I love the way that your heart breaks
With every injustice and deadly fate
Sosuke Aizen gazed out of a window, allowing his thoughts to wander as the shifting sands of his infinite domain filled his eyes. Intoxicating. That must be the word to describe it. To have such a powerful creature- who, he might venture to say, her powers rivaled even his own- writhing in pain and sorrow beneath him, completely powerless.
Intoxicating. Such a perfect word to describe how Mei looked when she had that spark of terror in her golden eyes. The look when her heart broke and she gave in, even with the knowledge that she could fight back.
Intoxicating. The best word to describe the change when he took the other Cera. The other twin. Intoxicating, the perfect adjective for when he saw her, the elder twin's fierce gaze, even as the light faded from her eyes in sync to the spreading pool of her blood on the pure white floor. The indecision when Meiyo saw him. Oh, she wanted to kill him, but was bound by Mei's fragile mind that was convinced she loved her captor. Injustice? He banished the thought from his mind with a smirk. This was his world, his malleable realm to do with what he pleased. In the absence of a semblance to justice, injustice was just another word.
Praying it all be new
And living like it all depends on you
Meiyo glared disdainfully at her twin. "You expect me to believe those wistful lies?"
Mei shrunk back a millimeter's length. "They're not lies!"
The elder's eyes narrowed. "You expect me to accept that you love him?! He nearly killed me and now you love him?! This isn't enough so you pour salt in the wound and expect me to believe that he DOESN'T KNOW?! How stupid can you be?" She took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing. "We were not born to love. Not arrancar, and especially not the espada. How do you expect an army to stay effective if the higher ranked officers are in disarray? Know your purpose. It is not to love, or be some slave for the needs of Aizen-sama. There are lower ranked unneeded arrancar for that. You and I exist for the soul purpose of death and destruction."
"What about Gin? Don't you love him?" Mei countered.
"Didn't you hear a word I just said? Gin is merely a respite from this hell of a reality. I owe him my life, and, if memory serves me right, he didn't rape my sister and leave her for dead away from any help or hope while he came to gloat to me!"
"Why do you always have to bring that up?! You know tha-"
"That what?" Meiyo snapped. "That it hurts you? You poor thing! I forget that he treats you perfectly! I completely forgot that he doesn't maim you with his Zanpaku-to, skewer you to a wall, or leave you in a pool of your own blood!"
"You shouldn't have fought back!"
Meiyo stopped cold. For the first time in a long time, her reiatsu was unchecked. A lesser being would have been crushed under the weight, and even her twin, so equal to her, was struggling for air. She glared fiercely, almost violently. "Now it's my fault?" She asked in a dangerous calm that was more terrifying than if she had been screaming. "You have exactly two seconds to get out of my sight before I tear you APART!"
"I-I didn't mean-"
"One."
In a flash of tears, Mei sonidoed to the place where it all began. Sosuke Aizen's room.
Here you are down on your knees again
Trying to find air to breathe again
Only surrender will help you now
I love you please see and believe again
Aizen smirked as Mei came into his room, He rose fluidly to intercept her, using his body to pin her against a wall. "Mei-chan, I had no idea you were so eager to continue with your lessons." He whispered calmly. "How many times must I tell you not to go to your sister?"
She was almost prepared when he grabbed her throat tightly and threw her to the ground. With a smirk, he stood over her. "Though this time it didn't quite work, now did it? Maybe she will come back around eventually, but I do believe that could take years. I don't quite believe I've ever sensed so much fury in someone's reiatsu… Now. On with your lesson."
She shook her head as tears continued to pour. "Please. Don't." She whimpered fearfully.
Aizen's eyes lit up with the possibility of a challenge.
He was gravely disappointed.
I love that you're never satisfied
With face-value wisdom and happy lies
Gin grinned. This was normal for him, to the point where the muscles of his face had his signature façade memorized. Though this was different. This one was born of something he couldn't quite name, but maybe it was akin to sincerity? He didn't particularly care, and chose to occupy his thoughts with memories of the past few days. Meiyo. Honor. Though the last few weeks had probably been a living hell for her, he felt no pity or compassion. Mostly because it was simply not how he worked. In fact, had any emotions similar to either pity or compassion so much as crossed his mind, it would have been downright disgraceful. He even entertained the notion that these emotions would be rejected, anyway.
