Chapter 7: He's back

The group walked back to Urahara's shop. Chad and Ichigo were supporting the still unconscious Grimmjow and Orihime had Nel in her arms. When they arrived, the orange haired girl went into a separate room to continue healing the Espada while Tessai and Jinta accompanied her to keep Grimmjow from doing any harm to her if he would wake up. The rest of the group sat down around a small table with Ururu serving them tea.

"Miss Neliel do you mind telling us what happened in Hueco Mundo?" Kisuke asked Nel who started telling right away.

"That's odd" Uyuu commented after she had finished. He touched his glasses while frowning.

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked.

"Seeing that the Red Roses are assassins, one would think they would have attacked the Espada right away but instead they showed themselves and asked them these weird questions. I mean, why did they ask the Espada whether or not they'd be still loyal to Aizen if they were planning to kill them anyway? Grimmjow surely denied it and still got almost poisoned."

"Yeah now that you mention it, it seems to be a little odd, but maybe that's just their style. I'm just glad that they brought Nel here before" he said putting a hand on the cracked mask of the kid Arrancar, smiling down at her. She grinned back.

In this moment the door slid open and Jinta came in. "Hey that blue haired Hollow-thing just woke up."

"Well then, let's hear what he has to say" Kisuke who had been quiet the whole time said and stood up. The others followed him while Jinta and Ururu stayed in the room.

Orihime was in a safe distance away from the now fully awake Grimmjow while Tessai had restrained the Espada with a kido spell, binding his arms and feet onto the ground with yellow reiatsu but that didn't stop the panther from yelling and cursing loudly.

"What the hell is the meaning of all this shit?! Get these fucking things off me!" he yelled, trying to sit up, pushing against the restraints but failed to get free.

"Please Mister Grimmjow, don't push yourself or you'll open your wounds again" Orihime said, trying to calm him down but he just snorted and glared hatefully at the entering Ichigo.

"Kurosaki" he spat out.

"Calm down Grimmjow" Ichigo said calmly, leaning against the wall. "We found you unconscious by the river, you were poisoned and Orihime saved your life. You should be more thankful." The blue haired growled at this.

"Nel told us about the Red Roses, the assassins, fighting you. What happened afterwards?" the substitute soul reaper asked. This made Grimmjow finally giving up fighting against the restraints. He glanced at Neliel who stared back with big eyes. Then he looked away and mumbled: "That bastard came. That's what happened."

"Who do you mean?" Ichigo asked frowning. Kisuke just lowered his head so that his hat covered his face. He had a feeling of what Grimmjow was about to tell them…


When the assassin named Mai stepped through the garganta back into the desert, Nnoitra was hunched over, panting heavily, holding his bleeding chest while Grimmjow was still lying on the ground, conscious but weak. However, the other assassin also had received severely heavy wounds. Blood was painting the sand red.

"What do you think, Kohaku? Is he worthy enough to match the request?" she asked grinning and her partner smirked back at her.

"Yeah, I think that guy is. We should contact him, he will be pleased."

"There's no need to do this" a calm male voice said and a tall man in a white robe appeared. He had brown hair with some strands hanging into his face, his right eye was brown while his left one was yellow with purple around it, and the ever present small smile was around his lips.

"You did great, Mai, Kohaku." The three Espada looked at him bewildered, shocked, surprised.

"Hello my fellow Espada" he addressed them calmly while the Red Roses appeared by his side.

"Lord Aizen" Ulquiorra said as he was the first one who got over the brief shock. The expression on his face was like always blank of any emotion, the only reaction of him was a short widening of his eyes.

Nnoitra narrowed his eyes. "What is the fucking meaning of all this?" he demanded to know, looking from the Red Roses to Aizen. "I thought they were from the soul society."

"They are but now they're also working with me" Aizen explained calmly. "You don't need to know why; it's not of any interest in the moment. Mai, why brought you the one Arrancar away?" he asked glancing at the soul reaper woman through the corners of his eyes. She shrugged.

"Even though she once was your third Espada, she is now weak and wouldn't be of any use of you. Also we still have our morals. We don't kill innocents."

"Well, it doesn't matter. What is of importance is that I ask you, my dear Espada, to join me once again. The plan didn't fail; it was only an unfortunate turn of events but nothing to worry about. The Hyogoku is still ours and I still plan on overthrowing the soul society. Would you accompany me?"

"Like I already told them, I don't care as long as I get to kill something" Nnoitra said shrugging.

"What's your order Lord Aizen?" Ulquiorra said, lowering his head in respect.

"Damn you bastard" Grimmjow growled. He was fighting against unconsciousness; the poison was still running through his system, bringing him closer to death by every passing second.

Aizen looked down at him, smiling coldly. "Grimmjow… It's sad but not surprising to see your lack of loyalty. As a result you lie here on the ground, beaten, and left for death" he calmly said, making the Espada growl.

