From the Ashes

This is a cannon divergent fanfiction. This story takes place during episode 150 of the anime (right before chapter 249 of the manga) after the group has broken into Los Noches. Before this point, the characters and their world are in line with cannon events.

They have split up going their separate ways, and then things slip and go horribly wrong. It is revealed that Orihime is the bait; the real catch is the orange haired shinigami substitute. In the end, even the strong can be shattered into a million broken shards. Can they be put back together by an unexpected ally?

Warnings

This is a hardcore yaoi fanfiction. This is rated M. This contains explicit sexual content. This story includes non consensual slavery, humiliation, rape, forced orgasm, and dubious consensual sex acts. This is considered an alpha/beta story, meaning there is a strong domination and submission element to the story. This story also contains graphic violence and acts of torture. This story is not intended to be read by individuals under the age of 18.

Disclaimer

I do not claim ownership of any part of the Bleach universe or of the Bleach characters. Tite Kubo owns this amazing world; I am simply playing within it. Original elements do belong to me. There is no copyright infringement intended and I in no way make money from writing or posting this work of fanfiction.

Edited and Re-Uploaded: 5/26/14

An Epub and Mobi edition of this story will also be available for offsite download once all editing is finished. Links will be provided via PM.

Chapter One

When it All Falls Apart

The darkness was omnipresent and oppressive. Getting out of it seemed impossible, no matter how the orange headed shinigami substitute tried. What had happened? He was so very deep in this blackness he didn't know. It had gone wrong, so very wrong, and he wasn't sure he remembered how… He felt pain, gripping, burning pain in both his arms, shoulders and his chest, and he realized it was because something bound his arms tightly behind his back from elbow to wrist. He felt tired, so tired, like the very energy was being sapped from his body…no not energy, his reiatsu. Something was really wrong with his reiatsu. He tried to move, his knees grinding into a hard floor, and he could feel something heavy on his ankles, and something weighing his neck down so much he couldn't sit up right. He couldn't make a noise for some reason, he had no voice. He opened his eyes slowly, and everything came flooding back when his eyes fell on the white walls. Las Noches. He was in Las Noches. The room was enormous but he couldn't see anyone, or feel anyone, for that matter. He could only tell he was attached to a white column behind him by the shackles on his ankles but that was it.

Everything had seemed to go well. They had blasted through the wall, and at the room of corridors they separated to hopefully find Inoue. Ichigo had been flash stepping down the vast corridor when he felt something different. Ah, an espada, he thought. Finally. He was itching for a one on one fight. He'd left training far too early for the liking of both Shinji and the other Visored but he couldn't help it. He had to rescue his friend. Vaguely behind him he heard Nel's child-like voice. He turned around to see the greenish ball running toward him faster than a sonido should allow. Despite his slight annoyance, he was happy to see her. She'd attached herself to him and he thought it was his job to protect her because she was so little. That was what he did.

The she just disappeared. He blinked. No, she hadn't disappeared, he'd moved somehow and was in a different place. He turned around and the world went dark.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Everyone except Ichigo all came skidding to a stop in the middle of a large white room, one from each side. Chad and Uryuu exchanged glances as did Renji and Rukia. There was no fifth door, and there was no sign of their fifth member.

"Where's Kurosaki?" asked Uryuu, pushing his glasses up on his nose again.

Chad, as usual, was silent. Rukia's face had paled. Together, unspeaking as a group they ran for one of the doors, and ran for a few moments, finding themselves emerging in the same room. Each door looped back and connected with one of the other doors. There was no sign at all of the corridors they had come down. It seemed this place was truly a maze that moved.

"Isn't it nice?" a voice came from the shadows. A pink haired arrancar stepped out.

"Who are you?" Renji demanded. "Octavo espada, Szayelporra Granz. And I'm here to escort you to Aizen-sama for negotiations."

They all traded glances. "What?" Rukia said.

"Aizen-sama will send you back to soul society with his offer, and then you may do as you want," he said, and motioned for them to follow out one of the doors they had found looped back into the room.

Not knowing what else they could possibly do, they chose to follow to find out what the sly traitor shinigami had to say. Before long they came to a wide room with a throne sitting high up on a column style dais. On that throne sat the man everyone in soul society was fighting to defeat. He was smiling, his head resting gently on his left fist. The pink haired arrancar motioned them forward and then stood in front of the doorway.

"I see you have come, I was expecting you sooner. It seems I slightly overestimated your abilities a bit, the whole getting lost in the menos forest seemed to have put you behind the schedule I had set," he said with a smile cold as ice.

"Why you…" Renji started to step forward. Rukia slammed a hand into his chest.

"Rukia-kun, you are definitely your brother's sister. Very smart. Do anything here and none of you will leave, including the precious woman you came to save," Aizen said, his smile never fading.

Around them, arrancar began to appear, and then Gin and Tōsen flash stepped on either side of the dais. Gin held his usual fox faced grin, and Tōsen was passive as ever, standing beside Aizen with his arms crossed over each other. It was obvious those from soul society weren't going to win a battle here. The amount of espada level arrancar alone would have crushed them in a short battle. No, it wouldn't be a battle, more like a slaughter.