He ruled Las Noches with Sosuke Aizen, who, when the time came, would win the war with the Shinigami, and dispose of Tosen if he wasn't already a casualty. It was merely an inconvenience that he was blind, though that was overridden with the visions of revenge he labeled as justice. Aizen had been smart enough to remove any possibility of defeat before his betrayal was public. A man in such a position as himself shouldn't feel those weak emotions.
Gin felt a mixture of anger and joy for Aizen. For losing days of concentration due to the explosion in Szayel's lab. The raging overlord had almost destroyed their two greatest weapons. At the same time, he nearly laughed when he thought about the amount of power that this mishap had placed into his hands. The severed loyalty to Aizen was nearly tangible in Meiyo. By saving her, the loyalty to him was a thousand times stronger than to Aizen.
The outburst of reiatsu moments ago was unmistakably hers, and it proved his guess. She was a ticking time bomb, and it was only a matter of time before she either killed her sister, or Aizen-sama himself, and either action would put him in a great position of power. He had saved her twice –once from Aizen's first onslaught before he took Mei, and twice when he had found her too late to be rescued from Aizen's 'lesson'- and he was being repaid in more ways than she knew.
You take what they say and go back and cry
You're so close to me that you nearly died
Mei knocked apprehensively on Meiyo's door. "Y-Yo-chan? Can I come in?"
There was an irritated growl before the door opened, revealing a none-too-happy Meiyo. "What do you want this time? To tell me it's my fault that he's attacking you?"
Mei flinched. "I'm sorr-"
"I don't want apologies you don't mean, so don't bother. Tell me what you want."
Mei's eyes started watering.
"Do you have to cry over everything?! You're going against your very nature!"
Mei steadied herself with a deep breath. "It's my fault. It's all my fault!! I can't help what I feel! I can't help it and he takes advantage of it!!! You're so close to me that you nearly died!"
Meiyo's gaze did not soften. "It's not because I'm close to you. It's that you're too close to him, and it's his life's purpose to cause suffering."
Mei bit her lip and walked away silently, concluding that her twin would simply never understand.
[Chorus]
They don't have to understand you
Be Still
Aizen intercepted Mei as she walked away solemnly. "She doesn't understand you like I do, Mei-chan."
She flinched from both fear and his touch as he laid a hand on her shoulder.
"You needn't be afraid. Be still."
Mei calmed slightly from the tone of his voice, which she believed to be better than any drug.
Aizen knew he had to tread lightly, because she was deliciously vulnerable. If he played this right, she would be his without question -even more so than she was already- and there would be no more interference from the other twin.
"I-I don't understand, Aizen-sama. How could she not understand me?" 'And how can you,' she thought, but stayed silent.
"She doesn't know what you know. If something doesn't please her she refuses to see it at all. She's trying to control you." The slight frown on Mei's face told him she was falling for his trap. He continued. "She's only trying to keep you away from happiness while she basks in it with Gin."
Mei's eyes darkened and he had to stifle his smirk. He had won, and it had been so easy.
"You're right." Mei agreed.
"Of course I am, and you knew it before I said anything. You were just unwilling to accept it. Now that you see the truth, you don't have to suffer her control for a moment longer."
And just like that, she had fallen perfectly into his psychological trap as so many before her had done.
Wait and know I understand you
Be still, Be still
Meiyo was disgusted with her twin. 'You annihilate the enemy, not fall in love with them!' This was the thought that ran through her mind over and over again. Her anger rose and as she walked by, she grabbed a lowly numero by the throat and slung it into a wall. She glanced to see the bloody smudge on the wall. This angered her even more and she drove her fist into the wall. The wall around her hand buckled and left a pattern like shattered glass. She pulled her hand out of the wall and was disgusted with the lack of injury. Sometimes she truly hated how strong her heirro was.
