Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.

Here it is, the actual, final chapter. When I started this I didn't expect it to be more than five chapters. Proves yet again that I'm terrible at estimating story length, but considering that I never plan or outline anything and just go where 'the flow' takes me, I guess it's inevitable.

With that said, here it is. Enjoy.

A Spartan Encounter

Chapter 8: Revelations of a Soul, Part II

Her awakening came with some confusion. As her heavy eyelids cracked open she was greeted with the sterile white decor that just screamed hospital room, and there was a steady beeping coming from her left. She was groggy but when her mind began to focus she confirmed that she was indeed in a hospital room. She felt a sense of muted discomfort and a heaviness that suggested she was on some amount of pain medication.

She began to take stock of the injuries she knew she had taken in the fight with Cinder and she could feel the dulled pain at the site of the various burns she had received. Looking to the end of the bed she could see her bandaged foot and ankle suspended in a sling and gently supported with a pillow. It didn't really feel too bad until she tried to move it a little and quickly decided not to do that again.

Her left hand and the entirety of her right arm were bandaged and she had no recollection of what had happened to them. The last thing that she remembered was an arrow headed for the centre of her chest and then everything went black. Trying to move her right arm was a very uncomfortable proposition so she used her left, hooking her thumb into the neck of her hospital gown and raising it up. There was a bandage covering her sternum so she had taken some sort of a hit there, but wouldn't an arrow have done more damage than what that dressing suggested?

Considering how easily one went through her shield and then her ankle, shouldn't one to the chest have done considerable damage if not outright killing her? And how did she hurt her left hand and right arm? As groggy as she was she was positive that she didn't have those injuries when everything went black.

Not knowing was disturbing. Given what she knew the circumstances suggested that she should be dead so how had she escaped that end? She was grateful that she had but she would really like to know how. It seemed obvious that someone must have intervened and saved her but that seemed almost impossible considering how close that arrow was when she blacked out. It was wishful thinking that Ichigo had been involved in it since she still couldn't feel him. She still felt empty and very much alone.

She soon found herself drifting in and out of a light sleep, likely due to whatever medication they had given her. About an hour later the doctor came in to check on her and was glad to see that she was awake. She was shocked to find out that she had been unconscious for the better part of two days. The doctor detailed all of her injuries and was happy to say that they were beginning to heal very well as her Aura steadily recovered.

The doctor's only concern was with her Aura itself and the problem was something that she had not encountered before. Like all forms of energy, a person's Aura had a wavelength and just like fingerprints it was unique to each individual. At the beginning of each semester at the academies they did a test to determine the state of each student's Aura. They were able to chart its growth as well as how much Aura there was. It also allowed them to discover if there were any problems such as slow recovery and any side effects if a student had suffered a severe Aura depletion. As a matter of course they had checked her Aura when she was admitted and they had found a variance in its wavelength.

More than just a variance, it seemed that the wavelength was actually changing which was something that it was not known to do. The doctor opened a medical issue scroll and showed her the comparison between the wavelength graph from her last test at the start of Beacon's second semester and the one they had taken when she was admitted. They had been taking constant readings for the last twenty four hours and in that time her Aural wavelength had continued to change. She could see for herself on the overlay of the graph readings that it was indeed different.

According to the doctor it didn't seem to be having any negative effects on her. Her Aura readings were steadily approaching the level from her last scan as she recovered and seemed to be otherwise acting as expected while it worked to heal all of her wounds.

There didn't seem to be any reason for alarm but the doctor was hoping to get in touch with General Ironwood and have some of the medical personnel that had accompanied him to Vale have a look, an option made possible under the circumstances since many of them were helping out with the wounded from the attack. The Kingdom of Atlas was a world leader in Aura research, as Pyrrha herself had discovered not so long ago, so it made sense to have someone who was privy to that research take a look at her readings. For obvious reasons she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that.

Unless the scientists in Atlas had found something that said otherwise, she knew from her basic education about Aura that exposure to another person's Aura wouldn't cause something like that, but she asked the doctor anyway. At worst, exposure to another Aura, say through a transfer to bolster her own if hers was very low or she was badly hurt, would only affect the wavelength reading for a few minutes. Perhaps maybe a few hours if it was a large transfer but it had never been seen to do anything like this.

She didn't tell the doctor the true nature of her contact with another Aura but she couldn't help but wonder if her brief contact with Amber's wasn't to blame for this. She had at least some of the Maiden's power left within her and her Aura, her very soul, had been damaged by what Cinder had done to her. Would that be enough to make her own Aura begin to change and did it have anything to do with her loss of contact with Ichigo?

If it wasn't harmful and her Aura was otherwise recovering and functioning normally that was good, but it was also still an unknown phenomenon and it worried her. She was afraid that this change was the thing that was keeping her from being able to sense Ichigo and she didn't even want to contemplate the thought that it was doing something harmful to him. That notion was going to eat away at her like a cancer if she couldn't keep a level head about it. Still, that possibility didn't prevent her from continuing to try and push contact with him and trying to get to their inner world.

The next morning after breakfast she got her first visitor. She saw a red hooded head peeking around the edge of the door to her room just as the doctor was finishing up checking her wounds, which were continuing to heal at a good and steady rate.

"Hello Ruby," she greeted the girl after the doctor gave her the okay to go in as she left.

"Hey Pyrrha. How are you feeling?" she asked as she sat in the chair beside the bed. She was carrying a bag that she set down between her feet and it made heavy clunk as it contacted the floor.

"The doctor says my Aura is almost fully restored and I'm healing very well," she answered. "If all goes well there's a good chance I might get released tomorrow, although I'm not sure where I'll go."

"Oh, you can stay at my place on Patch!" Ruby excitedly told her. "My Dad has offered to take our teams in so that we can all stay together."

"That's very generous but I wouldn't want to impose."

