Prologue: The Dream


Tetsuzaemon Iba dreamed. He dreamed of cobbled streets and orange, tiled roofs. He dreamed of a structure and mountain so tall they could touch the vast, open sky. He dreamed of a seemingly endless city, stretching over miles and miles until it did eventually reach its last slum, defined by dirty, trodden paths and thatched barns instead of cobblestone and tile. And beyond even that, infinite blades of grass like an ocean of green. Tetsuzaemon Iba dreamed of the Soul Society.

But dreams do not last forever; no matter how much we may wish them to and Iba was soon drawn back into the cold grip of harsh reality. His one remaining eye opened to darkness. The other had been gouged out by metal a week ago. They say you eventually get used to darkness but his experience here told him otherwise.

The darkness enveloped him like a oily glove. It held him, it caressed him, it tugged at him and beat him. He hated the darkness. But he hated the light even more. One might think that seeing any sort of light would be a joyous occasion, a respite from the blackness that hurt him so. But to Iba, light meant pain. To his body, light meant suffering, And to his mind, light meant Kuvira.

He'd given up long ago on ever being rescued. After coming to this horrible world with Captain Soi Fon, Omaeda and Izuru to capture Kurosaki Ichigo, Iba had been badly wounded in their attack on the metal city Zaofu and had missed out on whatever transpired afterwards. Kuvira had taken great glee in filling him in. They had failed. Soi Fon was dead and Kurosaki Ichigo was alive and well. The Soul Society had descended into complete anarchy and nobody was coming to help him.

Iba shuddered at the thought of Kuvira. It was not her powers that frightened him, nor indeed that awful glint in her green eyes when she was devising her next torture. No, it was the fact that for weeks she'd barely asked him any questions. She tortured him because she could, almost like she was testing his limits. As a Soul Reaper, Iba was more resistant to pain than a regular human. Whatever she threw at him, he had figured he could stomach.

That resolve had changed dramatically when she started to tear off his finger nails. He'd been stabbed before, taken slices from swords and knives but the slow, agonizing pain of that moment trumped anything he'd been through before. It was the look she gave him as he screamed and writhed, the curiosity and absolute lack of remorse that he remembered most. It was then that she finally began to ask him some things.

She asked him about Shinigami, about the Soul Society and about their powers. His answers, things he never thought would be drawn out of him came thick and fast and she lapped them up eagerly. When she'd finished with a fingernail, the session would end and she would leave him alone in the darkness. Soon enough, he had no fingernails left and no secrets either.

Kuvira knew everything. She knew their history, their systems, their abilities. She knew the name of every Captain and Lieutenant and information about their zanpakuto. She knew everything he knew about Ichigo as well. No matter what, her questions always eventually returned to him. It was like an obsession. The day he told her about how Ichigo got his powers, receiving them from Rukia which activated his own spiritual pressure, her eyes lit aflame with attentiveness.

Iba's remaining eye flickered open suddenly. He'd heard the creak of metal scraping against metal and the ominous sound of heavy, booted footsteps. Kuvira never made any secret of her arrival. No doubt she enjoyed the fingers of fear that clawed their way up his spine. He steeled his teeth even as his lips quivered.

This was ridiculous. He was a Lieutenant of the Gotei 13, specifically chosen for this mission by Soi Fon herself. He couldn't be scared of one, solitary bender. But as her steps drew closer, his fingers, rid of their nails came back into mind and his fear increased tenfold. Iba's head snapped up as she entered his cell.

Kuvira's eyes gleamed with evil lust in the dark. For a few seconds they were the only thing he could see until she lit a single lantern and hung it from a hook just above his head. Her thin lips stretched into a smile.

"I've brought you something, Iba," she began. "I made it myself." Her right hand rose into the light holding a shiny metal object. "They're pliers, see?"

Instinctively he cringed away but her left hand, cowled in a metal glove clasped round his mouth and chin, forcing him to look at it. "I've asked you many questions over the course of our time together and you've done so very well to answer them all. And you only had to pay with a few fingernails. And an eye. And some broken bones and whatnot. But you know I was thinking, what else can I do to make you obey me?"

"Kill me," Iba himself was surprised at the raspy croak that was once his voice.

Her grip tightened. "Kill you? I was just starting to get to know you! You know for that, I might have to speed up the process here." Her fingers pried open his mouth and before his exhausted mind could realize what she was doing, she'd placed the pliers around one of his teeth. Iba shook like a thin tree in a storm. "Now," she continued. "For once I'm going to give you a choice, Iba. You told me how Kurosaki Ichigo got his powers. A Soul Reaper gave them to him and activated the latent spiritual pressure inside him. Now answer me and answer me proper. Is this phenomenon possible for me?"

