Not Really Alone
Starrk & Lilynette

This memory is as clear to me as the moon over Hueco Mundo. I couldn't forget the day Lilynette came into my life. You might not understand that. Some days, even I don't understand how a part of me could work to complete me, but it is the truth. You see, Lilynette is special to me, for more than one reason.

When I was sitting there on the plain, I was perfectly alone. I crawled out of the mindless killing and eating of the lesser hollows, and basked in my loneliness. I was not part of the throng, I wasn't hunting and being hunted, I had finally risen high above such petty concerns. I didn't know it then, but the power I collected, the enemies I destroyed, and added to my being would become my Achilles heel.

When the first Adjuchas class hollow died near the depression I lived in, I was not that upset over it. He'd probably come to try to kill me. There is no reason to regret accidentally killing what amounts to a murderer. However, I had not done anything to make him dead, he just came within ten paces, and he fell.

More hollows began to seek me out. At first, it was interesting to see how close they could come. My fame grew with each new death. Whispers of my fighting skill and pure power were becoming stories used to frighten other hollows with. Soon, there was a mound outside my figurative doorstep, and I was no longer happy in my loneliness. I was bored, alone, and growing restless.

That was until the day I realized that if I could eat other hollows to gain their powers and essence, then I should be able to break off shards of my own soul. It was such a revolutionary thought, I am sure I am the only one who ever, even down to this day, thought of it. I tried for days. 'Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration,' as the saying goes, and it was true. Making Lilynette was harder than I ever thought.

When she finally came, she flowed out like a fog from a valley. I was quite astounded by her. I am male, and I had thought that I would make something more like myself, but there she was. Whole, perfect, and able to be with me. The companion I had begun to long for, and there she was. I would not complain.

"You got a name?"

"Lilynette," my other said, "How 'bout you, huh? Considering you came outta me…"

I was surprised, "Starrk."

"Well, Starrk, what do we do now?"

I paused to consider, whatever we feel like."

"Okay…," she turned her pretty pink eyes on me, "Where should we go?"

"Anywhere." The answer was immediate and felt right, "And we'll go there together." She turned her smile on me, and I was taken with this other me, my beautiful Lilynette, "'Till the end of time."

Thus went our first conversation, we had many more. Everywhere we went, more hollows died, but I didn't care, I had her now, and she had me. We were strong enough to be together. We traveled seemingly everywhere, looking for others stalwart enough to be with us, but we found none. That's when I started to sleep. It was a way of overcoming the long stretches of inactivity and sameness. Lilynette learned how to wake me up, to keep me going in spite of myself. When Aizen-sama came to us, offering friendship and a place to belong, I took his proposition for her sake.

Our relationship is special. When I look on her now, fighting with that white haired captain, I can't help but smile. There's my little girl, all grown up. We found our friends, and we're going to die for them. That's all I could have ever wanted. For both of us.


AN/ I'd like to thank Hasty for betaing this for me. You guys should go check out her work, it's fantastic! The dialogue I lifted from the manga, everything else is conjecture. They have a great relationship, for all that she was already just a small part of himself.