Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Bleach characters…

Chapter 1: From the end to the beginning…

"Go"

"No, I am not going to leave you all here."

"It's too late. Aizen has gone completely mad and will destroy us all."

The sounds of explosions were getting closer and closer.

Her father's hand wiped the blood that was trickling down near her right eye, "Hime-chan, you must. It is the only way."

"I…" before more words could leave the cinnamon-orange haired girl, a door to their right banged open. Their fighting stance relaxed slightly upon seeing that the intruder was just Urahara Kisuke.

"What are you doing? Ichi-chan, didn't I told you to start feeding your Reiryoku into the Time-Returner?"

"I should be out there fighting with you guys and not here," insisted the girl as she Shunpo to the front door. Both men reacted too late to stop her, but fortunately for them another Shinigami's back blocked the exit.

She pushed against the obstacle, "Renji, move, you are in the way."

A second later, Abarai Renji did step aside, but it was not to let her through but to allow Shihoin Yoruichi to occupy the recently vacated space. And before the young girl could say anything, Yoruichi quickly dumped a body on her. "Here, Byakuya-boy took on a whole squad of those freaking hybrids Hollows and Arrancars by himself. He is badly hurt."

Passing the dead weight to her father, she asked, "You and Renji are hurt too. Where is Rukia?"

Instead of answering, Yoruichi glanced at Renji. A flash of pain flickered through Renji's eyes, before they hardened in hatred. "Those monsters got Rukia when they separated us. I tried to cut my way to her but it was a severely injure Kuchiki-taichou who slaughtered a path through them to get to Rukia. But… it was too late by the time we made it to her. We were only able to make it back here due to Yoruichi-san."

"Then let me join…"

Grabbing hold of her shoulder, brown eyes stared down at honey-colored ones. "You can't. You must do what Urahara-san says, you must focus and save your Reiryoku for it."

Before more could be said, another explosion sounded even closer. Sounds of the fighting got louder and louder; mixed shrieks from bloodthirsty Hollows and Shinigamis who refused to stand aside despite a losing battle.

Renji then pushed her into Yoruichi arms, but it was Urahara who grabbed her shoulders and turned her around. Sad gray eyes looked down at her. "It is too late for us. You are our last hope. I will go ahead and join them outside; we will keep any enemies away for as long as it is needed to make sure you have safely made it through."

Before anyone else could say anything, a clawed hand pierced through Renji's right shoulder.

Urahara pushed her back into her father's arms and shouted, "Go, you must do it."

Yoruichi quickly dispatched the Hollow who had a hold of Reiji while Urahara cast a Kido spell over the doorway to temporary stop anyone else from entering the place as he, Yoruichi and Renji (who refused to stay inside despite his injury), went back out.

"Dad…"

Giving her a swift hug, "I know. It is like Kisuke said, it is too late. We won't be able to hold on for long. Hime-chan, you must do it and please keep yourself safe for me."

Wiping the tears that were clouding her sight, she took a deep breath and set her hands on the machine that Urahara called their last hope, the Time-Returner. She lost sense of time, but with her spirits urging her on, she continued to feed her Reiryoku into the machine and didn't stop despite sensing Renji's, Urahara-san's and then Yoruichi-san's Reiryoku disappearing.

A sob caught in her throat, but she pushed it back down as she poured more and more of her Spiritual Energy into the machine which was now emitting a whirling sound that got louder and louder. The room shook as whoever was out there tried to break in from all sides.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her dad muttering in a low voice to the now awakened Byakuya. Despite looking to be near at death's door, he nodded to her father and painfully stood up.

Her father took one last look at her and mouthed a, "I love you," before casting his own Kido spell that created a small dome encasing the two inhabitants in the room along with the innocuous medium sized gray box that was the Time-Returner. She couldn't hold her sobs at bay this time as her father went out and fought to guard her and whatever was left of the world.

A keening sound of pain ripped from her throat as she felt her father release an explosive amount of Spiritual Pressure. In the next breath, an explosion of her own happened, it was as if the Time-Turner couldn't contain so much power anymore and released a blinding white light that took anyone who was breathing inside the protective dome that Kurosaki Isshin created on a bumpy ride to the past.

Far far in the past, and much further than Urahara had anticipated….

Kuchiki Byakuya woke with a start. He felt around for his Zanpakuto and was surprise that no pain met any of his sudden movements. There were no torn clothes and no blood in sight. In fact, none of the injuries he had sustained before his body gave out were present though he did notice his Spiritual Energy was a bit depleted, just as if he had been fighting for days without rest while bleeding through numerous wounds.

The only thing that was really physically bothering him was a dull headache. The last thing he remembered was a white and blinding light; he had been standing in front of Kurosaki Ichigo as she continued to pure her Reiryoku into one of Urahara's latest invention. He had been exhausted and wanted to collapse but sheer willpower kept him up. He wasn't going to allow anyone to hurt her while there was still a breath left in his body.

Whether it was due to the injuries he had sustained (the ones that he should have on him but were not physically visible) or the un-expectant traveling into the past that scramble with his brain, but it took him a few seconds to wonder why he was in such a surprisingly familiar room, his rooms, the very ones before Aizen had revealed his true colors.

After another minute had passed, he was pushing his closet open, riffling through his drawers and just observing where everything was in his rooms, especially what was in it. For example, the last time he had seen that particular vase, the one decorated with cherry blossoms displayed in his rooms, was 10 years after Hisana's death. It had been her favorite vase, and worry that someone might accidently break it, he had stored it away, far away from his room, with no one else knowing its final location.

