Disclaimer: This story is made completely from request from a friend which means the OC, Voltaire, is not mine. I am writing this story for Red Cr0w and I do hope it is to their liking and to everyone else's as well. I do NOT own Bleach or Voltaire.

Summary: Byakuya Kuchiki, a stoic noble and Captain of the 6th Division, for all important pretenses, holds back any and all objects of his past from anyone. Aside from Hisana, not even Rukia knows about the life he spent with a woman whom claimed his heart for nearly 8 years. Even as he stands alone as the leader of the Kuchiki clan, his heart still aches for the person he truly loved. He is able to keep up this façade until he is sent with a recon team to Zaraki to investigate a sudden surge of reiatsu. When they arrive, what will Byakuya do when he finds the woman who disappeared all those years ago beaten and broken and without any memory of him at all?

Castle Of Glass

Chapter 10: Hardly Anything There For You to See

"What all do you remember?" A snowy-haired captain took a seat a few feet away from the bedside of the young woman who was still rather hazy from her earlier encounter with unceasing ghosts of her previous life.

"Uhm..." The red-head rubbed her forehead gently as if to call forth her cloudy memory as the room was quiet with anticipation.

Everyone was still present, including Ichigo, who had joined the group of soul reapers who were trying to uncover the truth after Rukia hadn't contacted him for several days. The sun kissed substitute leaned against the entrance to the infirmary and watched the events play out before him, waiting for the right moment to ask his own questions. Renji, who had also stayed around with Matsumoto, also had a few things he wanted to ask; the bulk of his inquiries focusing in V's relationship with his captain and Rukia.

"That's a bit of a loaded question don't you think?" Ukitake turned to the 'other Shiro' and nodded softly before rephrasing his question. "What do you remember about the night before you left?" Jyuushiro sat at the end of V's bed and rested his broad hand on her blanketed leg.

"Uhm...nothing...from that night..." V had neglected to tell the lot of them of her recent experience with the life she was reliving in her dreams whether the reasoning for that be because she had trouble believing it herself or because she hadn't gained enough trust in the onslaught of shinigami that had suddenly bombarded her with accusations, charges, and questions.

"Nothing?" The brown eyed man repeated her words only to be answered with a negative nod. "I see. How about anything from your time with Byakuya?" The name that left the older man's lips sent shivers down the pale woman's spine as the images of the numerous nights she had spent alone with that raven locked, smoky orbed creature flashed in front of her eyes.

"U-uhm..." Her cheeks grew nearly as red as the hair of the tattooed lieutenant that sat next to the standing, busty woman on the opposite side of the room.

"I heard you and my captain have some history, V, was it?" Renji's thundering voice caught the emerald-eyed woman's attention immediately.

"Y-yes...I remember that we were...together...for a really long time..." V's thoughts were broken up as the light in the room started pulsating in her vision. "It's really...kind of haz...y..." V's words were slightly jumbled. "All I can really remember...is that we were...real...ly...close..." She was unable to finish her statement before the agonizing headache that had begun to creep upon her when she had first woken up finally took its hold. When V placed her hand over her eyes and started sweating profusely, Hitsugaya instructed his lieutenant to retrieve the attending and find Unohana if she was around.

"V, what's wrong?" Shunsui laid the hyperventilating woman back down against the bed.

"I...can't...breathe..." She took a deep, exhale that was only met with a brief inhale as the air left her lungs swiftly and without mercy.

"V, can you hear me?!" The brunette called out to the gasping, sweaty woman but received no responsive as the only thing that left her mouth were short, rapid breaths that were unable to sate her unsaturated lungs.

"What's happening?!" Ichigo had sprung up from his leaning position and made his way closer to V's resting place as the events transpired. He watched closely whilst the crimson vixen slowly drifted into unconsciousness.

Matsumoto came running back into the room, an orderly and Lieutenant Kotetsu following close behind with a cart of equipment.

"Please," Isane told the head captain who still held the hand of the deeply breathing woman. "You have to leave. We have to work on her." She gave Shunsui a compassionate look and placed a hand on his shoulder before he finally moved away from the bed. They all traded looks with each other before headed out the door, leaving the orderly and the lieutenant alone with the ailing woman.

After the lavender haired medical officer instructed the lot of them to move away, she V's head back and pushed the pillow beneath her neck to hold it steady in a fixed position. She then placed her fore and middle finger against V's neck and held it there momentarily, counting her pulses and noting they only came every four seconds. She looked to the attending with a troubling visage, calling forth worrying emotions the soul reapers in the room around them hadn't known before. Isane retrieved a stethoscope from her and listened to V's lungs and was startled by the unnatural crackling they made.

"No air is getting into her lungs." As soon as the words left the lieutenant's mouth, she reached for the scalpel the lay upon the table and made an incision just below the larynx, where her trachea is located to create an airway.

Isane placed a tube inside the new hole she created just moments before V became unresponsive and her eyes rolled in the back of her head. The moment she clamped the respirator to the tube, Isane's captain walked into the room. She turned towards her commanding officer who entered the room with Ukitake and Shunsui but left the others outside.

Isane and the orderly stood at attention when their captain approached and assessed the situation. Unohana looked over V and saw that there was still a trail of blood falling down her neck. The original Yachiru cleaned it off before turning to her second in command and asking:

"Isane, how is she?"

"Voltaire? Did you hear me? Voltaire?" A low, heavy voice drug Voltaire back into the reality that she had once lived in.

"What? Oh...I'm sorry...what did you say?" The emerald eyes of the red-headed soon-to-be Kuchiki fluttered towards realization of the current events as the 3rd seat of the 5th squad repeated himself.

"I said, Lieutenant Aizen will see you now."

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