Since it's been a minute, here is a quick summary: Harry performed a ritual to summon an animal familiar but botched it in a typical potter fashion and instead wound up with a slightly dead female arrancar, formerly a member of the human race, by the name of Orihime Inoue. With his new perspective on death, the afterlife, and his own status as a demi-hollow (transient falling soul)- Harry has trained to acquire the name of his soul slayer (zanpakto) by entering purgatory (hueco mundo) and fighting hollows (fallen human souls who have become heartless monsters that eat other human souls.) He does this in the hope that finding his zanpakto will protect him from the fate of becoming a hollow, and will instead allow him to become a shinigami (soul reaper who guides the dead to the soul society, and purifies hollows with their zanpakto) and use those abilities to defeat Voldemort.

Another Arrancar (hollows that have be re-humanized by the dark lord Aizen to make them more powerful and serve in his army) by the name of Grimmjow Jaggerjaques has appeared to challenge Harry and his attachment to his familiar, Orihime. During their fight, Harry enters his own soulscape to find the remains of 16 year old Tom Riddle, who is the visual representation of Harry's inner-hollow. He also finds the epitome of his zanpakto- a jackal by the name of Thanatos.

Chapter Seven: Jagged Destiny

"Sever the chains of fate! Rain your vengeance upon those who would control you! THANATOS!"

Grimmjow jumped out of the way, nimbly avoiding the projectile, but having to abort his own attack at the same time. He moved again, as the blade, too swift for him to see properly, was yanked back towards him by the chain it was attached to.

Grimmjow flash stepped back as I pulled Thanatos back towards me and caught him in my left hand. I really had to learn how to flash step.

Orihime's eyes widened and Grimmjow's jaws opened in a rictus grin as they took in Thanatos.

A black handle the length of my body; On one end, a silver scythe, and on the other end, a weighted chain. The blade was not a perfect half-sickle. It was distorted, like a Z that had the ends bent in an arc. The scythe was a frozen silver bolt of lightning.

"Ogama." Grimmjow said. "Why does an arrancar wanna-be have a shinimagi-type initial release?"

"Because killing you is more important than defending myself." I said. Grimmjow's eyes widened. "Isn't that how it is, Hollow? A mask that guards your instincts, and a sword's initial release that coats your skin in an armor that cannot be cut by a soul slayer."

I disengaged Thanatos from my shoulder and pointed it at the surprised hollow.

"Your instinct is to defend yourself, first and foremost. Mine…" I swung Thanatos into a spin by its chain. "Is to kill."

"Bring it on, bitch! We'll see how your instincts.." He charged. "Match mine!"

Our weapons met in a clash of sparks. I knew that he still out-powered me despite my initial release. Even if I could over-power him in this state, he hadn't even released his zanpakto yet. The only way for me to win would be to lure him into security and strike a decisive blow before he was done playing with me.

For that reason, I was the first to pull back. Grimmjow leered and charged again.

"What's wrong?" He hollered, backing me up with thrust after thrust… his monstrous strength had me sliding back across the sand on my heels. "Where are you instincts now?" He spun into a roundhouse kick too quickly for me to react, and caught my chin with his heel, laughing like a maniac.

I managed not to fall down, but couldn't help it when his fist connected with my cheek seconds later. I barely had time to cough the sand I'd just eaten out before he was on me again. The more our swords clashed, the more I dodged; the more aggressive I got, the happier he seemed to get.

"Having fun?" I couldn't help but ask, as he cackled gleefully.

"You're barely passable." He tossed out. "Just good enough to shake off the malaise living in this world puts me in. Perhaps you'll be able to challenge me- in another thousand years…"

"First Vengence: Snake snare." I called, the minute Grimmjow was in position. Immediately the chain circle Grimmjow had stepped into sprang up, multiplied and tightened around his body like several constrictors.

Far from appearing concerned, he laughed. I didn't let it phase me as I charged, bringing my scythe down onto his immobile body.

Sand exploded in all directions as my blade met the earth.

