The Void of Dreams:

Gin didn’t know how long he had been staring into the box and at the power swirling in his eyes. He just was. For some reason, he couldn’t pull away. While he sat in a daze cast by the change in him, his body healed itself, resetting bones, pumping blood through stronger muscle, and erasing all traces of weariness from the long month of torture. A breeze circled around him, chasing away the start of a fever, as well.

 
Finally, he put the box away and looked up at the fluorescent ceiling, grinning in delight. He was invincible. It finally didn’t matter that he was alone....

“And the goddess said you would be smart,” came the acidic voice of his familiar.  Gin looked to his side and looked into the golden eyes of his zanpakuto spirit. The kitsune narrowed his eyes at his master. “Are you forgetting why this power was necessary?” he growled.

Necessary? Didn’t he earn it? Didn’t he…

Gin sprang up. Kita!

He held a hand to his head. “I’m an idiot,” he grunted.

Shinsou swirled his four tails. “Tell me something I don’t know. At least I could finally reach you.” He flicked his tattered ear. “Being able to enter this world makes this illusion of power more worth it.”

Gin sighed and scratched the back of his neck, shaking his mind free of the bliss. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t true. “This is going to be harder than I thought,” he groaned, hiding his eyes. Shinsou remained silent as he wrestled with himself. A few minutes passed and then Gin looked up again. The power had dimmed in his eyes. He chuckled wryly. “I did say I would do anything for Kita.”

Then, something brushed against his senses. A wave of grief, shame, and a tinge of peace. Gin gritted his teeth. He knew where it was coming from.

Hang in there, Kita.

He looked up at the ceiling then blinked as an transparent image formed in front of him. He growled, seeing Kita on the cot of his cell, naked but for a violet kimono, bruised and battered, tear tracks on her face.

 
He didn’t stop to think why he was seeing this. He just reached out and set a hand on her shoulder. When she didn’t stir, he wrapped his arms around her.

Come with me… away… just for a moment….

Kita woke up sitting on his lap in the cave.

Gin pulled her tighter against him. “It’s not Sumi who is in control of this, dearie,” he whispered. She shook her head and he tilted her chin up, brushing at the place where she had cut it open. “Kita, it’s me. I’m alive but this is the only way I can reach you.” His eyes saddened. “I couldn’t leave you alone.”  

He stroked her hair and ran his fingers gently over her black-and-blue cheeks. "If you want, I will take you back, but I want you to trust me.  I did not die, and I will come back for you."

Gin's heart ached with each word she spoke.  He lowered his head to kiss each bruise, soothing some of the pain away, as he tried to get her to reach the hope she'd buried deep in her heart.  I know you haven't given up, dear heart.   

"What you saw was an illusion, Kita, forced on you by Chinmoku, Vale's zanpakuto and aided by my words to deter Aizen.  None of it was true.  You know that.  Look deeper. Do you remember the cloud you touched?" She nodded, still crying. He stopped kissing her skin and wiped her eyelids, looking deep into her eyes.  "Chinmoku creates your worst hallucination if you're exposed to it long enough.  That is why you saw me die.  In reality, I lost that fight with Aizen and Sumi took me away.  I am still alive.  I promise you." 

Come on.

It's not working.... Gin growled to himself. She's buried it too deep. I need something else, something she hasn't seen before.

He reached his zanpakuto. "What are you doing?" Shinsou asked.

Gin grinned. "Sorry, you're going to hate me for this."

He closed his eyes and dragged Kita deeper into himself, passing through with her into his inner realm.

The dry grass chafed around her feet and the wind whirled frigid around her before Gin tugged her kimono closer around her arms.  The persimmon trees swayed in the winter wind but a sunset peeked behind his figure, bathing both of the top of their heads with some warmth.  "Sorry, it's not all pretty here, especially in transition." Kita looked around, eyes still dead.

He grasped her arms.  "Kita, this is my inner realm.  It reflects all I've been through, but there's light here.  You're the light.  Come on, dearie.  Please, Kita, snap out of it."

Gin’s eyes widened and he pulled her against his chest. “Kita! Snap out of it! What you saw was an illusion. I am right here. “ She slumped against him, weeping fitfully. “Goddess, what did you do?” he growled.

“Don’t growl at the hand that helped you,” Sumi called from behind him. “She broke out of the illusion and is remembering what happened afterwards.”

Gin hissed and pulled Kita’s head to his, kissing her forehead, cheeks, and lips, arms tightly around her as she shook. “That doesn’t matter now, Kita. You’re away from it, but I can only keep you here temporarily.” He tilted her head back upwards, staring into her wide, tear-streaming eyes. “Look at me, dearie. Kita, I am right here. Look. At. Me."

Gin melted into the kiss, pulling her as close to his skin as he could manage, both against the cold around them and as a balm to each of Aizen’s words to him when he had snapped and attacked him.

 
“You will forever be an outcast, a monster, unfriended, unloved and alone. They hate you. Just like they hate me and that is because you are just like me."

As long as she is here, none of those words will come true….

I may have been similar, but I can escape….

He pulled back and stroked another tear from her eye.

I can do what I need to do without losing myself.

“Thank you, Kita,” he murmured.

"I'm sorry," he whispered into her ear as the wind whipped around them. "I shouldn't have attacked him then, but with what he had threatened, after all that had already been done... I lost it.  Somewhere in my mind, I knew he would recognize the pattern, and I tried to turn it my advantage." He kissed her forehead. "But this time, I think he saw through me. Sumi decided enough was enough and took me away. I am not far away and I will be back."

The dream wavered around them. Gin's eyes narrowed.