Vanity: So, we had a review say 'since there is an epilogue that means there is a sequel, right?' Sorry. That's not right. What you are thinking of is a prelude into the next 'book' or 'installment.' An epilogue is just a conclusion to the story. We may or may not make a sequel to this. It all depends on whether or not we get the inspiration to do so. Anyway, we are so happy that you all have enjoyed reading this just as much as we have enjoyed writing it.

Greed: Have fun with the last chapter! We know we did...

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Epilogue… Two Years Later and Everything Still Hurts

…

We couldn't just continue to keep him like this, Shinji thought as he watched the hollow—no, that was Ichigo—try to move around in its restraints. They were cracking again. Fragile, hairline fractures were becoming more and more visible as days passed. He didn't think replacing them would be very smart. Last time Ichigo's shackles had broken, all hell had broken loose and several people had been injured. Shinji himself had nearly died. It wasn't a good idea for them to get anywhere near the teen. No, man. The boy that once held a place among the Vizards and shinigami was now nearly twenty years old. It was easy to forget that. Easy to forget that he was a person under that mask. It was easy to forget that this might be just as reversible as the first time he transformed into a beast such as this. But, no one could figure out what to do. No one could figure out how to help this… hollow besides just throwing in small fry hollows for him to live off. It was as if the only thing they could do was keep him as a pet. A dangerous pet that was starving and nearly able to escape it's shaky confines.

The blond sighed as he stared at the long, fiery red hair settled on the floor of the younger Vizard's cell.

If they didn't find something to do with Ichigo soon, they would have to get rid of the boy. And his father wasn't going to like that at all. Shinji looked beside him to said father. No, he thought again, this man wouldn't want his son to die after fighting so hard to survive. However, if Ichigo escaped those failing bonds, it was him or everyone else.

…

Ichigo/Shiro…

It hurt. Everything hurt. We needed something, anything to get rid of the pain. Starving. That's what this was. We were starving and there was no food around.

No, that wasn't true. There was plenty of food around. We just couldn't eat it. We wanted to eat it, but couldn't. Oh no, we tried and tried. But we couldn't see, couldn't move without motivation. The morsels—tiny, tiny hollows—that found their way inside to us were not enough. It was too little to sate our ever growing appetite. They barely made us wish to move in order to find them.

We breathed in the air around us. We couldn't see, but we could smell. And we wanted what we could smell. So badly. There were two very wonderful smells so, so close. And. We. Wanted. Them. Now.

Move. Our body twitched. Move. A clawed hand flattened to the ground we were splayed on. Move. A little leverage and we were working our way up. Move.Our legs could hold our weight. We knew they could. MOVE! Crack. That was those horrid things that kept us weak, unmoving, unseeing, unfeeling, and just hungry. No, starving. And now we were free from them. We could see and what we saw was mouthwatering.

A shinigami and a Vizard, our mind supplied the words. It didn't really matter, though. All we needed to know was that they were ours to feed on. Our power came alive around us and crashed those bugs to the floor. We moved closer. Closer still. And stopped. There was something in our way. Claws scratched at the surface of whatever was in our way.

No! No! This couldn't stop us from our first decent meal in ages! This couldn't stop—

"Son." The word stopped us. That word. It meant something to us. What was it, what was it what was it whatwasitwhatwasit?! Stop. Calm. Can't eat yet, but don't worry. We can wait. We can always wait. "Son, look at me."

Our eyes. My eyes swiveled toward the sound coming from the dark haired shinigami's mouth. That rage that was always around wasn't consuming us/me right now. That emptiness, the never ending hunger, had retreated a bit.

And then, I remembered what I was. I remembered that my life wasn't about death, wasn't supposed to be about death and hunger. I wasn't this thing that was based on instinct. I wasn't a hollow. I was a Vizard, a shinigami, and a human.

I crashed to my knees, claws scrambling at the mask that hid my humanity and pain and rage. I wasn't weak anymore. I had spent so much time trying to not be weak, that I had almost forgotten that I had been running and training to help myself. Giving in to Shiro had not been to just escape everything. It had been to grow stronger. Even though I had been weak when Shiro made that offer, I was no longer weak. I couldn't be this weak. So, I fought to gain control again, after so long. It would have been easy to slip back into my mind with Zangetsu and Shiro, continuing our battle that didn't seem to have an end. However, I wasn't one to do things the easy way.

My mask fell away in chunks. The armor encasing my skin started to crumble with the destruction of my mask. Everything fell apart as if it had never been. The hole in my chest filled itself out as flesh once again. The only thing that stayed was my hair. It was long and tangled, hanging limply over my shoulders. It reminded me that Shiro wasn't far from the surface. Something about me willingly giving him control had shifted the balance so that we were once again almost equally in control. It was how it had been before being taken to Soul Society. An unstable state of being in control.

"Don't worry, King. I'll always be 'ere to help things along," Shiro cackled as he made the statement about our tenuous relationship. I'm sure he wanted to push me off one of the buildings in our inner world rather than help me along. The bastard always knew what to say.

I looked up and saw my dad first, Shinji second. Goat face was the first to react to my gaze. He hurried over and pulled me into a bone crushing hug. Shinji came over after another moment. "I can't believe you're back." That's it. That's all he said. And it was all he needed to say.

…

I soon found that the Vizards were back in hiding along with a few new shinigami ex-captains and lieutenants as company. Soul Society had called off any searches it had previously had for them. Apparently that was largely thanks to Shunsui and Ukitake who were still in Soul Society. It was also counted as a waste of resources.

Urahara had set up shop again in a new town. My family had also started up another clinic not too far away. Two years had passed while I was a hollow. Two years I had missed as I hungered and starved and raged as a hollow. Karin and Yuzu had never seen me as a hollow, and for that I was grateful. They were lights in my sometime dark world. And, while everything was starting back up for me, their spinning worlds help put mine on its track.

Everything else could wait right now. Life outside of me and my immediate surrounding could wait. It could freeze for all I cared. After so long, I wasn't hungry, empty, or angry. I may have felt dark and dull every now and then, but it was nowhere close to that hollow feeling of being… Hollow.

"Hollow is never a good way to feel. It's just a way to survive."

…

Vanity: And there you have it. The finale of Unexpected Betrayal. We actually had the ending planned out for some time we just couldn't get here and be happy with it. Sorry it took us so long.

Greed: Hopefully it was worth it. While it's not a Happily-Ever-After ending, it's pretty damn good in our own opinion. We had fun writing this story and reading all the reviews we've gotten. Thanks for supporting us throughout this project.