Chapter 12: On the Inside
( Requested by Henka-chan and Eumenida! :) Enjoy the new chapter! Love, Spunky)
"Kisuke," Ichigo said urgently, looking around at the destroyed lab, "How are we going to get Ren back? We can't let Aizen have him."
"Not just because he is our true resonant," Byakuya added, "If Aizen is able to use the reiatsu cluster in Ren..."
"He'll empower himself so that the hogyoku will acknowledge his power and accept him again. Once that happens, he will command the hogyoku like he did before and he'll transform into something we just don't have the ability to fight," Kisuke worried.
"So, for all our sakes, we need to find him and stop him!" Renji said determinedly.
Byakuya and Ichigo exchanged glances, and a look of understanding passed between them. Byakuya approached Renji and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Renji..."
The redhead's eyes widened.
"Oh no, Taichou, you're not going after Aizen without me! I'm not going to abandon you when..."
"You will instead abandon your husband and newborn child?" Byakuya asked.
Renji gave him a look of dismay.
"M-my...?"
"Byakuya-sama, I don't think it's fair to pressure Renji," Tetsuya said solemnly, "He was set up to impregnate me. He and I were using a protection charm, but Aizen tampered with it, so that I would become pregnant. He was planning all along to use me to test the procedure he was going to use on Ren. He confessed to me that he was behind the experiments that I was subjected to in Itamigiri, and was the one responsible for me being able to be impregnated, in the first place. Renji shouldn't have to marry someone just because of Aizen's manipulations."
"Whoa, wait a sec!" Renji complained, "Would you guys hold on? First, I'm not upset about the idea of marrying Tetsuya. It was just a surprise to hear you say it like it's already happened, Taichou. I mean, we haven't even talked about marriage yet."
"But," Byakuya interjected, "the rules of our clan say that upon creation of a noble child, the parents are considered as in a common law marriage. This is to protect Tetsuya's honor."
"And I'm all for that," Renji assured him, "I love Tetsuya, and I'm okay with marrying him and having our baby a little sooner than I expected. I would like an actual wedding..."
"Yes, well, we can see to that later, when everyone's safe."
"But you can't take off and face Aizen and leave me here, Taichou!" Renji objected, "I'm your fukutaichou and I..."
"I appreciate your loyalty," Byakuya said appreciatively, "but what I most need from you is for you to get Tetsuya and your daughter safely back to Kisuke's shop. Once they are under Tessai's care, you may certainly track me and assist us, but you must protect your family."
"Yeah," Renji said, calming as Byakuya's words sank in, "S-sorry, I just...don't want anything bad to happen to you again, Taichou."
"Ichigo and Kisuke will be with me. I will be all right, Renji. Go on, now. Take Tetsuya and your daughter to safety."
"I will," Renji said, helping Tetsuya to his feet and looking down at their lovely red-haired, blue-eyed girl.
Tetsuya set the baby in Renji's arms and watched closely as Renji grinned down at her.
"It's so weird," he mused, "I can't believe this is real, you know? I wasn't to the point of thinking about marriage or kids, but...she's...really amazing, Tetsuya. I feel like my heart's gonna bust from being so happy."
"I'm happy too. But let's get back quickly, please. I can't be of help, because my powers will not return for a few days after having her, so I'll need you to protect my cousin for me."
"I will," Renji promised, "Now, let's get you two home!"
Kisuke, Ichigo and Byakuya watched as Renji led Tetsuya out of the partially destroyed lab, then they turned their attention to the problem of finding Aizen.
"Where do you think he could have gone now?" Ichigo asked, "He just disappeared!"
"And he looked like he knew something we didn't," Kisuke added, "I think he did know something. But I think I know what it is."
"What is that?" Byakuya asked.
"Well, Ren's power seems to be that he can enter the inner world of a soul and can win control of the soul's zanpakutou. Now, the hogyoku's not a regular soul, but a transcendent one. When Ren was in physical contact with Aizen, he must have been able to connect with the hogyoku and, even though his greater powers were sealed away, he was able to slip into the hogyoku's inner world. I'll bet you anything that Aizen has also done that. They're in what is kind of like an alternate dimension. Usually, they would be beyond our reach."
"But you think you have a solution to that?" Byakuya inquired.
"I think so," Kisuke confirmed, "You see, the two of you are true resonants with Ren, and that being the case, it is possible that you can latch on to his reiatsu and basically follow him in there. I can't go. I have to help you in, then wait for all of you to return."
"But what are we going to do about Aizen, once we're inside?" Ichigo asked, "I guess Byakuya can lock us into his senkei and I can avoid looking at his shikai, but..."
"You're not going to engage Aizen, if you can avoid it," Kisuke said firmly, "You need to latch onto Ren and get the hell out of there as fast as you can."
"But Aizen will be there!" Ichigo insisted, "How are we supposed to avoid him?"
