Info: Sorry it took me so long to update this. I've had a very long writer's block. Plus I was getting a sick a lot all year long from my IBS. However, now I think I'm starting to get a bit better. I think this story will be longer than 3 parts now. I underestimated how detailed my idea was. So, now it'll between 4 to 6 parts long.

Warning: This hasn't been fully beta read yet. So, if you find mistakes or canons that seem a bit OOC it's because it hasn't been fully beta read yet. A friend of mine will be beta reading for me soon. I'll update with a better version after she beta reads for me.

Part 2

Esmeralda woke up to find herself back in her room. The elven woman woke up yelling in a feverish sweat. She didn't have a fever but was sweating badly. She decided that maybe she'd take a nice cold shower to cool down. Getting up she went to the wardrobe in the room, pulled it open and grabbed one of the matching outfits. She then went into the bathroom and stripped, getting into the shower.

Just as she was finishing up and coming out of the bathroom her speaker went off. She went over to it and pressed a button. "Yes, what is it Gin?"

"Can I come in? I brought you some food," he told her.

"Sure, I guess," she sighed. As Esme was putting her dirty clothes into the hamper, the door clicked open and Gin walked in.

As he sat the food down Esmeralda felt a sharp jolt of pain and fell to the floor. Gin gasped and flash stepped over towards her catching her in his arms before she could hit the floor. "Are you okay?" He questioned.

"I just had my freaking back ripped open! How the fuck do you think I feel!" She yelled at him, tears coming out of her eyes from the pain.

Gin gave her a sad expression. He took her over to the bed and laid her down on it. He took out a needle. Esmeralda's eyes went huge in fear at seeing the needle. She'd always been scared of needles since she was a child. Gin seeing her fear told her, "It's okay. I'm going to give you something to help with the pain."

"But... it's a needle! You're not sticking me with that!" She cried out.

"But this is the only way I can get the medicine into you. It'll be fine. Hold my hand and squeeze as hard as you can," Gin told her.

Esme nodded and grabbed Gin's hand as he took out a small bottle. He stuck the needle into the bottle and once getting the medicine into the needle leaned down and pulled up her sleeve and stuck her in her shoulder with it. Esmeralda cried out and gripped his hand very tightly as she felt the needle enter her body. Right when she felt the medicine enter her blood stream though, the pain vanished. She gave Gin an odd look. "Thank you," she said. "But why are you helping me?"

"I just don't approve of Lord Aizen's harsh treatment towards you. There are better ways," he half lied. The part he lied about was his reasons for helping her. He wasn't really there to help Aizen at all but to spy on the man. In a way he wasn't really in the man's power as he led him to believe. Gin, had actually allowed himself to be taken over. He could break the control any time he wished.

"Now you should eat," he told her.

She sat up on the bed and Gin sat the tray on her lap. "Thank you Gin. You're very kind."

"How about I tell you a story while you eat?" He suggested.

"Not interested," she replied, taking a bite of her food.

"Oh trust me. You'll like this one," he grinned at her.

"Gin, I'm not a little kid you need to tell stories to," she sighed. She remembered when she was a little girl, when her mother would tell her bedtime stories. They were all fairy tales about knights and princesses. And the story always had a happy ending to it. Seeing though that Gin looked like she'd hurt his feelings with her respond she sighed. "Fine, just don't make it a long one."

"Once upon a time, there was a soul reaper. He was very attracted to this woman but she was in a different squad than him. She was the lieutenant of squad 10. He was so much in love with this woman but had no time to tell her his true feelings. He was after all the captain of the 3rd squad. He was very busy with all the work he did every day. Then one day, the evil captain of squad 5 found out his feelings and told him, he'd kill the woman if he didn't allow himself to be controlled by him and do everything he says. The man agreed and soon became his puppet while still keeping an eye on the woman he secretly loves," Gin finished.

"Well, is that all? What happened to the happy ending?" She questioned him.

"Well, I never said you've get a happy ending now did I?" He smirked at her.

Esme's face turned a bit red. "You..." She was about to call him a bastard but then she saw his face. A single tear fell out of Gin's eye as he was trying not to cry. "Uh...What's wrong?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," he smirked again. It wasn't a question.

"Yes, I would like to know! You're crying! That must mean...it's a story about you isn't it?" She asked him.

Gin sighed in defeat. Seemed she had him there. Esmeralda had always been very smart after all. "Yes," he told her. "And it's all true."

"What would happen if Aizen found out about this?" She gasped.

Gin grinned at her a bit. "I would probably be killed." He went to the door. Right before leaving the room he told Esmeralda, "I will protect you from Aizen."

