The Pact

Sorry this has taken so long, everyone. It\'s finished for the most part but I can never seem to get time to edit and post because work and RL are trying to kill me, I swear.



Watcher: I really have no use for Rukia. Not that I dislike her per se, it\'s simply the way her character is presented never motivated me to care about her. As for complicated sentence structure, it\'s the way I speak most of the time so it\'s how I tend to write.



Midnight Essence: Thank you for the birthday wishes. I appreciate it.



To everyone reading and reviewing, I hope you enjoy.

***



Nyx sighed and looked over her shoulder at the impromptu search party that had formed on the news her daughter had given her guards the slip, doubtlessly taking Uryuu with her. Leave it to Cyan to manage to mobilize not only her mother and aunt but four men as well. One of whom had never met her. She had to admit she liked the mild mannered man who’d been sent to negotiate Renji’s release, though she sensed he was stunningly powerful, he had to be to make Captain but he reined it in well. She could see quite clearly why he had been sent as a negotiator. He was calm, even tempered and very little seemed to rattle him, not even Ama’s tantrum in the meeting. As though her thoughts had conjured him, the man sped up his pace and began walking beside her.



She glanced at him, noting the small smile playing on his lips. “You have questions,” she said simply.



He nodded. “You have answers.”



“I’ll answer if I can. I’ll not answer anything I deem to be threatening to my people though.”



“Understandable.”



“What’s your first question?”



“What brought this on?” he asked, tilting his head toward where Renji and Amaterasu were walking side by side in relative silence.



“I’m not entirely certain,” Nyx said truthfully. “Evidently she picked up on something going through Renji’s mind concerning his past and ran with it. Goddess knows I can never manage to talk her out of anything once she gets it in her head. I’m presuming Renji’s past isn’t as bad as she’s thinking.”



Jyuushiro sighed heavily. “It was bad in the beginning,” he said carefully. “I’ll not make light of it. None of us are proud or happy that some children go hungry when others have plenty. He had a hard time at the Academy at first because he’d never had any formal schooling but he came through it well.”



“That isn’t surprising. He strikes me as more of a hands on person than a scholar.”



“That is entirely true. He and Ichigo are peas in a pod, they want to protect everything and everyone. Fortunately, they usually succeed. Though in odd way sometimes,” Jyuushiro chuckled.



“You’ll have to tell me more about that later. Anything else?”



“Can she be talked into releasing him?”



Nyx shook her head. “I doubt that very much. Not unless Renji convinces her somehow. She’s in protective mode at the moment and unless he tells her it’s okay, she’ll continue to be.”



“How did she find out about Renji’s past anyway? You said she picked up something in his head.”



“It’s telepathy combined with empathy. She basically connects to strong emotions and can see what causes them. That’s a very simplified version of it but I can’t explain it further as I don’t exactly understand how it works,” she said, turning sideways to squeeze between two trees. “Since Renji seems to be made up of strong emotions it wouldn’t be that hard for her to pick up on whatever he was thinking about.”



“Well, an ability like that will certainly make her job as a ruler easier.”



“Hopefully. Though I can see it being a detriment as well. Especially if she can’t get a handle on her reaction to emotional turmoil.”



“She’s still very young. I’m sure she’ll grow into it properly with guidance.”



She suddenly focused on a stretch of damaged underbrush, noticing the prints made off of the path had a faint silver glow to them. One set being very small and the other larger. “Ah, ha! Gotcha, brat.”



“I beg your pardon?” Jyuushiro said.



“You can see power, right?” Nyx asked.



He frowned a little, thinking it over a bit before understanding what she meant. “Yes. I can,” he said, letting loose a little on the tight leash of his own abilities. “Ah, I see now.”



They both started following the tracks of silvery footprints through the forest as the rest fell in line behind them. They stopped short at a doorway etched faintly into the side of a huge tree.



“What on Earth is that?” Jyuushiro asked.



Nyx sighed and shook her head. “I have got to talk to that kid about closing gateways,” she said, putting her hand to the “door” and pushing it open then stepping inside. “Mind your head, Captain. It’s a little disorienting coming through.”



Jyuushiro shrugged, wondering vaguely how he’d managed to get himself into this and stepped inside the tree. The rest of the group came through behind him and stood blinking in the bright sunlight before everyone’s eyes went to the large crowd of people milling around. Wherever they were seemed to be in a state of happy chaos. Strains of music could be heard over the crowd, dogs and children chased around the adults and the smell of rich food drifted to them on the breeze.



A voice called over the low roar of people talking. “Hey, Nyx, looking for your hell child and her keeper?”



A path through the throng suddenly appeared and a mostly naked woman came striding toward the group. Renji stared until Amaterasu elbowed him in the ribs, Ichigo looked as though he was going into shock, Sado looked away discreetly and Jyuushiro seemed unruffled by the situation.



“I take it you know where they are, Morrigan,” Nyx said as the other woman neared them.



“I do. The pretty boy isn’t much of a keeper though since Cyan has him firmly wrapped around her little fingers already. He’s doing a pretty good job of self denial though.”



“Hardly surprising. She has that effect on men in general. I’m mildly terrified to see her hit puberty.”



“I can see why,” Morrigan said, her eyes going to the men in the group. “When did the Amazon start coming by pretty men, Nyx?”



Nyx sighed. “It’s a long story.”



“I’m sure.” Morrigan’s eyes narrowed shrewdly, taking in the strengths and weaknesses of each person of the group in turn. She strode over to Ama, nodding to the other woman. “You must be Nyx’s sister.”



Amaterasu bowed her head forward baring back of her neck as was the proper acknowledgement of an elder goddess. Even from an empress appropriate protocol had to be observed with the Sidhe. “I am. It is an honor to meet the raven queen.”



A grin flitted at the edges of Morrigan’s mouth. “Let’s not worry about the formalities just now. This is a party not an engagement at the court. Though I am happy to see that Nyx taught you proper form.”



“Thank you.”



Morrigan’s gaze then turned to Renji and her grin widened. “Yours I presume,” she said, looking back to Ama.



“No. He isn’t.”



“But you’d like for him to be,” the older woman said knowingly. “Let me give you a piece of hard earned advice, kiddo. People in general don’t like being held captive. Men especially don’t like it. If he’s interested he’ll be back around, if not there isn’t anything you can do about it and you have to let it go. That’s just the way it is across the board.” She turned to Renji then looking him over thoroughly. “I like the tats. We’ll spar later. I want to see you use that sword’s bankai.”



“How did . . .” Renji began.



“I’m a war goddess. There’s very little about fighting I don’t know. I also happen to know a lot about the shinigami,” she said, looking directly at Jyuushiro and smiling. He returned the smile, one eyebrow lifting slightly. “I’m getting to that, Jyu.”



Ichigo had finally regained his wits enough to speak again, though he looked anywhere but at Morrigan. “You two know eachother?”



“We’ve . . . met on various occasions,” Jyuushiro said, blushing faintly as he looked at the war goddess.



“Oh, yeah, we’ve met before. I think we need to meet again soon,” Morrigan said. “Come on. I’ll take you to your little evil one, Nyx. She and the arrow boy are with Bri.”