"You won't be," Ruby assured her. "You'll be a welcome guest. It's safe and quiet on Patch and my Dad really wants to meet and get to know our friends and team mates. Yang says he's probably compensating a little because he missed us so much while we've been at school." Ruby grinned. "He denies it but I think she's right."

"Is everyone alright?" she asked.

"I'm okay and so is Jaune," she began. "Ren and Nora got banged up but nothing serious. Weiss is exhausted and her nerves are kind of shot. Her Dad showed up and tried to force her to go back to Atlas but she refused to go. It was a really loud and nasty argument and he said some really awful things to her and I think it took everything she had to not give in to him. I think he was going to have his bodyguards drag her onto his airship if Professor Goodwitch and General Ironwood hadn't interrupted."

"That's awful," Pyrrha responded. "It must have been very hard for her. She has never said very much about her Father but I always got the impression that she was afraid of him."

"She is," Ruby confirmed. "She told us a little more about her relationship with him afterwards and defying him terrified her." Ruby smiled. "But she said that she has you to thank for finding the courage to do it."

Pyrrha was puzzled. "Me?"

Ruby nodded. "She said that when you told us what life as a celebrity had been like for you she found a lot of similarities in her own life. You were able to break away from everyone wanting to control everything you did and she said she was inspired by that. It was still pretty hard for her to do and she was really scared but she did it."

"It was hard and scary," Pyrrha admitted. "It still is at times actually but it gets easier, especially if you have someone to support you." She hadn't told them then and couldn't tell Ruby now that the only reason she was able to do it was because of Ichigo's encouragement and support. "What about Yang and Blake?" she asked.

Ruby seemed to wilt a little at the question. "During the fight Blake got separated from Yang and Weiss for a while and when they found her she was hurt. She ran into Adam Taurus, her old partner from the White Fang. They fought and he had stabbed her with his sword." She had to take a breath and it looked like she was almost on the verge of tears. "Yang lost it and attacked and he nearly cut her arm off. He would have if Weiss hadn't tried to freeze him with an ice glyph. They were saved by a Grimm of all things. An Ursa felt their fear and his hatred and charged in. They got away while he fought it and he didn't chase them. I think that's when the White Fang started to leave."

"Is she alright?!" Pyrrha asked, her own misery quickly shunted aside. "What about Blake? What about you?"

"The sword cut through her right bicep and into the bone," Ruby explained. "The doctors said the wound was clean. They operated and everything went good so it's up to her Aura now. Blake's stab wound wasn't too serious, thankfully the blade didn't hit anything vital. Yang was pretty down about it... I guess you would be if you almost lost your arm... and Blake was blaming herself because Adam and the White Fang was part of her past and she was going to run away again but Weiss wouldn't let her. They all started arguing and I couldn't stop them and..." she stopped and took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes, calming herself back down. "Luckily my Dad showed up and he locked himself in the room with them for like an hour and made them work it out. Quietly. The doctors were kind of mad about all the noise."

"What about you Ruby? How are you doing?"

"I had just had a few bumps and bruises but they're all gone!" she said with renewed cheer. She quailed though under the look Pyrrha gave her. "I...was scared. I am scared and have been since I caught back up with them at the airship docks and saw that Blake and Yang were hurt. This is the first time any of us have gotten seriously hurt and I wasn't there for them. Maybe if I had been things would have been different."

"Or maybe they wouldn't," Pyrrha said. "There's no way to know. Second guessing yourself doesn't lead to anything good. The important thing is that despite some of us getting hurt, we're all still alive." She just wished she could apply her own sentiments to herself when it came to second guessing.

"I guess you're right," Ruby agreed, perking back up a little.

"So where did you end up anyway after you jumped out of the airship...little Miss Reckless?"

"Ehehe," Ruby stammered, nervously rubbing the back of her head. "I ended up on top of General Ironwood's ship fighting Roman Torchwick and his partner Neo. I was...kind of at their mercy but I managed to make her parasol open and the wind pulled her off the ship." She started to talk faster, as she was prone to do. "Roman got really mad and kept hitting me with his cane...I got separated from Crescent Rose...and he was giving some speech about how he was a survivor and I think my Aura was about to break and then a Griffon ate him."

She blinked at Ruby, the girl looking on sheepishly as she processed the torrent of words. "I seem to remember telling you not to do anything too reckless...but I suppose since you didn't get hurt I can't be too angry with you." That earned an embarrassed smile from the silver eyed girl. "So, what are things like at the school and in the city?"

"There's a lot of damage in the parts of the city closest to the school and to the school itself. Right now the school grounds are still off limits," Ruby answered. "Our professors and Uncle Qrow are clearing out the Grimm on campus and a lot of them ran or flew off after that dragon was killed. Oh! You were in the tower, did you see what happened? Did you kill it?"

"Wait," she said, halting the girl before she could get carried away. "How do you know I was in the tower?"

"We were at the airship pad when we saw the dragon die and a few minutes later Weiss's scroll rang," Ruby explained. "It was Jaune. He was all in a panic and said you were in the tower fighting Cinder and said you needed help. We left Yang and Blake with Ren and Nora and Weiss and I rushed over to the tower."

"That fool!" she seethed. "He didn't think I could take her on but instead of finding a trained and experienced Huntsman or Huntress like he was told to, he sends two other first year students?! His friends no less! I nearly got killed trying to buy them time for nothing!"

"Uh, Pyrrha...are you okay?" Ruby asked.

"Jaune was supposed to be looking for Professor Goodwitch, General Ironwood, or your Uncle," she said tightly. "Not sending another inexperienced Huntress to die. I was trying to delay her until someone who might actually be able to beat her showed up."

Ruby gave her a puzzled look. "But you didn't die and you must have beat her or at least ran her off. When I found you I...I also found her arm in a pool of blood and she was nowhere around."

