Dizziness. Her head was spinning as she awoke from the slumber she was in. A warm breeze blew through her green locks, brushing against her skin. It felt nice, calm...until the faint smell of death carried in the wind reached her nostrils. She tried to open her eyes, but only saw dimly shaped, blurry shadows of her surroundings, and gave up. On a second attempt she managed a half open glimpse at the scenery, the edges of the shadows gradually sharpening into people and landscape. Something wasn't right. Why did her head hurt so much? Why was there blood on her newly tattered clothes? Where was Itsugo?
Something caught her eyes. A sudden movement, blood spilling, a metallic clashing sound, swords crossing, a grin that was supposed to be there but wasn't, a missing vulgar remark, the absence of an obscene laugh… a fallen warrior.
"Nnoi... tra?"
She watched a limp, lifeless body fall forward onto the battlefield, the same breeze making a black mane come alive. A violet eye was fixed on her, filled with need and, paradoxically, contentment. For a moment time seemed to slow down and almost stop. With a quiet thud and shifting of sand, she saw him finally hit the ground, blood pooling beneath,, permeating the sand. A feeling of drowsiness crept up on her, pulling her back into the slumber she had just awoken from. It was futile to fight it, but she tried, she needed to make sure everyone was okay. Sleep wasn't an option right now, she had to get up. Her body felt heavy, too tired to move. The deep slumber won, languidly pulling her into a profound stupor, her eyes closing again, and drifted off into the soothing darkness.
"Nnoitra."
"NEEEEELL!"
Rough hands shook her awake as a strange sound, a loud mix of crying, sobbing and screaming attacked her eardrums. She scrunched her face and screwed her eyes tightly shut, obviously irritated at the harsh treatment.
"Waaah..!"
Words tried to come out but only turned into an intelligible whine. The beating she'd taken from fighting, passing out and being woken up, coupled with the continued rattling wouldn't let her focus on the most basic of sentences. Once the lingering drowsiness wore off and she heard clearly what the offending noise was, she let her eyelids pop open. Dondochakka yelled incoherently and held her by her tiny shoulders, still trying to shake her back to life, oblivious to her open eyes, or her head bobbing back and forth so hard that her neck might snap. Pesche, on the other hand, was throwing a tantrum behind Dondochakka, stuck somewhere between sobbing and panicking over her imagined death. Not knowing how to make any of it stop, Nell broke out in tears.
"WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL NEEEEEEELL!? WHAT DID NELL EVER DO TO YOUUUU!?"
The shaking stopped. Two pairs of flabbergasted eyes fixed on her, and then the two arrancars closed down on her in a crushing hug.
"WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"
"WE'RE SO GLAD THAT YOU'RE ALIVE"
"CAN'T… BREATHE!"
"NOOO! WHY NOT?"
"DON'T DIE! YOU JUST CAME BACK TO LIFE!"
After a few more seconds of loud bickering and suffocation, a cloud of pink smoke exploded and sent Pesche and Dondochakka flying backwards. In the middle of it stood Nelliel Tu Odelshwank, no longer in a child's body. Happy to see that her fraccion were mostly unharmed, she pulled them both back into a hug. Having got her body back and being so easily squashed was a relief though.
"I'm so happy you're okay!"
Tears flowing freely and relieved exclamations echoed under Aizen's fake sun. Once the excitement settled, they looked around to analyse the situation. Ichigo and the rest of the group were gone, the only ones left being the defeated espada.
"So what do we do now?"
"Aizen's gone, the shinigami are gone, every one of the espada is dead…"
"Not all…"
Dondochakka and Pesche stared at her, scared at the prospect of yet another battle.
"Is Ichigo still here?"
"They went back to the world of the living to fight Aizen" - Pesche replied - "That guy sure likes his arrows…"
"That's Ishida." - Dondochakka chipped in.
"He said his name was Kurosaki Ichigo."
"Then he lied to you."
"I knew that shinigami was a bad guy. You liar, curse you, Kurosaki Ichigo!"
A glimpse of happiness shined in Nelliel's tan eyes as she watched the two of them continue their argument. It felt good to be back with her friends and to have her memories back. It reminded her of the time when she was an espada herself, and everything seemed to fall into place naturally.
"We need to heal the survivors."
She stood and started walking towards the spot where an unconscious Grimmjow lied.
"Survivors?"
"I thought they were all dead."
"Tesla and Grimmjow are still alive." - She didn't turn back as she spoke - "Barely."
Their reiatsu was faint, no more than a trace, but it was there and she had to heal them. Tesla had no real blame in the fight and didn't deserve to die, and Ichigo would not be happy if he found out that she let the sexta espada die when she could have saved him. And anyway, he had brought Orihime to heal Ichigo when he was almost dead. However, she kept her pesquisa from searching in Nnoitra's direction. A small part wanted him to be alive, but it was easier if he was dead. But what if he wasn't? She didn't want to deal with that possibility.
