Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, if I did Starrk and Ulquiorra would still be alive T.T

It was a cold night like they always were in Hueco Mundo. I looked over the desert from my balcony absently scratching at the newly inscribed '2' on my hip. I leaned against the railing that went up to my waist and sighed. I came here to be more human... to regain that scrap of humanity you lose when you become a hollow... yet when i looked in the mirror... i still saw a beast.

I'm sure most people would call me a monster if I showed anyone what I looked like, so I hide my appearance by wearing normal arrancar pants and sandals, but i wore a modified arrancar jacket. Mine was plain with no black seams, just a solid white long-sleeved shirt that fully hid my arms. Over my hands I wore black gloves. My white shirt had a hood that had a shadow dark enough to hide the top half of my face from the light, and prying eyes. Then finally to cover from my nose down from others i wore a fabric mask like the assassins of Squad 2, only mine's white. The only skin i showed was the front of my neck and chest plus some cleavage due to the low neck line of my shirt.

Letting out another long sigh I headed back inside my palace. I walked to my room to get some rest. Inside i was welcomed by the trees of a Tasmanian rainforest and the sounds of a stream with a small waterfall. I let a small smile grace my fine lips as i saw my baby come trotting up. A Tasmanian tiger that reached my waist by the name of Spencer. I ran my hand along his back as I walked by him towards the bathroom. I needed a hot shower.

I slid from my clothes and stopped to look over myself in the mirror. I was a very pretty woman, was, or should I say had been before I was torn apart by the very creature I now found comfort in. Over all I had a nicely shaped face and a figure that no doubt matched the Tercera Espada, Tier Harribel, though I was a little taller than her at 6'0. I had deep blue eyes that had slits for pupils giving them a feline appearance. On my nose were tree horizontal stripes that were black in color. I also have three stripes on each cheek the stripes vanishing into my hairline. And resting on top of my mane of black highlighted silver hair was a pair of feline-esque ears. My hair was long and wavy and reached the middle of my back.

My neck had the same three stripes on either side. Then beginning at more shoulders and ending and my wrists were more stripes, in fact I had them adorning both legs and my back as well. the ones on my back circled me and could be seen on my sides from the front and placed snugly in between the tips of two strips and along the right side of my 'v' was a Gothic two that told me my rank among the Espada. My silver furred tail swayed behind me gently. It was 5'0 in length and was also littered with black stripes.

I looked down at my hands and the claws that were on each finger. Each claw was an inch long, but if I should need it they extend to three inches and due to being both a Tasmanian and Siberian tiger I am basically a feline version of a taz, so I have retractable claws. But the thing that bothered me the most about my appearance...was the scars.

My back was littered with them. Punishment was harsh if you were a sex slave... at least for me it was. Thirty lashings or more with a bladed whip. If I disobeyed what a man wanted I'd be whipped until I was weak enough I could be forced to do what they wished. It only took them one time to realize that whipping me below my limit would get someone hurt. That's where my most obvious scar came from.

When a man demands oral he expects it, especially if he paid $100,000 to have you for the night. He thought he could handle me and dismissed the guards. I refused to suck him so he forced his way into my mouth. He didn't even realize his mistake until it was too late and I bit down tasting the coppery tang of blood. Enraged he grabbed a bladed whip from the guard's table next to him and just swung without aiming. It caught the right side of my face shredding the flesh. I held my hand over my bleeding face and ran. The man was seen hanging the next day for hurting my "master's" prized moneymaker. I was patched up and my vision saved, but the scar remained.

I looked at my scar as a dull throbbing entered it upon thinking about the memory. The scar itself was thin (A/N think like Shuuhei's scars but only one of them A/N) it started just above my brow and just below the remainder of my hollow mask, which was a top jaw of a tiger, and ran down going through my eye and down until it was horizontal with my lips.

I snarled at the thought of that place showing my inch long canines. They were sharp and dangerous, able to bite through steel. my other teeth matched the feral look, making me look even more like the tigers I take after. My eyes glanced back up and I once again found myself staring back at me. Was I beautiful? Or was I a monster? I often found myself longing for the answer yet dreading it.

For what seemed like the hundredth time that day, I sighed. I walked over to my walk-in shower and turned the heat all the way up. I stepped in letting the steam and heat caress my skin working the exhaustion from my muscles. I resisted the urge to purr at the feeling of the water massaging my shoulders and upper back. I massaged the shampoo into my scalp and cleaned my skin washing myself clean before turning off the relaxing sensation. I wrapped a towel around me and walked into my room enjoying the feeling of the grass under my feet.

I dressed and found myself back on my balcony overlooking the constant night of Hueco Mundo. The Winter War and Thousand Year Blood War had ended and now we lived in peace. Or as much peace as Harribel, who was also Queen despite not being the strongest, could manage to convince the Soul Society to give us.

Life was calm here and I liked it. It was just lacking something and I wasn't sure what, I had plenty of friends, a pet, and a Zanpakuto I got along with. Starrk had managed to survive his grave wounds by hiding under ground and since then the lazy Primera had wormed his way into my non existent heart without even trying and despite being a canine. Harribel was like a sister to me, me being the only one in all of the three dimensions that can get under her skin and crack that emotionless exterior of hers. Ulquiorra had been revived by a girl even though his reformation didn't start until after she was long gone and he was a different person from what i heard about him before. He's still reserved just much less so. Then finally there's Grimmjow. Even though we all act like we hate him he's dear to us all. So what was my life here missing?

