I do not own anything from Bleach or The Darkness

No prior knowledge about The Darkness is necessary to read this story.
Author's Note is at the end.

'Nothing's happening.' Ichigo thought dumbfounded as he stared at the zanpakuto piercing him through his chest. There was no pain, no blood flowing down from the wound, no fear at being stabbed through the heart. All of those were never even considered because something else wasn't there. Something far more important at the moment. There was no Shinigami power, no power whatsoever. And then Ichigo did find something.

Fear

Not fear for himself, that was still absent as it usually was. But the fear of losing his sisters, his father even the Shinigami Rukia standing in front of him. The fear of not being able to protect them from the hollow that was close to devouring them. The fear of knowing that he did everything he could, that Rukia did everything she could and that it still wasn't enough to save his family. Worse Rukia would have most likely been able to defeat the hollow if it wasn't for him standing in the way and getting her injured. It was as if a demon had come to take all that he cared about and Kami herself send him an angel to do what he couldn't, protect his family. And he still messed everything up. Him standing there with a sword through his heart as a ridiculous last attempt to save them was the perfect image for Ichigo's incompetence.

But nothing happened Ichigo noticed again. The hollow wasn't moving any longer, Rukia's expression and posture hadn't changed , he couldn't move, nothing could.

And then something did.

XXX

Inside of Ichigo's Inner World a tall, black cloaked man stood on the tip of a flagpole in a sideways city filled with nothing but skyscrapers.

"Zangetsu, hopefully I'll never have to use that name." he whispered as he gazed at the once blue sky now filled with grey storm clouds, a light drizzle already falling. Things weren't going exactly as planned. Ichigo was never supposed to become a Shinigami let alone at the age of 15 before he even died. The other Shinigami should have killed any hollow popping up in Karakura town. Ichigo's reiatsu, while still wild and mostly uncontrolled, should be suppressed enough not to make him a living chunk of hollow bait. Zangetsu himself was constantly suppressing it as much as he could since Ichigo's mother died. Yet somehow a hollow had found him and while not entirely impossible, over the years several hollows had sensed Ichigo's higher than normal reiatsu but the Shinigami on patrol always dealt with it fast enough, the fact that Zangetsu had sensed it coming directly for Ichigo ignoring everything else was most unnerving. But bigger problems were at the forefront of his mind. The Shinigami had failed to take down the weak hollow currently attacking them and while Ichigo was partially at fault for her defeat she still should have been capable to take it down while defending Ichigo. A simple burst of shunpo to carry Ichigo out of the way of its attack instead jumping in front of him and standing still would have sufficed really.

And now this happened. Ichigo would receive Shinigami powers which would kick start his own already existing powers and make him a human Shinigami hybrid. All Zangetsu could do now was further suppress Ichigo's own powers so that they wouldn't overwhelm Rukia's weaker power. That way Ichigo would only be able to use what little power she had to give him, creating a far weaker and more brittle zanpakuto and preventing him from summoning his own real zanpakuto. Zangetsu. If worst came to worst he would act like a filter for Ichigo's power, giving him as little as he could while pretending to be his real zanpakuto, the manifestation of his Shinigami powers.

Thunder echoed all around him and the rain generously fell from the sky. It was a sad day indeed.

Zangetsu looked forward towards the horizon readying himself to control the foreign reiatsu about to intrude in his inner world. But nothing happened.

And then the rain stopped.

Zangetsu looked up noticing that the sky was still dark but the clouds were no longer the reason, they were gone. The once blue sky itself had turned a pitch black, the only thing breaking the monotony of black being the once bright sun still hanging in the same place, still visible, but no longer giving of the same light. Tendrils of darkness were squirming on the edges of the sun slightly overlapping with it, grappling every ray of light they could and turning them a dull grey.

Zangetsu while surprised at the sudden change stayed collected, stilling himself to try and pick up any new sounds, darting around with his eyes trying to find anything else out of the ordinary and throwing his senses out to try and sense what was happening.

Simply put his inner world had changed completely. More specifically it was growing, beyond the sky scraper city the ground had disappeared into an endless chasm inhabiting the same darkness that had taken over the sky. At the center of the city the skyscrapers that stood there had disappeared and given way to a giant black castle slightly higher than the buildings still standing around it. The skyscrapers themselves had changed to, the normal reflective glass that shined the same blue as the sky had copied its current darkness and just like the sun that broke the sky's monotony each window had 2 small yellow orbs that unlike the sun felt perfectly in place in the middle of the darkness. Seemingly alive. Staring at him. Zangetsu realized with no relief that each pair of orbs were eyes looking straight at him. Or behind him?

Zangetsu abandoned his flagpole just in time as it was slashed in half by a long black tendril coming out from a window behind his former position. The tendril instantly retracted back inside of the building.

Zangetsu stopped his fall in midair staying afloat. Far away enough from any of the sky scrapers so he had plenty of time to react to any kind of attack from them. For the first time in his existence Zangetsu was out of his depth, he had no idea what was happening. He still couldn't hear anything apart from his heartbeat racing and the fortifying breaths he was taking. He couldn't see through the darkness no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't even sense anything around him. He had no idea if the pairs of eyes staring at him were all from different creatures or if they were one being. He didn't even know what it was. It couldn't be the Shinigami her powers nor the real Zangetsu trying to take control. The real Zangetsu didn't look anything like this nor did he imagine Rukia's power to be this dark.

