37 Days ago

"I can't believe they would have kept it unguarded. It's been long enough that they should have noticed it." Grimmjow stood before the craterous hole int he side of Las Noches. He was frankly surprised to have gotten this close without being attacked. Nel leaned on his shoulder, staring into the dark.

"Maybe they are stupider than we thought."

"No, Halibel wouldn't have gotten caught if that was the case."

"But the fat one could have."

Grimmjow smirked at this, "Yeah, he could. Suppose we'll have to free him too if he's in there."

"But Grimmjow and Nel don't like him."

"Doesn't matter, we have to stick together, it's our only chance."

"See, that's why Nel stayed with you!"

"You don't count." he bit back but she didn't seem to mind.

"So are we going in?"

"How about this, you go on ahead and if you don't get killed, it's not a trap and I'll follow."

"Grimmjow is funny, huh."

He sighed, "yeah, hilarious. Let's go." but he didn't move forward into the hole, instead he went along the wall.

"Wait, where are we going?"

"That has to be a trap, I've got another idea."

He took them down the wall a ways before leaping up into the sky and landing on the edge of the outer wall. The Dome loomed before them but he was looking elsewhere, to one of the four pillars.

"Where are we going?" Nel asked.

"Back to the control room if we can."

"The place with all the monitors?"

"Yeah, there's a chance they haven't found it, and then we'll be able to see what's happening."

Flashing forward a few more times, he chose a place in the wall and let a cero build. It wasn't that easy, but after a few more strikes it crumbled.

"This isn't the control room."

"No, it's further in, now be quiet, we don't know if this place is being watched." He moved swiftly through empty hallways, there wasn't much in this part of the palace except the control room and the meeting chambers, which gave him hope that the Vandenreich would have no interest and no reason to occupy this area. Las Notches was practically a city in itself, if they were careful, they would never even come onto the Vandenreich's radar.

"Here we go," He pushed the door open slowly, and then let out a breath finding the room empty. "Okay, looks like we're in the clear." He shut the door behind him, locking it and took a seat in the swivelling chair before the monitors. Nel jumped up onto the chair next to him.

"Woa, there's a lot of 'em." When Grimmjow didn't answer she looked back to him to find his jaw clenched.

"Shit..." it was true, the place was over run with soldiers in white- some with those hoods on, others in long trenches. "Is that..." he took note of one soldier in particular... "a hollow mask? Is he an arrancar?"

"Nel thinks so."

"So it's already started." He abandoned that screen to scroll through the others, concentrating on the cells until he found her.

"DAMN!" He swore loud, seeing the state of her. She was in her resurrection form, but many pieces of her bone coverings were missing or broken. He couldn't imagine how painful that must be. She hung in a torturous position, hands above her, leg pinned awkwardly behind her, her overly exposed body on sick display. He slammed his fist into the console the screen flickering in the aftermath.

"DAMN THEM!" He growled out, seeing red until small fingers closed over his wrist. He was panting, he'd gotten so angry, but then he saw her wide eyes and free hand pointing to a screen. "Nel...what is it?"

"That man..." On the screen was dark haired man, dressed like a general, but rough featured, unkempt hair. His uniform was white, but at the same time he seemed covered in an unnatural black shadow, hiding his face from clear sight and rippling behind him like a cape.

"He has to be the leader..." He said watching how everyone bowed to him. "Shadows..." Grimmjow watched him and turned back to a screen of hooded soldiers. "Even with those hoods, how are their faces always in shadow—like masks..."

"What does it mean?"

"I don't know, kid, but I'm thinking it will be in our best interest to stay in the light."

"You think their shadows can hurt us?"

"I don't know. We don't really know anything about them, even after all that time fighting them. So we just have to be careful."

He turned back to the screens of the cells, flicking through, searching for Yammy but it was Nel who spotted him.

"Yikes, he got even fatter!" She pointed and Grimmjow saw Yammy was also in his resurrection form. He was so large as such, that they had him chained in the desert. Grimmjow noted that he too was pierced in one leg by a large stake.

"What are they doing to them?" Grimmjow asked himself, examining the spike. "They're both at their maximum power...why would the Vandenreich want that?"

He thought it over for a long time, thinking about the information Nel had given him, he took a breath, coming to a conclusion. "They are harvesting their spiritual pressure."

"WHAT?"

"Has to be." he answered Nel. "Only reason they would want them in their resurrection forms. I think that spike is drawing their powers from them. But it's been so long now...how could their bodies sustain that?"

"Well they are more powerful than Grimmjow."

"Yeah but...hmm, they must just draw a little bit, I don't know, none of it makes sense." He stood up from the consoles.

"Where is Grimmjow going?"

"That way." He pointed at several screens quickly. "I haven't seen any patrols in those areas. I'll get Halibel first. We can come back for Yammy when she is strong enough."

"Ahh, but there are so many of them."

"Yeah well, just don't make any noise." He didn't even bother telling her to leave this time, he had his opening and had to move.


271 Days ago

"Dog! Dog! Oh there you are!" Nel let the small hollow jump up on her, his bone head knocking against her chin but she didn't mind, laughing in the sand under the domed sky. He leapt from her and began chasing her around.

"Endless tag!" She screamed, rushing past the gold-tiled palace, not noticing the woman who stood and watched her run by.

"Child!"

She stumbled to a halt, the dog yipping at her to keep going, "Where is Grimmjow?"

"Playing with Fatty."

This earned a soft sigh from Halibel and she left the small girl to continue her game with Yammy's pet. She jumped up onto the roof and saw the dust in the distance.

"Idiots." But there was nothing else to do in this desert so she found a perch and took up watching their fight as she usually did, though the outcome was almost always the same.

