Characters: Neliel, Harribel
Summary: One sees just a little more clearly than the other.
Pairings: None
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Hueco Mundo arc
Timeline: No timeline needed
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
One is called the Queen of the desert, the other the Lady of the caves. Both as queens in Las Noches in their time, quiet, remote monarchs obeyed by many and respected even by those who do not obey (Well, nearly by all; Nnoitra respects nothing and especially not them, never seeing anything more than what he terms weak females, beneath worth or even contempt.)
And those who are queens contemplate on the reality of the world around them and their own prospective fates by necessity, looking over things with an eye not unbiased by their own experiences.
Neliel sees—or rather, saw while she still had the clear adult eyes with which to see the world without a filter over her—a world that is becoming better, though not without its own sacrifices. All things come with a price, and progress and the path towards peace is no exception. Some blood, she reasons, telling herself that to soothe her own troubled conscience, will always has to be lost on the road to any lasting peace.
Aizen-san's actions are, at times, questionable, she will admit. He operates according to a moral compass malleable to his will; if he wants something he does to be right, he will eventually convince himself that it is right. But in him, Neliel sees the best hope for her world.
In Aizen-san, there is a calmness and a stillness that will bring order to all of the chaos she has seen. All of the multitude of voices Neliel hears crying out will be pacified by the change he seeks to bring. When Aizen-san's plans are put into effect, everything will be different. Everything will be better.
Neliel would not be able to bring herself to follow Aizen-san, if she didn't think he had the right idea. How he chooses to put his plans into effect is none of her business.
And Harribel, for the most part, sees it the same way Neliel does.
Harribel wants nothing more than to protect her Fracción. She wants to see them, belligerent Apache, serene Sun-Sun and proud Mila-Rose, safe and whole. The thought of them coming to harm in anything but open battle is abhorrent to her.
This is why she follows Aizen-san, even though she has trained her Fracción to die in battle if necessary.
Because he can provide them all with the security that Harribel so desperately seeks.
But unlike Neliel, Harribel senses the cracks in the façade. There's some ugliness beneath all the beauty. She senses, that maybe all is not right here.
Aizen-san doesn't really seem to… care much about them. When one of their number, the Arrancar, dies, he barely bats an eye. In fact, he doesn't seem to register it when the death is reported. Such callousness is hardly a harbinger of things to come.
Harribel will not leave. This is the safest place, for she and hers.
But unlike Neliel, she can not feel truly at ease here, at any time.
There are just too many shadows in the brightness of Las Noches.