Hello there, welcome to my new story!
It starts at the end of the Arrancar saga and won't follow the original Bleach. I changed some facts so that the Espada listed in the summary are still alive. Also I will add two major OCs who are assassins among the soul reapers.
English isn't my first language so please forgive the mistakes I'm making.
I will try to describe the characters as realistic and believable as possible since I'm not a fan of OOC-ness.
My story will include action, suspense, intense battles, bloody scenes, bad language, (sarcastic) humor, some romance, death and loss.
Everything except my own characters and the plotline belongs to Tite Kubo.
The title of this story is also the title of a song from the band Skillet. Of course I don't own it either.
Have fun reading!
Prologue: Falling Espada
"Nnoitra… Nnoitra…" What was that for a high voice? It sounded so familiar...
He tried to open his eyes but they didn't want to. His whole body felt so heavy and numb. What happened? He thought he was killed by that crazy soul reaper captain. Was he dead?
"Nnoitra!" Small arms wrapped around his neck, a warm body was pressed against his head and he felt something wet dropping on his skin. "You can't die, you can't leave Nel here! Nel's so sorry; Nel never wanted you to die!"
He tried to open his eyes again and this time it worked. He saw a bunch of green-blue hair and the cracked part of a mask.
"N-Neliel?" he said weakly. Nel stopped hugging him to death and looked at him with her big teary eyes, sobbing. "What are you doing, bitch?"
"Nel is saving you! Nel thought you were dead after that crazy beast slashed you! There was blood everywhere, Nel was so worried! Everyone's gone now so Nel tried to heal you with her spit! Don't die please! Nel's so sorry!" She burst out in tears and hugged him, crying like the foolish little kid she now was.
"Nnoitra… seems like you lost too." Nel winced and loosened her grip to stare over her shoulder at the arriving person. Nnoitra turned his head to see a heavily panting and bleeding Grimmjow standing a couple of feet away, pressing a hand against the wound in his chest. Blood was dripping down on the ground, the sixth Espada could barely stand on his shaking legs but he still took one step after another, glaring at the on the ground lying Espada who had tried to kill him previously.
"You called me miserable for being defeated and then saved; let me now return the sentence… You're miserable you damn bastard." He lifted his right arm with which he was gripping his sword.
"I get it, I tried to kill you when you lied on the ground and now you want to do the same to me" Nnoitra said, looking at Grimmjow with eyes hard to read. "Do it then, I can't move anyway. It's over for me."
"Nnoitra…" Nel said, looking at him with big eyes and a trembling bottom lip. He snorted.
"Look at you, you really act like a baby now, Neliel." Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes and she turned her head to stare at Grimmjow fearfully. But the panther only lowered his sword.
"I won't lower myself to the likes of you" he growled. Then his legs gave in and he fell backwards onto the ground to stay lying on the sand, gazing at the blue sky through half-closed eyes.
"I hate that place" he mumbled, losing his consciousness. The last thing he saw was the little kid crawling toward him.
"What are you doing Neliel?" Nnoitra asked, trying to sit up even though his whole body was still hurting. As an answer Nel opened her mouth widely, put a finger into her throat and after fumbling at her voice box spit came out with which she covered Grimmjow's wounds.
"Nel's healing him you idiot, what else?" she said, laughing at him with an idiotic look. Her mouth hung open and spit ran down her chin. Pushing away the thought that she also had healed his wounds in that disgusting way, Nnoitra stood up. He stumbled and needed a minute to regain his balance. Grabbing his weapon he stepped to the unconscious sixth Espada and looked down at him with a frown.
"Are you gonna kill him?" Nel asked him, covering fearfully.
He sighed. "No, what would be the use of it? I'm done with fighting for today." He gazed to the palace, Las Noches, and narrowed his eyes. "I just want to leave that fucking place."
His internal organs were completely crushed. It was over.
A movement caught his eyes. Looking up Ulquiorra saw Orihime holding her hands up. Then he was suddenly surrounded by an orange light. His eyes widened. The voice of the girl was unwavering when she said: "I reject."
"Orihime…" Ichigo said, staring at her surprised. She looked at him, smiling sadly.
"It was my fault that you turned into…" she couldn't speak it out loud, couldn't say monster. So she gulped and continued: "I know how important that fight is for you but I won't let your leg and arm being cut off because of my fault. I… There's no need to do this when I regenerate his health back so that both of you will fight under the same conditions, right? Then you can settle this battle even though…" Again she didn't finish what she wanted to say. There was no need to anyway. They all had witnessed the superior strength of Ulquiorra Cifer; they all knew that there was a large gap in between their powers. Ichigo only was able to defeat him because of he went crazy and hollowfied. But if the fight would continue with their conditions being equal, the outcome would be clear.
"Foolish woman, why don't you let me die? I am crushed; I only wanted him to do the final blow. If you proceed in regenerating me you only will watch your friend suffer and die again." Orihime looked to the ground with a pained expression but she didn't stop healing.