I saw a flash and only my incredible speed, which is greater than any arrancar, hollow, quincy, or shinigami, allowed my to jump back as a vasto lorde landed on my balcony, his great black dragon wings beating as he did so. His red eyes pierced my soul like a knife through butter, but i didn't feel uncomfortable. In fact it was quite the opposite. His reishi was warming and calming and he smelled of campfire smoke. A scent i find... intoxicating. We stared at each other for a bit taking in each others appearances.

He was a good half foot taller than I, had shaggy pitch black hair and those entrancing crimson eyes. They held a kind but lonely look. His hollow hole passed through the center of his chest and was the size of a softball. His bone fragment was actually all the little scales that covered from his waist down. They were black in color but each scale had a thin outline of scarlet. His feet were identical to that of a dragon, claws and all. His elbows down were also covered in scales, each of his fingers ending in a two inch claw, while the ones on his feet were 3-4 inches, if I had to guess. My eyes were once again locked with his.

"You are distressed... someone as lovely as yourself should not be so upset."The look in his eyes told me he wasn't playing me.

"I feel empty."He placed his clawed hand on my masked cheek.

"But is that not the reason we flock to Las Noches? To gain not only power but humanity so we can bond and feel almost normal again?"

"Is that why you came here? To evolve?"

He shook his head."No I came when I felt your caressing and protective spirit energy became hard and distant. Since I am here I thought I could become an arrancar as well. Do you think I should? Will it hurt?"

I chuckled softly and he smiled. He had a beautiful smile. "That sounds like a wonderful idea. No it won't hurt. It'll feel much like a normal evolution only more... fulfilling." I returned his smile not that he could see it.

"You shouldn't stand out here in the cold you should return to your home."

"I'll be alright. Plus I enjoy speaking with you. If you'll honor me with your presence inside my palace then ill go inside."

"As you wish. Who am I to deny such a kind offer."

"Your'e too stiff."

"I'm still just a hollow... we do not have a true understanding of feelings and have yet to gain a more human personality."

I paused. "Then follow me. Lets turn you into an arrancar."

I led him down my spiral staircase into my living space. To the right was a well furnished and stocked kitchen and to my left was a modern living room with a fireplace. Everything, just like the rest of Las Noches, was white. I lead him through the door straight ahead and through the winding maze of Las Noches' hallways. We reached a massive set of doors that opened without me having to touch them.

The fiery blonde woman sitting at the head of the table looked up at me. Her emerald green eyes met mine. She was filling out paperwork that the Soul Society had sent her to keep the peace treaty going."What can I help you with Aconitira?"

"This vasto lorde wishes to become an arrancar and i figured I'd bring him to you Harribel. You are Queen after all."

"Yes of course. Come here..."

He looked at her as though thinking." Mark... my name is Mark."

"Very well. Please come over here Mark." He complied and stood next to where she was sitting.

As part of the peace treaty Harribel was granted the ability to turn hollows she deemed worthy into arrancar. All she needed to do was place her hand over the hollow hole and condense a pulse of reishi into into it.

She glowed yellow as her hand hover over the hole in his chest. A small ripple was created and it looked like a wave of reishi was travelling down her arm. The pulse reached her fingertips then filled his hollow hole. The smoke that erupted from his body hid him from view, but i sonidoed to where the uniforms were while Harribel spoke to him.

I felt rather then saw his approach I was leaning against the wall my hood pulled down so I couldn't see. "Pick your uniform and change into it using the room to our right. I'll be here when your'e done so we can talk."

He rummaged for awhile before I heard the sound of triumph in the form of the dressing room doors closing. He came out looking rather sharp. Mark wore the normal arrancar pants and sandals but he didn't have a shirt showing his chiseled six pack and his muscular back and arms. On his forearms were black leather gauntlets with white lining and seams. The gauntlets covered the back of his hand as well and had a strap that wrapped around his palm to keep it in place the other strap was around the largest part of his forearm. He was well muscled and very attractive now that he was an arrancar. He looked very much human.

I guided him back to my palace after offering him a place to stay until his place in Las Noches was decided. We sat in my living room talking for hours and getting to know one another. His personality was amazing, he was funny, kind, quirky, complimentary, sweet, lovable, and just about every other positive trait a person can have. I didn't feel so empty when I was with him, I felt whole.

As the hour hand on the clock above the fireplace struck 3 am I though maybe it was time to get some shut eye. I led Mark up the stairs to the door on the first landing of the stairs. "You'll stay here for tonight. I'll see you tomorrow."

Then I did something I never thought I'd do in a million years. I pulled my mask down leaned up and pressed my lips to his cheek. "Goodnight Mark."

He grinned and and as I turned to walk away he wrapped his strong arms around me pulling me back. Then he turned me around and planted his lips on mine. His lips were soft and he tasted like the freshest water that can only be described as amazing. He pulled back. "Goodnight Coni." He walked into his room and I stumbled to mine.

I lay in my hammock looking at the canopy of trees, Spencer curled up next to me. What was this feeling in my stomach? It was so warm and giddy. I kinda liked it though. Was it just friendship?

No, even I the reserved Tigress knew that this...this was something more.

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