Me: BACK! The epic battle sequence!

Ichigo: (Currently devouring his lightning muffin full of genuine lightningy energy from XxRikela-chanxX) OMNOMNOMNOM

Me: (Sweatdrops) ...Ichigo? Weren't you doing something important? Like, oh, i dunnoooo...SAVING PEYTON FROM A HORRIBLE PAINFUL DEATH?

Ichigo: Oh, RIGHT! (runs off)

Rukia: (Shakes head) Dumbass. But ANYWAY, on to our new cake! (Looks at me)

Me: (Snaps fingers all important-like) KOOOOONNN!

Kon: (Wheels in New Cake from Mer as fast as his little legs can carry him) Ta-DAAA! (It's in the shape of flames. It's mainly red but it has some white. It has a life-sized sculture of Zangetsu made out of icing. Inscribed on one side is, 'Dude, What's With Robe?' in blue letters made of icing. There are three swords made of candy sticking out on each side of the flames except for the side with the fic title.)

Me and Rukia: (Eating popcorn and taking pics of all our epic cakes we've gotten in the past month or so) YAY! NOOOOWWWW...

Rukia: ENJOY!

Peyton was dragged up to the scaffold, up the steps. She stumbled about halfway up, falling on her stomach and staying there, sobbing about the damn necklace.

With a growl of irritation, Yuma yanked her back up so hard she felt her wrist twinge in pain, making her cry out.

"Hurry up! We do not have time to waste on the misery of a wretch like you!"

Mizuho watched in awe as Yuma led her up there herself, not bothering to wait on the guilty-looking younger handmaiden.

She pulled Peyton to stand in front of the device before pushing her downward, so she was on her knees.

She heard the clunking of rather heavy and ominous shoes. Another man came around her side, spit on the ground close to her, and moved to stand behind the device, pushing buttons.

As the machine powered up, Peyton tried even harder to get her spirit energy to manifest. Just a little, even a little, and she'd have at least the slightest chance.

But so far...she was doomed. More doomed than the last turkey in Wal-Mart on Thanksgiving. Amazing, how despite all her grief and pain at the moment, she could still manage to think up a country metaphor.

She heard feet shuffling away as fast as they could. "I will have no part in this...I cannot stand to watch such a barbaric act..." Mizuho was saying a bit desperately as she left the scene.

Peyton squeezed her eyes shut as her braid was pushed over her shoulder, exposing her bare neck as an executioner's blade was put against it, ensuring no mistakes once her abilities were sucked out of her.

Ichigo...You...You won't die...FOR NOTHING!

Almost before she could quite hear her name being shouted, Peyton suddenly summoned all the spirit energy she could possibly muster within herself, and felt the handcuffs split at the chain, making her tuck-and-roll out of the way right as the device's light blue beam hit the place she had just been laying.

She laid there for a moment, not believing she was alive, and it was about that time she noticed the big feet in Soul Reaper sandals that she never thought she'd see again...a mere ten feet away, right within her line of vision.

Ichigo ran as fast as he could for the scaffold as she was led up it. His anger boiled closer and closer to the surface as she fell, started sobbing, was yanked back up, cried out in pain, was shoved to kneel in front of that stupid spirit-sucking device.

He hated it when she cried. But this crying...it was unlike any crying he'd ever seen her do. It was like...she was...he didn't even know.

It was like she had lost everything, like she was heartbroken.

Ichigo never wanted to see that, and that just made him even more anxious to find the bastard that brought her here and rip out his throat.

He was too far away, she was running out of time. Realizing this, he made a split decision. As the machine powered up, he simply said one word.

"...Bankai."

And just like that, he was behind the executioner in mere seconds, itching to cut HIS head off. But he arrived right when the macine finished powering up, and it went off with a flash, sucking the soul out of the executioner in front of Ichigo.

He was seeing nothing but spots for a second there, but when they were gone, Peyton was sprawled out on the right side of the now-smoking device.

Totally fine. Staring up at him as if he were a giant...cake or something. Oh great, he was thinking about cake at a time like this.

The handcuffs were broken at the chain, and she was kind of...glowing. He guessed it was from all that energy she put out just a few seconds ago.

"...Ichigo...You're...alive?"

What the hell kind of question is THAT? Before he could say that, however, some random douchebag whipped out his katana and attempted to hack at his arm.

"How DARE you interrupt the execution ritual, you...you...orange-headed BASTARD!"

Ichigo jumped back just in time and gripped his now smaller zanpakuto. "You...Are fucking with the WRONG orange-headed bastard!" He growled, going on the offensive.

The exchange between her and Ichigo happened so fast, Peyton barely had time to blink before he was suddenly being aimed for by the dude who had been watching from the sidelines.

