Byakuya Kuchiki wailted with calm patience in his cell. If being surrounded by so much sekki seki stone bothered him, one would never know it to look at him. He appeared as perfectly at ease as if he were in his garden at his home estate. The door to his prison opened revealing his enemy with his arm threaded through that of his wife, holding her possessively close. The only ripple that appeared on the still pond of Captain Kuchiki's calm was a slight twitch in his sword hand.
"Good afternoon, Captain," Aizen greeted him with perfect aplomb. "Your lovely wife has requested a visit with you. Far be it from me to deny anything to such a perfect blossom. As you can see, I have brought the lady by her request. I trust I do not have to inform you of any possible reprecussions should you decide to attempt an escape with her."
Byakuya Kuchiki, for his part, utterly ignored the fly buzzing near his wife, and rose like a gentleman to make room for her on the only flat surface in his room.
"I'll just leave you to visit then," Aizen said, releasing Hisana to enter the room properly.
If Byakuya had ever allowed himself the luxury of imagining a reunion with his wife, their present circumstances would have featured nowhere in any of his imaginings. Still, she was there, and though it would never do to betray it on the srface, especially when watched by enemies for the least weakness, his heart was pounding in a way that had not happened in decades.
"Are you well?" he inquired, his gaze rivited on her as she seated herself with every bit of the grace and poise he remembered.
"Quite well," she assured him. "Rukia and the Inoue girl seem fine also. And my son... well, I will have words with Aizen about him shortly."
Byakuya felt a whole new stab in his gut at the reminder. She was mortal now, with a child of her own. To have come so close to her, close enough to touch, but to still be denied the only thing in this world that he, with all of his wealth and power, ever desired for himself. Fates was truly cruel.
"You are... married," he said. He could not manage to control his tone entirely but he found his heart lifting as his wife smiled softly and gently shook her head.
"I am not. It is something of a family secret and I trust you will not discuss the matter elsewhere, but my son is actually my nephew. I had a cousin who had been a sister to me in this life, but she died during childbirth, bringing Alexander into this world. On her death, I took over the role of his mother in her place and have raised him as my own. Alex is my son in every way that matters. The father has never been a feature in his life. I am not entirely certain that the name she gave for the birth certificate was even his real name at all. I've never met him."
Hisana shook her head sadly that there should be such a person in the world, but such was the way of things.
"It feels a bit odd to have the memories of two lifetimes melded together, but I must tell you how grateful I am that you fulfilled what I could not do. Thank-you Byakuya."
His wife bowed her head humbly and it was too much for him. He knelt beside her. She was the only person in this world or any other who could make him willingly touch a knee to the ground, her humility and willing sacrifice had always humbled him in ways that nothing else ever could. He caught his hands in hers and looked up tenderly into her face.
"If you remember then you know that I would move Heaven and Earth for you," he said sincerely. "There is no law that exists in this or any world that I will not set aside for your sake."
His wife smiled softly at him and reached a hand up to brush his hair back by his ear, nudging the kenseikan there a little bit. A second later she pressed at it again and he heard a very very soft click. Suprised he looked a question at her and she smiled again, this time with a slightly conspirational look.
"Then when the time is right, make sure you're ready," she said, as if in reply to his previous statement but the direct look in her eye said that she was also saying something else.
Byakuya nodded. A moment later, two more of those Shadow-guards showed up to escort her away. It was perhaps one of the more difficult things he's had to do in his life, letting her go without a struggle. He had understood her perfectly, they were to bide their time and wait. As the door was shut softly behind her, Byakuya was left alone in his empty cell.
:Captain?: the half-hopeful, half-fearful voice of his lieutenant stole softly into the surface of his thoughts. It wasn't even a sound, more like a sense to him, and he could feel the traces of Renji's reiatsu on the edge of his senses.
:Captain, is that you?: the voice asked again, sounding a bit like a child who had woken up alone, calling out to see if anyone is there.
:Abarai,: he ackowledged dryly.
:I am I ever glad to get a hold of you!: Renji said. Byakuya could feel his relief echoing through the link.
:There is much to discuss,: Byakuya agreed. :Starting with how it is that the fact you've been traveling across the divine realms with my wife somehow never made it into any of the reports you've sent back.:
He hoped Renji could sense how very irritated he was by that.
:All the things we've got to cover and you pick that?: Abarai replied. Captain Kuchiki was a little more irritaded to discover that Renji felt it was a non-issue, however, weighing it against everything else swirling around them, he had to grant that the lieutenant was not entirely incorrect about its relative importance.
:We can table that for later and you can beat the crap out of me however you want,: Renji said.
Internally Captain Kuchiki shook his head at that. There were many times when he thought that the Eleventh Squad still had to strong a hold over him. If a person had a problem with another person, they simply beat on each other until the issue was resolved... or they were both to beaten in to continue fighting.
:I will remind you that the motto of Sixth Squad is Noble Reason, lieutenant. As such, I would very much like to hear yours.:
Renji sighed a bit internally, but mentally ticked them off, just to keep his captain happy.
