This War's Not Over: Chapter 13

The Truth Behind The Lies

Hi everyone! Oh noes! I'm so sorry for the wrong chapter update! :(

Hope you like the grand revelation of this chappy.

Enjoy, and once again many thanks to all your wonderful reviews! ^^

"Zangetsu?" Ichigo called.

The teen paced across the windowed ground of his inner world, the ice crackling eerily at his feet. He approached his sword, whom had his back to him and was staring out into the distance.

"Zangetsu, I'm…I'm leaving for Hueco Mundo again," Ichigo started.

His zanpakuto didn't turn.

"Do you think it's likely I'll return to becoming the 0 Espada again? …And the merging will continue as well, right?"

"You already know what I'm going to say," Zangetsu said simply.

Ichigo's gaze lowered, defeated. It was inevitable then.

"I'm still going though," Ichigo informed his zanpakuto, lifting his gaze back up again.

The orange-haired teen fidgeted nervously for a moment, uncomfortably waiting for Zangetsu to say something.

After a while, the sword finally turned to face his charge. "Ichigo. Do you know why there is ice lying across this world?"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed. "It's something to do with my hollow, isn't it?"

Zangetsu walked off his pole, now standing on the same level as Ichigo to stare at him right in the eye. "You don't know that. Maybe it's something to do with you."

Ichigo opened his eyes; only to fly backwards into his bedframe as his eyes met straight away with Nel's, who had been crouching down right in front of his face while he had entered his inner world.

"Don't freak out on us," Grimmjow snorted.

"How can I not?" Ichigo yelled, waving his arms about, before pointing at Nel. "She was inches away from my face!"

Nel giggled. "You were taking ages. We started to think you were in a coma so I thought I'd give you CPR or something."

Ichigo went bright red. Nel probably had no idea what CPR even was. He gave an accusing glare towards Grimmjow, who only flashed him an evil grin.

"We should get going now that you're done Kurosaki," Ishida appeared behind Nel, pushing up his glasses.

Ichigo closed his eyes to recompose himself for a moment, before standing up and beckoning his team forwards. "Yeah. Let's go."

Springing across the Karakura rooftops with Nel, Grimmjow, Ishida, Renji and Chad, Ichigo left the Kurosaki Residence.

"You're asking for your death leaving Rukia behind without saying a word," Renji warned Ichigo with a teasing smile.

Ichigo tutted. He figured it would be best to leave both Orihime and Rukia out of this. He just simply couldn't admit to himself that he was concerned for their safety. He couldn't even imagine what Rukia would do to him if she ever found out. But fate hated him.

"Ichigooooo!"

By reflex, Ichigo dodged his father's flying kick, before landing a punch on Isshin's face as he passed. The whole team stood by the angry teen, holding back as they watched the boy scream insults at his father.

"Aren't you going to give daddy a hug before you lea—"

Isshin was interrupted by Ichigo's foot in his face. But what Ichigo didn't expect was another kick landing right on the side of his own face, sending him flying across the rooftops.

Ichigo looked up, his brown eyes flashing, holding the bruised side of his face. "What the…?"

And just barely managing to dodge Rukia's sword. "How could you leave me behind you fool!"

Ichigo backed off, worried for his life. "R-Rukia! Watch that thing will you? It's not like the last time! That's a real fucking sword!"

"Answer my question you dumb fool!" Rukia snapped back.

Everyone watched helplessly as Rukia kept trying to beat the crap out of him. After she had burned off some of her steam, Ichigo reluctantly answered. "I'm sorry. I—I wanted you to look after my sisters."

Ichigo hoped that would work. Her sword almost hit its target if Ichigo hadn't been prepared for another swing. "That's the stupidest lie I've ever heard!"

Again, more beating.

When Rukia cooled back down again, she returned her zanpakuto to its scabbard, giving an annoyed huff. "I'm coming with you."

Ichigo stared at her for awhile, measuring how determined she was to follow through with this. He broke their stare off, looking away. "Fine."

"And me too!" his dad screamed, leaping towards them and attempting to bring them all together in a hug, failing when he received yet again Ichigo's foot in his face.