Rukia's violet eyes burned. Ichigo was still out there somewhere. He hadn't been trapped yet. So there was still hope. There was still hope for them to get out of this place alive. She knew from what her brother had said that he contained some sort of mysterious and massive power. He defeated Zaraki for soul's sake, and Renji as well, and then her brother. She wasn't sure that such a thing could be done by someone who had not even been trained in Soul Society.

"Rukia-kun, you look so serious. Oh, I know!" he said and leaned forward, folding both hands under his chin and resting elbows on his white clad legs. "You are thinking, Ichigo will save us. He hasn't been captured yet."

All four were silent because they were all thinking the same thing.

"Of course, you bastard. He was willing to come here for one person; you don't think he'd break every wall in Los Noches to find five of us. He doesn't take well to people messing with his friends," Renji retorted, holding Zabimaru in front of him as he spoke.

Uryuu adjusted his glasses. "Alas, you are correct; he would risk everything for anyone here."

Aizen smiled. "Oh yes, he certainly would? You think he'd do that for all of you? Would he give life? Pride? Honor?" Aizen grinned even wider. "Freedom? Dignity?"

The others glanced back and forth between each other. What the hell was Aizen talking about? Was he going to give Ichigo a choice to become a prisoner in exchange for their lives?

"Ah, yes, I wonder, what he would do to see his precious friends go free," Aizen said with a smirk. "Gin?"

Gin nodded and moved around the back of the pillar. They heard some movement and rustling of clothes behind it. "Aizen-sama…" Gin said softly.

"Still resistant, good. Use motivation," Aizen said, looking down behind his throne.

There was a flash of light, kido or something behind the dais, followed by a solid fwump sound. Gin poked his smiling face around the pillar and looked at the rescue group. "I have a surprise from Aizen-sama."

When he came around the pillar and tossed a body towards them, no one made a sound. Rukia slowly put her hands to her mouth and let out a strangled cry.

"Ichigo!"

Ichigo honestly didn't know what happened. One second Gin had come around and grabbed him by that heavy collar, and he tried to pull away, then he was opening his eyes staring at the floor. He shook his head, his blood roaring in his ears loudly, and his eyes still bleary as he looked up. This day couldn't get any worse. At least that's what he thought.

Renji's brow furrowed and he tried to run forward to where Ichigo sat swaying on his knees.

"Tch, no no, not yet," Aizen said from his perch. "Gin, help him stand, how embarrassing for him to be on the floor in front of his friends."

Gin leaned down and grasped a hand full of Ichigo's loud orange hair and pulled him up slowly. Ichigo's eyes flashed and he obviously wanted to say something to Gin but something was impairing his ability to speak. Once he was standing Gin let go, giving him a push as he did so, and he stumbled forward a bit. The others could see his arms were bound behind him now and there were silver shackles on his ankles. A thick, gray stone collar surrounded his neck.

"Oh, remove the kido so he can talk to his friends at least, Gin," Aizen said, waving a hand at him dismissively.

Gin once again smiled broadly and motioned. Ichigo let out a roar and dove for him bodily, emboldened by being able to speak again.

"Bastard, I'm going to kill you!" he yelled, attempting to slam his body into Gin.

Aizen sat quietly, unmoving, as did all the arrancar in the room.

"Manners," Aizen said, and snapped his fingers.

Ichigo had been in a lot of pain in his life. Hell in the last year he'd been in a lot of pain. Run through by Kenpachi came to mind as one of the worst, stabbed by Byukuya, and slashed with Zabimaru through the shoulder were pretty tops on the list too. But this… Every muscle in his body seemed to contract and every nerve seemed to fire at the same time, and he let out a strangled sound, unable to form a coherent thought. He fell to his knees slowly, his back ridged and arched. Finally it stopped and he fell forward with enough force to hit his forehead on the floor in front of him. There was a thud and he laid there unable to move at all, as blood began to flow out from his forehead.

The look of shock on all his friends' faces was definitely enough to stop their tongues. "Oh, didn't I warn you? A little insurance," Aizen said with a smirk at them.

"Aizen, what are you doing? And why can't I sense his reiatsu?" Rukia asked, staring at Ichigo's orange head, his body heaving rapid breaths. She could see blood pooling around his head and wondered why he didn't sit up. She was rapidly wondering where his reiatsu had gone, that massive unpredictable reiatsu…

Aizen shrugged nonchalantly and smiled again, that irritating smile. "Ichi-kun here is known for being unpredictable, to say the least. I thought it best to find a way to ensure negotiations were smooth. And uninterrupted by a mad fully hollowifed boy who wants to play shinigami."

Ichigo grunted slowly sat back up, garnering the attention of his friends. Blood poured down his face where he'd hit the floor and his eyes were unfocused and crossed. He looked around blearily but didn't seem to see anything.

"Oh Gin, do something about his face, I don't want it marred," Aizen said slowly.

