Assumption

as·sump·tion

/əˈsʌmpʃən/

[uh-suhmp-shuh]

1.

Something taken for granted; a supposition: a correct assumption.

2.

The act of taking for granted or supposing.

3.

The act of taking to or upon oneself.

4.

The act of taking possession of something: the assumption of power.

5.

Arrogance; presumption.

So this is my second time voyaging into Bleach territory and I hope this will sate me for the time being. It will be long. Beware. Also I don't know about pairings. I'm up to any, Hetro, Yaoi or Yuri. You decide.

Summary: After the Winter War Ichigo is still in the thick of danger with no power to speak of. Forces beyond his control are closing in and with Zangetsu gone a new power must be born for Ichigo to save the people he loves and bring the stoic Zanpakutou back from the edge of his soul. Now if only his Inner Hollow would settle down and stop walking around materlized he could actually concentrate. Having the Gotei 13 stalking him doesn't help the matter either. Nor the reappearance of the Espada. Zanpakutou!HollowIchigo! Post-Winter War. Alive!Espada...Mostly.

Warning!: Here there will be cussing. Of the most gratuitous kind. If you do not like or cannot stand that then I'm afraid this Fanfic is not for you. Sorry, but the cannon portions of Bleach most certainly contain cussing and I will hold as true to the correct characterization of the characters themselves as is possible. Thank you for your time but please turn around if this is the case for you.

Chapter One-Flood the Soul

Fettered Reaper

Prideful Moon

Howl

And Sink Your Fangs Into Redemption

It was dark and cold. It was also raining too. The constant drip-drop of water was driving me off the wall. Nothing but shadows, blood, broken glass and rubble was in this twisted, flooded room.

The water was steadily rising and being chained in place by white metal links didn't exactly spell out a best case scenario by any means.

Who am I kidding? I was going to die.

I snorted in derision. I wasn't even going to go out gloriously in battle. More like a dog if anything else.

And that pissed me off to no end. Made me gnash my teeth in fury and struggle against my bindings.

Even if I knew that it wouldn't get me anywhere.

I had been cut off. Severed from the other half of my soul. I had no power. And could do nothing to stop the rusting of the chains that bound me. Or the ruin of the world around me.

"It's cold."

I closed my eyes, breathing heavily from my attempt to escape. Leaning my head back, I bared my teeth in an insane grin.

Oh, if only.

I could keep it on for a few seconds at best before I felt tired again.

"So much for-"cough"-being Mr. Bad Guy."

I slumped forward, soaked to the bone with long white hair hanging limp and damp with the red liquid soddening it. The bloody water lapping at my hips drained me of any strength I had managed to hang onto when I was ripped from the world above.

And from the only other person in all the worlds that understood me.

I had forgotten how long it had been since I last saw the sky. How long had I been down here? It felt like an eternity.

It was so cold.

I had always been cold. Nearly a freakin' ice statue. It was always freezing to me.

Except when the sun shone down upon those brilliant, blue-glass buildings. When the clouds were nowhere to be found. When no rain fell.

When he stood across from me in his confident, quiet way, in his insufferable know-it-all way that seemed to be ingrained into his pale skin.

When the ever-present wind rippled his black cloak that was tinged red with the blood of our enemies.

When his ice-blue eyes trained themselves on me and only me.

It was then I felt the fire. The heat. The raging inferno that slept deep in the depths of our souls.

When the ice, and despair and water were all just- No. When the entire world was burned away. Leaving only us in the calm of the storm.

Never before did I ever feel so alive and needed and had I ever had such a definite purpose.

But the cold was back. It ate at my skin, turned my limbs numb, made my teeth chatter and rattled my bones like a blizzard would the very world.

And the chains! Oh, the chains. They bit and chewed at my very essence! Slowly strangling me in the slow dance of death as the water rose, centimeter by centimeter across my jailed form.

I growled. When had I ever allowed myself to be chained? When had I ever been this helpless? When had I ceased to walk forward? When had this world stagnated? Begun to deteriorate? To die? Decay?

If I could break something it would only be me.

"'M an even bigger idiot then you... and somehow? It makes me wanna smile."

I was such a fool. How could we have not seen it! How could I have not have known?! We knew! I knew... We had always known. Always.

So why? I bit my lip until I began to bleed. Why?! Were we that blinded by pride?!

