Author's Note: Never written anything for Bleach before, as I only recently started the anime. Sorry if the characters are OOC.

Not sure if I will continue this story, the ideas just been floating around my head and had to write it down. I will take any pairing suggestions, so please let me know.

Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Chapter 1

Coincidence- the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection; also: any of these occurrences.

Such an idealistic notion of pure coincidence is just plain foolishness. Nothing…absolutely nothing is just coincidence. Behind every small encounter that occurs daily, not a single one is unintentional- There is a reason for everything. Nothing in this world or the next is exempt from this rule.

Once one perceives events as plain coincidence, or others as 'accidents', they have already lost the fight. One simple miscalculation, one simple misconception- turning an act with reason behind it into a mere coincidence, is a mistake that is rewarded only with death.

No one knew this rule better than a certain raven-haired shinigami. She was relatively young, compared to those around her, yet she held immeasurable wisdom, gained from witnessing the horrors of war. She was no stranger to the darker side of the world, having been brought up in a place most end up dying.

These experiences may have left some children of her age traumatized for life, but they only hardened her already cold exterior.

Until she met the person she could define under the term as 'friend' Kuchiki Rukia was a stranger to her own heart.

Perhaps from her training to become a shinigami, or throughout her troubled days in rukongai, somewhere along the way she learned one of the most important lessons to survival. 'Always expect the worse'.

Maybe that's why on this particular night, the young Kuchiki was exceedingly nervous.

She had just faced her first arrancar with a certain substitute shinigami watching while being pinned by her own body.

No, that was not the problem, nor was it the cause of the anxiety she was feeling…

No…it was the fact she had just defeated the arrancar, without using even half of her power…

Now, if she was the hot-headed carrot-top, she may be wearing some sort of smug expression, while grinning back at her partner...But not Rukia.

It was wrong.

So wrong.

From what she'd heard, the arrancar were a formidable force, not to be reckoned with…and after that encounter…she was unnerved.

It was just too damn easy, hell, she was sure a regular Gillian could be more powerful.

Turning back to the tangle of limbs, she hid her worry behind a scowl which would hopefully be enough to deter the idiot from flooding her with questions.

"Ah get it off!" he growled, attempting to pry the Chappy mod-soul that was currently inhabiting Rukia's gigai, off his stiff back without her breaking one of his arms.

Rukia couldn't help but smile slight at the scene before here…it just seemed so…surreal. It seemed so…peaceful, if you didn't count Chappy breaking Ichigo's limbs, until a familiar burst of reitsu caught the attention of both the grounded strawberry and the raven haired shinigami.

"Renji…" she murmured, having felt him activate Bankai.

She shuddered…had her opponent just been a weakling?

No matter how she tried, she couldn't shake the feeling of something being completely wrong. She couldn't place what it was, but the scene was just…off. It wasn't right…she knew that much, but as she attempted to alert the substitute shinigami of her fears, her breath hitched in her throat as she realized what was wrong….

There was another reitsu…one that she had never felt before. It was extreeemly weak, but it was oozing out sluggishly just as Ichigo's.

Why…why did such a small reitsu cause her so much worry?

Then it hit her like a ton of bricks in the face…the reitsu wasn't small in the slightest!

It felt like it was being sealed off. Swallowing the ever growing lump in her throat, she gazed up at the night sky dotted with hundreds of stars. It was almost impossible to tell because of the night sky in the background, but she saw it there, hovering ominously. A gargantuan, where the other arrancar must have entered from.

She staggered as the deceivingly 'small' reitsu was released from its captivity, weighing down on everything in the area….the word 'monstrous' could barely describe it. It felt like she was carrying something many times her own weight, as it had to have been more than twice the size of a captains. That in itself was horrifying, as she desperately prayed that they would not encounter the being that held that power.

Unluckily for her, fate had something much worse than death in store for her.

It was a stupid mission, it really was. The blue haired sexta thought as he stalked down the endless darkness of Hueko Mundo to the realm of the living.

It was too simple, and it didn't seem to involve much fighting….

'Drag some of the weakest arrancar with him, use them to distract the shinigami, find the former host of the hygoku and punch a hole in her'.

He still remembered the creepy tone of voice Aizen used as he finished the order 'Don't worry; I'll take care of the rest.'

Grimmjow grumbled clenching his jaw as well as his fists, managing to scare the low ranked arrancar around him shitless. It didn't take long for the small invasion party to reach the edges of reality between Hueko Mundo and the human world.

Striding through, careful to keep his reitsu in check, he roared at the other Arrancar to go and do their jobs. They all scampered around, hurrying off into different locations around the human city. Grimmjow simply began to wonder around until he came upon an interesting scene.

One of the arrancar he sent out, was in battle with the raven-haired shinigami he had been briefed about….Punch a hole in her, ey?

Now…Grimmjow was not the kind of man who took pleasure in thinking about women's bodies, but in this instance he deemed it acceptable. He wondered silently where he should place the whole….in her gut like his own.

No…that reminds him too much of what that damn Ulquiorra subconsciously does.

Where else?

Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck him.

Shinigami were always claiming hollows held no hearts, which in a sense was true, but in another couldn't be further away. Smirking a bit sadistically, he decided they should get a chance to feel what it's like to be missing your heart….

Rubbing his hands together eagerly, he simply watched the fight with the weak arrancar draw to a close.

Although the arrancar made a completely retarded mistake in believing the attack wouldn't reach him above ground, Grimmjow found himself captivated by the shinigami's ice based abilities.

They were breathtaking, although he was reluctant to admit it; it had to have been one of the most beautiful zanpakto's he had ever witnessed.

He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding as the shinigami sheathed her sword and turned back to the pile of limbs next to her.

He watched as a miniscule smile graced her lips removing the previous look of concern.