"I don't get it. Since when do you come with us on our journeys anyways?" Ichigo asked suspiciously while rubbing his foot into Isshin's steaming face.

He removed it to let his father speak. Isshin looked at him awkwardly, trying to put on a dopey grin, but Ichigo didn't buy it. Not anymore. He knew very well now how serious his father could be. And how much he lied to Ichigo. With Urahara, they made a good team of liars.

"Orihime is looking after Karin and Yuzu," his father attempted to change the topic of conversation.

As he saw his son still waiting for his explanation of joining the team, Isshin lowered his head in defeat, reluctantly answering.

"You're dealing with the Hogyoku here, son. Of course I'm coming with you," Isshin said, picking himself up.

Ichigo raised a brow, his eyes full of distrust, before turning his back to his father. "So you're here to monitor me, huh?"

For a moment, Rukia was convinced Ichigo had returned to being a cold Espada again. After all, the merging was only frozen, and some of his hollow's influential instincts that had gotten through before still lurked in Ichigo's mind.

Isshin opened his mouth to answer his son, but lowered his gaze as he found nothing to say to defend himself. "I can't lie to you. Yes, if you lose control in Hueco Mundo, I'll be there to stop you."

Ichigo didn't turn, only his command sounded, being thrown across his shoulder. "Grimmjow. Open the Garganta."

"Sure," Grimmjow said moodily, flicking his wrist in order to make the gaping hole of abyss stretch out across the night sky.

Everyone followed, unease prickling through the mix of espadas, soul reapers and humans as they realized how tensed the situation was in between Ichigo and his father.

Rukia shivered. If he was like this now, what if they couldn't get Ichigo back to his normal self once they decided to leave Hueco Mundo?

As soon as Ichigo's feet landed softly on the white sand of Hueco Mundo, he immediately felt his reiatsu and body begin to change. Before he was swept into the black and red gales of wind, he tried to catch Rukia's worried eyes. When their gazes locked, Ichigo realized there was nothing he could do or say that would make both sides feel better— because nothing good would ever come of this.

Ichigo let the whirlwind sweep around him, tensing as he felt the familiar horn form at the top of his head. When he emerged, he had regained his white espada uniform, the zero inked on his chest and his yellow eyes without their usual black background. Tensa Zangetsu's chain was once again coiled around his arm, and he sighed inwardly in relief to find the white chain wrapped around the sword itself intact, thankful that it had managed to hold.

Ichigo's hollow instincts that rammed into him took the teen by surprise, almost knocking him over. Renji made a step forwards to support the stumbling teen, but Grimmjow put out an arm out to prevent him.

Everyone was watching the 0 Espada closely now. And Ichigo hated it.

For a moment, he almost felt like breathing in and letting his instincts get the better of him, but he instantly pushed them back and pinned them down, alarmed at the sudden thought of hurting his friends.

Ichigo sat down in the sand, closing his yellow eyes to try and regain control of whatever human qualities that had been left in him. When he felt all his heavy reiatsu calm down and resettle, Ichigo finally exhaled and looked up at his friends. "It's okay."

It was Nel who broke the tense atmosphere by throwing herself at Ichigo, followed by Grimmjow who came charging in to rescue Ichigo from suffocating.

When Ichigo finally broke free and assured Nel that he was fine, he was furious when he saw everyone sniggering in the background.

And almost on instinct, he raised his reiatsu to bring them all crashing down to his feet.

"Ichigo…Stop!" Rukia gasped as she was pinned down by his smothering dark reiatsu.

How had this warm, kind-hearted person changed into something so cold? Had they made him angry?

She stared into his detached yellow eyes, which seemed to be almost in a trance.

"Ichigo!" Rukia heard Ichigo's father scream angrily.

She glanced at Isshin, realizing he was the only one who had remained standing up against Ichigo's reiatsu.

Instantly, Ichigo snapped out of it, jolting awake. He turned his head from side to side, his eyes wide with shock. His reiatsu immediately receded.

"I'm—so sorry," the horrified teen gasped.

Everyone started to get up again, dusting themselves off and shooting uneasy glances at Ichigo. The teen looked down at his feet, ashamed, shuffling them nervously. How could he have lost control of himself so easily? It wasn't even over something to get so angry about.