Pesche and Dondochakka exchanged a quick look and stood, not daring to ask about the quinta espada, who they had noticed was hangin on a thin line between life and death.
"Che, Dondochakka, you go and get Grimmjow, I'll take Tesla." - Pesche announced gleefully.
"Eeeeh? Why me? What if he wakes up and tries to fight me?"
"You will win the fight!"
"But he's scary!"
"We are the fraccion of Nelliel Tu Odelshwank! We don't get to be scared!"
Dondochakka groaned and lowered his head, following Nelliel while Pesche walked towards Tesla's unconscious body. Lost in her thoughts, Nelliel was out of earshot and couldn't hear Dondochakka calling her name. The question was burning a hole through her mind, was Nnoitra alive? Did he survive Kenpachi's attack? It was just curiosity, she repeated inwardly, but believing that was proving to be a difficult task. Something in her chest stirred painfully, aching if only to check whether the quinta espada's heart was still beating.
Trying to occupy her mind, she quickened her pace and reached Grimmjow, leaning beside him to examine the damage. A lot of cuts, scrapes and bruises. His uniform wouldn't make it though, not that it was essential to his survival. What the sexta espada needed most of all was rest, his wounds would heal naturally as long as he didn't strain himself too much. She snickered, realising that it would be easier said than done. With no effort, she lifted his body over her shoulder and turned back towards her fraccion.
"Is he alive?" - Dondochakka inquired, a bit out of breath from the run.
"Yes. He just needs to sleep it off." - She replied with a sweet smile.
Dondochakka reached his arms to take the passed out espada, Nelliel tilting her shoulder to make it easier. They walked in silence, observing what was left of Las Noches after the battles, buildings torn apart and holes in the ceiling, revealing the night sky of Huecco Mundo. But this was good, Aizen was gone and now they might be able to start over and go back to the good old times. When they made their way to Pesche, the fraccion was carrying a bleeding Tesla in his arms.
"He's in really bad shape."
"You sure he's alive? He doesn't even look to be in one piece, ne?" - His eyes brimming with curiosity, scrutinizing Tesla's face closely.
"Not for long, he's about to bleed out."
Another reiatsu made itself known. Barely alive, Nelliel felt a small flare coming from Nnoitra's direction. He was still alive. She could leave him there and hope he'd bleed out, not having to deal with him if he didn't wake up. But a voice in the back of her head wouldn't let her. It screamed, begging for her to take the tall espada back with them and heal him. She sighed and turned around, glaring at the unconscious body.
"What is it?" - Pesche noticed her distraction.
"Take them back inside, to the meeting room." - With a heavy heart she decided to see at least the state Nnoitra was in - "There should be enough space for everyone there."
Dondochakka and Pesche exchanged a quick look, and once they realised where Nell was going panic set in.
"You're not bringing Nnoitra-sama back, are you?"
"He almost killed all of us."
"And cracked your mask"
"And kicked us out of Las Noches."
They pleaded, trying to change her mind to no avail, her steady path unchanged.
"Go on, I'll be right there"
As she walked on she could hear Pesche and Dondochakka bickering and arguing what would happen once Grimmjow and Nnoitra woke up. They seemed fine with Tesla, the fraccion limited his functions to following his master around and wasn't violent in the least, unless it involved protecting the quinta espada, which always got him into trouble afterwards. However, Grimmjow would not be happy once he realised he lost and Ichigo was gone, and would probably try to kill them all out of rage. And Nnoitra… well, Nnoitra had already tried to kill them, so unless he came up with a more creative way of doing that, it wouldn't be anything new. Still, the two fraccion weren't happy with the idea, suggesting that they should either leave him there or as far away from the palace as possible.
Nelliel chuckled softly, her fraccion worried too much. She would protect them and she was more than capable of defeating both of the unconscious espada easily, after all, she had been the tercera espada, and they were fifth and sixth. As she approached the quinta espada her pace slowed down and her heart pounded louder. Weary of the situation she approached him, her eyes slitted into a serious frown, and bent down at his side to examine him. There were deep cuts everywhere and judging by the dark, cracked pool of blood beneath him, he was on the brink of death. Her eyes roamed the slender figure, now lying defenseless in front of her, and stopped at a closed eye. Not completely sure of her decision, she decided to just get it over it, and swiftly reached out her arms to swing him over her shoulder. Despite his monstrous stature, Nnoitra wasn't all that heavy to carry, and considering her strength she barely had to make any effort at all.