Who the hell was that dude, anyway?

She watched in awe for a minute at how much faster Ichigo was, how much smaller and skinnier Zangetsu was, his new form. She noticed Zangetsu was just plain black now, with a large chain at the end.

...Wow, that's badass.

Dammit. How did he get that hot in three or so weeks? Now she wouldn't be able to stop staring at him.

Thanks a lot, you orange-headed bastard.

Peyton was snapped out of her thoughts as she heard the familiar shhhink sound of a sword being unsheathed.

She groaned to herself as she turned to face them, only to be whacked in the head. Temple throbbing, she touched her re-opened head wound and glowered at Yuma.

"You...You...You BITCH! Lying about Ichigo being dead, and then you WHACK ME OVER THE HEAD? What next, are ya gonna drown some puppies in a well? What the hell, man!"

"I am not a man, I am a woman. A woman determined to claim vengeance on behalf of her fallen leader, her fallen idol!" Yuma snarled as she lunged for her, swiping her katana outwards.

Peyton just barely managed to dodge it, causing a rip on the end of her kimono. She sighed. "You bitch, you got me in the tightest dress in HISTORY! DAMMIT!"

Peyton then glanced at Ichigo, who had taken his fight up the hill while she had inched downward.

"...I feel obliged to warn you that I'm gonna be extremely distracted, so you might have a fair shot," she informed the damn woman.

Yuma smirked. "I would much rather face you at your full strength. That way when I beat you and join Master Kyabetsu in his victory against your lover, I could say you had a fair shot." She then went all martial arts on her after Peyton knocked the katana out of her hand, then flipped backwards to grab it.

Peyton mocked her karate moves with an idiotic ninja yell before holding out her hand, palm side up, and waving it in a "come on" motion.

"Bring it ON, Crouching Tiger...Hidden...BEYOTCH! KI-YAAA!"

Ichigo was surprised to find that this guy was actually a bit of a challenge. He had quick reflexes, and seemed to know almost exactly how each move Ichigo was going to make could be countered.

"You seem puzzled, Soul Reaper," he said suddenly while dodging yet another of Ichigo's attacks.

This guy was starting to annoy the crap out of him.

"I didn't think anyone lowly enough to kidnap women would be so good at combat. It's kinda cowardly, if you ask me, having unfair advantages against Peyton like that."

He smirked. "Are you referring to the way I had my assassin hide under her window? 'Tis not my fault the lovestruck foolish human thought it was you."

Dammit. I called it, KNEW it was somehow my fault.

Ichigo decided not to think about that right now, at least he had made it here in time. A rather devious grin spread onto his face. "Well, thank you sir. You helped me figure out whose throat to rip out. The douchebag who wanted her here."

He gave him a little mock bow. "Master Higura Kabayetsu, newly appointed leader of the Iga Clan, at your service."

Ichigo scowled. "At my service, eh? Well then how about you be sure to scream extra loud in agony when I grind your defeated ass in the dirt."

Kyabetsu chuckled and jumped up, looking like he was about to kick him and successfully fooling Ichigo into protecting his head, leaving his side open for his sword to slice.

Dammit, I'm such a dumbass sometimes.

"We shall see, Kurosaki-San."

Peyton glared at Yuma as she made her earn the fifth rip on her kimono, which resulted in the ends pretty much fanning out and down in jagged strips.

"Dammit, I hate wearing dresses."

Yuma glanced at Ichigo, who had just been tricked into getting sliced in the side. She cocked an eyebrow with honest curiosity.

"How in the name of Iga did he fall for a crude and unfeminine woman like YOU?"

Peyton shrugged. "I dunno. I guess I'm just too damn good in bed."

The woman rolled her eyes, leaving her open for Peyton to shoot a little ball of spirit energy into her leg.

It was around the time Yuma ran and went back to trying to slice-and-dice her that Peyton got an idea.

She jumped back, using the little backflip trick Senna had taught her, and while tucking out of her last flip she shot another energy ball at Yuma's sword, making it instantly start to heat up.

Yuma tried to hold onto it as long as she could before screaming in pain and letting it drop. However, right as it was about to touch the ground, she grabbed the hilt one more time to throw it like a spear in Peyton's direction.

She dodged it, but it still managed to cut her pretty good on her shoulder. And oh, guess what? ANOTHER rip at the end of her dress.

"...Oh, FUCK'S SAKE!"

Ichigo was getting more and more tired. He had yet to land a decent blow to this douchebag. He was predicting every single one of Ichigo's movements.

Kabayetsu watched with intrigue as Ichigo panted heavily, trying to keep focused and wipe the blood away from his eyes.

"Why do you continue to fight so much? Losing is inevitable. Does that woman really mean that much to you?"

