Finally another chapter! I'm sorry it's taken so long, I'm horrible at consistent updating, most likely because I have so many different stories to write about 117 to be exact XD

Anyway enough excuses it's a bad habit. Chapter five is up and I really hope you like it and aren't too frustrated with my rather long winded writing style but I promise there is going to be smut in the future I'm just not sure how far into the future.

Enjoy and let me know what you think

Silverfox

~Chapter Five: Resolve~

A week had passed since Ichigo's second fainting stint in his room and since then he had been slowly but surely formulating a plan and finding his resolve between the memories that kept dragging him away from his world and into a place he seriously doubted anyone had been except the man himself and now Ichigo.

The memories, Ichigo was certain they were memories now, were becoming increasingly clear as he watched the young Aizen slowly grow up but there was something weird though, whenever that young girl was involved the whole scene would blur so badly it hurt Ichigo's eyes before everything went black. It was almost like the man was forcefully closing off access to this particular memory.

Ichigo wasn't sure but he was relatively certain Aizen was unaware of this…connection they seemed to have because surely a man like Aizen would never willingly let anyone within the confines of his mind, his most sacred place where he could feel freely but let nothing show on the surface.

Agh, this was all so frustrating even more so as Ichigo slowly but surely gets to know the Aizen no one else has ever seen. What was even more of an enigma was Ichigo could interact in most of the memories and somehow found himself talking with Aizen for quite a while before he returned to his own mind.

It was odd seeing Aizen as a child. Really wasn't the man supposed to be some ruthless killer? But seeing all this, all he could see was a child trying to be strong to protect what was precious to him.

That girl, who is she? Ichigo didn't know but he rather rudely wanted to find out because if he seriously was going to break Aizen out of prison, yes you heard right, he was going to have to know why Aizen betrayed in the first place. But he did have a feeling it had to do with the girl and that blurred almost blackened memory where the girl was being forcefully taken while he tried to fend off the Stealth Force but with no such luck.

Sighing for the thousandth time Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck in irritation, the damn bandages were itching too damn much. Due to all the strange wounds appearing on him he had taken to wearing long sleeved clothing, thanking his stars it was winter anyway, so that he could hide the bandages he wore, covering the many wounds that would reopen at any moment.

Well perhaps 'reopen' wasn't the right word, he bled yes, it hurt yes and there was a scar left on his skin but the strange thing was his skin was never broken, it was as if the blood that seemed to constantly cover him wasn't his own but Aizen's. Ichigo shivered at that uncomfortable thought and pushed it out of his mind. That was just creepy.

Rolling his neck Ichigo groaned at the pain he felt there. He was so stressed lately especially after these trips to Aizen's mind began. He hadn't been to school in a week, under the guise of being ill and while a good excuse it wasn't exactly a lie. He felt like shit at the most random of moments and he figured it was how Aizen was feeling twenty four seven.

Speaking of that Ichigo had to witness or rather feel, he couldn't really see much with Aizen's sight limited to a single eye, Mayuri continue his torture over and over and frankly it was wearing Ichigo's mind down, he didn't know how Aizen could have stood this for a full two fucking years and if what Mayuri keeps rambling about is true Aizen has not once made a fucking sound and if he did it was some scathing superior remark that infuriated the lunatic of a Captain.

Ichigo couldn't help but snort at the fact the man was strapped down with no means of escape and being tortured no less and still the man kept that calm infuriating smirk on his face, while it wasn't visible to Mayuri he could guess and Ichigo could certainly feel it being in Aizen's mind and all.

Either way it was amazing how the man could still act all high and mighty in his situation and horrible condition, even the man's thoughts were so damn condescending while it didn't happen often Ichigo did manage to catch a thought or two from the imprisoned man and seriously the man's own conceitedness was beginning to irritate him enough to abandon his plan to rescue the nut but...

