Act III

Opening his eyes in his cell again, Uryuu heave a sigh. He was alone in this room just like he had been in the other one. It had hurt to hear both Ichigo and Inoue tell him that he was unforgivable, but if they weren't even real in the first place, what difference did that make?

Inoue's voice suddenly echoed in his head, "…You are giving in to what would be easier and have given up on discovering what is real."

He heaved another sigh as he turned on his side in his bed and tried to forget about the whole thing. But it was Ichigo's voice that chimed in as he did this. "…I would first make damn sure that I was choosing the real one before I made my decision..."

Was that what he had done? Uryuu wondered. It was true that this world was more inviting with both the love of his father and the lack of strife. He knew that a part of him would miss the adventure and excitement of being a Quincy but he also knew that it was beginning to wear on him. He was still quite young and had already been through so much...

At least, it seemed like he had. But if all of that wasn't real…

Uryuu pushed off from his bed in frustration and sat up. He threw his legs off the side of the bed and sat there with his head in his hands for a moment. He knew if he was being completely honest with himself, his decision to stay in this reality was largely based on his desire to be there rather than trying to figure out what was real. But what did it really matter? If he stayed there and it was not actually real, would it really make any difference for him?

Sure, he would be disappointing his friends, but he wouldn't know the difference. For once, maybe he could even be happy.

"I will never forgive you…" Inoue's voice whispered in his thoughts again.

No, Ishida thought as he dropped his hands and stood up. Even if this is where I want to be, I need to know what is real. If Inoue-san is real, then I can't hurt her like this. I swore to protect her and keep her from feeling sad. I can't just choose where I would prefer to be.

XXX

Ichigo was walking through the shop with every intention of leaving. He couldn't sit there and watch as someone who he had thought was his friend just decided that he was no longer real. He had put up with a lot from that Quincy, but this was just going too far. He had meant it when he told Ishida that he would not forgive him for making this stupid decision.

But Ichigo wasn't able to make it all the way out of the shop. As he was passing by the hatch to the basement, it suddenly was thrown open and Urahara climbed out from below. He was struggling a little with something in his hand and appeared to be out of breath.

"Urahara!" Ichigo exclaimed as he reached out and helped the man from the ladder. Urahara climbed out with Ichigo's assistance and immediately sat down on the edge of the hatch while he caught his breath. "What happened?" Ichigo asked him.

Urahara raised a hand to Ichigo indicating to give him a moment. Ichigo eyed the strange jar like thing that Urahara was gripping in his right hand. It had a cloth cover over it so Ichigo couldn't really see what it was.

"Well," Urahara breathed after a moment. "That was certainly an interesting and valuable trip." He looked up then and gave Ichigo a grin.

Ichigo scowled and looked away as he said, "Well it was probably still pointless. It seems that Ishida has decided against reality."

Urahara's grin suddenly turned into a frown. "That's hard to believe," he said.

Ichigo scoffed and said, "Well, he told me himself that he didn't want to listen to me anymore. He even made Inoue cry and still decided to stay inside his head!"

Urahara stood up and sighed, "Then my trouble may have been for nothing. If he won't come back out of his head, even switching the virus off won't restore him. He has to decide what is real and what isn't. All I can do is make sure that the virus doesn't keep trying to pull him back into his mind."

"Well," Ichigo said as he turned and started to leave again. "Thanks for trying, Urahara. I guess we didn't really know him after all."

"Ichigo!" Urahara snapped. He sat the item down on the ground and came around to stand in front of Ichigo, blocking his path. "Aren't you giving up just as easily as he did?" he asked the stunned Shinigami. "You expect Ishida to fight against his own mind when you aren't even willing to stay with him? It's you and the others that need to be there to snap him out of this. I can only fix the cause, but I am not the solution!"

Ichigo stared at Urahara a moment before he slowly lowered his head and then nodded, "You're right. I was just so frustrated with him that I guess I just gave up." He turned around and looked back in the direction that he had left Ishida. "I'm going back, Urahara. And you better be ready to cure him as soon as I drag him back because he doesn't seem to have much fight left in him."

"That's the Kurosaki I know!" Urahara said as he walked over and picked the jar up from the floor. "Give me just a little while to process all this information and I should have the solution very soon." He disappeared into the house then.

Ichigo squared himself off again and went back to Ishida's room. He wasn't going to give up on his Quincy friend. He was far too stubborn.

XXX

"Uryuu, what's wrong?" Ryuken asked when he entered his son's room again and saw Ishida pacing.