"I didn't die but I should have," she said, shocking the girl. "Cinder defeated me Ruby. She destroyed Milo and Akuo and shot an arrow through my ankle. I was at her mercy and she fired an arrow at my chest." She pulled the top of her gown down enough to show Ruby the bandage. "I blacked out before it hit me. The doctor said the wound was very shallow but that shouldn't be possible. That arrow should have sunk deep in my chest and killed me. I don't know why it didn't and I don't know what happened after that. The dragon was still alive perched on the edge of the tower at that time so I don't know what or who killed it."

"I don't know if it means anything or not," Ruby said as she picked up the bag she had brought and reached inside. "But we found this underneath you."

She pulled out a bronze skeletal mask that was obviously made from shards of her shield. Over the left side of the forehead were three nearly black, dark grey strips of steel. Her eyes went wide and she nearly forgot to breathe. She took the mask in both shaking hands, ignoring the discomfort from her still healing wounds and stared at it in shock and disbelief. The colour scheme was different but it otherwise looked just like one of the Hollow masks she had seen in Ichigo's memories.

She began to tremble all over, trying and failing to choke off a sob as tears started to roll down her cheeks. She hugged the mask to her chest, virtually clenching herself around it. She let out a mournful, strangled wail and began to sob openly.

"Pyrrha..." Ruby began, having no idea what was happening or what she should do. She ended up doing the only thing she could. She sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped her arms around her friend and held her as she cried.


Dusk was falling outside her window as she sat idly watching the stars become visible in the ever darkening sky. She was propped up in bed, her left leg drawn up and the mask laying atop her knee. She had worried Ruby pretty badly, crying so long and so hard that the girl was going to go find a doctor until she wrapped her arms around her and begged her not to. At that moment her friend was her lifeline, the only thing in that moment that was keeping her from losing her grip on her sanity. Her own adorable, rose scented, silver eyed teddy bear that she clung to for dear life until she was finally able to calm down.

She apologized to Ruby and told her that when she was able, and she wasn't sure when that would be, she would explain about the mask and everything that surrounded it and she would prefer to tell it to everyone all at once. She didn't know if she'd be able to tell it more than once. Ruby was concerned and curious but she accepted it. She also asked Ruby to apologize to the others for her, she was far too exhausted now to have any other visitors and she could always see everyone the next day after she was discharged.

Exhaustion was the truth, but she also didn't trust herself at the moment to hold her tongue when she saw Jaune. She would need to be a lot calmer before she saw him and she didn't want to say something that she would regret. She was angry but she wanted to know all of the particulars first. She wanted to know why he had called Weiss, and by extension Ruby, instead of doing what had been asked of him and she wanted to know if he even tried to after he made that call.

She turned her head and looked down at the mask. Ichigo had saved her. The only explanation that made sense was that somehow he had taken over her body like his Hollow used to do to him and he had saved her from that certainly fatal arrow. He had killed the Grimm Wyvern and he had fought and defeated Cinder. He had saved her but she still couldn't feel even the slightest trace of his presence.

Had he been there, aware but unable to contact her, or had he lost his sense of individual self and reacted on pure instinct like the part of him that was a Hollow would demand? Which one was the case now after what he had done? Did the fact that her Aural wavelength was changing mean that he was losing his self awareness or was it something else?

All she knew for sure was that she couldn't feel a trace of him no matter how hard she tried and it hurt worse than anything else she had ever known. She knew that Ichigo wouldn't want her to close herself off or basically just stop progressing. He would want her to continue to move forward and make the life for herself that she wanted. The way she felt right now she didn't know how possible that was. If this was the way it was going to be from now on she could only hope that it got better with time but it was going to take a lot of time before that was going to happen, if it ever did.


Moving forward was a difficult thing, although she may have been expecting too much too soon despite knowing that trying to do so wasn't going to be easy or quick. Seeing everyone together after she got out of the hospital was good. Everyone was doing well, or at least as well as could be expected. Blake seemed to be wracked by guilt and Yang wasn't her usual pun-tastic self. She held her tongue but couldn't help but give Jaune a bit of the stink eye and she wasn't sure if he was cluing in as to why or not.

He got the clue on the ferry trip to Patch, when he came up to her after she had limped out of the passenger lounge to the rail to get some fresh air and clear her head. He followed her out and asked what was wrong...and she told him. She didn't yell or even raise her voice, but the hard quality of her voice more than got her feelings of displeasure across to him.

As it turned out he did find Goodwitch, Ironwood, and Qrow only a few minutes after he called Weiss. His landing spot had been fortunate in that it had almost taken him right to them. If he had went to them right away there was no guarantee that they would have arrived before Ichigo had to step in and save her. It was possible but not a sure thing. However they very likely would have arrived in time to prevent Cinder from ultimately getting away.

He was fortunate that she was able to contain herself as well as she did or else he might have found himself swimming to Patch. In an episode of his occasional thick headed thinking, he claimed he'd do the same again if it meant saving her. She told him in terms he couldn't help but understand that he hadn't saved her, that she was literally a second from death when she blacked out and someone else had fought Cinder and run her off. If not for that he would have most certainly sent Ruby and maybe even Weiss straight to their death. It was close enough to the truth.

He was pale and looked sick...and it wasn't just from the rocking of the boat...when that reality finally sunk in. She supposed that she really couldn't or shouldn't blame him for anything, be it what happened in the vault when he was supposed to be standing guard, or in going and getting help. He was still a kid, just like the rest of them and had the added disadvantage of have the least experience out of them all. What happened that day was far and above anything they would have otherwise encountered as first year students barely into their second semester.

They docked in Patch late in the afternoon and headed directly for Ruby and Yang's home, so any shopping for necessities would have to wait until the next day. With no access to their dorm rooms everyone would need a few basic items and they hadn't been able to pick anything up on their way out of Vale either. Nearly everything was still closed down until a final sweep had been made to ensure there were no Grimm in the city, so anything they needed they would have to get from the handful of small stores on Patch.