Grimmjow just did not have the strength to beat Yammy. His only chances were when he could outsmart the large espada. They were already well into it today, blood flying, neither caring. They could suffer any amount of wounds and take as long as they needed healing because there was nothing else they needed to do. They lived in a forgotten world, nothing to do, no purpose other than survival.

It had been several long months since the three of them had met up. Hope of others returning was long gone. Grimmjow had routed out a few old inhabitants of the palace like the privaron espada and other arrancars, but to no end other than just to see who was still there. They lived in the twisted sublevels or whatever area was their territory and there was no reason to bother or interact with them. So the three espada would simply gather here, out of unspoken loneliness and Grimmjow and Yammy would do the only thing they could think to do. Halibel would watch through critical eyes, and at the end of the fight would find some criticism, or rarely, advice, to give Grimmjow or Yammy.

Nel had become a fixture in their lives as well. Grimmjow told her every day to leave him alone but she never listened and he didn't do much more to get rid of her.

The dust settled, Halibel could see that both men had taken enough punishment for one day and they limped back toward her, seeking shade from the false sun.

"You leave your side open too much," she said to Grimmjow when she dropped down next to them. "If Yammy paid better attention to your moves, he would have noticed this and exploited it."

Grimmjow flicked blood from his sword and sheathed it. "Then fight me, Halibel. Fighting the same person over and over is boring."

"Yeah." Yammy agreed.

"I already told you I don't fight for pleasure."

"But what else is there to do?"

"Endless tag." She jibed and they could all hear Nel's screams and Dog's yips. Grimmjow smacked his palm on his forehead.

"Oh please, Halibel, don't joke, that game is driving me crazy!"

"Hey, I told you to keep her away from my pet!" Yammy said.

"Well the more time she's with that dog, the less time she's with us, so why don't you let them keep going." Grimmjow sat down, rubbing out a charley-horse starting in his calf.

"Whatever." Yammy dropped too, to look over his wounds. Halibel moved back toward the interior of the palace but paused looking back at them. Normally they would all go their separate ways after this and would spend the next hours or days in solitude until Grimmjow and Yammy decided to fight again. But today she paused and looked back at them.

"I'm making tea."

Both men watched her in surprise at the curt invitation to remain, and despite their natural hostilities to one another they both nodded their acceptance. They may not be friends, but their companionship was preferable to the long, empty days.


37 days ago

"Nel, I need you to do what I say from here on out, okay?" Grimmjow whispered in the dark hall. They were very close to Halibel's cell now.

She read his seriousness and nodded.

"Good." He picked her up and held her up as far as his arms could stretch and she saw why. There was an open gap in the wall, a small passage or ventilation shaft, too small for an espada but the right size for her. "Get in."She crawled into the space and looked down on him questioningly. "Stay there until I come back, okay?"

"Alright."

"Good." He crouched low now, and drew Pantera. He would have to fight past the guards and just had to hope that backup didn't come until they escaped.

He sprung into the lit hallway outside the door and sent a cero at one guard while swinging at the other. Their hoods fell away, he'd struck them both but they weren't quite out.

"It's the other espada!" The one he'd hit with his cero was hurting, but he recognized Grimmjow and was drawing out a weapon. Grimmjow sliced clear through his arm before he could ever draw his sword but then he caught the incantation from the other and spun just in time to counter a direct hit. It wasn't a sword, however, it was a strange, blue glowing weapon. He had been fighting them for so long now but he still didn't have a clear idea of who these beings were.

"What the hell are you people?" He grunted, Pantera straining against the strange weapon until he gave a heave and knocked the soldier back. He didn't hesitate before swinging down on him again. He felt hot energy rip past him, but it wasn't enough to stop him taking another swing. He finally incapacitated the guard, blood slicking his torso from the hits he'd taken but nothing worse than what he'd sustained in those many sparring matches with Yammy. The other guard lay unconscious from the loss of his arm. Grimmjow pushed the door open.

"Grimmjow!" He rushed over to Halibel, taking stock of her chains.

"I'll get you out."

"No, you idiot, run."

He glanced down at her, saw the desperation in her eyes and then everything started clicking into place. The control room left unsupervised: for him to see where she was. The hallways left intentionally open: a path leading him straight here. It was all a trap to get him here.

"That was easier than I thought." The cold voice washed over him. He hadn't heard it before but without looking away from Halibel he knew it had to be the shadow king.

Grimmjow gripped his zanpakuto tight, staring down at Halibel's pained features.

"You aren't going to try and fight me are you?" the man mocked but Grimmjow still raised his sword.

He swung.

Instead of turning and aiming for the enemy, however, he hit the chains keeping Halibel hung in that terrible position and snapped them. She collapsed forward, but instantly moved to try and pull the stake from her leg. Then, Grimmjow attacked the man.

"Fool."

Grimmjow didn't even see a weapon, but he found himself on the floor, Pantera across the room. Halibel screamed out, her foot finally free, and it was enough to get Grimmjow to push himself up again.

"Run Halibel!" He screamed at her, throwing himself into the man. But this time he was thrown straight back into her, still not sure where the man had struck him, he we so fast.

"Enough."

A crushing weight hit them. It was a spiritual pressure equal to Aizen's if not greater but laced with a foreign darkness much stronger than the ex-soul reaper's. Grimmjow was already blacking out. He saw the strain in Halibel's features as well.

"Shit." He muttered before he was taken under completely.


Hello again! I hope everyone is following the time jumps alright, it's the first time I've written one like this but I find it a really fun way to write as I try to pull all these little pieces together. More to come very soon!

Riza