Grimmjow fled the room with the last of his strength. The Hogyoku had saved him twice now, and he knew without a doubt he could not let the hollow get his hands on it. He would have to go back the human world, even without Ichigo, and hope Urahra could help.
He reached a hand out into the air and watched the cracks form all too slowly. Just when they grew large enough for him to slip through, however, they sealed shut again. He whipped around just in time to see the hollow smiling at his confusion.
"What, haven't learned that trick yet? Now tell me, what gave you that power back there? What's in your hand?"
Grimmjow let a cero build in his right hand, not knowing how to manipulate the power of the hogyoku but hoping it would help him.
"Not too fast." Ichigo struck his arm but the blast still created a huge explosion, knocking them both back. Grimmjow felt warm liquid along his back and knew he'd taken a pretty serious hit. He tried to get back up but the hollow Ichigo was on him again. He wasn't in one piece either, blood smeared his pale cheek. Well at least it could bleed, Grimmjow thought.
"What is it?" the creature asked, trying to pry Grimmjow's hand open. He pressed a palm against his hollow hole and let the surge start again, enough to get Grimmjow to let go.
Grimmjow coughed harshly when Ichigo abruptly stopped the torture to examine the object in his hand.
"This is..." his grin deepened wickedly, "this is what the master needs!"
"Your master? You mean Ichigo?"
"No you fool. I mean–" The pale form over Grimmjow dropped the hogyoku and clutched at his chest. "No, don't–" Grimmjow flinched when the weight of the hollow's body fell against him but it was still. After a moment, the head raised and though the same black eyes met him, they was a discernable difference.
"Grimmjow?"
"Please tell me that's you, kid." Grimmjow sighed. He got barely a nod before he succumbed to his new injuries and passed out.
"Wake up!" Grimmjow felt a stinging to his bone-free cheek and sat up sharply. It was a mistake, pain washed up his body and he groaned, falling back. "Grimmjow!" Ichigo was not giving him a second to recover, his hands on his shoulders, willing him to stay awake.
Grimmjow parted his eye lids to try to force the grogginess back but it was so tempting to just let the darkness win when reality seemed only to offer pain.
"Grimmjow I don't know how long I'll be in control, please!" He managed to keep the kid in focus this time and nodded.
"Okay good." Ichigo sat back and let Grimmjow come around on his own.
"Ow." was all he managed after a very long time.
"I banadaged you back up." Ichigo explained. "And put your pants on." If that pale face could, Grimmjow was sure it would be blushing. Yes, next time he had a bad feeling, he would wait a minute and put his pants on. He tried again to sit but it was no good. Terrible pain coursed through his stomach.
"What is it?"
"Ugh." Grimmjow moaned again. "Whatever that bastard did to me it, hurts like hell." He looked down at his stomach but there was no trace of outward injury. It was just like his insides were bruised, which he eventually explained to Ichigo after a few more curses escaped him.
"Well you have to get up and get out of here."
"Where is the Hogyoku?"
"In your pocket. I don't dare touch it again." Grimmjow felt the weight as soon as Ichigo told him.
"Alright. Stand me up and we'll get out of here."
"No, its too dangerous for me to go back there like this. You get out of here, get help."
"But he can leave too, he just won't let me. If I leave, then I lose track of you. And I doubt that anyone can fight you."
"But the hogyoku–"
"Yeah, the hogyoku is the only way to stop you and I have it, so I can't leave you."
"Then stop me." Ichigo said seriously.
"I don't know how to reverse what it did. I don't know how to use it."
"Then we have to do something before he wakes up again."
Grimmjow thought about it for a moment. "The cells. I'll put you in the cells and then go get help," he suggested.
"Okay, let's go." Ichigo bent down and helped Grimmjow stand, eliciting many cries of pain from the arrancar. But Ichigo couldn't be gentle. He had to get himself secure before the next change so he all but drug Grimmjow down the halls following the directions that came through clenched teeth.
"You should use the chains too." Ichigo said, looking in on the cell. "Just to be sure."
"Fine." Grimmjow leaned against the wall where Ichigo propped him and opened the shackles. "They're spiritually reinforced, so once they're on, there is no way to get them off without the key."
"Okay."
"Problem is, hell if I know where the key is."
"Well I'm sure the Soul Reapers can help you with that."
"Great, I can't believe I'm going to have to deal with those assholes again." Grimmjow sighed, though his first thought of course was of Toshiro, and if he'd be willing to help. It had been a few days, he wondered if the boy had regained many memories by now.
"Grimmjow, hurry." He caught the anxiety in the teen's eyes.
"Last call to go to the bathroom." He said sarcastically, but saw in those black eyes that the kid was serious so he snapped the first chain in place. The second was further down the wall, so that the prisoner would have to stand with his arms stretched out on either side.
"I'm afraid it won't be very comfortable." Grimmjow said as he turned to secure the second lock but instead got a fist to the jaw.
"No it wouldn't be." the hollow voice laughed, grabbing Grimmjow round the neck and pulling him close. "Now release me."
"Yeah right."
But even with just one arm this creature was fierce. Grimmjow struggled to get the second shackled around the thin pale wrist or at least to get out of his reach but it was hard enough for him to stand with his stomach hurting so bad let alone fight back. It became a frenzied scuffle and suddenly a quiet but resounding click sounded in the room, and both men stopped to look at the wrist trapped in the second shackle.
"You idiot!" Grimmjow screamed, yanking against the chain that now shackled his wrist instead of the creature's. He stumbled away from the hollow Ichigo's reach, as far as the short length of chain would allow and as far as his legs could carry him. They gave out beneath him but his fury did not subside. "Now we're both stuck in here!"