While all of them needed things like a toothbrush and extra undergarments, she had the added problem of needing clothes in general. Everyone else could get by with their battle gear until they could get some extra clothes, but she couldn't do that. Besides not being great for everyday or casual wear, the laces up the back of her armoured corset had mostly been burned through and there were a number of burn holes in her skirt.

Currently she was stuck in a set of medical scrubs and shower sandals the hospital had let her have. Embarrassingly, she didn't even have any underwear. She could only imagine the teasing she would have gotten from Ichigo and she would have given anything to hear it no matter how many shades of red it would have made her turn. If Yang had been her usual self she surely would have teased her enough on her own to make up for it.

Ruby's enthusiasm about showing her where she grew up did manage to lift her out of her down mood a little bit, even getting her to smile a little as the girl babbled away. The island seemed to be just as she had said, quiet and peaceful and the roomy home nestled in the woods only amplified that sense. She liked her home city of Argus, but how many times while on the verge of being overwhelmed by everything about her life had she dreamed of having a place like this to go to and get away from it all, even for just a little while.

Ruby and Yang's father seemed nice, if not a little eccentric. It was obvious that he loved his daughters very much but wasn't above teasing and embarrassing them, especially if he could get the group as a whole to laugh. That seemed to be his aim, to help lighten the mood for everyone. As a veteran Huntsman it was safe to say that he had most certainly seen a lot bad things and had a lot of bad experiences and saw laughter as good a way as any to try and get through it. She had to admit that it did help a little but it didn't take long for her to slip back into her ever darkening and fragile state of mind.

She tried to not let it show but she wasn't too sure how successful she was being at that. She even allowed herself to be the butt end of a few jokes when she borrowed some clothes from Yang since nothing really fit. She ended up with a pair of shorts since anything long stopped well above her ankles, and a t-shirt that was a little tight. Her bust may not have been a big as Yang's but she was bigger through the shoulders so the overall effect was the same.

She also had to get a haircut, losing about half of the length of her ponytail and getting a few other spots trimmed out a little. Cinder's fireballs had singed her hair several times and it was looking a little ragged. Ren turned out to be pretty good with a pair of scissors, since trimming Nora's hair was long practised task of his.

There was a time where she might have been embarrassed by such things like the ill fitting clothes and messed up hair, even in the company of friends, but that was long past. Once again she found herself missing the teasing from within that she surely would have gotten. She had trouble sleeping that night, her mind refusing to stop searching for any sign of Ichigo or a way into their inner world.

It affected her mood all the next day, getting lost within that feeling that part of her was missing. Through a trip into town where she acquired some clothes, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and sweatshirt, and a pair of running shoes. The clothes were all men's since there were no women's clothes in the store to fit someone as tall as her, though fortunately that wasn't an issue with undergarments. Even right through lunch and the trip back she found herself apologizing several times for making someone repeat themselves because she was distracted or for lagging behind. She was on crutches to keep the pressure off of her ankle for another few days as it finished healing but she had been keeping up just fine the day before.

She could tell that they were all concerned about her and she hated making them worry. They didn't pry but it was clear that they didn't know what was bothering her or what to do about it. She wanted to tell them what was going on with her just as she had promised Ruby she would when she felt able, but she couldn't even begin to get the words out of her mouth without feeling like she was going to come apart at the seams.

Early on the third morning, again after a night with little to no sleep, she got up and quietly exited the house, mask in hand, and sat on a stump out in the front yard and idly gazed at the gradually lightening sky. The sound of the birds singing as the sun rose was something that normally would have put a contented smile on her face but it was barely registering in her mind.

With every day that passed she felt more and more empty, like the hole inside of her was growing and she felt so lonely despite being surround by her friends. This loneliness might even be worse than what she was feeling before she first heard Ichigo's voice, worse because it was accompanied by such a sense of loss and longing. Hearing him and getting to know him, falling in love with him, it had all brought so much to her life. So much that was good and that allowed her to become stronger and able to stand on her own. So much that had made her happy.

She had been wondering if maybe on that evening atop the wall in Argus if the pressure and the loneliness hadn't finally become too much for her and her mind had snapped. In an effort to cope she had manufactured a delusion and Ichigo became her constant companion, her confidant, her best friend. That reliable presence that she could count on to help her face her fears and learn to stand up and take control of her life. Someone who would joke and tease and treat her like a normal person, not place her upon a pedestal like an untouchable idol to be admired but never known.

But it couldn't have been a delusion. It was all too real, every detail too vivid to her senses and her emotions. She had seen and experienced things that her mind would not have been able to replicate in a delusion because they were unknowns to her. The whole spectrum of memories that were his, the sights that she saw there, even if some of them were familiar from the culture in Mistral. The names of all of his friends were names that were foreign to her, she had never heard any of them anywhere before.

She had never been held or kissed by a boy before and there was nothing in her memory and experience that could be recreated in a delusion to emulate how that felt either physically or emotionally.

It was real, all of it, and the pain of losing it was one she didn't think she could bear. She looked at the mask cradled in her lap and cursed herself as her tears fell upon it. She cursed herself for ever agreeing to try and take on the remaining powers of the Fall Maiden. After the excruciating pain of the initial contact with Amber's torn and ragged soul came the sudden and horrifying emptiness of no longer being able to feel Ichigo. No matter how desperately she called out to him and tried to find his, she couldn't. It felt like a part of her had been brutally torn out, leaving behind a gaping and bleeding wound.

But he had still been there somewhere and this mask was proof. She had been a heartbeat away from death and he had saved her. After getting over the shock and despair of seeing the mask for the first time there had been a brief spark of hope, but no matter how hard she tried she still couldn't find him or feel any trace of him. If anything she felt even emptier, even more hollow than she had before.