Ichigo glanced at Peyton as she blocked a couple kicks from that woman, whose sword lay crackling with electricity to the side.

He then looked back at Kabayetsu. "Three weeks. Three weeks and one day I've been absolutely, downright miserable. Why? Because some douche by the name of Higura Kyabetsu decided to snatch the girl I love and attempt to suck the spirit right out of her and cut her head off. You bet your ass she means that much to me!" He shouted as he lunged for him.

Kyabetsu moved to block it, and at the very last moment Ichigo used flash-steps to move right, then left, then right, then behind him and land a huge gash across his back.

He groaned in pain, then groaned again as Ichigo landed a kick across his jaw, sending him reeling.

Peyton glanced in Ichigo's direction to see Kyabetsu on the ground, dust billowing around him. Damn, she always knew Ichigo packed a punch, but...

Her distraction cost her, it led to Yuma landing a kick to her already-hurting-from-starvation stomach.

Peyton stumbled back and rolled to escape the kick directed towards her neck, causing her wrist to get the damage instead.

She winced and cried out; she could've SWORN she heard something snap. Well, either way, she jumped back to her feet and dodged her sword just in time, which had now cooled off enough to where Yuma could grip it.

"I am getting quite bored of this," Yuma informed her.

"Then I suggest you run off while you still can," Peyton said a bit breathlessly as she dodged another flurry of attacks, only managing to land one hit on Yuma's side.

That gave her another idea. She channeled some energy to her foot, driving it into Yuma's hip. She grasped her hip as she fell to the ground.

Peyton had felt something snap underneath her foot, probably one of her ribs. And it had felt so good.

She planted her foot firmly on Yuma's stomach, pressing down on her hip as hard as she could. Yuma screeched as more snaps were heard, and in a last desperate attempt, she gripped her sword and drove it into Peyton's side.

She cried out, feeling like she was going to collapse from pain, but didn't loosen her foot's pressure, moving it to Yuma's neck instead.

"I warned you. You should've...run while you had the chance," she told her, pausing to gasp in a breath at the sudden throbbing, the whole left side of her body being slowly engulfed in white-hot pain.

Yuma's eyes widened as Peyton slowly, deliberately, summoned energy to her foot, crackling around the outline of the shoe and across the woman's neck.

"Any last words?"

Despite her obvious defeat, Yuma spit on Peyton's shoe, making her temple throb. "I hope you rot in hell for killing our Great Leader!"

"Yeah, yeah, I meant besides that old chestnut. ...No?" Yuma just glared at her in stony silence before flinching as more spirit energy was mustered, slicing against her neck.

Peyton jumped back as blood started spurting, and Yuma coughed and sputtered, gasping for air. "...O' Great Leader...My Sungaki-Kun...I am coming to you..."

And just like that, her head lolled to the side, her body grew limp, and Yuma was dead. Peyton felt a tiny twinge of guilt, knowing if Ichigo had been killed by someone, she'd do the exact same thing.

But she wasn't going to lose her life because of Yuma's grief and rage. She couldn't help what side she was on, or that it was the opposite one as the Iga Clan.

Wrist swelling and side bleeding, she turned to look up at Ichigo and Kyabetsu to see a beatdown of epic proportions.

Ichigo was ready to end this. He wanted to go to Peyton. He wanted to get her home. He wanted a lot of things, but right now he was stuck with Kyabetsu.

And Ichigo was getting more and more pissed with how drawn-out their confrotation was by the minute.

No, by the second.

Soon, he slipped into a rhythm. Block, attack, dodge, strike, lunge, slice, surprise, repel. Every bit of it laced with impatience and a kind of thirst for payback he'd felt very rarely in his Soul Reaper days.

And he had never wanted it this bad.

The need for Kyabetsu's blood on the ground and screams in his ears grew even more urgent when there was a lull in battle and he happened to look down on Peyton's fight.

Just in time to see a katana driven into her side. THAT'S when he really lost it. He gripped Zangetsu so tight his knuckles turned a deathly white, glowering at Kyabetsu as he struggled to catch his breath a good ten yards away.

"You bastard. I am sick..." He flash-stepped over to his side, bringing his foot into his gut.

"Of her..." A blow to his back.

"GETTING HURT!" Kick to the face, Zangetsu being driven into his arm.

Kyabetsu practically flew, skidding across the hill and struggling to regain an upper-hand. Seeing her blood fly out from around that sword in her side had changed his rhythm to speed, rage, strike, Getsuga Tensho, strike, kill.

Before he could get to the "kill" part, Kyabetsu suddenly kicked him in the abdomen and while he was trying to get back up, raised his katana ominously.

"C'MON ICHIGO! KICK HIS CABBAGE ASS!" Peyton suddenly shouted from nearby.