"But… wait! Let me help you," She begged.

Gin turned to her, "I can't let you do that. It's too dangerous. Even knowing about my plans is dangerous."

"Plans? So, you plan to kill Aizen?" She asked him. Gin sweatdropped at that, realizing he just revealed too much by mistake. Knowing what she knew about him she was now in great danger.

"Just forget it! Forget I said anything!" Gin yelled, in a serious voice. He quickly ran from the room, in his hurry to get away from her, forgetting to lock the door behind him.

"Gin wait!" Esmeralda jumped up from the bed, the pain all gone thanks to the medicine he'd given her, which was quite different from the shot he'd given her earlier. This one wouldn't knock her out, just get rid of the pain. As she chased after him she started thinking that Gin wasn't such a scary guy after all. Actually, she rather liked him.

"What are you doing out of your room?" Called a voice, startling her out of her trance as she bumped right into a hard body, falling to the floor. She looked up at the guy and let out a scream of terror. The man had pitch white skin and shocking green eyes. He wore an outfit a bit like hers, expect him being a guy his wasn't a dress. He also had a huge skull on his head and black lines running down from his eyes. And he had black wavy hair.

"Are you an arrancar?" She asked him, getting up back to her feet. She remembered the time Ikkaku protected her from an arrancar and she had injured her ankle during the fight. That was when she'd found out about Ikkaku's Bankai. She still didn't understand why Ikkaku didn't want the captain's position but figured it was none of her business anyway.

"My name is Ulquiorra and I'm not an arrancar I'm an Espada. Major difference."

"Espada? What's an Espada?" She asked him.

"An Espada is a bit like an arrancar but I outrank them. That's all you need to know," he told her.

"Something else you forgot to tell her," said a creepy looking man walking up. Esme gave a look of terror at the man. This man was even more creepy than what she'd thought of Gin at first. He had spiky blue hair and darker blue eyes. There was a piece of a skull on his cheek looking like a mouth ending right next to his real mouth. He wore the same clothes as Ulquiorra but his were ripped, showing he had a hole in his lower stomach. She could see right threw him to the other side. There was a number 6 right next to the hole.

"Then I'll let you explain, Grimmjow. Oh, and take her back to her room before Lord Aizen finds out she got out," Ulquiorra ordered.

"Grrr, don't boss me around!" He yelled to Ulquiorra's retreating back as the man walked away. He'd never liked Ulquiorra at all. The two had been bitter rivals for a long time. He always wanted to kill the man but he wasn't quite strong enough to do it yet.

He then turned to Esmeralda, who was frightened of him. He ignored the look of fear on her face as he explained, "An Espada, is stronger than an Arrancar. And in a way an Espada and an Arrancar are kind of the same thing. There are 10 of us and the lower the number on our bodies the stronger we are. Like Arrancars we also carry Zanpakutos. We also wear the skulls from where we used to be hollows. An Arrancar can become an Espada by killing another Espada and likewise if I were to kill an Espada who's stronger than me I get their number."

He also explained the fact that Espadas can change into a stronger forum as well. Then he revealed his number is 6 and Ulquiorra's is 4.

"So, that means he's stronger than you?"

He glared at her, "No! I'm ten times stronger and don't you forget it!" He lied. He didn't want to admit she was right about that. He then saw the look of fear in her eyes, "What's the matter? Scared of me?" He backed her up into a wall, his arm right up above her head as he smirked down at her, scaring her more.

"G… Get away from me!" She yelled, pushing past him and running down the hall.

"Hey! That's not the way to your room!" He called out. However, he just didn't care anymore. It wasn't his job to chase her down after all. With a sigh, Grimmjow just turned and walked away in the other direction, not caring at all the danger Esmeralda was getting herself into.

While elsewhere, Ikkaku had gathered up all the people he felt he could trust to help him rescue his wife. With him were his good buddy Yumichika, along with Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, Uryu, Renji and Rukia. Byakuya had even assisted the group as well. He was unable to come along for the rescue, but did provide them all with special cloaks that would help keep them all safe from the bad weather in Huenco Mundo.

They were all sitting in Ichigo's bedroom, trying to come up with a plan of action. However, Ikkaku started getting impatient. He jumped to his feet at once, "Come on! Let's get going already! Every second we waste here is another second Aizen has time to kill Esme!"