He glanced at Ryuken and then continued his pacing as he talked. "I need to know," he said. "I have to know which is real. I know that you're going to tell me that this is, and that's what I want to hear, but I have to know the truth."

"Uryuu, I thought that you had already decided that this is real…" Ryuken said as he rushed over to his son.

Ishida shrugged his father's hand off of him, fearing that any more proof of how much his father cared for him in this reality would influence his decision. He had to remain objective. "No, I had really decided that this was where I wanted to be; not that this is reality. But I can't just choose which I prefer… I have to choose the right one. I can't just leave my friends if this isn't real." He paused and looked at Ryuken and said. "You do understand, don't you?"

Ryuken looked at Ishida for a while and then nodded, "I do. I know how important those delusions have become to you, Uryuu. But this is where you belong. I don't know how else to prove it to you. Both Dr. Anji and I have explained all of the issues and have given you the answers that you seek. What more do you want?"

"Proof," Ishida said as he returned to his pacing. Moving helped him to keep his head clear of thinking about the emotional implications of his situation. "I have to have proof."

Ryuken watch Ishida pace a few more times before he sighed and said, "Of course you would want the one thing that I can't give you, Uryuu. If you aren't sure that any of this is real, how could you ever believe a single thing that I say or show you?"

Ishida paused and looked at Ryuken. He was right, after all. There was really no way to prove which was real and which wasn't. He only had the emotional implications to go on for this. And that simply wasn't good enough.

"Ishida," Ichigo's voice whispered in the back of his mind. "Come on you stupid Quincy. You aren't getting rid of me that easy." Ishida put his hands to his head and tried to block the sound out. He just wanted both Ryuken and Ichigo to leave him alone for a moment to think. "Ishida!" Ichigo's voice persisted.

"Uryuu?" Ryuken called and reached out for Ishida again.

"Why can't you both leave me alone?" Ishida muttered as he started to collapse to the floor. He both felt Ryuken grab a hold of him and the solid mat underneath him. He blinked and found himself back at the shop, looking up at a worried Ichigo.

"I thought you weren't coming back, Quincy," Ichigo said with a slight grin.

"Neither did I," Ishida grumbled as he looked around. It felt so real… but so did the hospital. "I don't suppose you have any proof to give me either…" he muttered as started to sit up. He felt quite stiff and sore as he did so. He knew he had been spending more time in the other reality lately so it would stand to reason that he was getting stiff here.

He wondered if he would feel the same over there if he spent more time in this reality. Maybe that would be the proof he was looking for.

"Proof?" Ichigo asked. "I told you already what's going on. Urahara is about to figure out a cure for you but you have to choose where you want to be for it to work."

"That could be a problem," Ishida said. He looked up at Ichigo and saw that he wasn't as angry with him as he had been last time. Ichigo was wearing that same expression that he had the whole time that he was in Soul Society when he was determined to save Kuchiki-san. This was the Kurosaki that he knew. This was the determination that Ishida knew the Shinigami was capable of. The determination that said that it didn't really matter what Ishida chose because he was not going to let leave.

"This is real… isn't it?" Ishida asked in wonder. It was as if everything finally fell into place. It didn't matter that he wanted to be in that other world. This is where he belonged. This is what felt right.

"W…what did you say?" Ichigo ask, slightly stunned at what Ishida had just said.

"This is real," Ishida repeated as he looked around the room as if he could finally see clearly for the first time. "This is where I belong."

"Y…yes," Ichigo stammered, surprised at the sudden shift. "Ishida, what… what happened? I thought you wanted proof?"

Ishida turned and looked at Ichigo again and reached up to fix his glasses only to find that they weren't on his face. "I just know…" he said. And he did. Suddenly he knew without a doubt that this was where he was supposed to be.

And just as suddenly as this revelation came, he felt himself being pulled back inside his mind. He started to pitch forward as he gasped out, "No… no, not again."

"Ishida, hang on!" Ichigo called out as he grabbed a hold of the Quincy and held him as he struggled against whatever force was trying to claim his mind again. "Just remember where you belong. Urahara will have the cure soon."

Those were the last words that Ishida heard from Ichigo before he blinked and found himself no longer in the Shinigami's arms, but Ryuken's.

"No…" he said with a shake of his head. "No, I can't keep this up…" he was feeling exhausted. He hadn't realized before how tired all of this switching was making him but he realized now that he was severely weakening every time he went from one reality to another.

"Uryuu, it's all right. I'm here," Ryuken said to him.

