I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen more of this. Or something similar at least. That is, putting Hueco Mundo into another world or universe in its entirety. Most people agree that Bleach fell off post-Ulquiorra's death (and they're right), but I've always held a love for Hueco Mundo. There was so much potential missed in the world of Hollows and I'm afraid we'll never get to see it. But enough of that. This is simply born of the concept "Put Hueco Mundo in the universe/world of (blank)". My first attempt? A world with tons of accepted diversity already flowing through it, Elder Scrolls. Honestly, humanoid beings that can transform would only stick out so much, no matter the origin. I'd go into more detail, but...that's what the story is for.
Also, I realize that canonically there's probably only one Last Dragonborn, but Fate ends with the Elder Scrolls, and there are no prophecies after the Last Dragonborn's, so, creative license copout.
Another slice, another screeching of metal going through slightly softer metal, another dwarven construct collapsing into pieces. Arsenai held his ebony sword with one hand and a shield with another, bashing and cutting where he could. The Argonian smashed away another automaton and looked towards his companions. Jarmack, archmage and local friendly Altmer vampire, was throwing as much raw magic as he could into several different electrical spells targeting their assailants. Melanalachal (Mela) the vertically challenged half-Dunmer-Bosmer alchemist was swinging her twin hammers about, crushing and breaking any machine that came too close. The blind Ohmes-raht Khajiit, Arichee was silently dodging and weaving through the battle, striking with blade and magic where she could as her elder brother Cherichee, an Alfiq Khajiit, cast spells of healing, strength, and courage upon his companions.
"Faibora!" the Nord-like reptile shouted to the, somehow, strangest member of their group, whose pale, white skin denoted as a member of the thought-to-be-extinct race of Snow Elves. "Have you gotten that dwemer contraption working yet?!"
The falmer looked up with a sweat covered brow. "Soon! Just a little more! I've almost gotten it!"
"Uh oh!" Arichee mumbled as she took a whiff of the air.
"Cheri smells the meaner kind of snow elf on the air," her brother said.
"Damn!" Jarmack let out as he caused another electrical eruption that cleared out most of what was left of the dwarven spheres and spiders. He smelled the air and confirmed the stench of Falmer and chaurus coming towards them. Taking no chances, he summoned the blood magic within him, and soon his body erupted into his vampire lord form. At least he'd be far more effective against living enemies like this.
Mela twirled her hammers and lightly beat them against her dwaven plate armor. "Guess we'll have to do some more killin'." Sheathing one hammer on her thigh she reached into a pouch and pulled out three vials. "Been wantin' to test these out. Not sure if it melts or eats away flesh, just invented it and all."
"As long as it doesn't turn them into berserkers like last time," the Argonian mumbled.
"I poured one on grass and it killed it an' made it disappear. 'Course plants and animals react differently ta things, so we'll see."
Each of the fighters readied themselves as the army of Betrayed made their way towards them. Just as some of their blind faces came into view, Faibora cried out in triumph.
"It's done!" she shouted as several gears that hadn't moved in millennia came to life within the ruins, activating the ancient technology and magic mixture. The party breathed a sigh of relief as the oncoming army was halted by a gate closing between them. Several runes started shining all about as the room shook slightly and rumbled.
"Right, so what now?" Arichee said.
"Well, like I said, it should either uncover a hidden trove of Snow Elves, bring back the Deep Elves, or destroy the ruins and everything in it, but the chances of that last thing happening are one out of a hundred."
"Uh huh," the blind khajiit muttered. "You didn't mention that destruction part before."
Pieces of the ceiling began falling down. Jarmack's superior reflexes allowed him to yank Faibora out of the way of a falling stone that would've crushed any of them. The group came in tighter together as the elven woman looked on in shock as her more bestial kin were crushed and sent retreating by the collapsing ruins.
"I… I thought it was…so slim…"
"Everyone!" Arsenai said calmly, but loud enough to be heard. "Cover your ears and don't look up." Knowing what was coming, the group did as their leader said.
"MUL QAH DIIV!"
Dragon-like spectral armor surrounded the argonian as he looked up towards the cracked ceiling. Orange spectral wings extended from his back before the energy and power started being drawn away from his skin and into his lungs and diaphragm. For a moment, his body shook harder than the doomed ruin.
"FUS…RO DAH!"
Stone, dirt, and snow were all instantly ripped through with the power of over a hundred dragons forcing it all up, backed by the steadily released power of the ancient dwemer device. Finally having an opening to release all of the magical pressure within, the old ruins stopped shaking so much as the magical light poured out into the sky. Beneath the ground and the heroes within the ruins the magic continued to go down until it hit the Ley Line, then fired off faster than anything on Nirn could move, out of Skyrim, through Hammerfell, and into the Abecean Sea. The magic traced the lines out for miles and miles below and between Stros M'kai and Stirk, and above the Summerset Isles. For any of the people within a hundred leagues of this event, one would have thought the sea had decided to glow brighter than the Sun. Then, just as suddenly as it had come about, the light all disappeared and was replaced by land.
Meanwhile, in another world…
Urahara was running late. He was supposed to have switched the real Karakura with the fake one by now, but Jinta just had to mess with his things and now he was hours behind. Luckily, he seemed to have made it. He prepared himself to press to button that would cause the landmass trade between Soul Society and the Living World…
At the same time…
Ulquiorra broke out of the dimension that held him prisoner just as Aizen, Gin, and Tosen entered their own Garganta. Just as the top three Espada and their Fracciones were about to follow their leader, all Garagantas were forced closed, including the one the traitor Shinigami were within. Barragan raised an eyebrow, while Harribel desperately tried to open a new one, to no avail. Stark simply scratched his head in puzzlement.