"Ichigo," she sobbed raggedly as she clutched the mask to her chest. "I'm sorry! It's my fault...I shouldn't have done it...I should have said no. If I had you'd still be here. I'd still be able to feel you. We could still train together. We could still sit by the lake or go swimming. We could go skinny dipping and you could tease me until I was a stuttering mess and I chased you around." She took a shuddering breath.

"We could hold each other and sit up all night talking and watching the moon. I could kiss you and tell you I loved you and you could tell me that you loved me. I could fall asleep on your shoulder and everything would be wonderful."

She sobbed heavily, nearly doubled over and rocked back and forth. The dam burst entirely and she wailed in agony. It was all she could do to breathe and not choke as the pain flooded through her in waves. She raised her face to the sky and screamed, raw visceral emotional agony echoed through the trees and shattered the otherwise quiet and peaceful morning.

She held the mask even tighter to herself, her voice was now ragged and barely audible. "Please Ichigo, I'm sorry! Forgive me...please come back...don't leave me alone. I don't want to be alone again..." Shaking, shuddering, her heart shattering, she raised her face to the sky once more.

"Ichigo!"

There was a thunderous crack and a column of brilliant blue light erupted around her, bringing her friends to a halt on the porch as they had all come scrambling out of the house at the sound of her screams. A strong wind buffeted them as the column of energy that pierced the heavens began to swirl around her. It seemed to push against them, against their very souls. It was a heavy feeling and it wasn't harmful but every one of them could instinctively feel the tinge of raw power that it emanated and they couldn't move against it to go to her.

Tendrils of black and red energy lazily rose up, twisting and flowing around her on their way upward where they mingled with the blue, gradually darkening it. Eyes wide and still streaming tears, Pyrrha couldn't move, could barely breathe. She could feel him! This was Ichigo's energy, his power! She didn't know what was happening, couldn't really even process it. All she knew was that she could feel him again and it was the greatest feeling in the world.

She was so enraptured by it that she didn't even notice when the vortex had become too opaque to see anything outside of it. Suddenly in the literal blink of an eye there was someone standing in front of her. Her heart very nearly stopped at the recognition of who it was.

Standing before her was Ichigo, dressed in the Shinigami uniform she had seen in his memories. The black shihakusho with a white harness like attachment that covered his shoulders, crossing his chest in an X shape and extending all the way down to his hips. On his left shoulder was a three sectioned plate adorned in red scales. Behind it and sticking up over his shoulder was the handle of his large sword. On his right hip was another similar plate with his smaller blade sheathed there. A white cloak with black markings was tied around his waist.

"Hey Red," he said softly, a gentle smile on his lips and loving warmth in his brown eyes. "Sorry for being a little late."

Her heart was hammering in her chest and she was on the verge of hyperventilating. Despite that and her still healing ankle she managed to launch herself at him. He caught her and she wrapped her arms around him and held on with everything she had.

"Ichigo!" she cried, tucking her head down against his neck. "I couldn't feel you!" she sobbed. "I tried to reach you but I couldn't. I couldn't find you."

He held her a little tighter and blanketed her in the power of his soul. "I'm here now Pyrrha and I'm not going anywhere. We won't ever be separated again."

It took a few minutes for her to calm down enough to be able to speak again, though she was still shaking. She pulled back just far enough to be able to look at his face. "Where were you Berryhead? How are you able to be outside like this?"

"When what was left of Amber's soul made contact it was like I got hit by lightning," he began. "It ended up knocking me out of the inner world but I didn't go into the pure energy form of the soul, I stayed the way I was and was surrounded by my soul's energy."

"Has that ever happened before?" she asked.

"Never," he responded. "I even tried to exit the inner world in this form but it never worked. I found a tear that the contact with Amber must have made but that didn't make sense. How can you make a tear in a mass of energy like that? I looked inside the tear and there was a... pocket I guess you'd call it. Inside was a big ball of energy, it was a different colour, orange, and it was attached to my energy. It looked like it was sitting in a spider's web."

"And you never knew anything was there?" she was worried about what this might be.

"It was hidden within my own energy, completely blanketed by it so I never knew it was there. I couldn't feel anything coming from it but the closer I got the heavier and more ominous my own energy felt. It was protecting it. I reached out and touched it and in a flash I knew and understood what it was and why it was there."

He took both of her hands in his and he was smiling. She gave him a puzzled look. "Ichigo?"

"What I found was your soul," he told her. "Your true soul Pyrrha." Her eyes went wide. "It's not self aware like I am...and it's two souls that merged together to become one. It's actually a perfect fit. With no connection to them you grew up to have similar traits to both of them."

"You know who they are!" she gasped.

He nodded. "It's Orihime and Tatsuki. I think when the dimensions were falling apart Orihime tried to use her power to stop it or affect it somehow but there's no way that she could, not even with the desperate resolve she must have felt. In the end I think she reached out for the two souls she had the deepest feelings for and that was me and Tatsuki. They always had a connection, Tatsuki could feel Orihime's presence when she was in any of the dimensions except Hueco Mundo. They ended up wrapped up in my power and we survived, maybe because of my hybrid nature, or because of how much power I have. Maybe because of Orihime's power...or all of it together. I don't know. However we did it, we did survive and eventually came to you. The Princess and her Dragon, together as one just as they should be. This is your true soul Pyrrha and I can't think of a better or more fitting one for you."

Tears were streaming again but they weren't tears of sorrow. She touched his face. "So this means that you can come out into the world now."

He nodded. "Not just come out, stay out. We spent the last few days disconnecting your true soul from me and embedding it in you. I still have a soul connection to you and I think we can still share an inner world but I can now live on the outside. What we hoped would happen some day has Pyrrha. We can be together for real. Well, more real lets say."