"And do you know how we're to get there? I know you're upset but just barging off without a plan of action is just suicide," Yumichika told his friend. He put his hand on his friend's shoulder in comfort, understanding just how he felt. Ikkaku just let out a long sigh as he sit back down onto the floor. He hated to admit it, but Yumichika was right. He wouldn't do Esmeralda any good by running off half crazed without a plan. He'd just get himself killed and Esmeralda would still be Aizen's prisoner.

"But how are we going to get there?" Wondered Orihime. That was a tough question to answer. Just the other day Ichigo had fought with Grimmjow and actually lost. He would have been killed as well if his friends from the Soul Society hadn't shown up.

"Maybe Kisuke knows something," Rukia suggested. That was a good idea. After all Kisuke had been around probably longer than all of them. So, he had to know some things about Huneco Mundo after all.

"Then it's settled then," answered Uryu. All of them nodded and got up from the floor. Everyone but Ichigo left out the window. Well, with Uryu helping Orihime out of course. It was late at night and Ichigo didn't want his father to find out he had all these people over late at night. Ikkaku, Yumichika, Renji and Rukia were currently in their gigai bodies.

Ichigo then walked downstairs, "I'm going out for a bit," he told his father. He didn't think he'd mind. After all, this wasn't the first time he'd gone out late at night and certainly wouldn't be the last either. All his dad did was wave from the couch where he was watching TV. He didn't even turn away from it at all when Ichigo had spoken to him. He then went outside and up to the others, "Alright, let's go."

"Wait Ichigo. You may be away for days. Your family might worry," stated Rukia. Realizing she was right he went back inside and up to his room. He grabbed Kon, who was sleeping on his bed, waking him up and pulling a small looking pill out of his mouth. After explaining everything to Kon after he was in his soul reaper form, he left with the others. It only took them all about 30 minutes to walk all the way to Kisuke's place.

However, before any of them could knock Kisuke opened the door, "Well, hello there. I was expecting you all. Come in."

"Expecting us? What do you mean by that?" Renji asked him. The group of eight walked into his home and had a seat on the floor.

"I've been keeping track of what's been going on in the Seireitei," Kisuke told them. They didn't need to ask him how he pulled that off. They knew his trusty partner and friend Yoruichi had been keeping an eye on things and reporting back to him.

"So, what do you know about Huneco Mundo? Please tell us," Orihime begged, "Our friend Esmeralda's in danger."

"There is a way to get there other than the normal way. However..." Kisuke turned to Ikkaku. He had already been informed a long time ago about the two getting married, "Ikkaku, are you willing to risk everything, even your life, to save the Queen?"

"Yes! I already made that promise a long time ago. I'll do whatever is necessary to save her. I once made the promise that I'd give up being a soul reaper or even die for her if required, to ensure she stays safe and I meant it! Every word of it."

"Okay, there is a portal you can take in my basement to get to Huneco Mundo. But it is very dangerous. If you're not out in one minute you'll be killed. So far, no one has ever made it through that gate alive. Not a single person. So, I'll ask again. Are you willing to take the risk you may not come out alive?" Kisuke questioned.

"You can ask me a million times and the answer will still be yes," Ikkaku told him. The others all agreed with Ikkaku as well. They all would do it. However, the gate required they all know flash step, so some of them would need help getting through. The group was then led down to the basement. That was the area that Ichigo had trained in before when he'd lost his powers right before going to rescue Rukia. Now it seemed like the room would once again help him rescue someone.

"Now there is one thing you could try that may save you on the way through. That's Orihime's power," he explained.

"My power?" Said girl questioned. The four soul reapers had already gotten out of their gigai bodies and were now back in their real bodies.

"Yes, your ability to make a shield will allow you all to get through unharmed even if you do take longer than one minute. The shield will block the affects of the gate. However, I wouldn't take my peaceful time in there either. I'm not sure how long the gate will actually stay open," Kisuke told them all.

"Then let's get going already!" Ikkaku was done with wasting time. He wanted to just hurry and rescue his wife as soon as possible. The group went out to where there was two polls sticking up out of the ground.

"Is that where we enter?" Chad asked.

"Yes, after I open it up it will only be open from this side for ten seconds. So get yourselves prepared to jump through as soon as it opens," Kisuke stated. As they talked Tessai bought them all over some supplies they've need for the trip. It was going to be a long trip after all and they would need things like food, water and other supplies needed for survival.

As soon as everything was ready they all gathered in front of the barrier, backpacks on their backs that held all the supplies. Kisuke then took out his Zanpakuto and stabbed it into the ground. Suddenly a portal appeared in front of them between the two polls.

"Alright! Let's go!" Ichigo called out. The eight of them quickly jumped through the portal where the opening closed a few seconds after they all got through.