"Huh… you actually managed to get an attack out, complete with incantation, on your first release. Not even Ichigo managed that." Grimmjow said conversationally from behind me.

I almost shrieked in alarm, but withheld it as I wheeled around. He'd gotten out of the snake snare, seemingly in the split second while I was bringing my scythe to bear. I swung at him, but he dodged effortlessly and kicked the back of my head… planting me face first into the ground.

"A scythe is a heavy weapon… a chained Ogama even more so. I don't know what a puny little bitch like you thinks he can do with something so large against an enemy who primarily relies on speed." He sneered.

"Grimmjow!" Orihime cried, running between us. "Please stop this. Didn't you see what you wanted to know?"

"Orihime, move!" I called after I'd regained my feet. She didn't.

"He's useless trash. I don't know what you want with a human who would sell his soul for power. I thought the brusque but valiant hero type was more your style, Princess." That touched a nerve, I could tell.

"Shall I take that arm of yours back?" She hissed at him, furiously. He laughed maniacally.

"Idle threats! At least Ichigo could make me break a sweat! What are you doing with a weak human who can't protect you from common hollows, much less Aizen-bastard!"

I grit my teeth, more because it was true than anything else. The difference in our power was as evident as day. I'd need much more training to be able to survive an encounter with an arrancar, if I lived through this one.

Orihime's shun shun rikka assembled themselves into a circle in front of her out stretched hands, and another cero charged between them.

"Ah.. that." Grimmjow sniggered. "I suppose you finally got some blood lust into you, to be able to create a cero where before you'd heal an enemy because you couldn't stand to see anyone hurt. Did that human put that ruthlessness into you?" The hollow leered. "I wonder what else he put in you, princess?"

Oh, that's fucking it! The charged red ball of death the shun shun rikka held seemed to implode in on itself, so I took cover. Grimmjow was laughing at Orihime's apparent failure; little did he know. The ground beneath the hollow exploded with the force of a minor nuclear cataclysm, producing a mushroom ball of destruction and a wave of sand that covered me entirely.

The force of the explosion expanded outward from the impact zone, and would've engulfed us if not for the ward Orihime erected.

I stood up and walked to stand beside her, dragging Thanatos before shouldering him. Her long hair was blowing about wildly even as the destructive sphere she had unleashed settled down. We watched it from behind the yellow glow of the Three Sacred Links Shield.

"I lost my heart once." Orihime said quietly. "I could've fought harder, but I wasn't able to hurt anyone back then.. even to save my own life. I helplessly let Aizen rip my heart out of me and turn me into this…" She shut her eyes, shaking. "I had power he wanted, and I let him manipulate me into using it for him, against my friends. I can't look at them again, I'm so ashamed."

Manipulated into hurting your friends? I know how that is. But at least her friends weren't dead, not like Cedric.

"It was because I was weak and afraid." She looked at me. "They were hurt trying to save me for no reason. I had the power to save myself all along, but I was too weak to use it! I should've protected them, even if I couldn't save myself… I should've saved them!" She shook her head. "I promised myself not to ever have cause to regret like that again. I will protect you!"

If I didn't feel useless before, I was certainly feeling it now. Orihime was going to protect me? Hadn't I been trying to protect her all along?

"Harry." She said, knowing my thoughts. "Does it matter who protects who, as long as we're both alive?" I shook my head. I suppose it didn't in this case. It would be different with Voldemort though. I was the one that had to kill him, although I couldn't imagine him, or anything, surviving Orihime's nex-cero. It wasn't even her strongest attack. She really was very scary.

"Heh.." The small chuckles, broken by coughing, interrupted our moment. "Heh.. heh…" Our eyes widened and we ran to the edge of the impact crater, weapons at the ready. "Princess…"

Laying in the center of the crater was something that resembled the hollow we had fought. The hair had lengthened, the remnants of the hollow mask he had worn were gone, instead he had a crown of bone between two large feline ears. In place of the arrancar uniform, was a body composed of the same white hollow-bone material in a feline shape. The hands and feet were curled black claws, and a long whip-like black tail curled and uncurled underneath him. His head was still mostly human.

