Author's Note: Cliff-hanger! Well, I should let you guys know that, quite obviously, this fic is almost over. There will be one more chapter after this one. This will have more action, and the last will kind of wind down to a conclusion. And this one's going to be super-epic and super-long, too! Yay! Anyway, thanks to everyone who's been reading this.

Ichigo had been running for a while now. He wasn't quite sure where he was going, but he never did anyway. He'd just have to do his best to find this detention center or whatever it was.

Then, at that moment, he felt it.

Something was wrong. Really, really, really wrong.

"Toshiro's reiatsu…" he muttered to himself, "…Is gone?"

Shit.

Saving Kusaka could wait. He had to get to Hitsugaya right now.

He turned around, running towards the general direction of the tenth division domains as quickly as he could. What was wrong? What was going on? Had Aizen already come? So many questions were flashing in his mind, and yet, he had so little answers. All he knew was that the boy was in trouble.

He'd been to the tenth division office quite a few times. He knew the way there like it was the back of his hand.

Ichigo kept running, Zangetsu thudding uncomfortably against his back.

"Move!" he shouted, shoving past the crowds of shinigami that were lingering near the office. He was almost there. His heart was pounding painfully in his chest as he threw the doors roughly open, dreading what he was going to see.

His eyes caught sight of Matsumoto, lying in the floor in a puddle of blood.

"Rangiku-san…"

Panicking, his eyes flickered across the room, back and forth, promptly widening at the next sight that was waiting to meet his frenzied glance.

Not far from where Matsumoto had fallen lay the motionless form of Hitsugaya Toshiro.

The strawberry froze, his eyes rigid with shock. He opened and closed his mouth, but no words managed to escape past his lips.

"T…Toshiro…" Slowly, he took a step towards the boy's form, forcing himself to move. His legs felt as if they were made of lead. His heart felt cold as ice as a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.

He dropped to his knees next to the limp body of the child prodigy, a shaking hand reaching out to feel for a pulse, only to receive nothing.

"Please," he murmured, "Please, please don't be dead…You can't be dead…There's just no way this could happen all of a sudden, right?" He repeated this phrase several times in a hollow voice, as if he was in a trance, his trembling hands moving across the boy's body, looking for signs of life. He was beginning to get desperate, and nausea welled up in his chest as kept speaking aloud to an unresponsive audience.

His hand slowly brushed across a pale, stone-clod cheek before moving to the motionless chest. There was no heartbeat. He was not breathing, and he couldn't feel a trace of reiatsu at all.

"No," he whispered, his hands shaking violently. "No, this can't be happening…"

At that moment, a wave of hysteria engulfed him as he seized up the boy's form into his arms.

"Toshiro!"

He snapped out of his eerily calm daze, now frantic, screaming the name of his fallen ice prince, his face buried in the snow-white locks as he squeezed the small body close to his chest, clinging onto it for dear life. "Toshiro! No…Toshiro, please! Talk to me!" he screamed, delirious with grief. "Talk to me, Toshiro! You can't do this to me! There's no way you can fucking do this to me!"

All this time, Hitsugaya could feel Ichigo's warmth around him. He could hear his beloved screaming his name over and over again, begging for him to speak to him. He wanted desperately to answer. He could not, no matter how hard he tried, and it was frustratingly heart-breaking.

"What a shame," a voice cut in, and Ichigo froze. "He was such a pretty little thing…"

"Aizen!" Ichigo snarled, turning to face the offender, his desperation melting into sheer rage. "You…You fucking bastard…Did you do this to him!?"

"Of course," Aizen smiled, a wickedly amused smile. "He died on his knees like a dog, begging for his life. It was pathetic, really, seeing him plead like that. Pathetic, but quite satisfying."

"You're lying!" Ichigo ground out through gritted teeth, "He would never…Toshiro would never…"

"He asked me to spare his life," the traitor went on, obviously enjoying this, "He asked for me to spare yours, too, and even offered me an eternity of servitude. Of course, I gave him no such quarter, nor do I intend to grant his last wish of letting you live, Ichigo-kun. I took out his soul – he died in excruciating pain and shame."