"No, you're not," Ishida muttered as he tried to push Ryuken away from him. "I know now. I figured it out. This isn't real. This is created by that virus Kurotsuchi planted in me."

"Uryuu…" Ryuken said.

"Don't worry, Ryuken," Dr. Anji said. Ishida jerked, surprised that the doctor was there as well. He looked up at the man that was approaching him. This man didn't look quite like the image of Dr. Anji that he had seen before. In fact, he looked more like someone that he had seen somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place who or where. "He's not going to leave us again," the doctor said as he waved something in his hand at Ishida. It was a circle of wires that Ishida did not like the look of. Anji motioned to someone else and suddenly Sado as an orderly was there, grabbing a hold of Ishida and pulling him up off the floor.

Ishida struggled against the vice like grip as he was dragged back over to the bed. "Please calm down, Ishida-san," Sado told him gently even as he muscled Ishida onto the bed. "This is for your own good."

"That's right, Uryuu-kun," Anji said as he came to stand on the other side of the bed.

Ishida struggled weakly as Sado pinned his arms and deftly bound him in the restraints on the bed. "No, no." he gasped. "Please, Sado, let me go. I can't stay here."

"You have no choice any longer, Quincy," Anji said as he held the wire circlet up again.

"W…what did you call me?" Ishida gasped as Sado finished the final restraint, securely pinning him to the bed.

"Uryuu," Anji said. But Ishida saw the slight worried look in the doctor's eyes. He had just made a mistake and he knew it.

"No," Ishida said. "You called me Quincy…" then he knew where he had seen that face before and now he knew that he also recognized the voice. "It's you…" he breathed as he stared at Dr. Anji… no it wasn't anyone named Anji. "Kurotsuchi."

Anji frowned a second and then he shrugged and smiled a sickening grin at Ishida. "So, you finally saw through it, have you Quincy?"

"You bastard!" Ishida spat at him as he started to struggle again. "It has been you all along. You've been experimenting on me just as you did my grandfather!"

"Uryuu!" Ryuken gasped.

Kurotsuchi sighed and then waved his hand. Suddenly both Ryuken and Sado disappeared from the room. "They were getting rather tiresome, after all," he said. "But I don't need them any more. I finally have you completely under my control."

"No you don't," Ishida said. "I know this isn't real. I know the truth now; you can't mess with my mind any longer."

"Well, well Quincy. That might be what you think. But we shall see. You see…" he bent over now, bring the circlet down towards Ishida's head. "You can no longer leave this place. I've locked your mind in here with me. We are going to have a very long time together to explore just how much control you think you actually have."

Ishida's eyes grew large as he tried to struggle free again. He didn't know what that circlet was, but he knew that he did not want it placed on his head. "You freak," he told Kurotsuchi. "It doesn't matter if I never get out. I am never going to give in to you or any of your delusions."

"No?" Kurotsuchi drawled as he leaned back slightly. He seemed to be considering something a moment and then shrugged. "Oh well, we shall see then." He swiftly placed the circlet on Ishida's head.

There was a sudden spike of pain coursing through Ishida's body. But before he was able to cry out, the pain stopped and he opened his eyes. He was looking up at Urahara's grinning face. He was back in the shop again and he could just see Ichigo, Sado, and Inoue hovering behind the ex-captain.

"Welcome back, Ishida-san," Urahara said as he leaned back and allowed his friends to descend on him.

"Ishida-kun!" Inoue exclaimed as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

"I…Inoue-san," he gasped.

"Good job, Quincy," Ichigo said to him when Inoue finally released him.

"Aye," Chad said with a nod beside Ichigo.

"But… how?" Ishida asked as he looked from one of his friends to the other.

"It was Urahara," Ichigo said.

Ishida looked over to where Urahara was standing now and the shopkeeper gave a shrug. "Sorry about that pain for a moment," Urahara said. "But I needed to give you a bit of a jolt to take care of that virus of Mayuri-kun's."

"So that's what…"

"Ishida-kun!" Inoue's voice echoed in the back of Ishida's mind.

He paused and then turned and accusing glare on those around him before standing up, despite protests from the teens. He faced off directly to Urahara then and said, "Good try, Kurotsuchi. But I told you, you can't control me any longer."

Urahara's grinning face suddenly dropped as he said, "Ishida-san, I think you're still a little confused.

"Ishida-kun. It's all right. You're back with us," Inoue pleaded with him as she came over and grabbed his hand.

He snatched his hand free from her grasp as if it burned him. He took an angry step towards Urahara's form.