The pale figure pulled frantically against its own chain in an attempt to reach Grimmjow but couldn't. He was a good metre back from him, against the far side of the wall. He snarled and hissed like some wild beast but he too, eventually decided to sit back against his side of the cell and weigh his options, if it could find any.
Grimmjow stared at the pale shadow of the bright orange haired human he knew and shut his eyes, wondering how he had managed to get into this much trouble only days after returning to Hueco Mundo.
"Are you ready?" The Head Captain addressed the entire group before him, but his eyes were focussed solely on the boy-captain.
Orihime stood next to the Commander, a bit nervous, but it had only been through her that Toshiro had been able to regain his memories so quickly. That was not to say he had regained them all. As Orihime's powers worked by reversing damage, they therefore began at the point of damage– the cataclysm, and worked backward from there. She had succeeded in reversing his memories in order from the cataclysm to the point when he created the connection to Hueco Mundo using ancient Kido techniques. That meant he had regained what he needed to get back to Hueco Mundo, but no more.
Given a few more days under her golden glow, he certainly could have regained his entire memory, but for now, he just needed to create the doorway to Hueco Mundo. Now he stood facing his loyal lieutenant and a host of other soul reapers ready to assist, including Captain Unohana, Captain Soifon and Captain Zarakai. He himself, stood staring at them and the few Soul Reapers they each selected to join them along with Orihime Inoue and Chad Sado, preparing to cast the spell.
At his back, Hyorinmaru hung, fully restored after all Aizen had done, but also Pantera– sent through the Senkeimon by Urahra. As much as the shopkeeper valued his autonomy, it seemed there were certain risks he was willing to take to ensure the safety of allies and friends.
So it was, that the youngest captain stood before a crowd of Soul Reapers with two zanpakutos on his back and hardly one percent of his memory– ready to infiltrate an enemy realm and save two people he dared call friend.
Toshiro Hitusgaya looked into the eyes of every volunteer for this dangerous mission. Last of all, of course, was his lieutenant. Rangiku Matsumoto stared back at him with confidence and ferocity that in turn gave the captain strength. So, small and pale and vulnerable, he lifted his hands and cast the spell.
All he felt was searing pain.
It was like every inch of his flesh was on fire, or maybe frozen, he couldn't tell, everything just burned. Then he was falling, and even in his pain he knew this descent well. Strange trees, their branches whipping his face as he fell. Massive shadows and those blank, awful, porcelain faces. Then the ground, hard and unrelenting, his body crashing into it so painfully he didn't know if he could get his breath back.
He lay for a long time against the cold earth in the small cavity his body had created. The pain receded, he realized his skin was not in fact burnt, but he felt incredibly weak. Finally, he raised his head and looked around at the Gillion forest, the first sight he saw over a year ago when he woke following the cataclysm.
"Rangiku?" he could only whisper but he already knew she was not here. He hadn't felt any of the others transport with him. Something had gone terribly wrong.
The crunch of dry dirt and grass and the heavy breathing of one who had run hard and fast caught his dazed ears. Toshiro whipped around to face the enemy, on his feet with Hyorinmaru in hand, but even this motion was too much and he quickly staggered to one knee, the tip of Hyorinmaru dropping to the earth. He managed to keep his eyes open long enough to see the face of the vastal lordes closing in. Then his body gave into to the damage and he fell face forward, brow against blade, and eyes closing to the sound of approaching feet.
The dull constant pain in his outstretched, chained arm, the same that had been dislocated, had begun to spread into Grimmjow's shoulders and neck. But he could live with it as long as he could lay out flat in the cell so his stomach was in the most comfortable position. And so he had lain for what seemed like a week but he knew could only have been a day or a little more. He had passed out briefly but tried to remain awake to keep a vigilant eye on the beast crouched in the corner. Ichigo may have resurfaced while he was unconscious but he wasn't sure. The beast seemed to have a strong hold of him at the moment.
Then his thoughts were interrupted by a brief disturbance in the air, a fluctuation in spiritual pressure some distance away.
"Impossible!" Grimmjow jumped, startled by the shriek from the hollow Ichigo. Then the creature was on it's feet and pulling as hard as it could against its chain to reach Grimmjow. It couldn't, of course, but the arrancar was thoroughly disturbed now, and as much as it hurt, got to his feet so he could put a little more distance between himself and the manic being. "How? Tell me how? What did you do?"
"What the Hell are you talking about?" Those black eyes kept raking over Grimmjow as if he might be hiding something but he just stood there in utter confusion.
"How did he get in? How did he get through my barrier?"
Grimmjow sucked in his breath. "Got in, someone is here?" He ignored the insane hisses and profanities from Ichigo's darker self and concentrated. He sensed it. The power was so faint it hardly registered as a soul reaper. Still, there was a hint of familiarity to this one and he dared hope he knew who it was.
"Toshiro..."
"Tell me how you did it?"
"I didn't do anything, you freak, I've been chained up here with you the entire time!"
"The Hogyoku, you did something with it!"
"If I could, don't you think I would have unchained myself by now?"
The pale Ichigo hissed in annoyance but couldn't find an answer to this question. "Only a hollow more advanced than myself could break that without the hogyoku. And none exist that are more powerful then me." It concluded finally.
"We'll see about that." Grimmjow shot back arrogantly, but he quickly turned away and shut his eyes again, trying to pinpoint Toshiro– if it really was him– but whatever trace of spiritual pressure he'd felt before, was gone.
Hi again, sorry for the slow updates on this one. It's taken me longer to write this one than others I've been working on. And my work schedule has not be kind either but at least I don't have homework at the end of the day! Thanks to all those who are re-joining me from the last story and welcome to all the new readers. Thank you for the reviews so far, I always love feedback!
Night,
Riza.