Plan Discovered!
'Sylvia-sama…!'
I look up to see Apacci just in time as she tackled me. I blink my eyes in confusion, not even returning the heartfelt hug she was giving me.
'Apacci, what do you think you're doing to Sylvia-sama?' Mila-Rose said distraught as she came over and pulled the woman off of me. 'Have you forgotten, huh?'
Apacci, normally one with a retort, looked ashen. She used the tip of her foot to fiddle with the floor.
'You best hope that it's not affected anything,' Mila-Rosa continued to scold the already regretting Apacci.
'Sylvia-sama,' Harribel said in her emotionless voice as she lifted me off the floor. She glanced over at Apacci, glowering a little. As if sensing this, Apacci's head lowered more in shame and regret. 'Are you alright?' she asked turning her attention back to me.
'I'm fine, Harribel-san.' I say in order to calm her. It seemed to have worked as her shoulders slackened a touch.
She looked over my shoulder. 'Grimmjow, it is your duty to see that no harm befalls, Sylvia-sama.' I felt the intensity of his glare at Harribel. 'Make sure you perform your job otherwise I will have to ask Aizen-sama to remove you from it.'
'Harribel-san, it's alright…' I say trying to have her ease up on Grimmjow.
'It isn't alright, Sylvia-sama. You could have been hurt. You could have lost…' she cut her sentence short, aware that she had nearly allowed something unspeakable to be shared.
'Could have lost what?' I probed, anxious to know what it is that everyone was hiding from me.
She shook her head, regret shining in her green eyes. 'I'm sorry but I am not at liberty to discuss it.'
I sigh in frustration. My supposed to be friends were all keeping secrets from me. My four friends from earth wouldn't have done that. I mean at first they did, but they had a perfectly good excuse for it. These ones didn't! What is so importantly about all of this anyways? Why are they being so gentle with me? Why do I have to go for those stupid check-ups in that freaky room of Szayel's?
'For god's sake, why can't I just go home?' I scream out loud.
'You are home, Sylvia,' came a haunting voice I had hoped I would never hear again.
I turn to face him. His brown hair was slicked back with only a strand going down. He wore the white uniform, completely opposite to the one he wore in Soul Society. He was accompanied by Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tosen. I knew I could only avoid him for so long, but I never thought I would ever see him so soon.
'This isn't my home,' I say definitely.
'Sylvia,' he said towering me. His brown eyes looked down at me, as if I were nothing more than an insect in his path. 'Wherever I live, it is your home.'
'My home is in the human world, on earth, that's my home.'
His faint smile disappeared from his face. 'If you're so entitled to believing that, why have you not tried leaving?'
'You know damn well why. You're keeping me prisoner here!'
'Yet you walk around as if you have every right to,' he countered.
'Hello? Are you dense? I'm always escorted!'
'I thought you didn't have a problem with Grimmjow.' He looked at the sixth Espada, as if blaming him for my rebellion. 'Perhaps I should change the guardian role.'
'There's nothing wrong with Grimmjow,' I tell him, although it didn't get his attention. 'My problem is you!'
That got his attention. He looked down at me. No hurt in his eyes, just a frown of unhappiness. 'Don't tempt me to make you my prisoner, Sylvia.'
'Oh, like you haven't done before?' I say, bringing up the time when he had shackled me to my room back in Soul Society. 'I am not your captive! You can't keep me here!'
'You will do as I say!'
'No!' he looked taken back, but he quickly collected himself before anyone could see it. 'I won't ever listen to you. You're nothing but a monster!'
'You're too human,' he said in disgust.
'Better human than being a heartless bastard that kills innocent people,' I say shaking in anger and disgust at him. I turn away from him and run back down the corridor I had been walking down. I ignore Grimmjow's extend arm to embrace me, to consol me, I just run passed him, refusing my tears leverage of falling.
I don't slow, for anything. I ran inside my room and slammed my door shut. I fell on top of the bed and cried. I don't know why but he always rendered me to tears. He seemed like he knew nothing of how I felt, like his only intentions is to make me cry. It's just strange. He's the only one that could ever make me feel like this.
A knock to my door made me drop the crying. I lifted my head to look at the door, but I ignored it. Instead I buried my face into the pillow hoping it would suffocate me. I gripped the sheets in my hand just as the doors opened. I felt his presence crawl into the room, smothering everything. I felt the bed dip with his weight as he sat down at my side. His hand stroked through my long white hair, providing a consol even when I didn't want his touch.
'Why must you defy me, Sylvia?'
'Why must you be such an ass to me?' the pillow muffled my words.
He sighed, a tired sigh. 'I didn't mean to upset you, but this is your home.'
I turned my head to look at him. 'How can it? I'm a prisoner here. If it were my home, I'd be allowed to come and go as I please. I'd be able to see my friends.'
'Sylvia,' his brown eyes turned away. 'Please understand I'm doing this to protect you.' He looked at me. 'What if your friends were to find out who you really are? Who you are related to through blood and genetics? The daughter of Aizen Sosuke, don't you think they'd take advantage of you, destroy all you care and love and then destroy you yourself?'
My eyes widened in shock. 'They wouldn't…'
'No, perhaps not, but Genryusai Yamamoto would. You're my daughter, Sylvia, and he'll see you as a threat. He won't understand you hate me with a passion, he'll think you want to carry on from me. Therefore, after he has used you to get to me, he'll kill you.'
I've met the feared but beloved Captain Commander of the shinigamis. Although he always holds a facade of being emotionless, that old man had treated me like his own granddaughter. Why would he want to kill me even if what my father says is true? Is he just trying to turn me against the people I love in spite to keep me at his side?
'I don't believe you…'
'Sylvia, your love for them has blinded you.' I allowed tears to fall as his words haunted me. 'You don't truly see their ambitions. I'm afraid all of that friendship you've been associated with from them is all lies. They've deceived you to gain your trust.'
