Okay this is chapter 2. It's also revised. Please read and review and I mean it!

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Chapter 2

Ggio sighed as he retrieved his zanpakuto from the floor once again.

Ever since that fateful day Ggio had changed. He would hardly eat, sleep, though he stayed in his room for long stretches, sometimes not leaving for days until someone called for him to do something, and then slinking right back to his quarters and falling into a restless, fitful sleep filled with nightmares.

He'd become completely devoid of emotion, cold and harsh even to those who'd always been his friends. It wouldn't have been a stretch to say that Ggio was almost as bad as Ulquiorra. The only difference was that Ulquiorra, in the dark of night, sat in his room and cut himself with a razor blade that he kept obsessively clean. Ggio hadn't fallen that far just yet.

His fellow Fracción and even Barragan tried to get Ggio out of his new mood, but to no avail. At one point, Barragan had even ordered Ggio to "cheer up". His Fraccion had just looked at him sadly, replied "Yes, Your Majesty," and slipped back off to his room. The other Fraccion asked what was causing his strangeness but Ggio would just ignore them. Some of them even threatened to beat the crap out of him if he didn't start talking—like that would help—but he would just slink off to his favorite spot and sit there for hours on end. His emotionless attitude started to affect other Arrancar as well; whenever he came into a room, they just left, not even bothering with him anymore after a while. A few started to call him Ulquiorra junior as he acted, most of the time, like a carbon-copy of the Espada Cuatra. Ggio didn't care at all about what they said. Why should he? Not like it mattered, anyway.

The only person Ggio talked to was Ulquiorra, ironically enough; he seemed to be the only one who understood. He told him about everything about how he felt about Apache, about seeing Apache and Grimmjow together. Everything. Ulquiorra, strangely, listened; murmuring that Grimmjow was trash and that Apache was becoming trash herself for continuing to love that bastard. When he said that, Ggio almost contradicted him. He came so close to saying something back, but his hate was just too strong. Although Ulquiorra had agreed that Ggio should kill Grimmjow if he ever hurt Apache, he agreed that the younger man would never stand a chance. Then he said something surprising.

"If you decide to go through with this, at any time, call upon me. I'll help you."

Ggio had nodded and thanked him profusely for the help, and then Aizen had called for Ulquiorra to have one of their "special chats". Groaning about still being sore from last night, Ulquiorra had levered himself up and shooed Ggio away, and that had been the end of the conversation. He had help when he needed it.

Nowadays Ggio had tired of his room, and would just sit under the shade of some ruins even though it was perpetual night here, not going out in the open unless it was absolutely necessary. He would fling his zanpakuto like a throwing knife at one of the pillars, for hours on end until late at night. Most would say that's it's a stupid and boring task but Ggio didn't care at all. It was something to do that didn't require thinking.

He had just picked up his zanpakuto and was about to throw it again when a voice behind him said, "Oh, so there you are." Ggio froze. He knew that voice and he turned around to see Apache smirking at him, slowly making her way toward him and still speaking. At last, the one he saw every night in his dreams, right here, real...

But at that moment, all Ggio could feel was a sense of coldness towards her for what she had done.

"So Vega, all you do these days is just screwing around, wasting time throwing your own sword at a pillar." She shrugged, still smirking. "If it were me I'd be doing something much more worthwhile. Training, maybe. You look so weak, like you haven't been training. Getting lazy?" Ggio could guess that she had been with Grimmjow again. It always showed in her nature when she had; she took on some of his worst qualities.

"What do you want?" Ggio said coldly, looking at her with a blank face.

She looked slightly taken aback at his tone—or, rather, his lack thereof—but recovered herself quickly and
said simply, "I was looking for you."

"Why?"

"'Cause I wanna know why you've been avoiding me," she replied, walking closer and sitting down beside him.

Ggio bristled. "I don't what you're talking about."

"Don't think I haven't been freaking noticing!" Apache's eyes blazed. "Dammit, Vega, every time I see
you, you always run from me and I wanna know why." Impatience bit into her voice.

Ggio got up and started to leave. He didn't have to take this…

"Hey! You didn't answer me, dammit!" she shouted. "Get back here and answer the question!"

"You know exactly why, Apache," he replied, already walking away. Didn't she know what she was doing to him?! Couldn't she sense the words that were burning on the tip of his tongue, just begging to be unleashed? How badly he wanted to tell her off, make sure she knew that he never wanted to see her again because she'd cut him so deep, shattered him so completely?

"What the hell does he mean, I know?" She thought. "Looks like I'll have to force the answer out of him later, I've got other problems to deal with." Sighing, she watched him leave and then turned, heading in the opposite direction. What was wrong with him…?

A few hours later Ggio was wandering the empty hallways doing nothing much until a voice somewhere to his left drawled, "Hey there, Vega."

Ggio looked up and saw Grimmjow walking towards him, a pissed-off look on his face. Maybe he should have knelt; maybe he should have bowed. But Grimmjow was having a bad day, and he was in no mood to deal with Grimmjow. He turned towards the Espada, his eyes narrowing in a glare.

"What the hell do you want?"

"I was looking for someone in the hallways." Grimmjow shrugged, totally relaxed. Ggio tensed. He was planning something.

"Why?"

"Simple…" Grimmjow gave him a sidelong glance, smirking. "Apache's been distant lately, like she's worried about somethin'. So she wouldn't give me any… I was looking for someone to take my anger out on." He said, and with that, he threw Ggio against the wall.

Ggio tried to draw his zanpakuto but Grimmjow grabbed his hand and crushed it viciously, the expression on his face never changing. Ggio could feel all the bones in his right hand snap like toothpicks under the pressure, muscles and tendons turning to mush as joints flattened, cracked, ruptured. The pain was breathtaking.

"Ah, now that's more like it," said Grimmjow. His smirk widened into a perverse grin. "Now, what else… maybe your cute little skull?"

He knew he shouldn't, but Ggio couldn't resist. He reached up with his unharmed hand and flipped Grimmjow off.

"Oh, you'll pay for that, you little prick!" Grimmjow began charging a bala in the palm of his hand. "You wanna die?! Fine!"

Ggio tried to get away or dodge, but it was too late. Grimmjow's bala slammed into him, cracking his mask and coating his face with blood. He could barely see, his vision black around the edges and hazed with red. Ggio saw Grimmjow charging up another bala, an excited grin on his face but he never saw what happened afterward as he went limp pinned to the wall and lost consciousness.

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