Was I so convinced of my strength, so blinded by our power that I allowed such a thing to happen?!

Yes. The answer was yes.

We had failed. I had not done enough. And he had paid the price.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Disgraced in the dust and mud and diseased, fifthly blood of ours."

The chains clinked mournfully.

What a joke.

What a joke this all had been.

I giggled. We had done so much; I had been sooooo~ proud. We had thought I was invincible. Hell! We had known it! I had known it!

Oh, did we know it!

And still! Still...when push came to shove I could do nothing but weep on the sidelines as our world was torn from me. Rent asunder by that-that man! That whoreson!

He forced him into a corner! Caused him to despair! Caused us to hesitate!

How could I? How? Why?! Why didn't we stop him! Why couldn't I fight him?!

Lock him away and throw away the key?! Had we not sworn to protect him?! To keep him from harm? To save him? To cherish? Love...?

If so, we obviously didn't love him enough if I had failed as we did...

An unstable bubble of mirth threatened to consume me. We choked, clamping down on it before it really did drive me insane. We whimpered like a kicked dog that had its chest carved out. Its guts and innards splayed across the squalidness of the dusty ground for all the world to see. For all the world to mock.

Drops of salty blood added themselves to the sea that consumed me. We had bit through the skin of my lip already. Tears? Ha! We didn't deserve such a thing...

My chest hurt.

We hated delusions. I hated illusions. We had always wanted to strip away the lies. The pain. The hurt. The suffering.

The truth was the greatest balm in the world to ease aching wounds. Heal festering scars. My pain and his.

It used to be us. Not any longer. I was alone. And cold. So very cold.

The blood turned from a stream to a river.

I hated the clink of chains.

But most of all?

I hated how it was my trembling, mine alone that made them ring in desolation.

It was too much.

So I slept.

Because my chest hurt and they were no longer there to hear my screams of despair.
—

I awoke in a panic. I choked on salty, dirty blood that tasted like the blackest rust.

I balked, swearing while trying to keep the bone-chilling, bone-breaking water from smothering me with its heavy hands.

Why?! What had happened?! The water had only been at my waist! How did it suddenly become able to drown me!

I struggled. And found to my horror that it was not only chains that trapped me.

Black cloth was cemented over the dirty white chains. They had twined between the links, stifling the unbearable echo of their constant chime. And while that was a blessing in itself, they had also taken the liberty to weave themselves around me.

I couldn't move an inch, entangled in their grasp. When I tried to rip them apart I only managed to be cut in the process.

It was as if they were made from thin, flexible sheets of metal as sharp as a swords edge.

I grimaced, tongue flicking out in distaste to swipe at the barely healed cut on my lip.

The water was rising steadily. Soon it would be over my mouth and I couldn't move to stand up.

In other words, I was screwed.

I sighed, glaring at the wall not but a few meters from me. "If I ever get out of this alive 'm gonna kill the fucker who did this."

It past my chin and touched the bottom of my lip. I hissed in pain when the salt entered the open wound.

"Strike that, 'm gonna fuckin' mutilate 'em.''

Oh, if only he could hear me. He would tell me watch my mouth.

I grinned, amused. He never had liked my foul tongue.

My grin turned into a sneer and finally to a frown.

He wasn't there to do so anymore.

And that hurt.

I wished that my chest would stop hurting.

Oh, how did I wish for the deceptions of the mask. At least then I could continue to deceive myself without disgust.

The water inched higher. And it wasn't just cold. It was frigid. Like a glacier had hit me in the chest.

I was damn sure that I could see my breath too.

Not that it mattered. I would soon be swallowing water, not air.

I wasn't too sure if I would be able to still breathe by then though.

I would have panicked but the cold had set in and my shackles, metal and ambiguous cloth rendered me immobile.

Before the icy liquid engulfed me I let out one last bark of laughter.

"Mah, at least I'll get to see him one last time. Before we die."

The water covered my face and almost reached the ceiling. I managed to get in one more gulp of air before it swallowed me whole.

Even in death, I guess you can't escape me. Ne, King~?

First person blurb for first chapter, Original ne?

Also, review if you please I would appreciate it but I won't withhold chapters if it doesn't happen. Chapters will very in length and I have some in the works right now so updating should be soon and frequent for a while.

Tarry a while. Thou art so fair. ~ Wild-Tama