Chapter 3:

"C'mon quit stalling, the meetings about to start and you know Ulquiorra always turns up early." Nnoitra turned to frown at Grimmjow. "Are you coming or what?"

Grimmjow nodded absentmindedly, fingering the gun hidden in his pocket. Just knowing he had the weapon helped calm his otherwise frayed nerves. Something about this just didn't feel right. They had arrived almost twenty minutes ago but he was still unable to shake the bad feeling and in his experience, he knew something was about to go down.

"Are you sure he'll be here?" Grimmjow asked, following Nnoitra inside the empty warehouse. The company who owned it had recently gone under and the place had been abandoned for a few months now.

"Yes, this is where he said to meet him." Nnoitra looked at him again as he lent against a dusty, scarred table. "Why is something wrong?"

"No." Grimmjow replied slowly, surveying their surroundings. There was an upper catwalk with no visible entrance, it must have been outside, and two doors, the one they came through and the other across the almost empty warehouse. He didn't like it, it was too easy to become trapped, there weren't enough exits and far too many advantage points. "Just a bad feeling that's all."

The taller man rolled his eyes with a scoff. "Well let me know if you find anything more concrete than your 'gut feeling'."

Before Grimmjow could respond the door they had come through opened and turning around he saw it was Ulquiorra. The man looked almost the same as the last time they had met. Same pale, stoic face, same expressionless green eyes, hell the man hadn't even changed his haircut from what Grimmjow could tell. He stood silently for a long moment, appraising the two before shutting the door and walking over to them.

"You're here on time, I'm quite surprised."

"What did you expect? This is important after all." Grimmjow replied cooly, already irritated and Ulquiorra looked at him disdainfully.

Sending him a glare, Nnoitra stepped forward, getting between the two. "Grimmjow's right this is important. You haven't heard from Baraggan yet I take it."

"What makes you think that?"

"You're still alive."

"As are you but he came to visit you did he not?" Ulquiorra asked, his attention refocusing on Grimmjow. "Yet he could not find you, why?"

"Because I covered my tracks well." And with a little help from Ichigo, those tracks were smoothed over. But he wasn't about to reveal this information. "Unfortunately this asshole did manages to find me so here I am."

"Yes here you are…" Ulquiorra paused for another long moment. "You should have stayed in hiding." Grimmjow saw his hand move and quickly pulled out his own gun, not surprised to find Ulquiorra pointing one at him. Then oddly enough, the man smiled slightly. "You've gotten better, but you still can't defeat me you must know that. There's a reason you're the Sexta and I'm the Cuatro."

"Don't underestimate me, a lot has changed over the years."

Nnoitra too pulled out his gun, facing Ulquiorra next to him. "You're outnumbered."

Even as he said the words, Grimmjow knew it wasn't true and even as he opened his mouth to warn his friend the door across the room slammed open, two men running in and they both focused their weapons at Grimmjow and Nnoitra. Hearing loud metallic clanks he looked up to see more men on the catwalks above. Finally, he looked at Ulquiorra again.

"This was a set up, why?"

"Because I know which side will win, and it wont be you."

"Baraggan." Nnoitra growled. "He already got to you didn't he! You're working with him?!"

"Yes." Then Ulquiorra pulled the trigger. Luckily Grimmjow managed to move enough that the bullet only hit him in the arm, not his chest where the man had been aiming moments before.

Stumbling back, Grimmjow managed to remain upright as Nnoitra shot at the two guards behind them, causing both to scramble for cover. Looking up as Nnoitra kept them busy, Grimmjow saw the catwalk was poorly attached the the building, as long as he could aim correctly, he should be able to bring the structure down. Luckily he was shot in his left arm so he could do just that and with six shots he'd caused both catwalks to collapse at one end, the result blocking the men on the ground form getting a clear shot.

It was just them and Ulquiorra now.

Ulquiorra seemed to notice this too because he was already backing away to the door. Grimmjow pulled the trigger but nothing happened. "Shit I'm out!" He cursed and Nnoitra nodded, his gun still pointing at the retreating man. "Me too."

"Then until next time. And you were right, I underestimated you, but that doesn't mean you are able to kill me." And with that Ulquiorra was gone.

"He knows he can't take both of us one, coward!" Nnoitra yelled.