He felt his father's hand rest on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. We'll end our business here quickly and return to Karakura."

Ichigo nodded, remorse plastered across his face. With a sign of his head, he signaled for the others to follow him towards Las Noches. He knew that if it had been that easy for him to lose control, he had to finish the job as quickly as he could, or there would be nothing left of him to salvage after the battle was over.

"You do realize that you're still the only one who hasn't seen Aizen's shikai, right?" Grimmjow whispered into his leader's ear.

Ichigo glanced at him, the question catching him off guard. "You're saying this like as if we're going to be fighting Aizen. I thought this was some sort of 'silent breaking in and destroying the Hogyoku' kind of mission."

Grimmjow rolled his eyes at the boy's simple mindedness. Even if he had returned to being an Espada, it would take awhile before the teen would obtain common sense. "With Aizen, he probably already knows we're here."

Ichigo stiffened. The truth was, he didn't even want to get near Aizen. The Hogyoku that was in the traitor's body made him so sick, he never wanted to go through the excruciating pain again. "Funny thing is, when I fought Aizen, even up until the very end, he never used his shikai on me."

Grimmjow raised a brow. "Seriously?"

Ichigo looked away, uncomfortable. "Yeah."

The talk ended there because Ichigo had sonidoed up ahead, breaking up the conversation. He didn't want to have these question asked to him, because he had long ago swatted them down.

Another thing that particularly bothered him was the fact that he could actually sense his comrades' feelings. He didn't need to use his sword anymore to feel their hearts. It made Ichigo shiver. Since when had his senses increased so drastically?

He could feel how nervous they felt, and how much they wanted to try and reassure him that everything would be alright. But everything wasn't going to be alright—because Ichigo could read their feelings without using his sword.

Ichigo and Rukia dived out of the way of a hollow's crashing fist. They were in Las Noches now, but a silent entrance wasn't the team's strong suit, much to Uryu's dismay.

Now they were stuck in a corridor full of hollows that were blocking their path. Ichigo hissed in frustration. As much as he enjoyed slicing off their arms and feeling the gush of their pain, he would have preferred simply raising his reiatsu to send them all smashing down to his feet. But he had everyone else around him to think of as well.

"Ichigo!" Renji's voice snapped him out of his reverie.

He turned around to look at where Renji was pointing. "Can you get through? If I blast an opening through the hollows' defenses, you could easily sonido through right?"

Ichigo nodded, flashing him a grateful glance before signaling for Grimmjow to follow him. Renji switched into his bankai, the skeleton snake coiling around its master and throwing its head back to charge the huge flaming canon it had in its mouth.

"Hikotsu Taihou!" Renji cried, throwing the snake forwards and letting the blast rip through the hollows' bodies.

Ichigo charged in, using his blinding sonido to make his way through the gap, Grimmjow at his heels. He had no choice but to ignore his father's scream for him to come back. "Ichigo! Aizen is trying to split us up!"

Ichigo landed on the other side of the barrage of hollows, pacing forwards, his steps echoing across the dome of Las Noches.

"Ichigo…didn't you hear what your father said? We should go back," Grimmjow said.

Ichigo continued to walk across the grey corridors, ignoring his subordinate.

"Ichigo!" Grimmjow growled.

The teen turned to face the espada, his yellow eyes cold. "And how do you expect us to go back?"

Grimmjow gave a huff, marching in step after the 0 Espada. "Fine."

The two espadas continued to walk at their leisure through the hallways of Las Noches, Ichigo letting Grimmjow lead, since the espada knew the place far better than Ichigo did.

Grimmjow finally halted in front of two grand double doors, tensing. "This is where Aizen usually sits on his throne and passes judgment on those who have either disobeyed him, or who have something to report to him. It's also where he kept a close eye on the first Hogyoku."

Ichigo forced himself not to flinch. He hadn't expected to reach Aizen so soon. He compelled his gaze to look cold and strong. "Open the doors then."

But before Grimmjow could word his reply, the doors opened slowly on their own. The two espadas stared into the room with shock, drawing their swords as their gazes fell on Aizen.

