Beyond the Hourglass

A/N: New character alert! He's been mentioned in previous chapters though. Oh, and the first bit is kinda violent. Don't forget to review, they make me so happy!

Heaven's Not Enough

He felt sore all over, and cold and he had no idea where he was. He tried to open his eyes, but he was blind-folded. He tried to move, but he was bound. He tried to speak, but was gagged. He could not move or speak or see and he was alone and he could smell that man and he started to panic.

“Ah,” he heard, “You’re awake.”

He heard footsteps moving toward him. They stopped. Then he felt something hit his gut and suddenly he was wishing he was unconscious again.

“How do you like that, bitch?”

He screamed. Or, he tried, at least. With the gag in place, his choice of verbiage was rather limited. But the point still got across because then he heard the man laughing.

“Oh my. You sound so delightful when you try and scream like that.”

He felt something hit his back, and he tried not to scream, but he could not hold it in.

“Don’t hold back,” the man ordered, “Let it all out.”

And then he was naked and the beating continued and he screamed in pain and he felt tears running down his cheeks but he had no idea how long he had been crying. He was flipped over onto his stomach and he felt the man straddle him. He could feel the man’s mouth against his ear.

“You know what’s next, don’t you? Does that turn you on? That you’re going to be raped?”

He could feel him pressing against him, hard and ready. Ichigo whimpered.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to give up so easily,” the man taunted, “I like a good fight.”

He tried to resist. He really did. He writhed and bucked and wriggled as best he could but whatever was binding him was doing a very good job and before he knew it the man was inside him and he was trying to scream again.

“That’s it. Scream for me, you little slut.”

And the man went in and out and in and out and it hurt and he felt even more tears on his cheeks and he just wanted it all to end. He wanted Renji. The man’s scent permeated the room, but if he could just hold on to that one comforting thought, perhaps he could make it. He tried to think of Renji, his scent, his touch, his being. He tried to block out the man, what he was doing to him, and focus as best he could on those thoughts. And then the man stopped.

“You fucking little slut. You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?” Ichigo could hear the anger in his voice, “That pathetic excuse for a shinigami you call a boyfriend.”

The man hit him on the back, eliciting a muffled cry of pain.

“No! You don’t get to be happy. You’re nothing but a fucking faggot. You don’t deserve to be happy. You’re not even a real shinigami. You don’t deserve him.”

He felt something cool being pressed against his throat, a knife.

“Maybe I should just kill you and put you out of your misery.”

He could feel the knife pressing into his flesh, enough to cause discomfort but not quite enough to pierce.

“That’s enough,” a new voice said, “You know the rules: we do not kill our guests.”

He felt the knife being removed from his throat and was relieved.

“Leave us,” the new voice continued.

Ichigo heard footsteps and a door open and close and more footsteps coming towards him. He flinched when he felt a hand touch the back of his head. But this hand did not hurt him; it merely removed the blindfold. And then moved to work at the gag. Now able to use his eyes and mouth fully, he opened his eyes and gasped for air.

“Is that better, Ichigo?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Ichigo admitted slowly.

“Don’t mind Ryu. You just remind him of himself when he was younger.”

“That doesn’t give him an excuse to rape me.”

“I don’t suppose it does,” he mused wistfully, “but his reasons are his own, and who am I to judge?”

“So you’re saying his raping me was justified?”

“No. I’m saying you can’t judge a man’s actions without knowing his motivations. Anyway, you seem to be recovering rather quickly.”

Ichigo tried to make himself more comfortable, but was still limited in his movements.

“Would you like to sit up?” the new man asked.

“Yeah. If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.”

And before he knew it he was sitting up and looking the new man in the eyes.

“That man. . . you called him Ryu. He told me that wasn’t his name anymore.” Ichigo said.

“Oh, that. Well, you see, I call him that to get on his nerves. He really hates being called that. If I were you I would refrain from addressing him.”

“Right,” Ichigo began hesitantly, “So. . . who exactly are you guys?”

“We are the Nameless. Shinigami distorted by emotion.”

“What do you mean?”

“Each of us, at some point in the distant past, was the victim of a horrible emotional trauma. Because of that trauma, we experienced very potent emotions. Specifically, we experienced prolonged periods of extreme negative emotions. Those emotions affected our reiatsu and changed us. We are a rarity among shinigami. As far as I know, we are the only ones.”

“But, why are you going against Soul Society?”

“Because the cause of our emotional trauma was Soul Society. They used us then punished us then abandoned us.”

“Why’d they abandon you?”

“For conduct unbecoming of a shinigami.”

“What does that—”

“We are gay, Ichigo. Soul Society punished and tortured and abandoned us because of who we loved. And now we are exacting our revenge, simple as that.”

“But Renji said. . .”

“Soul Society’s acceptance of homosexuality is a recent thing. Our stories are centuries old. We are mostly forgotten from history. Removed as embarrassments. Even after they became so ‘accepting,’ we are still forgotten. Soul Society wants nothing to do with us. And that is fine. We want nothing to do with them. We merely want our revenge, and that is all. Our revenge will be exact and swift and clean, and afterward, Soul Society will never hear from us again.”

“But what about me? Why’d that guy—”

“You may call him Vorn.”

“Right. So, why’d Vorn rape me? What do I have to do with your revenge?”

“Well, to be honest, not much. I saw you as a potential obstacle, and so I told Ryu to take care of you. Without killing you, mind you. I hate death. But I left the specifics up to him. I suppose he underestimated your mental strength. I mean, you were just raped a little while ago and here we are carrying on a conversation.”

“Yeah, well, Renji helped with that.”

“Ah, young love. It does the heart good. Now, why don’t we get you cleaned up? I will not have our guest covered in bruises like that.”

“But. . .You’re the enemy.”

“That does not give me license to be rude to our guest. Now come over here and let me wash you up.”

As the man cleaned him up, Ichigo began to remember the later events of his fight with Vorn.

“What happened to Renji?”

“He’s alive, I assure you.”

“And how would you know that?”

“Because I specifically instructed Ryu to not kill anybody.”

“Oh.”

“There you go, all cleaned up. Now let’s get you some clothes on.”

And the man found him some clothes and they were pretty comfortable but then he heard his stomach make itself known and the man laughed and offered to make him breakfast.

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A/N: Okay, I have some issues with this chapter. I wrote it, and then I thought 'that is NOT realistic.' I asked my beta, and she thought Ichigo was just repressing the whole thing. What do you, my dear readers, think?