"Forget it Nnoi, let's just get the hell out of here." Pocketing his gun, Grimmjow started to the exit and not to his surprise when they got outside Ulquiorra was nowhere to be seen. "I hate being shot." He growled, yanking open the car door as Nnoitra slid into the driver's seat. "Let's get back so I can get his patched up."

He found however when they reached their crappy one room apartment the surprises for the day weren't over when they entered to find someone waiting for them. "It's about damn time where have you been? Have you been shot?!" Grimmjow could only gape in surprise as Szayel got up from the sofa, rushing over to grab his arm and inspect the wound.

"Baraggan didn't kill you? Holy shit!" Nnoitra grinned, slapping the pink haired man on the back. "Way to go man, you fooled me.'

"That was the point, everyone thought I was dead so no-one came looking for me. I found out you two were here this morning, got here a few hours ago. What the hell happened?" Grimmjow hissed as the man pressed down close to the wound. "Don't be such a baby." He chided, forcing Grimmjow into a chair. "Tell me what happened."

Nnoitra just winked at Grimmjow. "I'll let him explain, I'm off to catch some shut eye, later." With that he left the room.

"So?" Szayel asked, opening one of the first aid kits and Grimmjow sighed.

"We went to see Ulquiorra, we thought he was on our side. Turns out he wasn't."

"Whose bright idea was this?"

"You have to ask?"

Szayel chuckled, shaking his head before he started cleaning the blood away from Grimmjow's arm. "Well your stupid too for going along with it."

He flinched as the wound was cleaned. "Shut up, this whole thing is stupid. We need to get in touch with the Visored's."

"Done, but let me clean this up first." Szayel sighed before setting to work.

Luckily the bullet had gone straight through so it didn't need to be removed, much to Grimmjow's relief. He was joking when he said he hated getting shot. One of the many reasons he enjoyed not being Yakuza anymore. This of course led to thoughts of Ichigo and Grimmjow now realised the man would be able to identify the scar for what it was. Which also meant he would have to come up with a good explanation.

"You know, I believe this isn't the first time I've had to patch you up like this." Szayel commented as he finished bandaging the now clean wound. His hand went to grimmjow's other arm where he had a similar scar. "Do you remember?"

"Yes." Grimmjow stiffened as the man's hand moved to cup the side of his face. He remembered quite well what had happened, and how he'd thanked the man afterwards. Clearing his throat Grimmjow jerked his head free and stood up. "Thanks Szayel."

He looked affronted at the sudden rebuff. "Is something wrong?"

"No, but I should rest."

"Since when do you rest?" Szayel stood as well. "Don't try and bullshit me, what's the problem?"

Sighing, Grimmjow lifted his hand, showing the pink haired man his ring. "I'm married now that's why. Let's not drag up the past ok? Some things are better left buried." Feeling that he had nothing more to say on the subject Grimmjow left the room, joining Nnoitra in the bedroom.

"Did you two have a fight?" Nnoitra asked as he sat down.

"No, why?"

"You look like shit."

"Well I was shot." When Nnoitra rolled his eyes, Grimmjow continued. "It doesn't matter, it was over the moment we all decided to take on Baraggan and go our separate ways."

"No love loss?"

"Hardly." Grimmjow snorted, thinking of Ichigo. "It was years ago Nnoi, I have no interest in Szayel anymore. We're here for Baraggan and that's it ok?"

"Alright no need to be snappy with me, I aint the one who wants in your pants."

"Well my pants are staying firmly on." He jumped when his phone rang suddenly, pulling it out of his pocket to find it was Ichigo. Just barely suppressing a groan he answered the call with a warning look at his friend. "Uh… Hey."

"Hey yourself… is everything ok?" Ichigo asked carefully.

"Yeah sorry, it's been a long day." Rubbing his face, Grimmjow let out a long sigh. "I've always hated meetings."

He laughed at that. "Yeah I know. So hurry up and finish already and come home. I promise, no meetings when you get back."

"That sounds like a good plan to me." He glanced up as Nnoitra stood and the man waved at him, pointing towards the door before going through. "I've gotta go ok? Something's come up."

"Oh." He could hear the disappointment in Ichigo's voice which did nothing but heighten the guilt he felt for lying to the man.

