Tristan couldn't see.

No, he could see but he couldn't see like anyone else. He rarely, if ever, looked at someone's face. He doesn't know what Kuchiki-fukutaichou looks like. Or Aizen Sousuke. Or Rue Diabolos. Or Yamamoto-soutaichou. Or anyone really.

He's only looked at Agito Diabolos's face.

He regrets it because she was the type of beauty that hurts for people to look at. Like the sun. But he's looked and now he can't stop so he doesn't even try.

He sees a lot.

He saw how the longer and longer as time passed and Aizen exercised his will and power of his Lady, the more she seemed to wilt. Like a lifeless puppet. Tristan hated it. He hated it so much because he had seen into her eyes and seen the life there, the power, the will and that is something that was never to be put out.

The burning in her gaze already turned to ice, to cold, heartless. Tristan wanted to save her from it. She was his Lady and Lady should never be brought low.

He would do what he must. Consequences be damned.

...

"Fucking shit! Cunt!" scrambled Natsu away, nearly dropping his zanpakuto because of the vicious slice Agito had given the Shinigami that dug deep into the muscle of his thumb. When he fell out of stance so did she, wiping the edge of her blade across the leg of her hakama.

"You're full of openings," she said before sheathing her zanpakuto.

"No, you're just an unpredictable mess," Natsu complained, "Who the hell jaunts forward with a katana? We're not fencing!"

"And because you didn't expect it, you got cut," Agito reasoned, "So really, it's your fault."

"My fault. My fault? Woman, I hope your next menstruation is as painful as childbirth!"

"I don't hear an excuse," Agito teased. Natsu might have screamed a bit.

"Hey Agito, where's your kid?" he asked when he was done wrapping his hand with a makeshift bandage. Without batting an eye she replied, "He has his own schedule, I don't need to know it."

"You didn't even deny that he's your kid," he noticed. Agito's hand, which rested on the hilt of her zanpakuto, fingered the butt of the hilt like a worry stone. She said, "I think it's more difficult to deny a popular idea than it is to simply accept their claims."

"Okay, so that's weird," he said, "Does your boy accept it?"

"I wouldn't know. But he does not dissuade the rumors."

"Now that's really weird," Natsu said, "You go to the military you find family as in brother-in-arms, sister-from-another-mister, a spouse. This is the first I heard of a mother and son."

"And yet it's not the first for a father and son relationship," Agito countered, "You just think it's strange because the gender roles are switched."

"Hey! I'm getting better at the misogyny!" he said, "So what are you doing after this?"

"No," Agito immediately denied, "I am not having dinner with you and your wife."

"Oh come on! It's been way too long since you've been over."

"Last time I was there, your wife tried to set me up with her brother, Natsu. Her brother."

"Yeah," he said, grimacing at the thought, "Not the best dinner ever."

"Diabolos-fukutaichou." With footsteps as light as a feather, a Royal Messenger alighted near them. Both Agito and Natsu didn't startle at the sudden appearance, both strong enough to have sensed the oncoming presence.

"Yes," Agito called, "What message do you have for me?"

"This morning, Kubo-taichou had been sent with Tristan Akatani to investigate reports of a hollow infestation in the Southern District Sixty-two. Half an hour ago, a message was received requesting you, the fukutaichou of the third company, and another taichou with their fukutaichou."

"Who is the other taichou? I'm guessing that they were chosen for the freedom of both taichou and fukutaichou's schedule," she said, preparing for a battle.

"Correct," the Royal Messanger said, "The only Taichou and fukutaichou free enough to come for aid were Aizen-taichou and Ichimaru-fukutaichou of the fifth Company."

Agito's reiatsu spiked, turning from the warmth of a bonfire to the heart of a volcano.

"Thank you," she said, her voice not betraying the high emotions her aura was screaming to the world. "You are dismissed."

Before the Royal Messenger or her friend Natsu could blink, she was already gone, pushing to the utter limits of her shunpo ability to reach her taichou, her protege before anything could happen to them.

It felt like a trap. Why would her taichou and protege be on a mission together? Not only that but so far away with no other back up? And it wasn't a coincidence that both Aizen and Gin were free. No, something was happening. Something very very bad was happening.

