And now to sort out that bloody cliffhanger...

Welcome, everyone, to the last chapter. I'm sorry if you find yourself unsatisfied with the ending, especially since I do not wish to write a sequel, but hopefully this will be enough for you. Well, if you don't like it, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry (David Tennant style). XD

Anyway, review as always~

Allons-y! (also David Tennant style, now that I mention it!)

Fourteen

Rukia cradles Ichigo's head in her lap, begging him to wake up, but deep down she knows it's too late. He's gone.

He's dead.

Rukia's entire world is caving in around her. It's over. There's no point to anything now. No point carrying on. No point trying to escape. Everything is ending.

But there's no way she's giving up without getting one thing done.

She gets to her feet and spins around, quick as lightning, her blade colliding with Hollow Ichigo's. His face is straight but his yellow eyes are smiling. This infuriates Rukia beyond belief.

'We were going to get out,' she hisses. 'We were going to win. You took that away. You took- everything- away!' She presses against his sword as hard as she can, pushing him backwards with all her might.

'You have no idea how to escape,' he replies.

'SHUT UP!' she shouts furiously, her emotions causing the areas of Hollow Ichigo's Tensa Zangetsu that are up against her Sode no Shirayuki to freeze over. The Hollow leaps back, the ice on his sword shattering.

For once in her life, Rukia doesn't feel like a weak little Soul Reaper. Because she now has one thing giving her power, one thing she will use to avenge... to avenge... him.

Rukia can't bear to think of him. Her chest feels as if it's ripping in two whenever she pictures him, and the thoughts of all the days they can now never have...

'I hate you,' she whispers, the ground beneath her beginning to turn to ice as it spreads out slowly, covering the place in a thick, shiny layer of ice.

And he watches her with that smile on his face.

'I'm going to kill you.'

'And what would Ichigo think of that?' he asks her.

'Don't you dare,' she spits. 'Don't. You. Dare. Say. His. Name.'

'I can't say my king's name? Why not?'

'SHUT THE FUCK UP!' she screams.

He rolls his eyes. 'Calm down, crazy. Your brother would do his nut if he heard you using language like that-'

'TSUGI NO MAI, HAKUREN!' Rukia shouts, powering her blade to maximum like that final attack she used on Kyoka Suigetsu. She's completely forgotten how she was completely ready to let Kyoka Suigetsu die peacefully, and her entire previous attitude. All Rukia knows is that she is filled with hate, stronger than she has ever experienced before, and she is going to murder Hollow Ichigo or die trying.

Her new ice mountain is impossibly tall, reaching far up into the sky, and Rukia neither knows nor cares how long it is. Her violet eyes narrow, searching around for the Hollow to see if he's been frozen.

'Right here,' he says from behind her.

She spins around and shouts, 'HADO, NUMBER THIRTY-ONE, SHAKKAHÔ!'

He lifts up his sword and deflects her red flame cannon as if he is merely slicing through air. 'Are you going to calm down now?'

Clutching her sword with both hands, Rukia tries bringing it down on his head. His hand comes up to grab one of her wrists, and he twists her round so her back is to him. Utterly defenceless, Rukia thinks that at least now she won't have to live her life without Ichigo. The hatred that filled her to the brink is simply draining away, but not to be replaced with despair. Rukia feels more or less relatively calm. She waits for the Hollow to end it.

'Look at that,' he says, and she looks up at the sky. The sun is just appearing over the top of Sokyoku Hill, meaning the night is over.

'I'd say we have about five or six minutes left,' Hollow Ichigo muses.

Rukia turns her head away from the blaring orange light and her eyes find... him. She stares at Ichigo's dead body, just a few feet away, and wonders if it's just the light that's making him look strange. He's beginning to shimmer, and as she and the Hollow watch, his body disappears completely.

'Would you look at that. I was right,' Hollow Ichigo says, sounding pleased.

'What?' Rukia croaks, not understanding what's going on. Her eyes are filling with tears that are already cascading down her cheeks and there is a big lump in her throat. Where's Ichigo gone? How come she can no longer see him?

'Okay. You need to die now,' the Hollow says.

She twists her head round to glare at him. 'What are you talking about?'