"Well, he'll probably be focused on Ren. He might know you could show up, but I'll bet his focus will be on finishing the process he started here. He may try to get the hogyoku to work with him so that it will have a master it can respect. I hate to say it, but the chances are good that the hogyoku would go along with that. You need to stop it by taking Ren and having him bust you out."
"We'll get him out," Ichigo promised, "but how do we get in?"
"You said that we could us our link with him?" Byakuya remembered.
"Yeah," Kisuke confirmed, "Ichigo, take Byakuya's hands, look into his eyes, and both of you need to concentrate on Ren's reiatsu. There are remaining flickers of it in the air here. Focus on that and follow it in your minds. You should begin to 'see' him where he is. Once you do, you can reach through and join with him. It's the only way I can think of for us to reach those two, so it had better work!"
"We'll make it work," Ichigo said in a determined voice, extending his hands and taking Byakuya's, "Let's do this, Byakuya!"
The Kuchiki leader accepted Ichigo's hands, and the two focused their eyes on each other, looking in deeply and concentrating on their connection to Ren. Within moments, Ichigo made a sound of triumph and Byakuya nodded approvingly.
"We can feel his presence," Byakuya informed Kisuke.
"Can you see through his eyes?" Kisuke asked.
There was a moment of silence, then Byakuya nodded again.
"We have it."
"Does Ren sense you?" inquired the shopkeeper.
"I don't know," Ichigo whispered, focusing harder, "I feel him there, but..."
"It is hazy," Byakuya reported, "It is hard to fix on him."
"It's the nature of the beast," Kisuke said softly, "I know because I created it. The hogyoku was made from the despair of lost souls who were trapped in the dangai. I found that I could gather the resonance of that emotion and it had a power of its own. You probably know that there is a power in the things you really want in life. We all have desires, dreams we pursue as we go through life. Some of these, we achieve, but some, we don't. And when a soul doesn't reach a desperate ambition, there is a lot of despair when it dies. When these haunted souls pass over, sometimes they become lost within the shadows. The cleaner is supposed to handle them, but some manage to escape it, and they wander in the darkness. I went into the dangai and found those lost souls. I gathered them in the hogyoku's facets, promising them that they would be able to feel the beauty of completing dreams and desires by bringing the dreams and ambitions of the people around them to life."
"How does that work?" Ichigo mused.
"You remember that your nakama didn't always have the powers they do," Urahara explained, "The hogyoku I made and put into Rukia affected them, sensing their desire to help protect and awakening their potential power so that they could develop it. The power was there, but it took the touch of those lost souls to awaken it. That is the power of the hogyoku. When it feels the success of the one gaining new power or reaching a desire, the hogyoku, through its connection with that person, receives that feeling of completion it never had. The stronger the person's ambition, the more intense the hogyoku's feeling of completion is. And that's why the hogyoku seeks the strongest person to be its master. The completion of that person's desire will help the hogyoku finally reach that pinnacle the souls within it never could. That is the hogyoku's desire...to know that feeling it has never been able to."
"It's rather sad," Byakuya intoned softly, "that the hogyoku's desire is one of such futility. It will never know true completion. Its own wishes are just a shadow. Even if it finds the strongest person, and that person reaches his desire..."
"Yeah," Kisuke agreed, "I wonder if the hogyoku will ever come to understand that."
"Kisuke," Ichigo said in a calm, quiet voice, "We'll make it understand."
"Good," said the shopkeeper, "If there's any hope of doing this and coming back, that's the key. Go on, now. Focus hard. Go to Ren. Bring him back safe."
"We will," Byakuya promised.
Kisuke's eyes widened as the other two men increased their concentration on the flickers of Ren's reiatsu that still resonated in the air around them. The bits began to spin closer to the two, and a glow rose around them. Byakuya and Ichigo honed in on the connection between themselves and the missing Ren, closing their eyes and gradually beginning to see through their resonant's.
It seems that Ren is something like the hogyoku, in that he has wandered for much of his life, Byakuya and Ichigo thought together, It is when the three of us are together that we know ourselves and reach our full potential. That is why we need each other. That is why we love each other. And that is why we will fight for each other!
The glow around Byakuya and Ichigo brightened into a blinding light, and as Kisuke watched, the two began to disappear into it. Slowly, they faded from view, and the light around them dimmed and gradually died out. Kisuke sighed as the destroyed lab grew still and shadowed, his eyes sad as he thought about his secret son.
I used to think about settling down and having kids, but I always got so wrapped up in inventions and putting out fires that I never really found the right person to settle down with. I never had a kid. It's funny. When Ren arrived and I found out that he was my kid, I could only see that we were nothing alike. He's a young punk, just trying to live a normal life. I never knew what normal was, and I probably never will.
But I see now that Ren and I are connected.
He and I both know that what Aizen is doing is wrong, and we're willing to do anything to stop him. I may not have settled down and had Ren because I wanted to, but I see now that he's a part of me.