"Ishida!" first Ichigo's voice, then Sado's called to him.

"Give it up, Kurotsuchi. The only way that you will ever be able to gain control over me is if you were to remove my friends first and you are too much of a coward to challenge them."

With a scowl, Urahara's face melted into Kurotsuchi's. "Don't be too sure about that, Quincy," he said. Everything around him began to fade then until he was standing in blackness. "Don't ever let your guard down, Quincy…" Kurotsuchi's voice echoed in the dark. "I will have you for myself one day."

"Ishida-kun!"

"Ishida!"

"Come on Quincy!"

Ishida gasped and suddenly sat up straight. Hands were catching him as he started to pitch over again with a head rush and voices of greeting met his ears as the darkness faded from his eyes. Finally he blinked and he saw that he was surrounded by his friends. And this time, he knew that this was real. He could feel it.

"Welcome back, Ishida-san," Urahara's voice said.

Ishida cringed a moment because that was exactly what he had heard from the fake Urahara a moment ago. But when he looked up at the shopkeeper, he knew that this was really him. That silly grin juxtaposed with those dark, sparkling eyes could not be faked. He was back where he belonged again.

"Ishida-kun," Inoue's voice pulled his attention. He turned and looked at her. Tears were beginning to brim at the edges of her large eyes. "I… I'm so sorry, Ishida-kun," she said with a quivering lip.

"Inoue-san," he said, confused for a moment for what she could possibly be sorry. Then he knew that she felt bad for yelling at him before. "Inoue-san, no. You were right. I deserved everything you said," he told her and found himself reaching out to her. He surprised both of them when he was the one that pulled her into an embrace. "Thank you, Inoue-san," he told her softly. "You said exactly the things I needed to hear."

It only took a moment for Inoue's shock to wear off and she quickly returned his embrace, hugging him tightly. "I'm so glad you're back, Ishida-kun," she told him with a slight quaver in her voice from the suppressed tears.

"Yeah," Ichigo said as she finally released Ishida from her hold. "Good to see that you finally got it through your thick skull where you belong."

Ishida sighed and reached up to fix his glasses but caught himself this time before his hand reached his nose. They were still absent. Suddenly Inoue was placing them in his hand. He gave her a slightly embarrassed but grateful smile as he slipped them on his face. "Yes. I was a bit confused for a while, but thanks to all of you, I figured out where I was supposed to be."

"I'm glad to see that my efforts didn't go to waste," Urahara said.

"Urahara," Ichigo said as he turned around and saw that the shopkeeper was about to leave. "How exactly did you get that cure out of Mayuri?"

XXX

Nemu was walking up to her father's lab when she heard him let out a frustrated howl of rage. She knew that he had been working on some project that had involved the Quincy and she couldn't help but feel just slightly glad to hear that exclamation of frustration from Mayuri-sama.

For the first time in her life, Nemu turned and left her father to vent his frustration at a failed experiment on something other than her.

"How!" Kurotsuchi screamed as he pounded his fists into his desk. "How the hell could that man have found a cure!" With a vicious sweep of his arm, he knocked all the contents of his desk onto the floor.

He got up from his chair and started to pace the room. "I know I fixed that barrier. He shouldn't have been able to cross. Not without draining nearly all of his energy and then he would have been no match for me."

Suddenly Kurotsuchi paused in his pacing and spun on the spot. He stormed out of his lab and down the hall. All of his underlings that he passed cringed out of his way or quickly ducked down another hall to avoid any contact with the obviously irate and unstable captain.

Finally he came to the room that he was headed for and he knew as soon as he entered that his former captain had been in there. There was an unmistakable feeling to the room that set Mayuri's nerves on edge.

With a growl of rage, Mayuri went over to the complicated console in the center of the room and punched in his own complex code. Suddenly a circular slot slid open on the console and an empty disk popped out. He stared at the empty spot for a moment before he let out a scream of utter rage that nearly his entire division heard and knew that no one wanted to come in contact with their captain that day.

XXX

Urahara gave Ichigo's query a shrug before he replied, "I just borrowed a few of Mayuri-kun's memories is all. I'll give them back… eventually." With that cryptic response he turned and left the friends alone in the room to celebrate Ishida's return to sanity.

A/n: Sorry to anyone who hasn't seen the movie Fade to Black. You won't get what it is that I was alluding to that Urahara stole from Mayuri. Basically Mayuri keeps what looks like a brain in a jar that is a back up of all of his memories. Instead of going up against Mayuri, Urahara just stole his memories and figured out a cure from that… clever Urahara