"You…"

"Oh, don't worry. The last word that fell from his pretty little lips was your name," Aizen continued, "That's quite romantic, isn't it?"

"You…You son of a bitch!" Ichigo screamed hoarsely, standing up abruptly, jerking Zangetsu roughly from his back with a single movement. "I…I'm going to kill you!"

He threw himself at Aizen without even thinking, hacking madly at the air as if he had gone crazy. He didn't care about the small details, all he wanted to do was tear the fucker limb from limb and slash him into pieces.

Things were going just as Aizen planned.

He drew his katana, parrying each vicious, enraged blow Ichigo sent at him with ease. The teen was too infuriated to think straight. He was just going on an all-out, mindless rampage.

"Bankai!" he shouted hoarsely, and as his reaitsu exploded violently around him. This was just enough to make Aizen take a step back as the katana slimmed in the enraged teen's hand.

Ichigo had completely lost it by now. He slammed Zangetsu against Aizen's katana over and over again, ignoring the pain from each blow that would land on his body. He didn't know if he was even making any hits, to be honest. All he could see was red; whether it was from his sheer fury or from the blood dripping from his forehead into his eyes was not something he could figure out, nor did he care.

During this time, Hitsugaya was one-hundred percent aware of what was going on around him. Ichigo was being beaten down; this he could tell by the fluctuations in the strawberry's reiatsu. There was nothing he could do to stop this. Ichigo was going to die while he lay there helplessly useless on the floor. A tear slid past the dark lashes, slowly trickling down the cold cheek before turning to ice and shattering on the ground.

Seconds later, Ichigo felt a sharp pain in his lower body, then his chest. He coughed, tasting blood and feeling it ooze past his lips, as exhausted, he sank weakly to his knees, panting heavily. His right hand was clutching Zangetsu so tightly that his knuckles had turned a ghastly white, while his free hand was pressed pathetically to the fresh wounds on his chest in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Look at you," Aizen spoke calmly smiling down at Ichigo. "On your knees, bleeding to death…I can heal you, if you'd like me to. Do you wish to beg me? Beg and die like a coward, just like your precious little Hitsugaya-kun did?"

"Bastard," Ichigo snarled, his eyes burning with hatred as he glared daggers at the man standing over him.

Move! He screamed at himself mentally. He felt like he was trapped underwater, immobile, his vision cloudy and hazed with a sickening red hue. Move! Move, you freaking idiot! Move!

"No?" Aizen chuckled, raising his katana. "Oh, well. It doesn't matter to me. Either way, you'll die a pathetic death."

Shit! Why won't my body move!? God damn…it can't end like this…it can't…This isn't how it's fucking supposed to end!

"Goodbye, Ichigo-kun. It was quite interesting to see you develop your strength over the months…but this is as far as you go. The good news is, you'll be with Hitsugaya-kun now…forever."

With a dark chuckle, the man raised his katana, before slowly, oh-so-slowly, bringing it down towards the immobile teen's head.

There was a fierce burst of icy reiatsu, a flash of movement, and the sharp, grating sound of steel meeting steel.

Ichigo's eyes widened as he opened and closed his mouth stupidly before registering who his rescuer was.

"T…Toshiro!?"

He blinked furiously. Was he hallucinating? Was he dead and imagining things?

"Toshiro, you…I thought you were…"

"It's alright, Ichigo," the white-haired former captain answered slowly, "It's complicated…but I promise I'll explain later."

Aizen was no longer smiling. In fact, the smug smirk had been wiped clean off of his face. "Well, I'll admit I wasn't expecting you to release your reiatsu to break my spell," he spoke, "But it doesn't make a difference. After all, you knew what would happen if you disobeyed me. I suppose you don't value Sojiro-kun's life at all. Now, you'll watch me make the order to kill him, while-"

"While what?"

Aizen, Hitsugaya, and Ichigo all froze at the sound of the familiar voice, their gazes traveling to the open door where a fourth figure stood to join the fray.

"I'm interested to know, Aizen," spoke none other than Kusaka Sojiro himself, "What exactly do you expect your Espada to do to me if they're dead?"