'It's your one-way ticket outta here,' he says as if the answer's obvious. He lets go of her arms and she takes a few steps away from him. 'Am I really the only one who worked that out?'

'What are you talking about?' she asks, her voice thick with tears.

'You die, you wake up,' Hollow Ichigo says simply. 'The nightmare ends. Finished.'

'You mean...' Rukia glances over at the spot where Ichigo's body once lay. 'You mean that...' Can she really dare to hope? Is it... actually possible that...? '… he's not... dead?'

'I told you to stop making a fuss,' Hollow Ichigo sighs, scratching the back of his head, a bored look on his face.

'But... Kyoka Suigetsu said...'

'She said that I would never succeed in my plan because the two of you combined would stop me. She was wrong about a lot of things... anyway, your lives were never in any danger.'

'We've been attacked all night,' Rukia says sceptically.

'Never by anything powerful enough to actually kill you,' the Hollow continues, grinning at her like she's a complete fool. 'I seem to recall that you were always convinently saved or you found resolve right at the last second or some crap like that-'

'Uryu almost killed me,' Rukia interrupts.

'You said it yourself: you were 'easily able to dodge his arrows in time and defeat him'. Yeah, those words exactly. Lucky, don't you think?'

And now Rukia thinks about it, even though she has been both physically and mentally wounded throughout the night, the Hollow is right: she never was truly in any life-threatening situation. Even when she came face to face with Kaien. She easily managed to escape, with only mild injuries.

'That's why Kyoka Suigetsu never wanted to fight us physically,' Rukia guesses. 'She just wanted to play mind games with us.'

The Hollow nods. 'She couldn't risk accidentally causing you to wake up. She was also desperate to kill me, especially when I worked out how to stop all this, because she didn't want me to end it. She didn't want me killing you or Ichigo, so she tried poisoning your minds so you think I was the enemy.'

'But you admitted you betrayed us and everything!'

Hollow Ichigo's grin widens. 'Well, I sort of did, didn't I? I stabbed you both in the back. Literally with Ichigo, though really it was the front.' He laughs at that.

'Why didn't you tell us you were helping us all along?' Rukia asks, highly annoyed.

The Hollow's smile disappears and is replaced by a frown. 'I tried to, and I ended up with Kyoka Suigetsu's sword at my throat, in case you don't remember.'

Rukia glares at him. 'You had so many other opportunities. You could have told us before you stabbed Ichigo.'

'Nope,' Hollow Ichigo dismisses. 'I prefer the idea of Ichigo leaving this world thinking of me as something to be feared, rather than...'

'Rather than someone who ended up saving him,' Rukia says, beginning to put all the pieces together. She remembers Ichigo's worst fear, and how the monster he was in it wasn't actually his inner Hollow, almost as if he's outgrown his fear for Hollow Ichigo. Maybe that pissed the Hollow off. Rukia doesn't really understand it, but she's now confident about one thing.

Ichigo isn't dead.

And he's waiting for her on the other side.

'You didn't kill him,' she whispers happily. 'You saved him.'

'Keep saying that and I'll...' His threat trails off as he realises he can think of nothing suitable.

'What? Kill me? That's what you need to do, isn't it?' Rukia says. 'I have to die to get out, right?'

He tilts his head with a confused smile. 'You're not scared?'

'There's one thing I've learnt from all this illusions,' Rukia says calmly, a small smile appearing on her own face. 'Don't be afraid. This sort of thing should never be scary. None of this is real, and I know that Ichigo's waiting for me on the other side.'

The Hollow holds up his hands. 'Okay, fine. This is probably gonna hurt.'

Rukia looks him straight in the eyes. 'Hollow... thank you. For everything.'

He makes a 'tsk' noise as if he doesn't really care (though they both know how untrue that really is). 'Yeah, whatever, Queen.'

'What?'

Still smiling infuriatingly which makes Rukia feel rather stupid for having asked, Hollow Ichigo replies, 'You're the king's... one in particular or whatever they call it. That makes you Queen.'

