nature, if you didn't 'know' you were a vampire then what would you say you were?" Seras stared at her for several minutes trying to figure out what the fox meant by that. Her nature? Well she was a creature of the night for all that she could survive a little in the day if needed, she drank the blood of others to live, and stole their souls if she killed them adding their power to her own, she could manipulate the shadows and though she kept it her form was not that of a human, but, what else did that...no. She snapped her eyes up to stare at the fox in shocked surprised, it couldn't possibly mean what she thought it did...could it?

The Foxes smiled widened even further. "So you begin to understand little Draculina, what is a vampire?" Seras stared at her a little shaken, every time she though she knew what she was, something came along to throw it all on its head again, she took a deep breath and spoke hoping that she hadn't guessed correctly she didn't want her world thrown off the deep end again.

"A vampire...Is a kind of Hollow."

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Quetzal-ANNNNNDDD CUT! (bows) thanks you for flying 'the spirit of cliffhangers' airlines we hope to get back to you sometime next week after finals! Doesn't that sound lovely? ^_^ (Cackles)

(feels pity)

Oh alright heres a present

acer-kaze dot deviantart dot com/#/d3fwkqs

This is a picture of seras's new seal and if you want an additional spoiler theres a picture of seras and her Shikai on there as well!

See ya!

1 - Understatement of the century (Laughs)