I was vaguely, and disturbingly reminded of Thundercats.

"Grimmslash." Orihime said. I realized that his zanpakto was nowhere to be seen, which meant he must have released it. This was the released form of Grimmjow the arrancar: Grimmslash, a cat-man.

"Well… that's a very masculine zanpakto." I couldn't help but comment.

Grimmslash leered, his single set of fangs were more intimidating that his double set of grim jaws had been. It was obvious he had taken damage from the nex-cero Orihime had used. The cat-like armor was cracked and broken in some places, making blood ooze out slowly.

"P… Pantera." Grimmslash coughed, rising up on all four paws. "The panther king. Perhaps my zanpakto isn't named after a god of death…. But it's still more than enough to kill you little human." My zanpakto wasn't named after a god of death, because if it were it would've been called Anubis, but that was a technicality.

"Pantera is a weapon that increases speed beyond the flash step." Orihime warned me. "A speed the eyes can't hope to follow."

"You're still the same cough after all cough … princess. If you had wanted to kill me, you should've used your negacion attack."

It was obvious Grimmjow knew Orihime's attacks intimately. I wondered if they had been friends when Orihime was part of the arrancar army, or the equivalent of friends as two individuals who hated Aizen. I wondered why he hadn't known about her nex-cero. He seemed surprised to see it.

"Grimmjow. You had your fight and saw his abilities. Won't you stop now? I don't want to kill you."

Had I really changed her that much? Had I given her the killing intent needed to create the nex-cero? Had my tainted soul dirtied Orihime's pure hands?

"They're still here you know…" Grimmjow said conversationally. "Kurosaki Ichigo, the Kuchiki, the Quincy, and the big guy. They've been combing the desert, looking for you."

I felt Orihime's shock and dismay, like a haymaker to the face.

"The baboon shinigami with the tattoo's comes too sometimes, and the kid captain with the ice-dragon blade, and his big-tits lieutenant. The bald dude and his faggot friend with a peacock for a sword show up as well."

"Kuchiki-san, Ishida-kun, Sado-kun, Abarai-kun, Hitsugaya-taicho, Rangiku-san. Ikkaku-kun. Yumichika-kun." Our shared heart seemed to break a little with every name she spoke. "Kurosaki… kun."

"And it turns out you have been hiding in the living world all along while your friends have been looking for you in this purgatory. Even I couldn't feel where you'd gone, and believe me, they asked me to try." Grimmjow slowly stalked out of the crater towards us, still on all fours. Orihime didn't back away, so neither did I. "I figured you'd gone into hiding to get away from Aizen, or maybe even to train in the desert. But you were ashamed, weren't you, of being an arrancar? You were hiding from your friends."

Grimmjow motioned his chin towards Orihime's breast plate. "Maybe you even thought you could become human again, if not an ordinary soul." The large cat-man sat in a catlike manner, leering a Cheshire grin; His four queer too-small black paws all lined up properly. "Whatever you want, you should take it. If you want to kill Aizen in revenge, you should do it. If you want to become a regular soul, you should purify yourself on the zanpakto of a shinigami. If you want to be with your friends, then be with them… Your powers are your own, to do with as you please, and you have enough power to do whatever you want. However," He hissed. "no human has any right to your powers! Especially a puny, weak idiot who can't do anything for you."

Orihime moved in front of me, protectively. Really, who was the guy here?

"What are you saying all this for? It's not like you at all to be so reflective. Weren't you just spoiling for a fight? Or were you hoping I'd found some way to protect myself from Aizen's slavery that you could use as well?"

Grimmjow licked his lips. I wondered if he bathed himself like a cat in that form too. Unbidden, the image of him 'cleaning' his privates popped into my brain. I shuddered in disgust. Oh what I'd do for a bar of mind-soap.

"Maybe both of those… maybe none." He seemed unconcerned. "I was hoping you'd kill Aizen yourself. If you were training, I was going to help you."

That shocked Orihime almost as much as hearing about her friends.