"Kusaka!" Hitsugaya breathed, "You're okay…"

The raven-haired man crossed the room towards the three, his hand on the hilt of his katana. "You've gone too far, Aizen," he continued in a low voice. "To hurt Ichigo-kun and Matsumoto-san is one thing…but to use Toshiro as your little tool is a whole different story."

He unsheathed his katana, facing Aizen. "Shall we, Ichigo-kun?"

The strawberry nodded, forcing himself to his feet. "Yeah. Let's go."

"Wait!" Hitsugaya insisted, "I'll fight with you, too."

Kusaka shook his head. "Stay back and help Matsumoto-san, Toshiro," he answered calmly, "Let Ichigo-kun and I take care of this bastard. After all, you're the only one of us who even remotely knows how to use medical kido."

With a brief nod, Hitsugaya hurried to Matsumoto's side, kneeling next to her, a hand moving to feel her chest. Good, she was still breathing, but he'd have to work fast. As he slowly began the healing process with the respective kido spell, the sounds of katana clashing against katana soon began to erupt in the room around him.

"Taichou…?"

Hitsugaya looked down, beyond relieved to see his former fukutaichou groggily open her eyes. "Taichou, is everything…is everything alright?"

"Quiet," the emerald-eyed boy ordered. "Relax, Matsumoto. It's going to be okay."

The strawberry-blonde woman nodded weakly before closing her eyes again, allowing her ex-captain to painstakingly heal the wounds that had been inflicted upon her by the man Ichigo and Kusaka were fighting.

"What do you plan on doing now, Aizen?" Ichigo demanded fiercely as the former captain of the fifth division was driven back against the wall, "Now that you've got nowhere to run?"

"All of Soul Society knows that you're here," Kusaka added, "Your Arrancar and your accomplices are being slaughtered."

At these words, Matsumoto sat straight up, a gasp escaping her lips. "I…I have to go somewhere," she muttered hurriedly. "I'm sorry, taichou. If you'll excuse me."

"Matsumoto, wait! Your wounds aren't fully-"

But she was already gone, running out the door as fast as she could.

"That crazy woman," Hitsugaya sighed, shaking his head. "Never listened to me and never will."

There's nothing else you can do. We're not as messed up in the head as you are," Kusaka continued, facing Aizen with a stony face. "Surrender, and we'll spare your life."

"You think you've caught me?" Aizen chuckled, "You think you've cornered me? You think I need your mercy?"

"What's so funny?" the second weilder of Hyorinmaru demanded, his tone suspicious.

"This," Aizen sneered. He slammed his katana against Kusaka's, shoving the young man back forcefully before disappearing with the use of shunpo, reappearing a nanosecond later behind Hitsugaya.

The aquamarine eyes widened, and before he could react, Hitsugaya found himself once again caught in Aizen's hold, a katana held against his throat. He could feel the cool metal resting against his flesh. One single movement, and his throat would be slit.

"Don't move, either of you two," Aizen ordered, facing Ichigo and Kusaka. "One little mistake, and your precious little tenth-division captain dies."

"You…You bastard!" Ichigo shouted, "Get your filthy hands off of him!"

"Drop your swords, Ichigo-kun, Kusaka-kun."

Through gritted teeth, Ichigo slowly lowered his katana, watching Kusaka do the same out of the corner of his eye. He was about to drop the weapon to the floor, when suddenly, Hitsugaya twisted violently in Aizen's grip, elbowing the man in the stomach and ducking out of his grasp when the man recoiled in pain.

"I will not allow you to use me as your bait anymore!" he growled, now unsheathing his katana. "I am not your possession, Aizen, and you have no right to treat me as if I am."

"You little bitch," Aizen growled, no longer smiling, "You are mine, Hitsugaya-kun. You always have been, and you always will." He brought his katana across the boy's body, and with a gasp of pain, Hitsugaya collapsed to the floor, completely caught off guard as Hyorinmaru clattered uselessly from his hand.

"Toshiro!" Ichigo shouted, "H-Hang in there, I'm coming!"

"I'm tired of your disobedience, Hitsugaya-kun," Aizen continued, his lips curled in an unpleasant sneer, bringing his foot down on the defenseless prodigy's throat, cutting off his breathing.