As soon as they were inside Orihime cried out, "Santen Kesshun! I reject!" A huge barrier appeared around all of them. The group then started running as fast as they could, trying to make it out in time before the exit was to close.

As they ran Orihime started struggling, trying to keep her barrier up. It was very hard to cover eight different people at the same time. Right behind them a wall of fire was coming straight for them. Ikkaku noticed it getting closer and closer, "Oh no you don't! A wall of fire's not going to stop me from saving Esme!" With adrenaline rushing through his veins, not once did it cross his mind of what was normal. Without even using flash step, he managed to get ahead of the others. He was desperate on wanting to save his wife from harm.

As it turned out Ikkaku was the first one to enter Huneco Mundo. The others were right behind him. The very moment the last of them stepped through, the portal closed. Afterwards they all noticed they were in what appeared to be a huge dessert area. But there was no color anywhere. Everything looked dull, in blacks, whites and grays, looking like an old black and white movie. Unknown to the group it was always night time in this place as well.

Just then Orihime collapsed to the ground the moment she released her power. Ichigo ran over to her, "Orihime are you okay?"

"I'll be fine. That just took a lot out of me," she told him.

"Then you should rest," Ichigo told her.

"We're not staying here! We have to go after my wife!" Ikkaku yelled.

"Orihime's tired!" Ichigo snapped back at the balled man. He got up in his face in anger as he said that. The two men glared at each other. You could almost see a spark of anger floating between the two of them.

"I'm not standing here waiting for some girl to recover her spirit energy!" Ikkaku fused. The two of them continued to argue back and forth with each other. Ikkaku then turned getting ready to go off on his own to save his wife.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Chad warned as he grabbed Ikkaku by the back of his clothing, stopping him in his tracks.

"Let go of me!" Ikkaku cried out. He had a look of murder in his eyes as he struggled to get free, "I'm going to make that bastard pay!" He was referring to Aizen of course.

"Yes, but do you even know where you're going?" Rukia asked him. "We can't just run around out here without a plan of which direction to head in. We'd just get lost and end up being killed out here. And we must all stick together. Unless you want to go off and get yourself killed. How do you think Esmeralda would feel about you getting yourself killed for her?"

"Oh, just let him go. Ikkaku's always been this way. Acting before thinking things through first," Renji told her. He kinda had a smirk on his face, like he didn't really care what Ikkaku did. As much as it hurt to do so Ikkaku knew Rukia was right. Grunting he went and sat down to help the others come up with a plan. The place was huge and they didn't actually have a map.

Seemed this could take awhile, "Esme," Ikkaku mumbled to himself as he sat with his arms and legs crossed with his eyes closed deep in thought. He missed her terribly. Nothing seemed quite right without the elven woman in his life. He had no clue where she was, but wherever it was he hoped she was okay.

Back at Los Noches, Esmeralda was still wondering around, outside her room. Seemed she had gotten herself lost in all the twists and turns. "Hmm, maybe this way?" She turned a corner, "No wait, I just came from that way." She wondered where Gin had went when he ran from her room. She hoped she wouldn't run into anymore scary Espadas.

She then came upon a door that was cracked open, "Should I or shouldn't I? Hey, curiosity killed the cat right? But I'm not a cat." Taking her chances she cracked open the door and peeked inside.

"How'd you get out of your room?" Said Gin. So, this was his room.

"You left the door unlocked when you ran out," she told him.

He didn't know quite what to say to that, "My, my. How in the world did I manage that?" Gin questioned, looking perplexed. Esme just let out a big sigh at that. Didn't this guy ever take anything serious? She had no choice but to go along with him as he pulled her by the hand.

"Don't you ever take anything serious!? I told you I'd help you didn't I?" She told him.

Gin gave her a look, "Shh, not so loud. Someone might hear you." He continued walking along, holding her by the hand, so she couldn't get away from him. They continued walking until reaching her room. The two entered the room where her food was still sitting on the bed. In her rush to get out she'd forgotten to eat. The food was now cold.

"Hmm, I'll re-heat your meal for you," he told her.

"Wait!" She grabbed his arm just as he was about to leave the room, "Please! Let me help you with Aizen. There must be something I can do. I just can't ignore it when someone needs help."

He turned to her, "Well, I had been thinking of sending letters to head captain Yamamoto about his activity but I wasn't able to because Captain Aizen always has his eye on me. But maybe, you could write the letters and send them by hell butterfly. It can get through and get to the Seireitei."

"You mean all this time I could have been writing to Ikkaku!" She snapped. She was angry that he hadn't told her that before. All this time she knew Ikkaku had been worried sick about her and she could of written him a letter letting him know she's okay. But did she really know how to summon a hell butterfly?