Iba hesitated. After all her questions, he'd figured this was what it came down to. But could he do it? Could he give a monster like this superhuman abilities? Would it even work? A plan started to form in his head. I could kill her. No, she'd know. She always knows. Hell, this might not even work. I'm dead either way. At least if it doesn't work, she'll just die. And if it does… who even cares anymore?

"All- all you benders have reiatsu inside you." His voice was garbled because of the pliers in his mouth. "That's the reason you can bend the elements. It can work."

Her grip loosened and her breathing started to increase. "If you're lying, I will show you pain unlike anything you've ever experienced." Kuvira pulled something out from behind her and slowly placed it in his palm.

My Zanpakuto. It's here. His eyes shimmered. All it would take is one thrust. Drifting, his gaze moved from the blade to her own, cold eyes. "I have to stab you," he said hesitantly. "Then when my sword is in your chest, I'll give you all my reiatsu. It should trigger the reiatsu that's already inside you and you'll become a Shinigami." I've never said such bullshit in my life. This will never work.

Iba's weakened fingers slowly molded themselves into their familiar positions on the hilt of the sword. His singular eye closed as his connection with the spirit within the sword reattached itself. It was like new life was flowing into his body through his palm. A hint of indignation, a touch of resolve, and he felt more like Tetsuzaemon Iba than he had in ages. Perhaps he could do it. Perhaps he could break free.

These thoughts were shattered as Kuvira tore out two of his molars. His mouth opened in a horrible cry and blood gushed into his open throat from the wound. As he screamed, her fist powered itself into his left shoulder, dislocating it instantly. Seconds after this, earth sprung up from the floor and encased his feet, crushing them like a vice.

"Stop! Please!" he wailed.

"I know your thoughts," her voice cut through him like lightning through fog as she applied more pressure to his wounds. "I know you thought you could betray me. One grasp of your sword was enough to excite you. Perhaps you need more training…"

"No! No! Kill me! Just kill me," he hacked out some coughs, blood spurting onto her breastplate and face. "I've given you everything you want! All the answers, all the knowledge. Please. End my life."

"Not everything," Kuvira glowered. "Not yet. Give me your powers and I will give you a quick death. Think again of betraying me, and your suffering will be endless."

With his last bit of strength, Iba nodded. "It's yours. All of it. Just keep your word." He struggled to lift his zanpakuto off the ground. "Take hold of the blade." Her armoured fingers gripped it tightly and she allowed the metal round her chest to pull back. For a moment, Iba looked into a possible future. One where somehow this worked and she unleashed the power of a Shinigami onto her world. She was a clear psychopath and he was giving her power the likes of which many of these people had never seen before.

I won't even ask myself how I can live with that fact. As far as I care, I'm dead already.

Iba plunged his sword with all his miniscule might, helped along by Kuvira's eager hands into her chest. He poured every ounce of his reiatsu into the blade and then the room went white with sudden light. Iba's eye shut instantly but even through his eyelid, he could see the brightness of the moment.

As soon as the light faded, a ridiculous amount of spiritual pressure set off a million alarms in his brain. His eye creaked open and he beheld Kuvira clad in the traditional garments of a Soul Reaper and in her hand was a truly monstrous zanpakuto. It was nearly the same size as her entire body. Iba was immediately reminded that the initial size of the zanpakuto is relative to the amount of reiatsu within the wielder.

Kuvira lifted the blade with ease, her strength now increased to superhuman levels and stared upon her new weapon. Her eyes sparkled with awe, and then glee and then finally triumph. It had worked. Eventually, her attention returned to the broken man she'd tortured and mutilated for weeks. His breath was haggard. It seemed as if life itself was pouring out of him like blood.

A light smile touched her lips. "Well done, Tetsuzaemon Iba. It seems our time together was not spent in vain." She held her zanpakuto aloft, the tip pointed at his chest. "You'll be relieved to hear that I am a woman of my word. Soon enough, the world will know this as well."

Iba shut his eye. Earlier that day, he'd dreamed of the Soul Society. Now he dreamed of his former superior. Captain Komamura, I-

Kuvira's thrust ensured this dream would be his last.


