Author's Note: This chapter automatically starts in Rukia and Ichigo's dream! Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Betrayal

"We must part the two. We must end them, that way this world will shatter and we'll be free from their imprisonment. It seems betrayal is the best way to end them. We must go then."

Ichigo arrived in the dream first. He appeared near the city instead of in the cave. He looked up at the sky and saw only the sun. He began walking toward the city until his saw a big black cloud of smoke build up in the sky. "What the hell?" he shouted.

He pasted to the city only to see it engulfed in flames. He stared in horror. "Who did this? Was it Rukia?" he asked as he watched everything their minds had created as a perfect world destroyed. He suddenly heard laughter that sounded like Rukia's.

"Is any one here?" Ichigo shouted. All of a sudden, a sward struck through his chest. It was pure white now covered in his blood. Ichigo looked down in shock as the sward was yanked out of him. He turned and saw Rukia looking at him with no expression.

"Rukia, what the hell are you doing...?" Ichigo asked, holding the wound in his chest to keep the blood from spilling out. Rukia dashed at him and Ichigo struggled dodging as it cut his shoulder. Rukia began laughing.

"You fool!" she said. "I have no desire what so ever to be with you."

Ichigo looked at her with sorrow filling his eyes. "You thought I loved you, you thought I wanted to be with you! All of that was lies so I can lure you here and kill you. So you won't haunt my dreams ever again," she said.

He didn't know how to respond, all he knew was that he'd been betrayed by someone he thought he loved. "You traitor," Ichigo mumbled. "Traitor!" Ichigo pulled his zanpakuto out. "If you want to fight me then so be it!"

Rukia suddenly left and Ichigo chased her. He then cringed at the pain in his gut and fell to his knee. He shouted out to himself for the anger.

Rukia was in the cave as she began walking, but she couldn't find the light. "Ichigo!" she shouted. He didn't respond. She suddenly heard giggling and that small creature appeared. "Oh, it's you again," Rukia said.

"I feel sorry for you, your going to be betrayed!" it said. "What do you mean?"

"That boy Ichigo doesn't love you, he was playing with your feelings."

Rukia looked at it confused. "Let me show you the truth that lies here."

Then, everything went pitch black and Rukia was floating. A bunch of mirrors appeared around her. In each mirror was Ichigo with another female. Most of them were lies but then he saw the girl Miyuki and how she looked just like her.

He was leaning in to kiss her but then the image ended. That mad Rukia sad and angry. In the real world, Ichigo was replacing her. Rukia squeezed her fist and put her hands on her head. "Make it stop!" she shouted.

The mirrors shattered except for one that showed where Ichigo was walking. "If you truly despise him, then go to him," the thing said. Rukia reached her hand toward the mirror and then appeared near the vines. She saw the sun coming toward her, but it was pitch black rather than a yellowy orange.

Rukia looked up at the moon, it was rather red itself, because she was rather angry herself, she felt betrayed. When she saw Ichigo right in front of her, she squeezed her fist. "You bastard!" she shouted.

She dashed over to him and punched him right in the jaw. Ichigo stood and lifted her up by the collar of her shihakusho as he looked at her hastily. Rukia tried pulling his hand away. "Do I mean nothing to you, do you even care about me?" Rukia shouted in his face.

"Don't give me that load of bullshit!" Ichigo shouted, defending his own reason for attacking them. "You promised you'd never leave me!" she screamed. "I thought you loved me!"

"Well I don't anymore! You are only using me in these dreams as you play with that Miyuki girl!"

Ichigo let go of her and looked at her. "How did you-"

"I know all about her and how your only replacing me in the world of the living! You don't love me, you love her! She's like a clone of me! When I left I bet you started seeing her!" Rukia was crying now. "Well now you can see her, because I hate you!"

They looked at each other in hate as Rukia left Ichigo standing there, clutching his wounds. After letting out all that hate he turned sad. "Rukia..." he whispered as he walked back to the city that had turned to ashes.

The clouds began to appear, thundering bolts and rain. Rukia didn't care how the ran messed her hair up, or her shihakusho. She was too angry to care. The ran kept pouring as she reached that pond where Ichigo and her where at.

She thought of how she kissed him ever so tenderly there, those were memories in ashes along with her heart and trust. Rukia cried to herself softly as she knelt down by the water. "Why did you betray me... Ichigo...?" she asked herself as she went in fetal possession and covered her face in her knees.

Ichigo looked at the city that had been burned to the ground. What was a big cloud of smoke now became toxic ashes that floated in the air. Ichigo didn't care though, he just walked through it as he saw the rain pour down on him, drenching him with water.