Was it the hollow? Did Rukia fail to give Ichigo her power and did the hollow devour them?

All questions however had to give way, for Zangetsu's survival instinct screamed at him to move a scant moment before it happened. Luckily he needed less than a moment's notice to activate his blut vene. Unluckily, it didn't seem to matter. From the corner of his left eye he could see a row of abnormally long bloodied teeth belonging to a creature made from the same substance as the tentacle from before. Despite the pain and the danger he was in Zangetsu didn't waver. Partly because he couldn't afford to be anything less than his usual composed and rational self. And partly because most of his attention was currently on the creatures eye. Even though it was only one eye, even though he could only see it from the corner of his peripheral vision, that single glance told him everything he needed to know. The creature attacking him was strong, very strong, strong enough to easily bite through his shoulder enhanced by his blut vene. His entire left arm was disconnected and would soon start falling down. The creatures eye had a single emotion in it or rather a statement.

YOU ARE DEAD

The creatures eye glowed red, every ray of light it emitted sending the message to everything that could see it. Telling them it was already too late. There was nothing they could do. There was nothing they could have ever done.

YOU ARE DEAD

His arm started to fall down. And Zangetsu defied the creature.

Quickly using hirenkyaku, Zangetsu went above the sky scrapers to stay out of reach them. Turning around, activating blut artery and summoning a blue spirit sword in his right hand ready for combat. All in a single second. And even though he blocked the initial attack of his enemy, the moment he could fully inspect him he knew he had lost.

Against his blade was a black Khyber knife with a hollowed out portion at the base of the blade. He knew this blade and its owner. In front of him was Zangetsu, the real Zangetsu. On his back were two of the same black tentacles as before with 2 identical heads at the ends of them. The only difference being that the one on the left still had his blood on its teeth, their eyes were still whispering the same message at him and somewhere in the back of his mind he realized that they were right. The real Zangetsu looked almost completely the same except for his eyes. They were glowing yellow, pulsating with killing intent, bloodlust and a deranged glee. But while it was difficult to see past that and into his real eyes the emotion that was there was just as powerful for the phew that might see it.

Fear

Overwhelming fear, going far beyond even despair.

And while the black tendril piercing him through his heart was proof enough of his defeat, those eyes screamed it at him even more clearly. The real Zangetsu was this creatures puppet. Rukia's Shinigami power was consumed in the black void. Zangetsu was dead, a broken puppet not even fit to be controlled. He could now feel Ichigo's despair and fear rise exponentially on the outside, no doubt as a reaction to his inner world and all his hidden power being pulled away from him. His inner world, Ichigo's inner world, the real Zangetsu's inner world, was gone. This was no longer their domain, taken from them in that one moment when the world stood still.

He could only hope beyond all hope that Ichigo wouldn't give in to his despair.

'Abandon your fear Ichigo. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate.'

And then the world went dark.

XXX

Black almost invisible tendrils started squirming at the edges of Ichigo's vision, capturing the light hitting his eyes and turning it a dull, slightly pulsating grey.

DARKNESS WILL FALL

Ichigo felt his heart disappear, emptiness and hunger taking its place the likes of which he had never thought possible. But he only felt it for a moment. The hunger changed into bloodlust, the emptiness changing into a sickening glee. And Ichigo had never wanted to feel empty so badly again.

THROUGH YOU I WILL DISPLAY MY POWER

His blood radiated with a new unfamiliar power, giving him strength he never thought possible and could barely grasp in its entirety. Only to have his blood run cold and have what little control he had over his power taken away from him. That same sickening glee from before greedily taking control over it.

THROUGH YOU I AM BORN

His soul burst with power, overflowing and overwhelming him, exuding from his body like an ocean bursting into existence. Ichigo immediately tried taking control of it no matter how impossible it seemed to control, he had to use it, he had to control it, he needed it. As if just to mock him even this power no matter how vast it was, was taken from him as fast as he gained it, his bloodlust taking it from him showing him once again how useless and powerless he was.

YOU ARE NOTHING BUT MY PUPPET

Finally Ichigo had found his last fear, the fear for his life and everything around him.

The world started moving again.

And darkness tore the skies asunder.

There we go this is officially my first ever fanfic that I've gotten out of the mental planning stage and actually typed out and GOD does it feel good.
For anyone reading this and thinking about writing fanfic or just writing anything in general. DO IT. Writing is awesome! So don't let your stories just stay a concept in your mind but write them down, get feedback and get better.

Please let me know what you think about the story (what little there is yet), writing style, any grammar issues, and so on.
I really love writing stories and want to continue doing it so any reviews on what's good and what isn't would be greatly appreciated.

I know the Darkness isn't super popular but I personally really liked the game and thought that it could go well with the Bleach universe.
For anyone wondering no other characters, locations or lore from The Darkness will be used except for the darkness (the creature) itself.
I'm also using the look from the first Darkness game not the second or the comic book series (not really a fan of the The Darkness 2).

So yeah that's it, thank you so much for reading the first chapter of this story and even the Author's Note if you got this far.
I'll update this after I've had some feedback so the next chapter can be better.

See ya!