At the words, a chill moved down Rukia's spine. Why should that matter to him? What was he worried about "marring" Ichigo's face for?

"Now, shall we continue?" he asked as Gin chanted a simple healing hado over him, sealing the wound and stopping the bleeding. He then pulled a cloth from a pocket and wiped away the blood. Ichigo was still so dazed he barely noticed it.

"What do you want?" Renji growled from beside Rukia.

Aizen smiled. "I have what I want. I'm giving you a chance to leave."

Rukia frowned. "We're not abandoning Inoue." They had come here to save her, and no matter what they weren't leaving without her.

Aizen motioned and the pale green eyed espada they had encountered previously appeared beside him. He spoke to him in a whisper and the espada disappeared. Aizen smiled at them in that way that set Rukia's teeth on edge. A moment later, he reappeared with Inoue at his side, right beside the group and then he was gone again. Everyone gasped and started to smile and hug her. Ichigo had finally come out of whatever had dazed him, and he looked up and smiled at her.

Inoue looked very confused. Her large eyes wide with fear at seeing all the others around her, and then her eyes landed on Ichigo's bound form standing beside Gin. She turned in confusion back to Rukia.

"You're saying we can leave?" Rukia said, suspiciously, not sure if he was fooling them.

Again, that damned smile. "Of course, if you agree to take my demands for peace to soul society."

Aizen flash stepped down beside Ichigo and reached down and twined his fingers into his orange hair. Ichigo winced, but refused to let any other indication of pain color his face.

"I will agree to never step foot outside Heuco Mundo again. And neither will my espada. And you can all go home like this never happened," he said, tightening his grip in Ichigo's hair making him gasp audibly this time.

Renji frowned deeply and growled inaudibly. He didn't like the treatment Ichigo was getting from Aizen. He couldn't do anything about it, because they were vastly outnumbered. Aizen looked down and yanked him to his feet, still clutching the shorter boy's hair. He then ran a finger down his throat over his Adam's apple and smiled at the others, stopping his finger in the gap between Ichigo's collar bones.

"What are you doing?" Ichigo asked, attempting to pull away from him. "Let me go, you bastard," Ichigo growled.

"Such language for a young man!" Aizen smiled and yanked the boy back toward him, wrapping his free arm around his chest. He smiled again at the group and leaned forward and licked the space between his neck and shoulder very slowly.

Ichigo's eyes were on fire and he started to madly struggle despite the lock Aizen had on his hair. Aizen simply moved his head forward and suddenly bit him on that same spot, violet reaitsu flaring around them both as he did it. Ichigo's eyes rolled up into his head and he crumbled. Aizen held him up by his hair a moment, letting his friends see his body was entirely limp.

"I get Kurosaki Ichigo. Simple exchange."

The collective gasp was deafening. Blood was dripping down from the bite in his shoulder as Aizen dropped him unceremoniously to the floor, licking the remains of the blood off his lips.

"The seki seki stone around his neck and the reiatsu draining bracelets mean he won't be leaving on his own anytime soon," he said, nudging Ichigo's body with his foot. He snapped his fingers and the blue haired espada that Rukia and Ichigo fought in the world of the living sonidoed beside Aizen holding Zangetsu.

Aizen picked it up and tossed it to the group. Chad reached up and grabbed the heavy sword with ease. "You may take his zanpaktou. He won't be able to use it here. Grimmjow, if you please, show our guests through a garganta so they can take the news to soul society."

"Why?" Rukia yelled. "Why do you want Ichigo?"

Aizen turned and smiled. "That's a very good question, Kuchiki-san. Why would I want Ichi-kun?"

Renji visibly bristled. "Stop calling him that. You don't even know him."

Aizen cocked a brown eyebrow. "Tell them I want to study him. Or maybe I want to make him an arrancar since he has a hollow. Or maybe I want a pathetic excuse for a shinigami walking around Las Noches as a punching bag for my espada. Or maybe I just needed a new toy to play with, or a pet to lick my boots. Maybe I want to tie him up and humiliate him every day for my pleasure. What does it matter? One life for all of the human world and Soul Society."

He turned and flash stepped away.

The blue haired espada shrugged, flicking a hand casually in the air and opening the garganta. "You heard the man."

All five standing there wanted to run and grab Ichigo before they left. He was just there alone, lying unconscious where Aizen had dropped him to the floor. The arrancar were slowly leaving and only Grimmjow stood there waiting. They all entered the garganta slowly but they had to do something. Rukia was reaching for her sword. It was Renji, though, who reacted first, calling out Zabimaru and wincing as he slammed the blade's first sharp link into Ichigo's body at the shoulder, and yanking him back through the garganta with them. The injury could be healed easily by Inoue, but Renji still hated impaling his friend with his sword.

After the garganta closed, Aizen appeared in the middle of the room once more and resumed his seat on his throne. Gin appeared moments later and Tōsen as well.

"They fell for it, Aizen-sama," Gin said with his customary grin. Aizen smiled.