She closed her eyes and smiled in pure bliss. Then stopped and her head tilted. "You said we. I thought my real soul wasn't self aware?"

"It isn't," he grinned.

Her eyes widened. "Your spirits?! You found your spirits again?!"

"They were guarding that soul," he explained. "And waiting for the time to come when it would be discovered and could take my place. Apparently we were on the right track, getting you to be able to tap into and use my power would have gotten us there eventually. Trying to take in the rest of the Fall Maiden's power just sped things up."

"It was a painful shortcut," she lamented. "I thought I had lost you. It hurt so badly. When I figured out that you had saved me from Cinder it hurt even worse when I still couldn't feel you."

He smirked and thumbed a line of tears from her cheek. "I'm not that easy to get rid of. I heard you call out for me and we took control of you." He laid the palm of his hand gently over the centre of her chest. "We were almost too late. We used Blut Vene to stop the arrow but it had already slightly pierced your chest." He lightly grasped her still bandaged left hand. "We pulled it out just before she made it burn but we hurt your hand by doing that." He gently grasped her other hand. "This happened when I launched a Getsuga Tensho to kill the Grimm. I used as little power as I could to kill it but it was still more than your body could take. I'm sorry, the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you."

"Don't be," she said softly. "I'm alive and you're here, that's all that matters." She frowned slightly. "But, how are you able to have a body in the physical world, You're a soul right?"

"It's because of the way Remnant was formed from the other worlds," he said. "Except for the world of the living, all of the others were made up of reishi which is a type of spiritual energy. Everything, even a soul body was made of it. Plus the amount of other spiritual energies was pretty much immeasurable. Remnant feels just like a spiritual dimension to me so I was able to form my spiritual body outside of you."

She gave him a bit of a smirk. "I thought you didn't know much about all that stuff?"

"I don't," he admitted. "But Tensa does. He explained it to me."

"Tensa? she asked.

"Both spirits are Zangetsu so we decided they needed names of their own besides that. The Old Man decided to use his bankai name rather than any of the names that come from the Quincy Emperor and the Hollow decided Shiro was good. Obvious, but good."

"I'd like to meet them sometime," she smiled.

"Don't worry, you will," he promised.

"How bout now," another voice chimed in.

Suddenly there was Ichigo's negative image twin standing to his right. She 'eeped' and would have stumbled back if Ichigo hadn't still been holding onto her.

"And of course the name's obvious," Shiro snarked. "Gotta keep it simple so an idiot like you will remember. You've always been shit at remembering names King."

"You sure it's not so that you would remember it?" Ichigo jabbed back.

"Even he isn't so dense as to forget his own name," another voice spoke as Tensa appeared to Ichigo's left. "Though I could be wrong."

"Go stand on a flagpole," Shiro said with a smirk. "Oh wait, you like doing that."

Ichigo just shook his head and she smiled. "I'm honoured to finally be able to meet you both," she said.

"The honour is mine," Tensa said. "And I must thank you. I have not seen Ichigo this happy in a very long time."

"Yeah, thanks for making this dumb ass finally notice the opposite sex," Shiro said, thanking her in his own way. "Too dense to notice all the hot babes around him until the hottest of the bunch comes along. At least he finally woke up."

Pyrrha blushed furiously.

"Seriously," Shiro said, and he was being completely serious, momentarily stunning his counterparts. "Thanks. Even I don't like seeing him all moody and unhappy and thanks to you he's anything but. He told you how it would rain in his soul and why...I don't think we're gonna have to worry about that much."

He had told her and she'd seen and felt it in his memories so she knew exactly what it meant. It made her heart swell to think that she was able to keep that rain from falling in his soul. In her own way and from her own perspective she could understand it.

She smiled. "He makes me very happy as well and I promise you both that I will do my best to make sure that rain never falls."

Shiro smirked and Tensa nodded his approval. "It's time Ichigo," he said. "We can all talk more later."

"Right," he acknowledged.

She gave him a quizzical look as his spirits disappeared. "Time for what?"

"Time to finish this," he answered. "I had to push all of my spirit energy out of you so that your own soul could take over and now I have to pull it all back into myself. Besides, I think your friends are all getting more than a little anxious out there and I don't want any of them to try and get in. If they touch my power as it is right now it will kill them." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, giving her a gentle kiss in the process. "You however, are the only person on Remnant who would be immune to it. Now, hang on tight, this could get a little intense."

She indeed held on tight as the swirling energy stopped and began to swirl in the other direction, flowing back into his body. She felt tingly and, for the lack of a better word, supercharged. It was as if every single nerve in her body was firing at the same time and she could feel the sheer enormity of his power. It was unbelievably vast and potent, but she felt nothing but warm, safe, and protected. Even more so, she felt loved. She could feel his love for her coming through his power.

She lost track of how long they stood like that but she certainly wasn't complaining about it. Finally, with a resounding, thunderous crack it was all over, but they still didn't feel inclined to let go of each other.

"Um...e-excuse me," the voice of Ruby Rose interrupted.

They turned to see her standing a few feet away, looking a bit sheepish and with her face a little red at the show of affection. She, like all of the others had retrieved their weapons at some point...and were all still in their nightclothes. It wasn't surprising that they would arm themselves after that show of power and now a stranger was suddenly there holding their formerly sobbing and screaming friend in his arms.

They had come out into the yard with Ruby advancing to within a few feet. Her father and her dog Zwei were standing a couple of feet to her left and had their eyes glued on him. To her right was her Uncle Qrow, the only one not in his sleepwear. He had arrived not more than a minute before. He had seen and felt the vortex of energy that had announced Ichigo's arrival all the way from Beacon.

"What's going on Pyrrha?" Ruby asked. "Who is he?"