The traitor was sitting on his throne, his brown stare looking down at Ichigo.

"Welcome back home, my dear 0 Espada," Aizen smiled.

Ichigo's detached yellow eyes stared back, his lips twisting downwards in displeasure. Almost on cue, both of them raised their reiatsu in challenge, Ichigo's eyes glowing gold as they fell on his enemy.

Grimmjow took a step back, hitting the floor as he tried to fend off the crushing reiatsu. He would let Ichigo handle this. He was useless as long as he was under Kyokasuigetsu's spell.

Ichigo flew at Aizen, bringing his sword crashing down on Aizen's own, his eyes still cold with killing intent.

"It's always bothersome to be welcomed to a home that you don't belong to," Ichigo said, as if their struggle was nothing.

The force of Ichigo's reiatsu forced Aizen to stand up from his throne, which was slowly turning to rubble. The traitor only smiled as they pushed their swords against one another's. "Wonderful display of reiatsu, 0 Espada."

The teen didn't answer as he relaxed only slightly his pressure on Aizen's blade, only to kick him in the gut and send him crashing into the wall behind him.

"Getsugatensho."

The black and red reiatsu crashed into the rubble where Aizen would normally have been but Ichigo turned around, alarmed, when Aizen appeared behind him, just barely missing Ichigo and cutting a few millimeters of his shoulder length hair.

Ichigo could feel Aizen's exhilaration. He had felt it in Aizen's heart—the feeling of accomplishment. Ichigo's eyes narrowed. For what?

"Ichigo. What are you fighting for?" Aizen asked, a sardonic smile playing across his lips.

Aizen stared into the 0 Espada's eyes searchingly.

The teen stepped forwards, his eyes distant. "Don't you understand? I'm here to kill you."

At this, Aizen's eyes glowed in pleasure, before raising his finger. "Yes. But the Kurosaki Ichigo before landing in Hueco Mundo—what did he want?"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed in displeasure at being considered as someone different that what he had been in Karakura Town. Because he was still the same, right?

"I'm here," Ichigo began, "to destroy the second Hogyoku you've been creating."

Ichigo could feel how much Aizen wanted to laugh out loud right now. But that would be out of character. Ichigo tensed. What was so funny?

"What a laughable thing for you to say, 0 Espada."

Ichigo readied his sword, his anger rising up within him again. He didn't enjoy being laughed at. He didn't understand. What had he done for Aizen stare at him so mockingly?

"You can't destroy it," Aizen smiled.

Ichigo teeth gritted. "I'll give it a good try once I've killed you."

"It's impossible."

Ichigo lunged at Aizen, firing another Getsugatensho at the traitor. It hit Aizen full on, and yet when the betrayer appeared out of the rubble, he had remained unscathed.

Ichigo gave a frustrated hiss, but his anger distracted him from Aizen's attack. Ichigo stifled a scream of pain as he felt the traitor's blade rip a cut in his back. The teen was sent smashing into Las Noches' dull grey wall, dust rising and filling the air.

Ichigo pushed the blocks of walls off him, his chest heaving and agony spreading across his body as he tried to move. He watched helplessly through his blurring vision as Aizen slowly walked towards him.

"I sympathize with you, Kurosaki Ichigo. Even after your father realized what you were, he never decided to tell you."

Ichigo's eyes widened. What was Aizen talking about?

"I realize now that when I had tried to tell you the truth, your father leaped right in and protected your ears with lies."

Ichigo tried to focus his hand on grabbing his sword, but fear had overcome his senses and his body movements became sluggish.

"Didn't you ever wonder why the first Hogyoku didn't kill you?" Aizen smiled, still walking towards Ichigo. "Why you can sense the feelings of others?"

And all of a sudden, Ichigo didn't want to hear anymore. He wanted his father to be here—he wanted to be protected.

"It's because—"

Don't listen, Ichigo begged himself.

"You're a human—"

Please don't…!

"—and the second Hogyoku that you want to destroy so badly."

Done!

Hope you like the turn of events! Everything will be explained by Aizen in the next chappy. Once again I'm so sorry for the double chapter!

Please tell me what you think and review! :D