"Yare, yare, Yo-chan. You should really control that temper o' yours. What a mess!" Gin exclaimed with a grin.
She was surprised to see him. Anger must have clouded her senses, and cloaked his approach. Her eyes narrowed. "How am I supposed to control my anger? I've been denied the ability to kill the only threat to my sister by the same person who I swore to protect!"
He shrugged. "Whaddya want me to do about it?"
She thought for a moment and figured it was about time. "I want you to leave Las Noches. Just for a day or so, be anywhere but Las Noches. Can you do that?"
His grin widened. "O' Course I can."
"Good." She replied before walking away, her hand on the hilt of her Zanpaku-to.
Here you are down on your knees again
Trying to find air to breathe again
Aizen cuffed the reiatsu limiter around Mei's throat and pressed her against the wall. She had been foolishly showing signs of resistance, so he had deemed the limiter her punishment. With the specially made collar from Szayel, even the cera espada's reiatsu was lowered to less than that of a Gillian.
He was about to begin his onslaught, but was interrupted when a cero disintegrated the door. Meiyo was standing with Mei next to her an instant later. He had unintentionally underestimated her speed, but it didn't quite matter. It was the last mistake she would be allowed.
Meiyo glared so fiercely that she imagined even the lord of Las Noches wasn't unscathed.
He looked back calmly.
"Mei. Take that limiter off. Now." Meiyo ordered, raising her Zanpaku-to.
"But I can't." Mei whimpered.
"You can and you know it. Get your Zanpaku-to, we're destroying Las Noches." She could almost hear Mei's eyes widen. "Just do it!" She yelled, and then redirected her words to Aizen as Mei fumbled with the limiter. "You! You won't ever touch her again."
He smirked. "Really now. Can you be so sure? How can you hope to protect her when you couldn't even protect yourself? You were completely helpless, and without help, you would have died."
Any hesitation Mei might have felt was crushed with his words. He was bragging about the one thing that she couldn't stand!
Only surrender will help you now
The floodgates are breaking and pouring out
Aizen was pleasantly surprised when Mei's bloody blade protruded from Meiyo's stomach, though not shocked when Meiyo flipped the Zanpaku-to in her hand to run Mei through her chest. He wondered momentarily how long they had wanted to kill each other.
Until they both spoke in an eerie double-voice. "Subete zenmetsu, Ryuujin No Shi!"
He realized that they were releasing their Zanpaku-to in barely enough time to react. He only had time to shield his eyes from the blinding light before the giant stone walls of Las Noches came tumbling down atop everyone.
Here you are down on your knees
Trying to find air to breathe
There was a rustle among the white rubble as Aizen pushed a generous pile of rocks off of himself. His uniform wasn't in the best of shapes, but that was the extent of the damage. He glanced around to see the hollows, already hard at work rebuilding the grand palace. A flicker of silver caught his eye, and he turned to see a great dragon flying away from the scene.
He smirked. He had known that she would eventually resort to the destruction of Las Noches. Admittedly he hadn't known it would be quite this soon, but he had known nonetheless. Aizen concentrated for a moment. He couldn't feel Gin or Tosen's reiatsu. He wasn't sure if they were dead or simply unconscious, but it didn't matter.
He searched the skies for the dragon, but it was gone. He didn't have to wait long though, just long enough for them to revert to human form. Then he could find Mei, and by default, Meiyo. It was no accident that he had placed his reiatsu into her wounds. It was a tracking device of sorts. While they could make their reiatsu disappear, they couldn't mask his. It may be a bit of a game of cat and mouse when they realized his trick, but he was a patient man.
He could wait.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach (Tite Kubo does), the song Again (Flyleaf does), or Mei (ChibiOokami-sama does) but I have permission from Mei's creator to use her.
I may or may not add more. I think I like it ending this way, so I don't give away too much from Lessons (which, if you're confused about this story, you should read By ChibiOokami-sama.) Thanks for reading!
^^ Reviews are always welcome!