They grudgingly moved apart. "This is Ichigo Kurosaki," Pyrrha answered, her voice getting steadier. "He's my boyfriend."

"...Whaaaaat!?" was the collective response from most of those present.

"And you probably won't believe it, but up until a few minutes ago he was also my soul," she added. Everyone went dead silent, having even less of an idea of what to say to that.

"I think you broke them," Ichigo quipped. "Reincarnation is a fact," he explained briefly. "I'm an anomaly to the process that just happens to remember its previous life."

"That's impossible!" Weiss blurted out.

"Not as impossible as you might think," Qrow said as he pulled his flask out of his pocket. "Though the soul outside of a body thing is different."

"Qrow!" Taiyang admonished.

"What?" he took a drink. "It's the truth."

"Maybe it is but there's a more pressing concern at the moment don't you think?" Taiyang turned to Ichigo and Pyrrha. His eyes widened as Ruby stepped away and walked towards them. "Ruby wait!"

The little reaper stopped and looked up at her friend. "Is it true Pyrrha?"

"It is," she answered. "I wouldn't lie to you Ruby, to any of you. I just couldn't say anything...to anybody. They would have thought I was crazy. It's not like I could have proved that I was able to talk to my own soul."

"Is this the guy you were talking about that day in the dress shop?" Nora blurted. She then clamped her hands over her mouth, remembering too late that it had been told to her as a secret.

Pyrrha smiled. "Yes it is." She winked at the girl, letting her know that her secret was still safe. "I wouldn't have become who I am without him and I wouldn't have survived my fight with Cinder if he hadn't taken over and fought her." She activated her Semblance and the mask rose from the ground and to her hand. She looked at Ruby. "That's why I reacted the way I did when you showed this to me. We had lost the ability to talk to each other shortly before I got to the tower to face her, I couldn't even feel his presence anymore. When I saw the mask I knew he was still there somewhere but I still hadn't been able to feel him."

"That's what had you so down and distracted," Blake said.

"Yes," she answered. "That display of power you just saw was him finding a way to come into the outside world."

"That display of power sent all of the remaining Grimm around Beacon running for the hills," Qrow told them. "I've been a Huntsman for a long time and I've never seen a Grimm look scared, but they were. They couldn't get away fast enough."

"This is just...just..." Weiss couldn't find the words, and that was a feat in itself.

"I've always been an anomaly," Ichigo said. "So believe me I get what you're saying. After a while I've gotten used to weird. It's kind of normal for me."

"Am I the only one concerned here?" Taiyang cut in.

"It's okay Dad," Ruby said. "If Pyrrha says everything's okay then it is. I trust her." She gave her friend a smile. She was glad to see that she looked happy again.

"I'd be happy to explain it all," Ichigo offered. "But it's gonna take a while. It's not a short story."

"It never is," Taiyang sighed. He glanced at Qrow who shrugged as he reached for his flask again.

"If he was a threat he could have wiped us all out already with power like that instead of just getting close with the redhead," he took drink. "And if the Grimm are scared of him I'd be more than interested in finding out why."

Taiyang sighed. "Alright. You might as well join us for breakfast and then you can tell us your story. But I reserve the right to be concerned."

Ichigo nodded and Pyrrha smiled. "Thank you."

Taiyang smiled back. "If you can smile like this now after the way you've been feeling for the last few days then how can I not at least listen to what he has to say?" He jerked his thumb at Ruby. "Besides, I think this one was about to make with the sad puppy dog eyes if I didn't and no one can withstand that."

"Dad!" Ruby whined indignantly.

They all turned and headed back to the house. Pyrrha and Ichigo shared a chuckle knowing that for the whole way Ruby's eyes were glued to the massive sword on his back.


Evening found them sitting on the front porch, wrapped up in a blanket and gazing at Remnant's shattered moon. It had been a long day and the story had indeed not been a short one. To give things context he had to explain what he was and what the world had once been and having Tensa and Shiro make an appearance had largely put to bed any doubts that he was speaking the truth. Initially it had scared the hell out of everyone...Shiro had made sure of that.

It was pretty funny actually. They were getting back to things after a slight break. Ren and Nora were sitting at one end of the couch, Jaune at the other and Weiss had been sitting in between. She was just sitting back down when Shiro suddenly appeared, in her seat, with one arm over Nora's shoulder and the other over Jaune's. Weiss ended up sitting right in his lap.

"Hey there!" Shiro had said by way of greeting.

There were three high pitched shrieks. Nora ended up in Ren's lap with her arms wrapped around his head and the poor boy headed for heavenly suffocation in her cleavage. Jaune bailed out over the side, and Weiss shot halfway across the room, face as red as Ruby's cloak and pointing a shaking arm at the Hollow and stuttering in indignation. Shiro was laughing his head off of course.

"Lacking in manners as usual," the Old Man had said as he appeared right behind Weiss...who shrieked again and ended up in the chair next to her, sitting across Ruby's lap. That caused Shiro to laugh even harder and if you looked closely you would have seen a slight upturn to Tensa's lips. Of course, by reflex Ruby had wrapped her arms around her sudden lap acquisition and turned equally as red. After everyone got the laughs and teasing out of their system the atmosphere lightened up considerably and things continued on.

After that break he and Pyrrha told the story of her first being able to hear him and everything that came after, the way that it eventually began to change her life for the better. When it came to the existence of the Seasonal Maidens none of the students were prepared to believe that it was true until Qrow told them that not only was that fairy tale true, but so were several others. Which ones, he promised to tell them later. Needless to say by the time dinner rolled around they were all rather floored by everything they had heard and that included how Ichigo had saved Pyrrha, killed the Wyvern, and defeated Cinder.

Currently while they were sitting outside, Tensa and Shiro were telling a few stories to an enraptured audience. When Ruby had heard the short version explanation of what a Zanpakuto was she almost passed out in wonder and excitement and had begged to hear more. They had to promise to tell her more later so they could carry on with the rest of their explanation and that story was the first one on tap. Thus, they had some time to themselves.