"Orihime stop!" Uryuu called out. "This is as crazy as Ichigo's idea; you know how the outcome will be if you continue! That guy is right, let Ichigo finish him; it's over!"
"It's alright" Ichigo said and a smile appeared on his lips. "I'm glad about that. I didn't want the fight to end like this anyway, there's no point in winning when you're an unconscious beast. This way, the fight will at least be equal."
Ulqiorra only stared at them, trying to understand the reason behind their suicidal acting. Didn't they understand what would happen once she finished regenerating him? No, one look in her eyes and he knew that she was well aware of the danger. Then why did she proceed in doing so? He gazed at Ichigo who was holding his sword with a relieved expression, waiting patiently for his friend to finish.
What is a heart?
He started to understand it now… he started to see it.
"Ichigo Kurosaki" he said, making all three pairs of eyes look at him. "Earlier you said that you could read my moves more clearly than the first time we fought. You said that it could be because of you becoming more like a hollow or because of me becoming more like a human. I think you are right with both statements." He shifted his gaze to look at the girl. "I think I start to understand now what exactly a heart is. I see why you were able to believe in your friends so much. But tell me... Now that you're about to restore my strength and health and I may once again hurt your comrades… Are you afraid?" She looked at him with determined eyes.
"No… I am not afraid." Ulquiorra nodded and stepped out of the orange sphere surrounding him. His organs were already healed and the rest would be because of his high-speed regeneration.
Ichigo gripped his sword tighter and went into a battle stance but Ulqiorra made no attempt to do the same. "Now that Lord Aizen considers the girl useless there's no need in keeping her any longer. Also I already failed in protecting Las Noches. This battle is over." He turned his back to the small group.
"Hey Ulquiorra, what are you doing?!" Ichigo called out confused.
"Even though you're worth destroying you're still no match for me. Retreat and become stronger. If you crossed the gap between our powers, then we will fight again." With that he disappeared.
Ichigo looked around, awaiting him to reappear somewhere in order to attack him but nothing like this happened. The fourth Espada had left.
Why did he have to fight against an opponent this strong? He wanted to be weak. He wanted to be a part of a pack.
"Black." Starrk's eyes widened when the soul reaper captain said the color he was now dressed in. He knew what was about to come. If the captain would hit something black it would be over for him according to the rules of these swords.
But before Starrk could react the blade already slashed through the black hole in his body.
He fell, together with the blood splashing out of his wound.
Looking up he saw Aizen standing there in the middle of the air.
Sorry, Lord Aizen. It appears I won't be able repaying my debt to you, he thought, feeling his powers leaving him. I'm not alone. I'm not alone. I'm not alone anymore.
Lilynette's smiling face appeared in his mind, it was an old memory from the moment they first had met. I'm sorry Lilynette, I'm sorry that we couldn't be together for a longer time. I really enjoyed being your comrade.
Then Coyote Starrk, the first Espada, lost consciousness and hit the ground.
"Lord Aizen, what is it?" Tier Harribel asked, turning her head to look at the former captain. She didn't get a reply right away so she fully turned around to face him. He smiled but his eyes were hard as he gripped the handle of his sword.
Tier's eyes widened, realizing his intentions, but it already was too late. Blood splashed when he cut through her belly.
"I'm done with you" he said, cold, without any caring or hint of regret in his voice. "Based on your performance you're not strong enough to fight for me." Her legs gave in as she pressed her hand against the wound. It didn't stop the blood from streaming out. The crimson liquid covered her skin and the armor part of her forearm; the droplets were floating in the air around her before they fell down onto the earth like a bloody rain.
Her green eyes widened in shock when she fell forward, her legs were unable to carry her weight any longer with the energy flowing out of her body along with the blood.
"I… I don't understand."
"Isn't it obvious? Even if I forced more of you to sacrifice yourselves, in the end it would have achieved nothing. So I'm cutting my losses."
He was wrong. No world is without sacrifices.
Tier gritted her teeth in anger. She had gained this power in order to protect her comrades, to be able to defend them against the males. She had wanted to avenge the sacrifice Mila Rose, Sung-Sun and Apacci had made for her.
In the end Aizen hadn't been different from all the other males. She had been foolish to think otherwise.
"Aizen!" she yelled in fury. Pulling together the last strength she had the third Espada charged at him, raised her weapon and slashed through him. But he only smiled.
"Your attack is feudal." Her eyes widened in horror when his blade pierced through her skin and the illusion in front of her shattered. "You can't win this fight. I am through wasting my time." He cut through her flesh. The blood spilled out. Her body grew heavy and numb. She couldn't move a limb, couldn't raise her weapon, couldn't stop from falling toward the ground.
No world was without sacrifices... Didn't he realize this? This sea of blood covered in ashes... We refer to this hell as the world.
How did you like it? Good, okay, bad? Please review to let me know, any criticism is welcomed as long as it's no flame!