Agito's heart was jack-hammering in her chest with anxiety, her mind flashing to a of the worst case scenarios. She prayed to any god listening that no one was dead.

It took too long for her to get there. The South District Sixty-Two was one of the farthest district from Seireitei, hard to patrol because of its lack of human habitation, and infected with hollows like an open wound. If it took half an hour for a message to arrive for back up, then it was nearly an hour from being sent to receiving help.

Agito was frantic to track down the shinigami as fast as possible, pinpointing their reiatsu signature like a blood hound. The closer she came, the more locked down her emotions become, cutting away all fear and panic in pace of logic and cunning.

She broke through a line of trees to find a small clearing, more of a pit surrounded by jutting rocks and a small canyon of dirt and a carpet of dead leaves. In the middle of the pit were Aizen with his back to Agito, Tousen and Gin who stood guard over Kubo-taichou and Tristan. Kubo-taichou was restrained by Tousen but she struggled to get nearer Tristan with no success. A thin trail of blood leaked over her brow and dripped into her eyes, her movements a little jaunty to suggest a concussion. Tristan lay on the ground as still and as cold as a corpse but Agito could barley feel the heart beat of his reiatsu, Gin stood over him with with his creepy smirk.

Aizen turned around.

"Welcome," he called, "We've been waiting for you."

Kubo-taichou's head whipped around and she sat stunned to see me.

"Diabolos?" she asked in disbelief.

"Come, Agito," Aizen commanded as if she were an obedient dog. She looked at her protege and her taichou and did as bid. "I have a surprise."

"TRAITOR!!!" Kubo-taichou shrieked. "FOUL MONSTER! SLANDEROUS WHORE!" Tousen immediately moved to silent her, jerking the butt of his zanpakutou to slam into her head wound, causing more pain and making her concussion worse.

"A Lady doesn't speak like that," Aizen teased before turning to Agito, "I have a very simple order for you, my dear. Very simple and we can go home. Of course, not all of us are going home alive."

"What?" the word slipped out before Agito could stop. His smile widened in sick joy.

"Kill your taichou, Agito. Kill her so that you will take her taichou haori."

"You bastards," Kubo-taichou growled.

"Why," she questioned. She didn't want to kill Kubo-taichou. Agito didn't want to kill anyone. But she had the sneaking suspicion that she would have to.

"'Why,'" Aizen repeated, "Are you questioning my orders?"

Agito could have said many things but for once she was silent. Aizen assessed the young woman and said, "You don't know your place. That's okay, I will teach you. For your information, this isn't some random murder. I am not so sloppy as that. In fact, this is the clean up of a little leak."

His attention turned to the young boy on the ground and so did Agito. Tristan trembled under their combined gaze but his expression was hidden by the carpet of rotting leaves he had pressed his face into.

"Your protege sought to betray us," Aizen said in disgust, "By revealing our secrets to your taichou. But all is fine now because we caught the traitors before they could spread their lies to Seireitei. Kill them, so that they would be silenced forever."

"THOU ART THE MAN," Kubo-taichou accused and something stirred deep within Agito. "Traitors and liars you are! Tyrannism!"

"You are just an ignorant slave," Aizen said in pity to Kubo-taichou, "An ignorant slave to the false glory of Seireitei. We bring a new era of peace, wealth and strength. But it is too soon. It is a shame that you can't be there at the dawn. Agito, kill her."

Agito looked to Aizen, to Tozen, to Gin. She could definitely kill Tozen and Gin with maybe some trouble but not much. Aizen, though, was a different monster. He was stronger, older with more experience and was powerful enough to probably keep Yamamoto-soutaichou on his toes. She was already trapped in the power of his zanpakutou. He held the lives of both her sister and her protege with a sleeper kido.

If she refused, all of them would die. If she obeyed, only one of them would die.

Agito drew her blade.

"No!" shouted Tristan who raised his head and tried to rise, only to be pushed down by Gin's foot. "No! My fault! No!"

"Do as your ordered," Aizen said but there was no need. Agito wasn't listening to anyone by the roar of blood in her ears. She was aware that someone was thrashing but she wasn't paying attention to her protege. She was looking at her taichou.