Kisuke paused as he suddenly registered that the glow that had risen around Byakuya and Ichigo had returned. He stared in surprise and felt the connection between himself and his son open wide. A smile rose on his lips and he caught his breath in surprise as he felt the young man reach in his direction.
Of course. I don't know why I didn't get it before. Ren is more than just the kid Aizen used me to make...he's my unfulfilled dream.
That's why I can reach him now too!
XXXXXXXXXX
Ren opened his eyes and found himself standing in darkness. It was as though he had turned off the lights, and was caught in that odd moment it took for his eyes to adjust. He blinked several times and slowly registered there were large shapes around him. They resolved into the forms of rocks and trees that dotted a lonely, bleak landscape.
I was never all that afraid of the dark, Ren reasoned, because what I couldn't talk my way out of or beat in a fight, I could outrun.
This is different.
I can't talk Aizen out of using my kid. I don't think I stand a chance of beating him in a fight. I can't run away, and I can't hide from him forever. But if there's hope for me, it's here. Kisuke made the hogyoku to sense and bring to life the deepest desires of the ones around it, and right now, my deepest desire is to survive. It can only help a soul reach a desire that is possible for it, so I'm really hoping I have it in me to survive. I don't want my kid or me to die. I want us to live.
I want us to really live.
I want to go back and have this kid and stay with my lovers. I want to see the things our kid gets from Byakuya, the most beautiful shinigami, Ichigo, the most protective and me. Heh, I don't know what exactly I am. I guess you could say that just like Byakuya's about internal and external beauty and Ichigo's about being a strong protector, I'm about being strong enough to stand on my own. I had no one when I was a kid and my mother died. I was lucky enough to be taken in and loved by my foster parents, but I never wanted to be a burden. No. I wanted to be strong and smart so that I could take care of myself and make it easier for them. I wanted to give something back for what they gave me. And all along, I wanted a real life, a full life...a happy life.
I still want that.
"I want to live too," a soft voice whispered.
Ren blinked and looked around.
He could see the trees and rocks, the winding trails and the grey sky above him, but he couldn't yet see the soul of the hogyoku.
"Where are you?" he asked, "Will you come out so that I can see you?"
He held his breath as he was only answered by silence. The strange quiet went on for several minutes before Ren heard a soft hissing and spotted a shadowy form peeking out from behind one of the trees. The shadow seemed humanoid, but stood barely up to his knees in height.
"Is that you?" he asked calmly, "Are you the soul of the hogyoku?"
"I am," the little shadow whispered, it's soft voice echoing strangely and sounding to Ren like a mixture of many voices together, "I am glad you are here, Aizen Rhazhah Ketsuekibara."
"Uh, no one really calls me that," he chuckled, "Call me Ren."
"I too am called by a simpler name, although my being would be called by hundreds of names, not one."
Ren frowned and considered the words carefully.
"People call you the hougyoku, but that's not your real name?" he asked.
"I don't have only one name. There were many lost souls in the dangai, wandering hopelessly when we were saved by Urahara Kisuke and placed in the crystal he called the hogyoku...but hogyoku is not our name."
"Oh, I get it," Ren affirmed, "You're actually a lot of souls brought and put in here together."
"We are not wholes, but pieces," the voice corrected him.
"Pieces of lost souls?" Ren repeated sadly, "Yeah, I understand. I feel kinda lost too. I'm trying really hard to protect myself and my kid, but I don't know how to get away from Aizen Sousuke. Can you tell me, is there a way I can stop him from hurting us?"
"Aizen Sousuke is fused with us," the hogyoku explained, "Like you, our fate is tied to him."
"Can you stop him?" asked Ren, "Can you use your power to do that?"
The shadow was silent for a moment.
"I can only bring to life desires that are possible for the one who wishes them."
"Is it possible for me to defeat Aizen?"
"No."
"Can I get away from him?"
"No. But you can face him and find a way to save the life you carry, Ren."
"Yes, you can," Aizen's voice said sedately, the sound sending a chill down Ren's spine.
The young man watched in dismay as Aizen appeared behind the little shadow and moved to stand beside it.
"If you face me now and accept the fate prescribed for that bit of life in you, your child's soul will provide me with my desire, a body strong enough to finally fully master the hogyoku. When I do that, all things will be possible, Ren. I will be soul king. You will not lose that soul within you, but see it elevated to the greatest power our worlds have ever known. The hogyoku, too, will find its dream...that of serving the most powerful of masters and feeling the happiness of my completion."
"No! I'm not letting you take my kid's soul!" Ren cried, backing away.
Aizen's eyes looked deeply into Ren's and Ren's body stiffened in horror.
"Don't you understand?" Aizen went on, "The hogyoku and I are fused. We are one soul. Do you see it now, Ren? You thought you were scaping by coming here, but instead, you were only sealing all our fates!"