"I see you're confused. You can use mine," he told her. He handed her a ring that would allow her to summon his hell butterfly whenever she wished.

"Thank you," she slipped it onto her finger. She then got to work, working on the first letter Gin had her write, to Yamamoto. It was then sent away by hell butterfly. If she wanted to send Ikkaku a letter she'd have to wait for it to get back, which would only take a few minutes. Gin left the room to re-heat her meal like he promised he would.

After he left she started working on her letter to Ikkaku. She wanted to let him know she was fine so that he wouldn't worry so much about her. After she wrote the letter she waited for the hell butterfly's return. As soon as it was back she gave it the letter and it was on its way. Just as she was getting up to go use the toilet though there was a knock at the door, "Come in Gin."

"Well, well, good to see you my dear," it wasn't Gin who walked through. It was Aizen! She thought maybe he'd come by to check on her. "There's something I want you to do for me." He pulled her by the arm out of the room.

"Hey! Let go of me!" She begged, "I haven't eaten dinner yet."

"You'll have to eat later then," he told her, grin on his face. It was quite obvious to Esmeralda that the man was planning something sneaky. Fear crepe into her heart thinking maybe he was taking her somewhere to rape her. Her wrist started getting sore, but when she tried to tell him he wouldn't listen to her and just kept pulling her along. The poor girl was very frighten of this man, not knowing what he was planning to do with her. The two kept on walking, coming to an elevator. He pulled her roughly into the elevator and it started going up.

"Oh, by the way," he told her as they were heading up the elevator, "I'm afraid your husband will have to be dealt with. He and his friends somehow made it into Huneco Mundo."

She turned very pale at his words, "But… you promised! You promised you've leave Ikkaku alone if I came with you."

"No, I promised I wouldn't kill him. And I will keep that promise. I… will not kill him, someone else will." He then called for Ulquiorra as soon as they stepped out of the elevator.

"You called Lord Aizen?" Ulquiorra asked.

"Ikkaku and his friends are on their way here. As soon as Ikkaku gets here, kill him," said Aizen.

"No! Don't do it! PLEASE!" Esme had tears in her eyes. She struggled trying to get free. She even bit Aizen's hand, but all he felt from that was a prick of a needle. Ulquiorra bowed to Aizen and flash stepped away, going to wait for Ikkaku to get here. She continued crying as Aizen led her to a big room that ended in a huge balcony over looking all of Huneco Mundo. In the center of the room was a poll sticking up out of the floor. On top of it floated a dark purple looking jewel.

"What is that?" She asked him.

"That my dear is the Hogyuku. Its power will give me what I most desire." He couldn't tell her what he really wanted to do with it. The only person other than him who knew the real truth was Szayel.

"What? Power?" She asked him, he'd finally let go of her hand. She was standing there rubbing her sore wrist as she questioned him. Deep inside she was thinking to herself, 'What an evil, evil man!' He explained to her how the Hogyuku could give him power and told her he wanted her to unlock its power for him, "I don't know anything about this thing!"

"Well, you better learn if you know what's good for you," he told her, getting right up behind her and breathing hotly on her neck. She knew he was just teasing her, but her body still kind of heated up a bit from the contact. "If you want me to do anything about it you'll have to step back and give me some space here."

"Very well," Aizen stepped back and went over sitting on his throne. Esmeralda turned to the jewel, putting her hands on either side of it. Not really enough to touch the Hogyuku but just floating on each side of it. She then did the only thing she could think of to do. She closed her eyes and focused on sending some of her spirit energy into it. There was a bright flash of light as the jewel for a few seconds turned white, looking like a jewel she'd heard her friend Orihime talk about before from an anime she watched called InuYasha. In the show was a jewel shaped a bit like this one, called the Shikon Jewel, but it was normally white.

However, a few seconds later the jewel turned back dark again. She focused harder and harder. She started getting out of breath real badly and she was sweating. But she kept on trying. Eventually though she passed out onto the floor, having used up all her spirit energy.

Aizen shook his head and called for Gin. The man came into the room, "Captain Aizen, I can't find the Queen anywhere. I think she sneaked out of her room when I wasn't paying any attention." But as he entered the room seeing her passed out on the floor he gave an, "Oh." Unknown to Aizen, Gin was a bit worried thinking the man may have hurt her in some way.

"Queen Esmeralda has passed out. Take her back to her room," Aizen ordered. Gin nodded, before picking her up bridal style and carrying her off, taking her back to her room.