Chapter 4

This is the fourth chapter of 'Betrayal and Secrets.'

ENJOY!

Gin walked down the corridor, towards the enormous Conference Hall, where Aizen had called for a meeting. As he entered, he saw that the Espada had already been assembled, and Aizen was sitting at the head of the table, with Tozen sitting at his left. Gin's seat to the right of Aizen stood empty, waiting for him.

When he sat down, Aizen's smooth, baritone voice rang out, "Good, you're here, Gin. Now the meeting can begin. Szayel…" The pink haired Espada sighed, ruffling his hair in his usual snobby way, "The shinigami's condition is still varying, considering his reiatsu is constantly fluctuating, spiking his mysterious illness."

Teir Harribel spoke, from underneath that coat covering her mouth, as well as her fraction of her hollow mask, "What type of illness does this taichou have?" Szayel spoke, "It looks like the common 'flu', the type of sickness shinigami and mere humans receive, but somehow, no matter how I analyze his condition and create an antidote for it, the illness always seems to create itself in a new form, and renders my antidotes completely useless."

Aizen spoke, "Have you ran any other tests yet?" Szayel shook his head briefly, "No, not really, sir." Tozen sipped at the tea in front of him, "I would like to know, what is the matter with Hitsugaya-taichou? His reiatsu, it's not that of a normal taichou. That of any shinigami for that matter."

Szayel spoke, sounding exhausted, "Well, all my tests show that something is causing his suspicious reiatsu activity, but nothing specific." Aizen took all of this in, "I see. Well then, Szayel, you may have a break from working on our latest 'project' and take some time to work on other experiments we'll need in our war against the Seireitei. Move the boy to one of the spare bedchambers."

The eighth Espada brightened up at that suggestion, "Thank you, Aizen-sama. I will see that." The brunette spoke out again, "As for the rest of you, I just want you all to keep an eye out for any intruders. It's been several days since we've taken Orihime Inoue, and I've sensed several shinigami reiatsu approaching Hueco Mundo, trying to rescue her."

Nnoitra Gilga, Espada number five, grinned widely, nearly splitting his face in half, "That's gonna be fun. I haven't killed anything for days." Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, sixth Espada snorted, "Tch, whatever. You can't go a single week without killin' somethin', ya freakin' spoon."

Aizen interrupted, "That's quite enough. All of you are dismissed, I would like to talk with Gin for a little while." The Espada and Tozen stood up, bowed, and left the room. Soon, the only people in the hall were Aizen and Gin. The brunette lazily propped his chin on the back of his hand, staring at Gin straight in the eye, Gin straightly returning the glance with a piercing gaze of his own. Aizen spoke, amusement lacing his voice, "My, I heard that conversation that you had with Hitsugaya. It seems that he wasn't willing to forgive you. What'll you do now?"

Gin didn't answer, the smirk completely wiped from his face. Aizen simply took his silence, "Well then, you may go." The white haired former taichou was gone faster than the eye could catch, leaving a breeze to rustle Aizen's hair. He smirked, "He's more protective than I've anticipated. Well, that'll make it that more fun when I take Toshiro from him."

Toshiro woke up again to find that some of his strength had returned, and the sharp stabbing of his muscles became dull aching. He sat up without too much difficulty, but noticed that he wasn't in that laboratory anymore. In fact, he was laying on an extravagant looking and feeling bed. Due to the height of the bed, his back throbbed a bit, bit nothing serious.

Sitting up, he noticed that he was wearing another yukata, this one a soft, beautiful, light baby blue, with a deep aqua blue obi sash to match. His captain's haori was folded up and neatly placed on the wooden bedside table. Toshiro took a look around, seeing that he was in an enormous bedchamber.

Like the rest of Las Noches, this room was mainly white, with several shades of teal and silver here and there. Toshiro tried lifting a leg, finding it more difficult than it looked. He sighed, realizing that he was paralyzed in his place, able to move his torso, but not anything beneath the hips.

He became alert as the large double doors slowly creaked open, and pairs of footsteps. He looked up as a tall, busty blond woman with extremely tan skin with the bottom half of her face covered with the collar of her white coat came in, along with another busty brunette, a tomboy like girl ravenette, and one last girl with long olive-green hair, and lavender eyes.