Rather than using her sonido to get back, she decided to walk, not in the mood to hear her friends commenting on her recklessness. Mainly because it was true, it was a reckless idea, if not downright stupid, to bring back such a belligerent character back with them. And it was even worse that her intention was to revive the man. He wouldn't be happy in the least, but then again, she was saving his life, even he had to have some sort of decency to at least recognize that this was for his own good. Her worrying was interrupted by her stomach growling, demanding something to eat, and focused on that, strands of black hair brushing on her skin as she walked home.
Finally! It didn't look like such a long walk when she started. Maybe she just wasn't used to it anymore, but carrying a deadweight, unconscious body under a bright, warm sun wasn't exactly fun. She carefully laid out Nnoitra on the floor, a few feet away from Grimmjow and Tesla and let her tan eyes gleam over them, usually three proud warriors (at least Grimmjow and Tesla), now disheveled and with one foot on the grave. Pesche, who was surprisingly good at doctoring, had already taken care of Tesla, who was in dire need of stitching and closing up his deep wound. All the blonde needed now was rest. Grimmjow hadn't needed much in terms of first aid, mainly cleaning up wounds, some bandaging, but mostly he just needed rest to allow his body to recover fully. Reluctantly Pesche got to work on Nnoitra while a panicked Dondochakka loomed around, voicing dreadful thoughts as Pesche tried to convince both of them that everything would be fine and that they had to do as Nell asked, which the larger fraccion couldn't argue with.
A few days later, Harribel and her three fraccion returned to the palace, surprised to find such an odd group together. Her stay was brief, having only enough time for Nell to inform her of the situation, the state of the three arrancar and what had happened. In turn, Harribel told her about the battle in the world of the living and Aizen's defeat, startling Nell and her fraccion, since none of them even remotely considered that a possibility. After a few pleasantries and some bickering amongst their fracciones, the current tercera espada announced that she and her fraccion would be leaving to train, and promptly made their way into the night desert.
Staying behind at the palace, Nell, Pesche and Dondochakka took turns checking on the state of the healing survivors, never staying for long, instead playing games around Las Noches. They were happy as they were, and once the espada woke, they would have to figure out what to do. Not that it would be a soul crushing event, but they wanted to cherish those few days of peace and calm before worrying about survival again, as they had been doing for the past few years.
Nell sat reading one of her books on the table placed in the centre of the room. It had already been a week since Ichigo left and since they rescued Tesla, Grimmjow and Nnoitra. Other than a few mumbled curses in their sleep, there had been little activity from the three men. Although they would all wake up and live on, since Nell had been using her saliva to make the process faster, and it indeed helped a lot. She would use her time there to read and day dream about what would happen after they regained consciousness, nevertheless, she didn't have high hopes for the outcome. Grimmjow would be angry, Nnoitra would still be Nnoitra and Tesla would do exactly what his master said, which meant that she would probably have to fight them all. Her only hope was that it wouldn't be at the same time. She eyed the sexta espada from the corner of her eye, her curiosity sparking.
Tired of reading, she closed her book and placed it on the table to approach Grimmjow. Why would that man have insisted so ardently on a fair fight with Ichigo? None of the other espada would have, yet he went against Ulquiorra just to make sure it would happen the way he wanted. She crouched beside his figure and brushed a blue strand of hair out of his face, smiling sweetly at his perpetually frowning semblance. Not willing to admit it, she enjoyed watching him, mainly because he talked during his sleep and she found his random arguments with himself hilarious. Chuckling at his latest rowe, something to do with Aaroniero and a ball of yarn from what she had gathered, she brushed his hair into place and mouthed a quiet "thank you", grateful that it was him who first fought Ichigo, and straightened herself up before leaving the room to find her loyal fraccion.
His body felt stiff, blunt pain coursing through it. Grimmjow grunted with his eyes still shut, not particularly happy at the prospect of waking up. But he was lying on something cold and hard, and trading that in for his bed was far too appealing to put it off, even if it meant getting up. He grunted in annoyance and pushed himself off the floor to sit up, a sharp pain on the side of his torso making itself known. Once his head stopped spinning and his eyelids bothered to open up, he looked around. "What the hell am I doin' here?" he thought to himself, confused as to his current whereabouts. Finally he realised it was Aizen's meeting room. Why he was there, though, remained a mystery. And why were Tesla and Nnoitra lying there as well was another.
Too injured to think straight, he ran a hand to wipe his face and brush his hair, only to discover that he was covered head to toes in something wet and sticky. His blue eyes shot open, something between panic and disgust consuming him. His muscles stiffened, trying not to touch anything and quite revolted at the sticky substance on his skin. Bringing a hand up to examine it closer it looked like… saliva? A shiver shot through his spine.
"WHAT. THE. HELL!?"
His rough voice reverberated through the halls of Las Noches, reaching Nelliel. She cocked her head and smiled, cheerful that the sexta espada was finally up.