Hitsugaya choked, writhing under Aizen's foot, grasping desperately at it, trying to shove him off of himself.

"You bastard! Get off of him!" Ichigo roared, taking a wild swing at Aizen, who blocked the blow easily, reaching out to catch the blade of Zangetsu.

"…And I already told you what would happen if you disobeyed me, didn't I? These may be different circumstances, but I am a man of my word, and regardless, I intend on doing what I promised I would…"

"N-No…" Hitsugaya gasped, straining against his attacker, "Please…Not him…"

He cried out in pain as the traitor increased the pressure he was exerting upon his throat, cruelly crushing his windpipe. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kusaka start forward.

"Kusaka, no!" he screamed frantically, "Don't come any closer-"

It was too late.

Aizen removed his foot from his throat, but the temporary relief came at a terrible price.

There was a flash of movement, a fountain of crimson. Kusaka went down almost instantly, blood splattering across the room. Aizen tore his blade from the raven-haired youth's chest with a sickening sound of tearing flesh and muscle.

"Kusaka!"

Hitsugaya scrambled to his feet, rushing to the fallen man's side, clinging at his black shihakusho and flinging his arms around him in desperation. "Kusaka!" he screamed, a hand pressed frantically to the man's chest. "Kusaka, no!"

"It's no good, Hitsugaya-kun," Aizen smirked, "Not even Unohana-taichou could save him now. I've torn his heart to pieces."

With a spluttering cough, expelling blood onto the floor, Kusaka looked up at Hitsugaya with cloudy eyes. "Toshiro… I…"

"N-No…" Hitsugaya whispered, his eyes wide with horror. "Kusaka…not again, please…don't leave me again…" His grip tightened on the dying man's body as he went still in his arms.

"Kusaka!" the white-haired boy shrieked, shaking him frantically, "No, no, no! Kusaka! Answer me! Kusaka!"

There was no response, only glassy, lifeless eyes staring blankly back at him.

"No!" Hitsugaya screamed, choking back the sobs as he clung to Kusaka's body, sobbing into his raven-colored hair. "You can't leave me! Please, don't leave me!"

"It's too late," Aizen announced as-a-matter-of-factly, "Sojiro-kun is dead. Don't worry, though. I'll reunite the two of you right this second."

Hitsugaya looked up at Aizen with wide, quivering eyes, his tear-streaked face tilted upwards. The emerald eyes squeezed shut as Aizen swung the katana down towards him.

For the hundredth time that day, there was yet again the sound of the blade tearing through flesh, and Hitsugaya felt hot blood splattering across his face. There was no pain, though – the blood was not his.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, dreading what he was about to see.

In front of him stood Ichigo, who had thrown himself in front of the boy to stop the blow that was meant to kill him. Instead, the katana had gone clean through the strawberry's stomach, protruding out the other end, stained thick with bright crimson blood.

"Ichigo…!" Hitsugaya gasped, his eyes wide. "Why…?"

"Why else?" the orange-haired teen panted heavily, blood oozing past his mouth and trickling across his lips. "I…I love you, Toshiro…"

"Isn't this touching?" Aizen sneered. "Well, I'm sorry to interrupt, but really, I'm quite sure all of you are eager to meet up again in the afterlife, am I right?"

"Wrong," Ichigo replied in a self-satisfied voice, a grin spread across his lips.

Aizen scowled, trying to jerk the katana free of Ichigo's stomach, only to realize that he could not, as the strawberry was gripping the blade with his left hand, refusing to allow the man to pull it loose. "Is that so?"

"Yeah," Ichigo ground out, "You're going there for us."

He swung his free hand, which held Zangetsu, upwards in a single movement, bringing it across Aizen's shoulders and through his neck in a swift, forceful movement.

There was a sickening crack, and then Aizen's head dropped to the floor.

The room was silent for a moment. Both boys, as well as the lifeless forms of Kusaka and the now headless Aizen, were still.

Then, Ichigo coughed, stumbling back a step. His eyelids fluttered closed, and then he collapsed backwards into Hitsugaya's waiting arms.