"Shocked the hell out of everyone but it actually went pretty well," Ichigo said.

"It did," Pyrrha agreed. "I think we're going to be answering a lot of questions for a while though once they've had a chance to think all of it over."

"So will Qrow," he said. "I think us talking about the Maidens forced his hand and I'm getting that 'we've only seen the tip of the iceberg' feeling."

"Given the things you've told me and what I've seen in your memories I'm inclined to agree," she said. She smirked. "You are a trouble magnet after all."

He laughed. "Can't deny the truth I guess. Although, I could do with a little less trouble."

"C'mon," she said, nudging him with her shoulder. "We both know you like the fights. Even I've had to admit to that."

They looked at each other and both spoke at the same time. "Kenpachi," they accused, then broke out laughing.

"So if I'm a trouble magnet and your Semblance is Polarity..." he began.

"Don't say it," she warned.

"Does that mean that we'll be 'sticking together'?"

She groaned. "That is a Yang level pun if I ever heard one."

"I thought you'd be immune to them by now," he laughed.

"There is no immunity to Yang's puns," she said. "Even Ruby isn't immune."

"Speaking of Yang, things might get a little interesting in a day or two," he began. "Shiro's gotten it into his head to knock her out of the self pity she's fallen into over nearly losing her arm. He'll either drive her nuts or snap her out of it and she'll try to kill him. I think the Old Man is going to do the same with Blake, though his approach may not be as potentially violent."

"I hope it helps them," she said. "She tries not to let it show but Ruby is worried about them. She feels responsible since she wasn't there with them when they faced Adam Taurus."

"I think it will work out, " he said. "I can be pretty stubborn and they used to straighten me out all the time. Although, it usually involved kicking my ass."

"I probably would have needed mine kicked somewhere down the road if you hadn't showed up this morning," she said sombrely. "I don't think I would have been able to pull myself out of it otherwise if I really had lost you."

He pulled her a little closer. "I wish I could have come out sooner but I couldn't leave until we anchored your true soul in place of mine. Unfortunately it wasn't something that could be rushed. I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that."

"But I rely on you too much Ichigo," she lamented. "Without being able to feel your presence I was falling apart. I couldn't stand on my own. I haven't been able to do anything without knowing that you were there."

"Pyrrha, you were eleven years old when the fame machine started up around you and you had scouts and agents starting to run your life," he began. "You had barely started to learn what it even meant to stand on your own or to set your own direction in life. Hell, they even kept you shielded from adversity and learning how to cope with the negatives that come with life on your own. Even after you finally were able to hear me and you started to try and take control of your life they tried their damnedest to make sure you couldn't."

He turned his head so he could look into her beautiful green eyes. Eyes that were full of uncertainty and guilt. "The night you put your foot down with your agent and sponsors was the night you started to take back control and that was what? Six months ago or so? You've only just gotten started Red and at that you've already come a long way. It's gonna take time to get to where you want to go."

"But I shouldn't have to rely on you so heavily," she protested. "It isn't fair to you."

His hand appeared out from under the blanket and his finger booped her nose. "Enough of that," he chided gently. "You can rely on me as much as you need to, anytime you need to. You're not the complacent type Pyrrha, it's not like you're going to stop trying to become stronger and more self reliant and sure of yourself. You will and I'm going to be beside you the whole way. That's what friends do for each other and it's certainly what people who love each other do." He pressed a gentle kiss upon her lips. "And there is no doubt that I love you."

She returned the kiss and leaned her forehead against his. "I love you too Ichigo. I just felt so helpless. I felt alone, more alone than I ever had and I couldn't take it."

"You'll never have to worry about that again Pyrrha." He jerked his head towards the house. "You've got a bunch of good friends that care about you and you've got me who loves you more with every minute I spend with you."

She snuggled up to him and laid her head on his shoulder. "I feel the same way Ichigo. I love you so much. I'm so happy that we're able to be together now out in the world. Things may be a mess right now but at least we're together."

"My instincts are screaming that whatever Cinder was up to is just the start," he said. "But whatever it is we'll find a way to deal with it and put an end to it together and build the kind of life we want. Nothing is going to stop us or get between us."

"The Huntress and the Death God," she mused. "Future heroes of Remnant." She found his hand under the blanket and took it in hers. "Maybe we'll become Remnant's next true fairy tale."

"Maybe we will at that," he said. "But I'll take as many moments like this as I can get."

"Mmm...me too," she agreed.

"...and skinny dipping with you. That's pretty good too. And don't forget about shower time."

"Perv berry."

"Exhibitionist."

"Only for you Berryhead, only for you."

They settled in and gazed at the broken moon, quietly revelling in each other's warmth. This world may be the end result of a battle he won but a war that he couldn't, and it may be a world that tried to make her something she didn't want to be. But they had a chance to be who they wanted and do what they wanted, together, and they would make the world bend to their will.

The Huntress and the Death God?

Damn right. Remnant won't know what hit it.


AN: In my own estimation, endings are always my bane. Hopefully this isn't too bad.

I always like to try to be a little different with the stories I write and I thought this idea certainly fit the bill. I really love the character of Pyrrha and I just wish we could have seen what she would have looked like in the current animation. She would be spectacular.

Needless to say I had a lot of fun writing her in this story,,,when my mind wasn't threatening to go into a total meltdown at least. Thankfully I got through that and have finally returned to something that resembles normal.

So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the story as a whole. Let me know what you think.

As always, trolls and idiots need not bother.

Now, I will have to go back and reread the existing chapters for A Chance Encounter so that I can get back into that. Frankly, I have no freaking idea what to do next with it but I'm sure something will worm its way out of my brain. I hope.