"What is going on here?" he wondered.

And then like a tons of bricks it hit him. It wasn't just about Hisana's death but also the deaths of all his comrades, friends and of his adopted sister. Wherever this was, this fake set of his rooms, were just an illusion brought on by Aizen to torture him.

A week later…

At first, he had kept quiet and pretended to go along with everyone he crossed path with; he made them all belief they had really fooled him into thinking it was almost 10 years after Hisana's death. However, as time passed, as he interacted with more souls, with the servants, the elders, his squad and even a young Rukia, he realized that he might truly be in the past, more than a century before Sosuke Aizen ran rampant and succumbed to his madness by destroying all of Soul Society and the Human World.

Sure, the timing might be wrong, but at least someone who had knowledge of what Aizen's true goal was back in the past, which meant the crazy scientist Urahara had managed the impossible.

However, there were also some complications:

If he was here, than where was Kurosaki Ichigo?

For the whole week that he had been back, he had not felt even a tiny bit of her Reiryoku. He had even looked for her in the Human world. Her parents might not have met, but at least her soul should have been able to make it back. Especially seeing as how Byakuya was here despite the fact that she was the only one who could turn the Time-Returner on; Urahara's theory had been that she was the only one who had enough raw untrained Reiryoku to use the machine and thus the only one who could make it back to the past.

He needed to shift gears and think of a plan now. The original plan could only work if Kurosaki Ichigo had been the one sent back to the day when she gained her Shinigami's power through Rukia. However, he was more than a century too far back and couldn't do much now. He could just imagine the Gotei 13 and Central 46 declaring him a lunatic who had finally succumbed to the loss of his wife when he declared that an officer of the 5th Division was an evil overlord with plans to not only Hollowfied his fellows Shinigami's but also to murder everyone, including innocent bystanders.

In conclusion, the only thing that Kuchiki Byakuya could do now was to wait, observe and find irrefutable proof of Aizen's duplicity.

A month later…

At what has become his usual spot since he had come back to the past, Byakuya watched quietly from his window as dawn approached; so far, he had been unable to find any proof to expose Aizen and could do nothing but pretend that everything was fine.

He allowed himself to sigh within the confines of his rooms and thought about all that had gone wrong. He was far in the past, but not far enough to see his ex-wife Hisana who had already passed way. Yet he was far enough in the past that Shiba-taichou has not met his future wife, let alone have an eighteen year old daughter who he had sworn to protect. And it that very moment, he realized that all along, during this past month he had hoped the brat did the impossible again and was just hiding somewhere in the past.

Also, for the 1st time in a long while, he wanted to stop thinking rationally and allow his emotions to take over. Byakuya at first had been afraid that he would turn back into the same man he had been more than a century ago, the one who after Hisana's death had tried to block all his emotions off so he could function properly due to duty and the promise he had made her. He thought it would hurt a lot more to have missed seeing Hisana by just a few years but though it hurt, the pain wasn't as debilitating as before. He guessed it was probably due to the fact that to him, more than a hundred years has passed since he watched her died, and it also helped that compare to before, he now knew he had more people he needed to protect.

Still, how much longer must he wait? How much longer before concrete proof can be found? How much longer could he go on not telling anyone about what he knew? How much longer could he pretend to not have seen many of his fellow Shinigamis be killed by Aizen?

Trying to push all this thoughts away from his mind, Kuchiki Byakuya wondered if maybe he should head over to Kyoraku-taichou's place later in the day and convince the man, not that it would be hard, to drink until one of them dropped.

In the 6th Division….

Unbeknown to Byakuya, back in his divisions many of his officers, especially the high ranked ones were whispering among themselves wondering if something was wrong with their taichou.

"Do you think it could be that? You know the 10 year anniversary of his wife?"

"Yes, I heard he really treasured her."

"But if it was due to his wife's death, then why is he sort of different now and not you know, when the death happened?"

"I don't know…"

"…different how?"

"I don't know, less colder?"

"Yeah, though he is still as strict as ever, there seems to somehow be less of a wall separating him from us."

"True…true…"

Outside the 12th Division…

"Hime, no matter what, don't leave my side okay?"

"I know Kaien-nii, I won't."

Giving the young girl another glance to make sure she meant it, he pushed the door open and walked into the 12th Division's Headquarter. He just hoped he didn't regret his decision to bring her along. If anything happened, not only would his younger sister and brother be after him, but he would also have to deal with his uncle Isshin.

He shook the shiver off and hoped to heaven he didn't regret letting her talk him into doing this…

A/N: Hi all

I have been mainly writing only Hikaru no Go stories until now but this one was swirling in my head, so I thought of giving it a go. I know the direction I want this story to go but it is just the getting there that's the problem.

I don't have a set schedule for publishing updates, but my stories are never "abandoned" unless I have said so in the summary.

In case there is any confusion, the original plan was for Ichigo to go to the past and stop Aizen, but somehow something had gone wrong and Byakuya found himself back in the past. I will tried hard to keep all Bleach jargon straight (for example Reiryoku vs Reiatsu, etc) but be warn that sometimes I might not be able to since no one is beta-ing this story.

Also, certain time events have been changed. For example, the exact events that happened at this point in time, more than a century back from the time of Byakuya's departure such as when his wife died, when was Rukia adopted, etc.

Do enjoy this chapter and let me know your thoughts.