I shook my head in the pillow, not believing his words.
'Why must you refuse to see the truth?' this time annoyance cloaked his voice.
I sat up and glared at him. I don't care if he can see my tears. I only cared that he saw my anger with him. 'They treat me a whole lot better than you!'
I took off from the bed, ran out into the corridor and ran into Gin. I looked up at him and his closed eyes looked down at me. Kaname leaned against the wall and had moved when I had come out. I looked to and fro from the pair of them. Instead of sticking around for my father to walk out my room, I raced down the corridor, not wanting anymore of this.
I don't know where my feet where taking me, but I knew when I slammed open the door and stood on the pale white sands of Hueco Mundo. I had gone further and faster than I had anticipated. I looked out with tearful eyes at Hueco Mundo. I wasn't under the artificial sky, but outside the real sky. A complete blackness with a simple crescent moon! The bleakness of the land shocked me, especially since there was no life in this barren land.
I look behind me to see the door close. That small time gave me knowledge that my father had sent someone to collect me, to return me to my room. To confine me so I would never escape is more like it. I frown at the door which looked like it was part of the wall. I turn and ran across the sand dunes, hoping I could cover a large distance before they hope to have seen me.
I want out.
I want to go home.
I want my friends.
Tears cascaded down my face and I slowed to a stop and fell to my knees. I covered my face in my hands and wept.
I had no idea how I was going to escape the confines of the hollow world. Sniffling, I wiped away the tears from my face and looked around me. As barren as the land seemed to be, even with the dead trees poking up from the sand, I can feel life streaming through it beneath me. It's not completely dead like it would first appear. There is always life, whether it is hidden or not.
I can escape here, if I wanted, and I was desperate for escape. Closing my eyes I focused deeply, desiring to be out of here, manifesting the image of Karakura town within my mind. I pictured Orihime's living room filled up with my four friends and their shinigami friends. I could imagine their faces of hopelessness as if they had used finished a day's work of searching for me. I could picture a large strange TV with a huge picture of Genryusai Yamamoto. I could practically feel the heat of all the bodies in the room, and it warmed my heart with hope.
I heard static, as if I were listening to a radio changing channels. Shaking it away, I focused again. But the same sound just appeared to my ears. I opened my eyes in annoyance and nearly yelped in surprise. I no longer found myself before the barren lands of Hueco Mundo. Instead I found myself within Orihime's house!
I stared, wide eyed, mouth gaping open at the backs of all the shinigami and my friends all ashen with despair. I noticed I was at the far back of the room, almost invisible. The huge TV I had been picturing covered the whole wall I was facing. On it there was Genryusai. His face looked sad as if he had lost something extremely precious to him. I looked all around me, noticing that even Kisuke Urahara, Yoruichi Shihoin the two kids and the three used to be dolls here too.
'Are you sure about this, Kisuke?' Genryusai demanded harshly from the blonde man.
'I can only assume that Aizen has taken her,' he replied.
'Is it true?' Ichigo spoke up, looking directly at Genryusai. 'Is it true that Sylvia's Aizen's daughter?'
I widened my eyes in shock, fear and regret of having come here. If the rumour of that has gone round…maybe my father was right. They might kill me because I'm his flesh and blood. But I could see there was hope in Ichigo's eyes. Despair as well, but definitely hope. With what, I don't have a clue about. Maybe he hasn't given up on me, but that information must have been eating away at him.
'It is truth,' Genryusai announced. He didn't seem to be concerned though. Gasps flowed through the room, whispering soon followed and fear ignited within my gut.
'I'd say we should kill her.' It was the voice of Byakuya Kuchiki. 'She might be conspiring against us, just like her scheming father.'
'Shut up, Byakuya!' Ichigo shouted. Everyone looked at Ichigo with surprise. 'It doesn't matter who she's related to, but she would never do that.'
'Oi, Ichigo, think about this,' Renji said.
'No listen, Sylvia has always hated Aizen with a passion. I know this because every time I brought up the subject about her father.'
'So she knew who her father was?' Byakuya spoke emotionlessly. Ichigo looked at him with wide eyes. 'If she really hated him, why did she not tell us that she was his daughter?'
'It is because of the reaction she'd get,' Kisuke spoke up. 'The reaction would have been a lot worse if she had said so herself.' Kisuke dropped his hat to cover his eyes. 'Besides, you knew all along didn't you, Yamamoto-san?'
Everyone looked to the Captain Commander.
His silence confirmed nothing, but within me, I felt relief. He knew all along I was Aizen's daughter, and yet he still treated me like his granddaughter. Aizen thought he would kill me if he found out. But that's not true at all. Old man Genryusai already knew and had never once threatened me because of it.
'We'll have to abandon the search,' Genryusai instructed and there were gasps from some people.
'What about Orihime and Sylvia?' Ichigo demanded.
Orihime?
'There were no signs of struggle, so I'll have to assume she has left of her own accord and will. She has betrayed us by going on Aizen's side. Therefore she is now the enemy.'
'What?' Ichigo shouted. 'Orihime would never do that!'
Orihime's been kidnapped by my father? I looked down at my hands. All this time, I had been close to Orihime without me knowing of it? I knew it was strange for the other three to be here and not her. But why would my father want her? What has he got planned? Closing my eyes, frustration burned within me. I needed to go back, for Orihime's sake. I need to get her out of there to prove her innocence to Genryusai.
Closing my eyes I imagined the plan walls of my room, the thick but soft bed waiting for me. I heard static again and felt a tug. Next thing my back connected with something soft. I opened my eyes and stared at the blank ceiling above me. Exhaustion washed over me and I shifted into a disturbed sleep.