He smirked once more…it was time to make him known. He allowed most of his reiatsu the ooze out of his body, which seemed to have a choking effect on the people he was observing. Taking each step slowly, allowing each to echo through the deserted alleyways, he observed the pure fear that crossed the shinigami's face. Her partner, whose orange hair stood out amazingly seemed blissfully unaware of the dire situation, as he continued to get the petit shinigami to react to his taunts.

Grimmjow let loose a dry, humorless chuckle that added to the intense atmosphere.

Rukia's blood froze as an eerie laugh filled the air. Even Ichigo finally seemed to understand that something was wrong, as both he and Rukia craned their necks around to grab a better view of the approaching danger.

Her throat ran dry as she witnessed his figure for the first time.

He could be the figure that occupied both dreams and nightmares…he had azure hair that stood by itself, giving it a gravity-defying effect, as well as a razor-sharp feel.

Along with irises that gleamed blue with either glee or bloodlust, and smirk that stretched far beyond what she could classify as 'normal'. But by far his most dangerous feature was the broken mast that occupied the right side of his jaw. It was lined with razor sharp teeth, as it also seemed to stretch into the same smirk he was wearing. She instantly could tell this was not someone to be taken lightly, so she acted as brave as she could muster.

"I wonder which one of you two is stronger?" the arrancar pondered aloud, sending off each and every panic button in Rukia's brain. Acting on impulse, she turned to Ichigo and shouted "Ichigo, Ru-"before they could even finish her sentence, the blue-haired arrancar was next to her as his hand moved towards her chest.

The world seemed to slow down, as her eyes widened in horror. She knew exactly what was going to happen as his hand inched closer to the left side of her chest, but she was unable to react.

Everything was moving so slowly… The realization eventually struck her, that no matter how much she denied it…she didn't want to die….

She had to leave her heart to somebody, she had to… before she could finish her train of thought, pain erupted in the left side of her chest.

She saw his hand enter roughly, ever so slowly reaching out and grasping the beating organ within her chest.

She couldn't even scream…it hurt, it hurt so much.

She had been critically injured countless times…but none of them compared to this…. She was in agony, as her demeanor quickly switched to pleading for death.

This was too much…she wanted it to stop…it was unbearable. If that current sensation wasn't bad enough, she felt a tugging, ever so slightly but growing worse.

It was then she realized what was about to happen…he, he was going to pull it out.

This time she couldn't stop her voice from erupting from her throat, along with a torrent of blood. Another scream tore through her throat as it got worse, as she felt the beating organ being ripped from her chest.

No words could describe it, but no matter how much she wished everything would black out and she could be set free, nothing of the sort arrived. One final scream tore through the midnight air as the organ was completely separated from her body.

Her vision began to blur, but didn't fade to her disappointment. Blood flowed endlessly into her mouth as she began to slowly choke. Peering up at the arrancar before her, he held the beating organ high above his head as the blood dripped down slowly.

Rukia caught a glimpse of the substitute shinigami's murderous expression as she allowed her body to slump over itself.

She prayed, to everything, to anything, just to make it stop.

She no longer cared if she died, just…anything to escape the agony.

The edges of her vision began to blur as she hoped the familiar darkness of unconsciousness claimed her.

She was wrong… the pain intensified.

The whole where her heart used to be seemed to be growing, seething and raging. She screamed once more…why?

Why did she had to suffer this much?

It was then that she saw a strange liquid seeping out of her wound…it was not blood, but jet black…just what the hell was happening….

Ichigo felt like he couldn't breathe, not because of the Chappy Rukia sitting on his back, no, it was the figure before him.

He knew that the arrancar in front of him was powerful, with a ridiculously high reiatsu, but he had barely time to react when Rukia shouted at him to run. It happened in less than a millisecond, Ichigo didn't even blink yet he failed to catch to movement.

The arrancar was now right beside her while appearing to punch her in the chest.

At first he was just worried because a punch from an opponent this powerful would shatter bones. It was then he realized the shape of the arrancar hand…it wasn't poised to punch, but to cut.

He was frozen, unable to move the slightest as he watched in horror as the scene unfolded before his eyes. The arrancar's hand seemed to move in slow motion as did Ichigo...

He watched helplessly as her eyes widened a fraction in the realization, but yet again, Ichigo was unable to do anything. He knew the whole event had occurred in less than a second, but he would NEVER forget the sound of Rukia's anguished scream.

The arrancar stood triumphantly, holding her beating heart above his head in a gesture of victory, as white hot anger flooded the orange haired teen. He was in the motion of charging the arrancar, when a soft whimper brought him back to reality.

Rukia had slumped over; dribbling blood as tears softly trickled down her cheek. The rage returned, never had he been so angry in his life. He was so absorbed in the rage that he failed to notice the addition of a hauntingly familiar reiatsu.

She was assaulted by a strange sensation, unlike anything she had ever felt before. It wasn't physical pain, but directly emotional.

Memories….so many memories assaulted her consciousness, but to her horror, they began to fade away, like they were never there. She tried desperately to hold on to one, any one of them to save her, but they all kept slipping through her fingers.

"No! Please!" she cried, unable to stop herself, let alone believe that she was still alive.

"Renji, Byakua Nii-sama, Ishida, Chad, Inoue...Ichigo! Don't leave me alone!" she screamed as the last memory she retained…one of Ichigo's smiling face shattered into nothingness.

The world appeared to black out around her as she was forced to relive some of the worst experiences of her previous life, and yet….she felt nothing.

Absolutely nothing, not the slightest trace of any emotion….

Happiness, regret, pride, love, friendship…. All her emotions were being swelled by the black hole where her heart used to reside. She felt completely….hollow.

Three last words echoed through the darkness as she succumb to it "Shatter Kanzen Saimin"