They both turned to look at her, currently jumping up and down enthusiastically despite her blood-stained side and swollen right wrist. She suddenly glared at him. "What're you looking at me for? You're supposed to be kicking his ASS, remember?"

...Goddammit, I love that infuriating idiot.

Peyton felt tears in her eyes as she pulled the damned katana out of her side before running as fast as she could up the hill to their fight.

She could tell, no matter how much of an upper-hand Ichigo had at the moment, he was going on pure rage.

And she had just killed someone whose actions were fed by rage. He could be kicked flat on his ass any...

She trailed off with a sweatdrop as Kyabetsu did indeed send him backwards, lying on his back. ...Any minute.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to her (Damn, I'm just FULL of ideas today!), and she started jumping up and down despite her side begging her to stop.

"C'MON ICHIGO! KICK HIS CABBAGE ASS!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. As expected, they both turned to look at her with "WTF?" looks on their faces as she continued her jumping.

She then glared at Ichigo. "What're you looking at me for? You're supposed to be kicking his ASS, remember?"

Peyton saw a grin cross his face for a split second before rolling out from under Kyabetsu's blade and resuming his fight.

She nodded to herself with satisfaction before continuing her idiotic cheering. Ichigo wasn't angry anymore, he was amused.

The emotion she was the master at instilling FINALLY paid off.

THREE MINUTES LATER...

"YEAH! WHOO-HOO! DARK BLACK-AND-RED WAVE THINGIE OF MASS DESTRUCTION FOR THE WIN!" Peyton shouted as he did another one of those...well, the dark black-and-red wave thingies of mass destruction.

Kyabetsu didn't get up this time. Ichigo walked over to him and was about to finish him off point-blank, but Peyton's mischievous laughing was a bit distracting.

He turned to look at her. "...What?"

"Don't kill him. I've got an even better idea..."

She made gesutres with her hands, and a slow and equally-evil grin spread onto his face as well. "...Peyton, you're a genius."

"I know!"

"Wh-What...What're you planning to do to me?" Cabbage Boy asked fearfully.

Ichigo kicked him in the side. "Nothing you need to know about."

Senna suddenly showed up, along with Renji and Rukia. "Toshiro and Matsumoto should be here any minute, Orihime's healing them up."

She then noticed Peyton and ran to glomp her. "OHMIGOD, FINALLY, WE FOUND YOU!" Rukia yanked her back mid-sprint, cocking her head meaningfully at the two.

She, Renji, and Rukia nodded at each other and dragged Kyabetsu off. "We'll just...leave you two...alone...OVER HERE!" They shouted, running off down the hill.

Ichigo sweatdropped and shook his head at their friends' stupidity before he noticed Peyton's lower lip trembling. He walked over to her worriedly. "You alright?"

She hugged him tightly, surprising him. "That damn Yuma bitch told me you died! I thought I'd never see you again...and I lost the necklace you gave me...and I knew you couldn't die like that, I knew you couldn't! But I was so scared you had...I was so guilty, I felt like I wanted to die too!" She sobbed, burying her face in his chest.

Well, as much of his chest as she could reach. Height difference, remember? He hugged her just as tightly, rubbing her back gently. "It's alright, look, I'm here. I'm right here. I'm not dying on you any time soon, okay? I promise."

"Don't make a promise you can't keep, though, okay?" She muttered.

He loosened his grip for a second to reach into his robes and pull out a necklace. One that was gold, with Japanese writing, and a thick brown cord.

She stared at him in awe. "Stranger things have happened, right? I promise I won't die on you," Ichigo said simply as he tied it around her neck.

Peyton nodded and hugged him a little longer, almost as if she expected him to disappear any second.

About the same way he was hugging her right now. It was dead quiet for a minute, except for her shaky breathing, and his heavy breathing, and her handcuff chains clinking together against his back thanks to the wind.

"You know what I can't figure out?" She suddenly asked the air.

"What?"

"How the hell did your hair grow a couple inches or so in three weeks? You almost made me lose, your exponential increase in hotness was distracting me, you moron," she muttered into his chest.

He started laughing and kissed the top of her head, then her lips as she tilted her head up. A gentle kiss, one that wasn't very quick and showed just how much they missed each other. "I missed you blaming me for everything."

"I missed you annoying the hell out of me."

"ICHIGO, WHEN DO WE GET TO TORTURE THIS IGA CLAN LEADER?" Renji bellowed, making them both shout back "SHUT UP, RENJI, DAMMIT!", temples throbbing.

Peyton grinned at him. "We might as well..."

"You're so evil."

"Part of my charm."

He linked his fingers through the ones on her good hand, and she squeezed them for a second.

...And then they went to cut off Cabbage Douche's nuts for making them suffer through lack of sex.