:Well, if I had told you I'd found her, you would've ordered me back to Seireitei no matter what the rules about mortals popping in for a visit were. At the time I had to catch a Shadow before I could return so that I could show everyone that it was a real threat and not something I'd made up. Missy there was the only person who had the stuff to trap one, so I needed her with me. She had to find her son and I was the only way to do it, plus she also had that geas on me. I had no way of knowing that if you pulled me back in, the rest of Seireitei wasn't just going to simply things by putting my head on the block, and I was more worried about that Shadow threat and what, or who, might be behind it. My instincts told me it was bad medicine.:
Byakuya carefully weighed his lieutenants reasoning for a very long, tense moment, then very reluctantly had to admit to himself that the situation was both complicated and unprecedented. Given all of the matters on the board, Renji had tried to act in th better interests of his squadron. Still...
:Is there anything else you want to tell me before we proceed with the debreifing?: Captain Kuchiki asked with belabored patience.
:Ummmm... Welllll...: Renji said reluctantly. :Zabimaru and I continued our training together, and now we've got an ace or two up our sleeves. Our reiatsu's unbound. Zabimaru has a second form and it's awesome! Your wife can summon elemental spirits who have made a contract with her and use their powers, as well as trap and bind Shadows. Oh! And uh, there's one other thing she can do but I can't tell you what it is because it's less you'll have to cover up later.:
There was a long pause.
"Anything else?" his captain inquired.
:Sort of. You're not going to like it Captain,: Renji said. Captain Kuchiki go the sensation of a puppy who has piddled on the rug and is worried about the possibility of a rolled up newspaper now that his master is home.
:Proceed,: Captain Kuchiki said shortly.
:I've got a heartstone Captain,: he admitted. :Part of my reiatsu is being used to hold this Realm together cuz I actually managed to fight and defeat Katschei the Deathless.:
Renji went on to explain the anamoly to his captain.
:This Katschei guy was a mortal who managed to bypass the recycling of souls that goes on in Soul Society by trapping part of his spirit in a heartstone that acted as the keystone for this world. It not only sucked his soul back into it when his mortal body died, but also held this place together. Well when I finally managed to pass him on via soul burial, I had ta push his spirit out of the hearstone with my own, and when I sent him on to Soul Society with Zabimaru I guess the Realm needed some kind of spirit-will to keep it together so it decided to use mine. A peice of me got stuck inside it. The good news is that I gave it to Rukia and even if Aizen takes her somewhere else, We'll never loose her. The bad news is, if Aizen ever finds that heartstone, I'm in deep kimchee.:
:You took a very foolish risk, lieutenant,: Captain Kuchiki said severely.
Somehow he felt a bit of a headache coming on. There were times when Abarai had that effect on him.
:If he'd have found it on me the result probably would be the same. We'll just have to hope that Rukia can keep it hidden.:
:You entrusted it to my sister and not to Hisana?: he asked, a bit curiously.
:No offense, but yer wife's already got a geas on me that she's a bit too happy to tug on the leash of sometimes,: Renji said with what passed for diplomacy to him.
Byakuya Kuchiki was surprised to hear it. He had never encountered such a facet in his wife before, in fact, hen he had married her, she'd always been a bit too docile with regards to how she was treated by the rest of the House. She'd always said things like "it's alright, I can't expect them to accept me right away" or "it's a truth that they outrank me Byakuya-sama, you can't expect them to act like they don't," or "Your feelings for me and mine for you are what matter, whatever theirs are about the situation does not change it."
:I've found Aizen's hearstone,: Renji offered. :But I can't move it without him noticing. If we kill him he'll just be reborn, like Katchei, and pop up to haunt us again later. If we don't stop him here we probably won't get another chance. I'm free to move around without causing too much suspicion and the ladies, it turns out have thier own means of finding things out. Aizen left them with some kind of mirror that shows them things, creepy thing but those three are clever, I don't doubt they'll find a way to turn it to thier advantage.:
:In other words, the two of us must not count out thier resourcefulness.:
:Yer wife gotcha that com-device didn't she? I keep telling you girls are scary, especially those ones.:
:I do not disagree Lieutenant, but please do not insinuate that my wife is fearsome. She is a very warm and elegant woman,: Byakuya Kuchiki corrected him firmly.
:So's Captain Unohana, sir, but that doesn't mean she ain't scary too,: Renji replied. :So... what's yer plan Captain?:
Captain Kuchiki wondered if he should be proud or worried that Renji had made the statement with the all encompassing faith that somehow his Captain had a plan that was going to be able to let them win though victoriously.
:You've gone out of your way to point out that the resourcefulness of the ladies is not to be discounted, perhaps it were best we brought them in on the situation, it may be that they have access to information that you and I are unaware of.:
:Yeah, if nuthin; else, Aizen loves a captive audience, no pun intended,: Renji agreed. :It wouldn't surprise me a bit if he was blabbing his whole master plan to the mortal missy, er, I mean yer wife Captain.:
:Would that it should be so easy,: Captain Kuchiki agreed as he sent out a questioning thought to his sister. A moment later he felt her spiritual pressure linked in with his and Renji's.
:This is Rukia Kuchiki, signing in!: Her tone was a bit gloating as if she were saying "here we come to save the day!"
This was originally one long chapter, but I felt it would be better off divided in two so look forward to more in a few days!