Her smile appearing again, Rukia closes her eyes and waits for her 'death'. As expected, it's a terrible, painful experience, and memories flood through her of the conclusion of her fight with the Ninth Espada and how much that hurt her. But she thinks of leaving this horrible world, and how that the illusion is meant to end once her and Ichigo are free, so now their inner worlds will go back to normal...

… and she'll get to see Ichigo. They lived. Both of them. Rukia can't believe their luck. They made it.

XOXOXOX

When Rukia's eyes open, she finds herself (as expected) lying in the bed in the Squad Four medical centre, and Renji is still to be found sitting in a chair beside her, looking thoroughly depressed as he stares at the floor, his back hunched over, dark circles under his eyes.

'Cheer up, Renji,' Rukia says. 'The world's not coming to an end.'

It's kind of worth doing that to get the completely priceless reaction from Renji. He jumps violently, his eyes open wide in total amazement. 'Rukia!'

'Hello,' Rukia greets him. Her voice is rasping because it hasn't been used in a while. 'You don't look too good.'

'We've all been so worried about you!' Renji exclaims, pulling his best friend into a hug. 'What happened? The servants at the Kuchiki Manor found you in a coma one morning about a week ago!'

So it really was from the exact point that Rukia went to sleep the night before. This means that everything that happened the following day, even before all the horrible stuff began, would have been fake. So every single lieutenant duty she completed during the day, plus visiting Squad Five to train with Momo, never really happened. That was all there to make her think that nothing was out of the ordinary.

'Hasn't been a week for me,' Rukia mutters. 'It's just been a night. One really long night.'

Renji cocks his head. 'What are you talking about?'

Rukia sighs. 'It's a long story. I need to see Ichigo.'

'He's been like you. He was unconscious too. D'you think he's woken up-?'

'He'll already be awake,' Rukia insists, 'and I need to see him. Now.'

'I'm afraid that's out of the question, Lieutenant Kuchiki,' says Captain Unohana's voice from the ward door. She is accompanied by her lieutenant and a few of the seated officers in Squad Four. The woman is smiling and her eyes are closed, but there is a menacing tone to her voice that makes you consider it to be suicide to disobey her.

'P-please,' Rukia stutters, barely finding her voice. 'I need to see him right away.'

'We're going to need to know what has happened to both of you first,' Unohana continues. 'It is brilliant that you have finally woken up and I'm sure everyone will be thrilled, but we need more information.'

'Fine,' Rukia says, starting to get slightly angry, ignoring the fact that standing up to Retsu Unohana is a very dangerous thing to do. But Rukia's seen enough crap to last for a long time, and she's not putting up with anymore. 'I'll tell you what happened. This psycho zanpakutô targeted me and Ichigo and decided to put us through hell because apparently we deserved it. She's dead now.' Rukia glares at all of them, challenging them to make her stay and explain anymore. 'Okay, well if that's it, I'm going to go now.'

XOXOXOX

Rukia! is his first thought the minute he comes into consciousness.

Ichigo's eyes flutter open, a gasp of fear immediately sounding from his lips. He was dying, he's sure of it. He was just dying a second ago, and then everything faded into darkness...

'Big brother?' comes a hopeful, small voice from beside him.

'Ichigo?' says another voice, young as well and just as surprised.

'Yuzu... Karin...' he whispers, realising that they are in fact not dead.

Yuzu instantly tackles him into a hug, overjoyed to see her older brother awake at last. She and Karin are sitting on chairs beside Ichigo's bed, obviously waiting for something to happen. Karin's grinning like it's the best day of her life and when she catches Ichigo looking at her, she blushes and mumbles something about her being worried about her big brother. Ichigo smiles and pulls her into a hug alongside Yuzu, so glad to see them.

'ICHIGO! My boy is awake!'

Karin and Yuzu quickly jump out the way to avoid their father slamming into them in an effort to get to his son. Ichigo lifts up his arm instinctively and his fist collides with Isshin's face. Just like normal.

'Ahh... my son, you have done well,' Isshin groans, falling to the ground beside Ichigo's bed. 'Even after all that sleep you still guard yourself well. Your father is truly proud of you~!'

'Stupid old man,' Ichigo mutters.