He looked back at the burned ferris wheel and thought of that promise she made him. He squeezed his fist until they bled. That was more blood that gushed out of him, like the chest wound he had, and his broken heart.

"I have no desire what so ever to be with you," he heard Rukia say in his mind. "Why would she play with my heart like this. This doesn't seem right," Ichigo said as he looked at the sun that peeked over the clouds. It was pitch black like his heart, like Rukia's.

...

"I don't think you had to do that Melody," said a small red creature. "I did what I had to do so we could be free," said Melody, the black creature that stayed near Rukia. "But now you've made them sad and it won't stop raining," the creature said.

"Shut up Valentine! I know you don't want to be stuck in this world forever do you?"

"Well no but-"

"Then let me do the work. Once their torn apart, then this world will shatter and we'll be free again!" Melody walked out into the rain. He sighed, thinking of life being free. Valentine was too shy to speak up against his evil plan.

She didn't mind them being happy even if it meant staying there forever.

In the world of the living...

Wounds from the dream will appear when you awake. When Ichigo flung his eyes open, he was in pain and he looked to see his covers soaked in blood. Not only did he have to buy new bed covering, he had to go to Orihime and ask her to heal him.

When she began healing him, she looked at him confused. "How did you get hurt like this?" she asked him. "It's hard to explain," Ichigo murmured as he slowly felt his wounds vanish. Orihime and him had went to Kisuke's so they could get an understanding of things.

When Ichigo explained to them everything that had happened, Kisuke sighed and looked at him seriously. "So you felt as if you were in a perfect world, and then you were betrayed, and everything fell apart?" Kisuke asked him. When Ichigo nodded, worry went across Kisuke's face. "What of it hat'n'clogs?"

Kisuke sat beside him and explained. "There is a specific type of hollow in the Soul Society, called Sosolobichi. That hollow lurks in the shadows and then goes inside of a souls mind. There, it make them feel at ease and relaxed.

"After a bit of relaxation and after you've trusted it, it strikes you and leaves you hurt." Ichigo looked at him shocked. "Most likely, if it keeps at it, then it won't be long before one of you or even both of you are murdered in both your dream and in reality, Ichigo."

Ichigo looked at him and down at his hand. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. So that means Rukia didn't betray me, it was that hollow. That also means the person I was yelling at was-

Ichigo squeezed his fist. He felt ashamed that he had said all of that to Rukia and he hurt her terribly. Orihime looked away from his face in anger. "Your going to have to go back in there and kill the hollow if you can find," Kisuke instructed. Ichigo couldn't wait to get back and avenge his trust and honor. The whole day he spent preparing.

In the Dream...

Rukia wandered around the beautiful world and began thinking of how she'd attack Ichigo and end this argument for good. The moon was a blood red and it was hidden behind dark clouds that poured rain.

She pulled her Sode No Shirayuki out and walked around. "You must be preparing," she heard the voice say. He appeared next to her and began walking with her. "What choice do I have, the only way to end this is to end him," she said.

"You really think this is the only way?"

When she nodded, the creature stood beside her. "I told you not to trust him, but you didn't believe me," he said. "He was never good from the start, and now your heart has been broken."

"I actually thought he cared for me, that he understood me," Rukia said, a tear running down her cheek. "I guess I was wrong!" The creature chatted with her as they walked.

Ichigo appeared there soon after. He was using shunpo to look for Rukia and explain to her everything. "Rukia!" he shouted over and over. "He's coming," the creature said. Rukia gripped onto her sward and looked toward the sky as she saw the sun near her moon.

It was it's original color and not the black color it use to be. Unlike always, the black creature staid near her. When Ichigo arrived a huge smile appeared on his face. "Rukia!" he said. As he walked over to her she pointed her sward toward him.

She didn't allow him to speak as she sprinted to him and tried cutting him. "Rukia, let me explain!" Ichigo shouted. She kept swinging her sward at him as he easily dodged. He then took a glance at the black creature that was smiling at his pain.

"That's the hollow!" Ichigo shouted as he swirled around Rukia and ran toward the creature as it looked at him with no expression. Rukia went to protect it as she swung her sward at his back. Ichigo fell as the blood splattered to the floor. "Don't attack him! Your opponent is me!"

Ichigo looked at her. "You must stop this!"

Suddenly, something stabbed through Ichigo's shoulder as he looked to see the creature. It shot something out of it's body and caught Ichigo off guard. Rukia looked in terror. Though she intended on ending Ichigo, she couldn't look at him hurt.

"Ichigo!" she screamed as she dropped her sward and dashed over to him. Then she vanished.