"Keep the bed warm ok? I'll be home soon, promise."

"Can I have someone over to keep it warm with me?" Ichigo laughed when Grimmjow huffed. "I'll take that as a no."

"Damn right it's a no, I'd kill anyone who even looked at you like that."

"I know, it's a good thing I love you huh?"

"Yeah I love you too. I'll call later ok?"

"You better or I'll track you down for ignoring me."

"You're always on my mind ok? Now I really gotta go, I'll call back later." Ending the call, Grimmjow followed Nnoitra and found his two old friends sat together deep in conversations. Sitting down, he broke their talk and looked at them both expectantly. "So what's the plan?"

"Like you said, we get in contact with the Visored's." Szayel replied cooly, not looking up at him and Grimmjow knew he'd pissed the man off by brushing him away earlier. "That's my job, you two will be doing all the talking."

"No problem, Grimmjow here is best buddies with their leader."

"Really?" Szayel asked, finally looking at him with a surprised expression. "And how do you know the head of the Visored Clan?"

"Long story short, I got too close to his territory and he tried to get me killed. In the process I sorta helped kill their devious head and the blame fell on me. I cant just walk into their territory without getting killed so you need to set the meet and he'll be there. He'll be on our side too so we don't have to worry about Baraggan expending his forces this far."

Of course, this was a fairly abbreviated version of the events five years ago. But neither Nnoitra nor Szayel needed to know the full story.

"So what happened with you?" grimmjow asked the pink haired man abruptly. "How did you manage to escape?"

"Early warning system alerted me to a security breach. I only just got out in time mind you. I've been underground ever since but I figure you two could use my help and guess what, you did." Szayel pushed his glass up his nose before leaning back in his seat.

"Yeah, what help is that?"

"Well I've already contacted both Tier and Nelliel and they've agreed to help. Starrk and Lilynette however I couldn't find. Not that I'm surprised I doubt even if I could contact them that they would get involved." Standing up he shot Grimmjow a nasty glare. "I'll get to work contacting the Visored's, if you'll excuse me." Pushing away from the table Szayel moved to set up in the small kitchen area.

"You really pissed him off." Nnoitra muttered.

"He'll get over it." Grimmjow replied and then a sudden idea hit him and he stood. "I've got to do something, give me ten minutes.'

"Ok?"

Grimmjow left and returned to the bedroom, picking up his phone. This time however he didn't want to speak to ichigo but rather Shiro, which was a first he had to admit. "Shiro?" He asked as the call connected.

"What's up Jaeggerjaques?"

He raised an eyebrow in surprise, it wasn't like Shiro to be civil, hell he even sounded happy. "We need to talk."

"So you finally decided to call huh? You know, I wondered how long it would take you after I found out you were in Japan." Shiro paused for a long moment. "You shouldn't have come back, does Ichigo know you're here?" When Grimmjow didn't answer he laughed. "He doesn't does he? Damn you're going to be in some serious shit when he finds out!"

"I'm glad you're so happy about that." He replied darkly. "Look there's a problem I'm sure you're well aware of. Does the name Baraggan mean anything to you?"

"I'm listening." The gleefulness in his voice had vanished and Grimmjow knew he had the man's full attention.

"Well here's the deal, he's gaining strength at the moment and I'm sure he'd love to have you in your ranks. And once he does… well let's say there's going to be a lot of casualties."

"You included?"

"Especially me."

There was a long pause. "Damn, as much as I hate to say it, what do you need?"

"You're help, one of my… associates is about to contact you. His names Szayel and he wants to arrange a meeting."

"Alright I'll talk to him, anything else."

"Uh yeah, a favour actually."

"Oh? There's more than just saving your ass?"

Grimmjow ignored the jab. "Don't tell Ichigo, as you've already guessed he doesn't know I'm here. I'd like to keep it that way. Unless of course you want him involved?" He played on Shiro's weakness for wanted to protect Ichigo, thankfully it worked.

"Fine." Shiro agreed grudgingly. "I wont say anything to Ichigo and you owe me big time Jaeggerjaques you understand?"

"Yeah I understand." Shiro ended the call abruptly and Grimmjow sighed, dropping his phone onto the bed.

Things just got a whole lot more complicated.