"Wha- What the hell?" Lillinette shouted.
"Something seems to have happened," Ulquiorra calmly observed, not far from the Primera. "Stark, go retrieve Szayel before he is killed or worse so that he can find out what happened."
"Sure, I guess," Stark said before sonidoing away.
"Who the hell put you in cha-" Lillinette stopped herself then calmed down. "Oh."
"We should have all the Espada gather, so as to defend Los Noches from whatever Shinigami are still roaming about. Tell as much to Luisenbairn, Harribel and Yammy, and then see if you can find Ruddborn, Loly, Menoly, and whatever Numeros are about and have them prepared to stand guard."
"Sure, sure," the lime haired Fraccion said as she took off. A moment later, Stark returned with a curiously stiff Szayel Aporro Granz under his arm.
"He was about to get stabbed by some freakish clown thing. Scared it off with a Cero, but I think Szayel is poisoned or something."
"This complicates matters. Have we retrieved the human woman?"
"Yeah. Lord Aizen had me grab her before we were going to leave."
"I- I'm here." Ulquiorra turned his gaze and saw Orihime, shaken, but still in good health. She had more confusion on her face than normal as well as the normal amount of sadness and fear.
"Reject the poison from his system," Ulquiorra commanded, making it clear he was not looking for any discussion. He turned back to Stark. "Lord Aizen had left me in charge, but he had also intended to take you three to the Living World."
"Ah, you're doing fine. I'd rather not be in charge unless I have to."
"Luisenbairn will attempt to wrest control in Lord Aizen's unexpected absence. Your power is currently the only thing that can keep him in check."
The Primera rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Well, I've got an idea on how to run things until further notice, but I'd rather wait for everyone to be here for it. Er, everyone that's not dead or dying anyways."
"Understandable."
It took a few minutes, but soon the remaining conscious and living Espada and their Fraccion had joined the two in the throne room. Yammy was grumbling about being disturbed during his nap, while Baraggan seemed to be muttering about 'foolish young ones'. Ulquiorra held his hand up to gain their attention before speaking.
"As you all know, something has happened to force our Gargantas close and prevent them from being opened. Before the incident occurred, Lord Aizen had left Los Noches in my care. Because those circumstances revolved around him taking the top three Espada into the World of the Living however, I believe we should have our temporary leadership done in another way."
"Rightfully so, then," Barragan huffed.
"Stark, you said you had a plan."
"Yeah, yeah I did." The Primera rolled his neck and took in a deep breath before taking a more serious look upon his face. "I'm the most powerful of us here, ninety-nine percent of the time," he nodded towards Yammy, "so normally for Hollows that would make me leader. But, as you all know, I don't really like leading."
Barragan allowed himself a small smile, hoping it was going where he thought it was.
"But then I got to thinking, just how Hollow are we anymore, really? Sure, we're definitely still Hollow, but we're a lot more complex than those that go scrounging around for whatever souls they can grab. So, I figured leadership's got to be complex. Lord Aizen was in charge of us, but he also had the other two there with him, and they bossed us too when they had to. Then there's us Espada, bossing our Fracciones and the Numeros. So, we need more than just one boss, so… All four of us; me, Barragan, Tia, and Ulquiorra, we'll all be in charge. Someone suggests something, we vote on it." He pointed at the Diez Espada. "Yammy will be the tie-breaker unless he wants to pass it on to someone else."
Barragan silently fumed, but then nodded his frustration aside. "In that case," he growled, "I call upon a vote to remove the dome around Los Noches and allow our night sky back in."
"Sounds nice," Stark said off-handedly as he went back into his laid-back persona. "Seconded."
"No. The dome is a good defense to have," Harribel said.
"Hmph, hardly, after those intruders got in so easily."
"I vote no, for I do not believe Lord Aizen would want us to remove what he created," Ulquiorra said.
"Heh, seems I get to break the tie," Yammy said with a smile. "Sorry, Ulqiuorra, but I've wanted to break down that dumb roof for a long time now."
"Very well. Shall we keep a record of who votes in what way?"
"Fine by me," Stark shrugged. "Before we get on that though, we should figure out what to do about the intruders. They're obviously stronger than we expected to have made it this far."
"Going after them one by one has only led to our numbers slowly declining," Harribel stated. "We need to put up a unified front against them."
"Hm, I could just as easily turn them all to dust."
"Yes, as well as the rest of Los Noches, a large number of Numeros, and probably most of your Fraccion." Stark shook his head. "Nope, I'm with Harribel on this one. While they have defeated all the others, they barely did so. And now that we have their top healer," he thumbed towards Orihime, who was still trying to remove the drug from Szayel, "they can't come at us with one hundred percent every time."
"I agree," Ulquiorra simply said.
Baraggan didn't like being outvoted, and crossed his arms to show the as much, but he would follow the rules to this system for now.
"So, do we go out and find them or…"
Harribel shook her head. "One of their top objectives was to reclaim the human girl. We can assume then that they'll come to us."
"So then we wait."
Cosmic coincidence at its finest. This must be what happens when Akatosh makes too many long-distance phone calls.
*whispers*
Oh, that joke is dead now? Well, now I just feel silly.
Please review to let me know if you like it, or didn't. Just acknowledgement that you were affected in some form be it positive or negative would be great.