"… me? But .. I'm…"

"What? Not strong enough? The power you have over fate is exactly what Aizen needs to overthrow The King. Or did you think Aizen was going to march into heaven and challenge the king to a sword fight? When has that bastard ever lifted a finger in true combat?" Grimmjow shook his head. "Aizen's power lay in manipulating others into fighting for him. He hypnotizes his subordinates and starts conflicts between them to punish one, rather than punish them himself. All the while he sits on his thrown never raising a hand, like a benevolent father… the very picture of mercy."

"Who do you think cut off my arm when I broke orders? It wasn't Aizen. I've never seen him kill, even when he draws his sword. I wonder if he even can. And you think he's going to fight The King head on? Orihime, he changed you… so you could do it for him."

Hold on… hold on!

"Are you saying Aizen wants to overthrow… God?" What the hell was up with this man! I thought Voldemort was ambition-itself for wanting to rule Britain!

"God? God, as in, the creator? I don't know about him." Grimmjow sneered. "The King I'm talking about is the ruler of the soul-society. He resides on a plane of reality just above soul-society. Aizen calls it "heaven" but I wonder about that."

"You're wrong." Orihime said, shaking her head in denial. I felt her terror and disbelief. It felt very familiar. It was exactly what I was experiencing when Dumbledore told me the prophecy. "There is no way I could do that… I don't have anything against the king… and besides, what could I do?"

"Regardless of whether you're capable of slaying The King or not, Aizen feared your power even more than Ichigo's. Your ability is the negation of reality; 'The rejection of fate.' Yeah, that's what he called it."

…Death. Reject. Fate… That's what I'd called for.

"Aizen wants your power. I heard… I heard he's going to kidnap your friends and make them arrancar to bring you back and keep you obedient." Orihime gasped. "But if you killed him, well… not only is that problem taken care of, the soul society would welcome you as a hero…"

"Orihime…" I wanted to tell her I'd support her, no matter what she decided. Aizen sounded a lot worse than Voldemort. But she was shaking her head.

"That's ridiculous. I don't know who your source was, but there is just no way. There is no way!" She was becoming hysterical, I could feel it. I had to get her away from Grimmjow. I put my hand on her shoulder, willing her to calm down.

"Let's go home for now. You don't have to decide anything right now."

Grimmjow hissed. I wondered if he'd let us leave peaceably.

"You!" He said to me. "Are a liability!" He curled up, ready to pounce.

"Grimmjow!" Orihime moved in front of me again. "You won't hurt him."

Reality check, he'd already smeared my useless ass all over this desert. If Grimmjow started up again in that form, I'd be in ribbons in seconds.

"Hmph! Having a weak human attached to you will only bring you down. He's like some cancer infested tumor hanging off you grotesquely." Wow, that was some pretty detailed imagery. "Better to cut it away."

"Harry is my friend! I won't let you hurt him."

"And what about your other friends? Ichigo and the rest? You and I can join back up with them and fight Aizen." Ah, that was what he really wanted. And here I was thinking hollows couldn't form relationships, not having a heart and all, but maybe this little kitty was in heat. That was hard to imagine, because as 'grimmslash' he had no.. bits. If they were there, they were coated in the hollow-bone armor and were thus, inaccessible. And why the hell did my mind keep turning in that direction? Ah- must but the concussion.

Orihime didn't get it. I could feel her confusion over his intentions and motivations. She was thinking mostly about her friends, and worrying for their safety. Her emotions swirled around, going back and forth between worry and shame. She didn't want to see them, it was too painful for her. Just thinking about seeing them was making tears leak from her eyes, but was that a good enough reason to stay away and withhold her protection?

"Maybe someday, we'll do that." I answered for her. "I'll go with you and help you, if that's what you want to do, when you are ready." I looked at Grimmjow. "If your speculation is correct, Aizen's plans cannot proceed until he has Orihime. I'll be keeping her safe for most of the year in areas with heavy wards. We are most exposed in Hueco Mundo when we are training. Could you tell me how you found us here, so we can avoid whatever means you used to detect us?"

"No." He answered immediately.

Bastard. I gritted my teeth, but forced myself to stay polite.

