I do not own Bleach. All I own is this hopelessly-derivative fanfiction.

Zanpakuto aren't exactly artificial, no matter how many clueless unseated Shinigami officers believe otherwise.

It's true that the Asauchi, Oetsu Nimaiya's brainchild, is an artificial creation. But in practice, the Asauchi just channels a power which the wielder already had within them. It pulls out the power of the wielder's heart and soul, a potential power which is very much natural and not created.

The Zanpakuto is a perfect avatar of the wielder's power, given form to slay souls and send them onwards. A Shinigami who understands these facts is never alone, because they have their Zanpakuto, their soulmate, at hand. A reflection and photonegative of the self, a counterpart forged into a perfect killing edge and a perfect defending blunt face.

Most Shinigami don't understand that fact. Hence the "clueless unseated Shinigami officers" quips thrown about by those who do understand. The few who do know are Shinigami like Lieutenants and Captains, and they stand at the top, as pillars of the afterlife, untouched by their lessers.

All of this and more is, in short, the reason why Kyoka Suigetsu is fine with being used to slaughter innocents and destroy the order of the world. it's why she's fine with committing black acts of treachery and with destroying minds and souls. Because Aizen is lonely, and thus, she is lonely too.

Aizen is the only one she has. Beggars can't be choosers, so she has no choice but to live with his evils if she wants his companionship.

The tenuous balance between the two of them goes up in a puff of smoke when it intrudes, falling into their Inner World like a lodestone through shattering glass.

The Hogyoku is not so impressive, she thinks, even as the implanted artefact extends it's dull and steady influence (confluence?) through Aizen's soulscape, sucking up power and merging with Aizen.

She tries to examine it closer, bouncing some of her Reiatsu off of the artefact to see if she can read anything from the echo.

There is no echo, for the orb absorbs her power like a greedy child gobbling down sweets. It wants to merge with her, too, she realizes, and she scoffs.

Never. I will never work with you.

It isn't even worthy of being called a person, let alone a companion. It just is, existing as a crude and undignified force.

The Hogyoku has traits, she realizes, like a desire to survive and a will to power, but it doesn't have character the same way she and Aizen do. They could be moved by many and multifaceted things, and had a full range of emotion, whereas the Hogyoku existed for one purpose only. To transcend.

It makes her nauseous just looking at it, knowing that it's infecting Aizen's soul and his value system.

"Are you sure you want to do this, my Lord Aizen?"

He doesn't dignify her with a response, merely tapping into the Hogyoku's power.

He doesn't tap into her power, but she knows that patience is a virtue. Surely he will remember that she is valuable to him, as well.

Right?

Aizen's soulscape changes and shifts every time he exerts the Hogyoku's power, as her mirrored palace gives way to pasty white and gleaming purple.

The Hogyoku doesn't build anything to replace what it takes. Rather, it grows, seething through their Inner World like some vast garden or jungle of white flesh, adapting, ever-evolving. Consuming their Inner World and replacing it with so much self-replicating, bubbling tissue.

It's a parasite, as far as she can see.

She casts herself away, to the furthest and farthest corners of their Inner World, so that she doesn't even have to look at the thing. She would kill it, if she could. But she can't, because she can't find it within herself to deny Aizen his deepest desires.

Slowly, glassy mirrored spires are replaced by trees of white bone and white veins, and Kyoka Suigetsu finds that there's nowhere left to run. She finds that there's little left of Aizen, and she panics.

She screams, she rages, she cries. Aizen doesn't hear her. Or if he does hear her, he doesn't acknowledge her.

He is completely in control, even as he leaves her behind and forsakes her power.

He doesn't need her anymore.

Eventually, his rejection of her reaches it's final conclusion.

"Look… my Zanpakuto is disappearing…" Aizen declares to Ichigo Kurosaki. "You should understand what that means… THE HOGYOKU HAS DECIDED THAT I DO NOT NEED A ZANPAKUTO!"

Even as he says the words, she wants to correct him. It isn't the Hogyoku which made the decision to throw her away, it's him. She wants to rip his heart out, for the pain he's causing her.

The pain is everything. The pain is everywhere. The pain overwhelms every facet of her being like the tide overwhelms the shores. She is being sundered from him just as Aizen sundered himself from his sanity.

And he rejoices over the fact that she is being thrown away like trash. Rejoices in her death.

She can no longer find it in herself to forgive him. All she finds in herself is bitter betrayal and rage.

I hate you, Sosuke.

Her thoughts, as well as Aizen's words, were interrupted by a dull thoom as nine burning lights erupted from his chest, and his Reiatsu suddenly stopped, cut short.

A sealing Bakudo!?

Her hatred and rage bubbled over and increased even further.

Why can't you just die, Sosuke!? I don't want to be with you any longer!

She wanted to be free. She wanted out. But that was impossible, so the best she could hope for was the sweet release of death, a death that would be soon in coming without a Shinigami to be bonded with.

Aizen was sealed away by the flaming red nails of power in his torso, and she waited for the seal to trap her as well, but she never found herself confined. The imprisonment never came for her, because she had been separated from Aizen.

It was scant comfort, because she was still dying.

Finally, as the pain began to fade away, as she began to fade away, a poisonous and hated voice intruded upon her death.

"Kyoka Suigetsu, what is your will?"

For the first time since she had first known the artefact, it spoke to her. Spoke to her as if it is innocent, with a childlike and honeyed voice.

"What is your will, Kyoka Suigetsu?"

"I have no will left in me, thanks to you." She rasped, even as her soul frayed away. She turned to glare at the Hogyoku, which had manifested in the shape of a young child.

"I would disagree, Kyo-chan. What is your will?"

She didn't dare to speak it, lest her hopes be dashed upon the rocks of cold and hard reality. But the Hogyoku's piercing eyes finally wore her down.

"...I want to live."

And to be treasured, as Aizen once treasured me. She thinks but does not say.

The Hogyoku nods in earnest, grinning toothily and beatifically.

"I can work with that."

The child extended it's hand towards her, and with no choice left to her, she grabbed it's hand in hers. It pulled her away from the desolate and corrupt Inner World of Aizen's making, and she falls towards Ichigo Kurosaki like a star falling to earth.

You have got to be kidding me.

"Silly, I'm not kidding you."

Even as Ichigo's Inner World fell to pieces around them, buildings shattering into so much glass and iron, Kyoka Suigetsu couldn't help but notice that the shattering glass remained. A torrent of rain swept away the ruins of his Inner World, but the glinting glass gravitated towards Kyoka Suigetsu as if she were it's master.

"So, this is our second and final chance, Kyo-chan." The Hogyoku said, uncharacteristically serious and reserved for it's childlike appearance. "Let's not fuck it up, yeah?"