And with that, Book 4 begins. Really excited about this upcoming book but it's going to take a lot of time to come out. I'm still in the planning stage but this prologue is set a few weeks after Book 3 concludes and Book 4 starts up 3 years later with the time skip so that's what I'm working on right now. Hope you all enjoyed and are intrigued by what's happening here. Thanks for reading!

Comment from Jimmy K.I. 7: I thought Ichigo turn into Vasto Lorde to kill everyone & keep swinging his sword around Zaheer (keep him wounded to give him dreadful fear like he did to Unalaq).
And he disappears somewhere (still Vasto Lorde)

Reply: Not this time lol he was able to keep things under control but it's definitely not the last time we'll see Vasto Lorde Ichigo

Comment from Max1212: Honestly, Ichigo behaves as strangely as possible in this chapter, the idea of replacing Korra as a defender is quite understandable and I think he will be all with Kuvira, but to do this when your "sister" is in complete despair and in dire need of help? This is strange to say the least, and Ichigo's break with Asami also looks kind of ridiculous.
Well, I'm looking forward to the next chapter and I hope it will come out faster than this one)
P.s: It's still a pity that you don't want to make a Korra/Ichigo/Asami. It would be extremely interesting in my opinion)

Reply: Yeah looking back on how I did it, it's a pretty clanky read, not perfect by any means. The basic idea here is that Ichigo messes up by what he does at the end of Book 3. Leaving Korra and asking Asami for a break were not the right things to do. His priorities were figuring out the Vasto Lorde stuff and Hollow stuff which yeah they should be priorities but he should've taken care of his loved ones first. I didn't write it as well as I could have, that's for sure.

It would be interesting haha but yeah won't be in this story

Comment from Guest: Que gran capitulo! - Pero me siento mal por Asami y ichigo, esperaba que pudieran estar juntos, yo sé que hay amor pero las inseguridades de ichigo lo limitan, Asami lo tiene que atar al matrimonio para que ya no la deje :v

Reply: ¡Qué bueno que te gustó el capítulo! Sí, no es una buena situación en este momento entre ichigo y asami, pero no es el final para ellos.

Comment from Just Phatom: Noooooo you broke them up

Reply: Yeahhhh mannn:(

Comment from Timothy Burr: This was pretty great. Book 3 was definitely the best so far.
Sui-Feng's arc in this story was nothing short of a tragedy. No matter how many opportunities she was given, she utterly refused to change and let go of her hatred for Ichigo. When Ichigo finally killed her, I felt nothing but pity for her but knew that it had to be done. She was never going to stop.
So Vaatu is still around in some form, that could has horrifying possibilities, but at least Ichigo still has Zangetsu to count on.

Aizen went to the Avatar world at one point and did some experiments, interesting. I remember asking if Aizen or the Vandenreich will ever get involved and I'm wondering if this is foreshadowing Aizen's possible involvement in the future.
Good luck with Book 4, I'm sure it will be great.

Reply: Thanks man, yeah I thought about the idea of redeeming Soi Fon but I liked it more that she was irredeemable. Seemed more fitting for someone so set in their ways yk

Yup, lots of drama in Ichigo's inner world to come lol

The Vandenriech won't be involved most likely but yeah Aizen will have some part to play near the end of the story

Thanks again dude, appreciate that

Comment from Shani-Fan: Guess he's going to protect the world himself in the shadow like TMNT.
Wonder if he's leading some Skull Reaper Squad ?
( don't tell me someone like Lieutenant or Yumi going to join him ? )

Reply: Now bringing the Lieutenant back would be pretty cool and yeah Yumi will have a larger role in Book 4 for sure. I love the idea that she's a former Equalist who was given airbending when Korra left the portals open so I wanna explore that more and other things with her character

Comment from miquelbettencourt2004: I wanted to know, will Aizen return to Korra's world? Are you thinking of doing the arc quincy? if so how are you thinking of putting war, division 0, quincys and YHWACH? If YHWACH appears who will fight him in Souls Society? since Yamamoto was a fundamental piece

Reply: Right now, don't think I'll be including the Quincies or Yhwach at all in the story but yes Aizen will appear

Comment from Shani-Fan: Hmmm.
After this story is finished do you have in mind another crossover story?
Like
1. Tales of Arcadia - Trollhunters & 3Below & Wizard
2. Dragon Prince
3. The Mandalorian

Reply: I do have a Percy Jackson and Young Justice crossover on my profile but that story's really old and pretty crap haha. I plan to rewrite it one day and then release it again. I've also thought of doing a Star Wars story but most likely the next story would be a Game of Thrones one because I love that story, the books especially so I would want to write about that