He climbs out of bed, ignoring Yuzu who is telling him that he should probably take it easy. He's starting to piece together what this means. His Hollow killed him and then he woke up, which means the way to escape must be to die. But what if Rukia doesn't know that? What if she's so upset by his 'death' that she doesn't give Hollow Ichigo a chance to explain it?

'This is bad,' Ichigo says, biting his lip. 'I need to help Rukia.'

'Rukia?' Karin asks, looking surprised. 'How do you know that it happened to her too? Apparently she's been comatose as well.'

'We were attacked,' Ichigo says, his eyes meeting his father's as Isshin pushes himself off the ground, now looking serious. Karin frowns and Yuzu gasps. 'It was Aizen's zanpakutô. She wanted me and Rukia dead, so she decided to torture us...' Ichigo hesitates. If Kyoka Suigetsu really wanted to kill them, then they would have just woken up as soon as they died. Maybe that's why she wasn't really attacking them properly...

'Wow, King. You're using your brain.'

'You killed me,' Ichigo replies internally, scowling.

'You're welcome.'

'What happened, Ichigo?' Isshin asks, his goofy smile completely gone.

'I've escaped, but I don't think Rukia has. I have to somehow rescue her-'

'She's out,' the Hollow says. 'Trust me.'

'Hell no. I'm not making that mistake again.'

'Whatever,' Hollow Ichigo snickers. 'You'll see I'm right.'

XOXOXOX

That was three hours ago. Ichigo's family won't let him leave the house, but Karin's gone to Urahara's shop to see if they can do anything about Rukia. Ichigo has already tried re-entering his inner world, but it's almost as if the place is rejecting him. When he asks Zangetsu and Hollow Ichigo, they simply reply that it's damaged right now because of what Kyoka Suigetsu did and it's slowly healing, transforming back to its usual state.

'Is Rukia is trouble?' Kon whines, trying to get Ichigo's attention.

'Shut up,' Ichigo replies, not in the mood to chat to the Mod Soul.

'I have the right to know! RUKIA~! WHERE ARE YOU~?'

'Be quiet!' Ichigo hisses, quickly shoving Kon in one of his drawers, praying that his family didn't hear him. He then lies down on his bed and stares up at the ceiling, too worried about Rukia to do anything else. He knows that he should probably phone his other friends and tell them that he is alright, but he's pretty sure Yuzu has already got that covered. Anyway, he's not alright, not until he knows Rukia's safe...

Tap tap tap.

His brown eyes shoot over to the window in an instant, a grin of happiness appearing on his face when he registers who it is.

'Hey,' they both greet each other in unison, both acting rather casual. Three seconds pass, as they're both overwhelmed with emotions, and then the two are wrapped in a tight embrace, so glad to have finally escaped.

'He was on our side. Sort of,' Rukia murmurs into the fabric of Ichigo's shirt as her face is pressed up against it.

'I kind of figured that,' Ichigo replies, smiling.

'And Kyoka Suigetsu is gone now. Mostly. A part of her subconscious may still live on, I don't know,' Rukia continues.

'Yep. I think we're good,' Ichigo replies.

'And Kon is...?'

'In that drawer,' Ichigo says, pointing at it.

'Good. Then he won't make a fuss about this.' And with that, Rukia reaches up and her lips meet Ichigo's. He kisses her back with the same amount of enthusiasm (which is quite a lot considering they're both so relieved to be alive).

'Well it's about time,' Karin says, and Ichigo and Rukia break apart in shock to stare at Ichigo's family, who all stand in the doorway, watching them.

'YAY!' Isshin and Yuzu squeal happily, both looking absolutely delighted.

'When did you guys get here?! How long have you been standing there?!' Ichigo demands, his face flushed red with embarrassment.

'Long enough,' Karin smirks.

'My son has finally become a man!' Isshin yells excitedly, running in to pat Ichigo and Rukia's backs happily.

'I'm going to go and bake some celebration cookies!' Yuzu exclaims, shooting them all an elated smile before she's bouncing off down the stairs to the kitchen.

'Never a dull moment here, eh?' Ichigo says to Rukia, both of them red as tomatoes.

XOXOXOX

Once they've managed to convince everyone that they're fine and nothing like that is going to happen to them again, Ichigo and Rukia get back to their ordinary lives.