Kubo-taichou, who taught her so much about the power of body language. The one who tried her best to train Agito's bankai without actually witnessing it. The one who trained her not to be a soldier but to be a woman. A tough old woman with a sharp mind and a sharper tongue but with a heart of gold. She looked at Agito with hatred brimming her eyes. Agito couldn't blame her.

She hated herself too much to begrudge anyone else.

Viciously, Agito sliced into the guts of Kubo-taichou and ripped up, cracking open her ribs with a powerful swing. Blood sprayed into the air, raw organs spilled out of the now dead shinigami onto the ground.

Agito heard only static. She turned around to see Tristan screaming but she could't hear him. Her eyes locked onto Aizen's and he looked so proud, she felt sick.

"Good girl," he said and for some reason she could hear him, "Now kill your son."

Sound came rushing back. She heard Tristan's screams of grief choke up and stifle themselves. Cicada beetles screamed in the woods. A raven crowed in the distance.

Agito's head slowly turned to look down at Tristan to see him still on the ground but now that she was looking, she saw something else. His legs were angled weirdly. With one glance at Gin, his smile turned cheeky.

"I made it easy for you. Now he can't run." Gin Ichimaru made sure that Tristan's legs were useless.

Agito didn't feel angry. Just the all crushing weight of destiny boring down on her shoulders. Her future used to be so bright but now she could see that there was nothing but darkness ahead. Her son would have never survived it.

Agito approached Tristan's sobbing form, dropped to her knees and did something she had never done before. She touched him. Lightly, upon his shoulder, she placed a warm hand upon his shoulder and carefully turned him over. Tristan didn't fight or flinch away. He looked up at Agito with his beautiful chocolate eyes, tear stained and for once not looking at anywhere but her eyes. She pulled him up a little so that his upper torso rested in her lap, his head cradled by her arms.

Her back was to Aizen and Tosen. Gin was in front, taking in the entire scene. Not smiling anymore.

"Kill the boy and clean up the mess when you're done," Aizen said before turning away to leave, utterly flippant about everything. Tousen followed his master's lead and Gin some time after, leaving the surrogate mother with her adopted child.

When there was finally no one to see, Agito's entire facade crumbled. She sobbed as silent as the moon crying for its wolf. Her tears fell like rain drops upon Tristan who could only cry as silently as she.

He took up his hand and slide it into her own. It was a first time for so many things. The first time he had seen her cry. The first time he had felt her touch. The first time he held her hand.

Agito picked up Michael. For some reason, her chest felt swollen with the need to sing.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine-," she began to sing as she pressed her zanpakutou upon the soft throat of her son. He squeezed her hand and didn't blink away from her eyes.

"You make me happy when skies are grey-," her blade slide slowly along his throat, a smooth execution. Blood spilled over her fingers and soaked into her lap. Tristan's eyes widened and his hand squeezed hers because of the pain, his body trying to jerk away in instinct. But his eyes never left hers and though he started to choke on blood, he started to mouth the words to her song.

"You'll never know, dear, how much I love you-," she threw away her blooded zanpakutou so that both hands could hold her son as he bled to death. He was shaking from shock and blood just kept rushing out. He would be dead within a minute. He was trying to breath but drowning in the blood, a horrible gurgling escaping his torn throat and it was such a horrible way to die.

Agito was shaking from the strain of her grief. Her tears rained down as Tristan grew paler and more still. She would never get to see her son achieve any of his goals, and isn't that the tragedy of death? To see such potential slip away. Screw the 'happy' thought of their soul being reborn in the Living World. It wouldn't be her Tristan. Her son would never come home.

"So please don't take my sunshine away." Tristan's hand let go.

His body sighed one last time and grew still. His eyes went cold.

Agito opened her mouth to scream in horrid pain but grief choked her throat. She gave a rather pathetic whine, like a little kitten in pain. She curled her body over her dead son, head thumping upon his chest as she listened for a heart beat. She gave up trying to cry silently and heaved out heavy sobs of pain.

Her son was dead.

She killed him.

An eternity passed as she mourned her loss.

When the blood had grown cold she stood to her feet and picked up her sword. She looked around the clearing. Tristan's body lay at its center like a sacrifice. Kubo-taichou lay a little ways away, ravaged open and ugly was her corpse. Ravens in the distance crowed.

She raised up her blade.

"Smite, Michael."

And the world started to scream.

...