"Then would you please tell Orihime's friends that she's safe, and that they should stop looking for her? They need to be watching their own asses for Aizen's kidnapping attempts."

"Kurosaki-kun and the others are able to protect themselves. I was the only one weak enough to be captured." Orihime said at last. If she was weak then I'd hate to meet who she thought was strong. "Please tell them to stop looking for me, Grimmjow."

"Shit, do I look like a fucking messenger boy?" No, you look like an escaped extra from 'cats'… I wanted to say, but didn't. "Fuck that! Go talk to them yourself!"

"Please?" Orihime said. "Please." More quietly a second time.

They stared at each other silently for a few minutes.

Grimmjow growled, then, just as suddenly as he appeared, he was gone.

I waited until Thanatos slipped back into sword-form to let out the breath I'd been holding. I sheathed him, running my fingers along the guard and said:

"Thank you."

Orihime was still rigged with grief. It was time to cheer her up. "Well, it's way past lunch time! Wow am I hungry! Let's get some banana's and bean paste and onions… and we can roll them into sushi, just like you like it."

"Idiot." She snorted and turned to look at me. There were still tears in her eyes. "You can't go to the store like that, you're a mess."

I was hurting all over. The pain was getting worse as the adrenaline wore off. I could take the broken ribs for a few more hours, but I doubt I'd be able to eat with my fractured jaw. I couldn't see through my left eye, and things were getting wobbly in my right.

"A mess … of course I'm a mess. You don't get out of fighting an arrancar without a few bumps… unless you are you, and it's good you are because I'm not ready to be dead yet." Wow, I was really hurting. "I'm sorry I was so useless."

"I'm glad this happened. Grimmjow helped you find the name of your zanpakto. Did you get to see what it looked like?" I nodded.

"A black jackal with a snake wrapped around his neck. He looked like Anubis."

"Cool. And your release was like a shinigami's. Maybe that means your powers are more human than hollow." This was the heart of the matter.

"Orihime, it was your sword originally. Maybe this means your powers are more human than hollow." I just wanted to lay down and go to sleep and maybe never wake up, but I had to say this. "You don't have anything to be ashamed of. You aren't ugly or tainted. It's through no fault of your own that you are an arrancar. There is nothing for your friends to forgive."

"If that were all of it…" She stopped, then frowned. "… I know my sins better than anyone else. That they would forgive me for them…" She shook her head. "they shouldn't! I can't be forgiven."

So there was more than just her arrancar status. I thought so, but never knew for sure. Orihime never talked about her friends, and even when she mentioned them… there was always one name too taboo to say.

Kurosaki Ichigo.

I wondered if I'd ever meet him, and what I would say to the person who injured Orihime this badly.

That night Orihime slept beside me. She said it was to make sure I was healing properly. Shun'oh got huffy at the implication he couldn't do his job right, which amused me.

I knew Orihime just wanted to be held. I didn't mind obliging.

That night, I didn't have nightmares of Cedric or the graveyard. Instead, I dreamt I was walking along a long narrow passageway that ended in a locked door.

--

A/N: I was going to have Grimm stab harry and end it like that, but I couldn't work it after he'd been injured by hime. I didn't like how much Grimm said, he isn't supposed to be rational! I know he's OOC, and I hate that, but I had to introduce the notion that Aizen was after Orihime to complete his plans, and Grimmjow was the only bleach character available to tell Orihime that. So yes, he's much more rational and less psychotic than he should be. No, I don't like it either. Ah well. That's why it's fanfiction.

As for the lateness of this chapter- (shrugs) I have a life.

RE: who went to Soul Society after hime- When I wrote this chapter not even the manga showed who all showed up in hueco mundo. I also figure the SS might've given up on hime if she'd been turned, so the captains wouldn't have been deployed. Instead, only those determined to help Ichigo would've made an appearance.

RE: reviews – I will reply shortly- thanks to those who have given and those who will give.

May 13, 2008 stats: 14346 hits, reviews: 75, favs: 52, alerts: 122, c2's: 35 – God Bless.