The bust brunette smiled, "Hiya, how're you doing? You look better than you did when Gin-sama brought you to Hueco Mundo." She then put a finger to her chin in a thinking motion, "Though I can't say the same for pratically every male Espada there. They were pratically drooling over you."

Toshiro mentally shivered at the thought of disgusting Arrancars leering at his body. He wasn't exactly wearing the proper attire for battle, and he did engage a fight with Gin. He managed to whisper, "Who… are you four." The olive-green haired girl spoke, "I am Cyan Sung-Sun. The brunette is Francesk Mila Rose. The ravenette is Emilou Apachi, and she," Sung-Sun gestured to the tall blond, "She is Tier Harribel, Espada number 3."

The silverette nodded, telling them that he understood without the use of words, and turned his head away, starring at the sheets. Apachi spoke in a tomboyish voice that she apparently possessed, "Hey, what's the matter? Can't you talk?" Harribel spoke, "Leave the boy alone, Emilou. Can't you see that he's in mourning?"

Mila Rose seemed to understand, "Poor boy," and so did Sung-Sun, but Apachi didn't. She rose an eyebrow, "Hwy's he in mourning? Nobody's dead, or dying." Mila Rose growled, "Not that type of mourning, you stupid idiot. He's in the type of mourning where you really want something." Sung-Sun put in her comment, "Or somebody, am I right, Hitsugaya-taichou..?"

The young taichou didn't react, but his silence just made all that more obvious to find out. Harribel sighed, "You yearn for love, correct? You seem to yearn for someone to close that gape in your heart." Hearing that only caused tears to slightly well up in Toshiro's eyes.

Sung-Sun sighed, "Look, Miss Harribel, you've made him cry." The blond chuckled softly, "I'm sorry, little one, I didn't mean it." Toshiro quickly blinked his tears away, but didn't lift his head. Suddenly, he suddenly an immense power began to pulse throughout his body, shocking him, and unable to contain it, the large amounts of reiatsu began to radiate off the taichou's body.

The reiatsu was so immense that it began to cripple and crush Mila Rose, Sung-Sun and Apachi. Though it didn't have as a drastic affect on Harribel, it did indeed surprise her by a lot. She slightly cringed at the force that was crushing her subordinates, 'What… is this power..? Just a minute ago, his reiatsu was that of a normal shinigami, but now, it's powerful enough to rival that of the Sotaichou, or even Aizen-sama. How is this possible?'

The reiatsu pressed for about a minute or so, then slowly began to lower itself, and soon, it reduced back to its normal level. Toshiro then collapsed, his fever coming back, and fast. His body was shivering, and his head began to throb harshly. In short, he began to feel like crap again.

The four Arrancar slowly recovered from the immense reiatsu, to see Toshiro begin to cough furiously, his face becoming a deep shade of pink instead of the light blush pink on his cheeks before. Sung-Sun took a closer look at the young prodigy, "Are you okay?" Emilou placed a hand on his forehead, but quickly jerked it away, "He's burning up. Where's the medicine that Szayel made for the tike?"

Mila Rose looked around, to see a small brown glass bottle on the writing table up against the white all, "Here it is," went over, picked it up, and brought it over. Harribel took a spoon, poured some of the thick liquid into the spoon, and asked Sung-Sun to prompt Toshiro up, slipping the contents down the youngest taichou's throat.

The medicine's after-affect caused Toshiro to slowly let his teal-emerald eyes flutter shut, taking him into a peaceful slumber. Harribel set the bottle down, after screwing the lid back on, "Come on, girls, I think it be best if we let the boy sleep in peace.

With that, the four Arrancars exited the room, leaving the tenth division taichou with his dreams. Unfortunately, Harribel and her Fraccion weren't the only people who had felt Toshiro's sudden outburst of reiatsu.

All the way in the Throne Room, a ceratin traitorous brunette smirked as he felt a strong amount of reiatsu radiating from the bedchamber he had Szayel move the young taichou into, 'So, he does possess it after all. I was beginning to have my doubts. Well, this works out perfectly.'

What does Toshiro have that Aizen would want so badly? Find out!

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