This means going back to school and completing their Soul Reaper duties. But now it's clear to everyone how they feel about each other, although a lot of people (mainly Uryu and Chad) were always aware of the way the two felt about each other.

The problems are, of course, Orihime and Renji.

Rukia and Ichigo find it far too awkward explaining their relationship to the people who love them, so they swap roles. Ichigo talks to Renji, who manages to take it all rather well and admits that he'd always suspected a special connection between Rukia and Ichigo. Rukia decides to tell Orihime.

The orange-haired girl is broken-hearted, to put it lightly. But this is a human who finds it so very difficult to resent anyone or anything, so it's not as if she can hold it against Ichigo and Rukia. When Rukia proposes that they should all still be good friends no matter what the personal issues are, although she is crying, Orihime puts on a brave smile and nods her head and agrees with it. Rukia decides not to tell Orihime about how Kyoka Suigetsu imitated her to toy with Ichigo. It's probably for the best, anyway. And afterwards, over the next few weeks, Orihime begins spending a lot more time with Uryu, and the two always seem to be enjoying themselves.

The weeks after the nightmare turn into months. Ichigo and Rukia don't like to talk about what happened, but every simplest little thing can remind them of those horrific visions. Eventually, they come to accept that even if a part of Kyoka Suigetsu did survive, she's never coming back to haunt them or anything. Eventually, Ichigo feels he's ready to get some direct answers. Rukia has already explained how everything worked out in the end, but he'd like to hear it from the person who was responsible for their victory himself.

Ichigo's inner world looks just the same as it always used to whenever he visited. Apart from the odd few side-way, white clouds, the sky is a clear blue, shining down on a city that is a few shades darker. The Hollow stands a few feet above him on the edge of a skyscraper, waiting for him.

'I just wanted to thank you,' Ichigo calls up.

'Took you long enough,' Hollow Ichigo replies, pretending to be annoyed.

'I mean, you played the traitorous jerk card really well,' Ichigo continues. 'But you ended up getting us out of it in the end. So... thanks.'

The Hollow grins his evil smile. 'Ha ha. You owe me.'

Ichigo tries not to swear, hoping that his Hollow won't start demanding anything. 'I was wondering... when Kyoka Suigetsu showed us our worst fears, you said my name. What was it you saw?'

Hollow Ichigo keeps smiling, giving no indication that he is fazed by Ichigo's question. 'Like that's any of your business.'

'Oh, come on!' Ichigo whines. 'You know my worst fear because you can read my mind! I should at least have the right to know yours!'

'I thought you were letting all of that go,' the Hollow says. 'You and Rukia no longer talk about the nightmare, so I figured it was never going to be mentioned again.'

'Well, maybe I decided I'm ready to talk about it again,' Ichigo grumbles, glaring at his pale copy.

The Hollow's grin widens. 'Here's a life lesson, King: some things are best left unknown.'

XOXOXOX

Ichigo and Rukia still have nightmares about that one horrible night so long ago, but they're always here for each other. Kyoka Suigetsu and her horrible visions can no longer get to either of them, and that's the way it's going to stay.

So when one of them will wake up in the middle of the night, screaming about a horrible dream, the other will always comfort them.

After all, Rukia was right; don't be afraid. If you let the fear take control of you then you'll never make it out of the dream.

Maybe Kyoka Suigetsu is still alive in some form. Ichigo and Rukia no longer care, and they know there is no need to worry about it, because together they can defeat her.

Maybe she died, maybe she lived. Hollow Ichigo was right about one thing.

Some things are best left unknown.

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End

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And there you go! Hopefully that explained everything for you! One down, eleven to go... Aw, crap!

Anyway, I'm afraid you'll have to keep guessing as to what Hollow Ichigo's fear is, as you never find out in this story. I have my own ideas as to what I think it probably is (definitely something to do with Ichigo because he said his name) and it will be interesting to see what you guys believe it to be.

Anyway, completing this makes things ever so slightly easier. Just the tiniest bit. Leave a review on your way out, and thanks to everyone who favourited/followed/reviewed etc.

Now to go and write all the others. Oh goody...

Bye!