Ichigo had also felt, though fleetingly, that same utter isolation he had felt during their final fight that overwhelming sense of aloneness. Ichigo may not know what precisely happened that night with that girl Aizen was dead set on protecting but he knew instinctively that was why he betrayed Soul Society, hell if he was right Aizen was never loyal to Soul Society at all!

That thought sent Ichigo's brain for a loop. Aizen had been around how long pretending to serve Soul Society while planning its demise? The mere thought of the hundred and ten years when he first showed his apparent true colours to Urahara and the Visoreds was doing his head in but his deception went even further he fooled them into believing he was a soft spoken intellectual for much longer than a hundred and ten years.

Ichigo would deny this even to himself but he admired the resolve the man demonstrated with that. But back to the actual point he was at home currently trying to think of a way to break this to his friends because if he really intended to break Aizen out of prison he was going to need their help, including Rukia and maybe Renji.

Argh! It was so annoying just trying to imagine how to break it to them after all Aizen was the cause of plenty of heartache for them all, not to mention how Kisuke and the Visoreds would react if he ever found out. Ichigo shuddered to think of that, no to mention his father's reaction but damn if he didn't need the old coots help too. He needed to regain his powers if he intended to actually survive this suicide mission.

He supposed he could always explain to them about his connection but then they might say Aizen was tricking him in some way and while Ichigo had considered that it was impossible even for Aizen to trick that kind of pain and emotion. Sighing Ichigo removed that out of the equation and decided to settle for explaining his uneasiness since the war ended and his reasons for being out of character which included what he had discovered about Aizen after he actually thought about all their battles and the man's actions.

While he appeared cruel and merciless he hadn't actually killed anyone aside from central 46 and Ichigo didn't begrudge him that act, hmph never had really they were a bunch of heartless coots he didn't even know and had ordered the destruction of the mod soul and the Quincy and later that fiasco with Toshiro and his friend Kusaka.

Anyway back on topic, he hadn't killed his Lieutenant Momo was it? He hadn't killed Toshiro, he hadn't killed Rukia and while he had said he had meant to cut Ichigo in half Ichigo now being able to reflect without thinking the man was an ass he actually noticed how Aizen had with conscious effort pulled that blow so he wouldn't die. Which Ichigo found weird and decided not to mention that to his friends not until he himself knew why the man hadn't just killed him.

And let's not forget the captain's he hadn't killed any of them and had slayed his own espada. He hadn't hurt his human friends when he had every opportunity to do so and really if he concentrated really hard, despite Aizen's rather hysterical words and actions there seemed to be some…hesitance.

Now if that didn't do Ichigo's head in he didn't know what would. Two years later he has now relived that fight from his own point of view and now Aizen's – it seemed that battle was on the man's mind as well – he felt Aizen's hesitance the man hadn't been fighting him seriously. Ichigo wasn't sure whether he was pissed off by that or what because honestly wasn't he supposed to be Aizen's enemy why wouldn't he try to kill Ichigo with everything he had.

Damn. He seriously needed to get this jerk out of his dungeon so he could beat some answers out of him and preferably wipe that smug look the ass always seemed to wear.

So with that thought Ichigo had resolved to tell his friends about his foolish mission in the morning. They were coming to check on him anyway, might as well drop the bombshell when he knew his idiot father and the girls were out for the day. His dad had a conference and his sisters had school so that was settled.

Feeling a weight lift off his shoulders with his decision Ichigo turned over in his bed and went to sleep, not even stirring when he was pulled out of his own body to endure some more boring torture. Yeah right it fucking hurt like a bitch but he had learnt to shut out the pain with his own body's unconsciousness and simply focused on the thoughts of the man being tortured.

They were hazy and if felt like Aizen was on the verge of passing out. Shit, he defiantly needed to get him out of there before the man permanently ruined his image as ultimate badass; it would just be too weird to see Aizen reduced so low.

Does anyone else find it weird for Aizen to be so close to passing out? I sure do and so does Ichigo, passing out would totally ruin his ultimate badass image we can't have that now can we?

Hoped you liked it!

Silverfox XD