"You asshole, I'll cut your fucking head off Aizen!" he hissed glaring with hatred but Aizen only smirked.

Shaking Grimmjow pulled every last ounce of his strength together, getting into a kneeling position.

"Give it up, you're already defeated and can impossibly hope to even come close me" Aizen said but Grimmjow only snorted. He knew that the ex-soul reaper said was the truth. In his current condition, with the poison weakening every part of his body, he would collapse in front of everyone's eyes before he could even take a step. He only had once chance to get out of there, even if it meant to do something he hated. He had to retreat.

Summoning the last bit of spiritual pressure he had Grimmjow opened a garganta, big enough for him to slip through. The last thing he saw was the little group from which he would kill everyone.

The sixth Espada lost consciousness even before he hit the ground in the world of the living.


"Aizen… So he is back again" Ichigo growled narrowing his eyes. "That bastard!"

"That surely is unpleasant to hear" Kisuke meant with a sigh. He had figured that Grimmjow would tell something like that but still… The Red Roses being traitors too was indeed an unpleasant surprise.

"I can't believe that they follow Aizen too" Ichigo said frowning, remembering the conversation he had with the assassins.

"Well, they would have failed in their job if you would have suspected it. Yuroichi" he then addressed the black haired cat-woman who just had appeared behind him, "I want you to go to the soul society immediately and report what we just heard." She nodded and disappeared.

"Wait, what should we do?" Ichigo asked as he couldn't sit around now that Aizen had made his move.

"I'll prepare a gate for you right away but first we should wait for the reaction from soul society."

"Kurosaki, you better let your hands off Aizen. He's my prey to kill."

"Sorry Grimmjow, but that won't happen."

"You damn bastard!" the blue haired Espada yelled, once again struggling against the kido spell. Getting enough of the Espada Tessai knocked him out with another spell.

"What should we do with him?" Uryuu asked pushing up his glasses.

"Now that the Red Roses are also marked as traitors the negotiations will become futile and Central 46 will judge the imprisoned Arrancar quickly guilty. I can imagine that they will also demand us to hand over Grimmjow in which case I want you to take him with you into soul society" he explained looking over the small group. Everyone nodded.

"Good, then we should better prepare."


Meantime

"That's not good" Shunsui said looking at the hole in the bars.

"I knew that the Espada are powerful but to be that powerful to break through the cell just like that…?" Nanao Ise, lieutenant of squad 8, said and pushed her glasses up her nose. She and her captain were standing in front of the cell that had previously meant to imprison Coyote Starrk, the first Espada. However, now the cell was empty and the bars were broken apart.

They had been the first ones to appear at the scene after they had gotten the message that someone found the unconscious guards in front of the entrance to the underground prison.

"But if he was able to break out, why are the female Espada and their Fracciónes still here?" Nanao asked frowning.

She was right, Tier Halibel and the others were still in their cells but they refused to tell anyone what could have happened. Instead her Fracciónes yelled at and insulted every soul reaper that had tried to get an answer out of them so far.

"Let me try to have a word with them" Shunsui said and turned around to walk to where the women were.

"How dare you speaking like that to me you ugly soul reaper!" Apacci yelled when once again someone tried to question her about the incident.

"Talking back to him only makes you appear weak as well."

"Shut your mouth Sung-Sun!"

"Hey ladies, don't tell me that you're fighting again?" Shunsui said smiling when he stepped into the scene.

"Captain Kyoraku, Lieutenant Ise!" the soul reaper said, bowing to them, grateful that they had arrived.

"You did a good job but you can leave now" Shunsui said friendly to him. Relief was shown on his face as now he hadn't to deal with the furies any longer.

"Y-Yes Captain Kyoraku, thank you and good luck!" he called out when he disappeared to find an easier thing to do.

"What are you doing here again?" Apacci asked, glaring at him.

"Please don't give me that look; I only wanted to ask you nicely some questions."

"Is that your new drinking buddy as a replacement of the sick one?" Mila Rose asked, glancing at Nanao who furrowed her brows and glared at her captain. Shunsui winced, chuckling sheepishly.

"Oh no, that is my lieutenant, the beautiful and admirable Nanao who-"

He was interrupted when she smacked his head with her folder.

"Don't come at me with that! I searched the whole evening after you but you were down here, drinking sake?!"

He quickly held up his hands as defense. "If I would have known that you're so worried about me, I would have told you something but-"

"I wasn't worried about you one bit!" she snapped, still glaring at him.

"What do you want here, soul reaper captain?" Tier asked looking at him with her arms crossed under her breasts. "If it's about Starrk, I've got nothing to say to you" she continued, interrupting the captain as he just had opened his mouth, and glanced at Nanao. Shunsui understood.

"My sweetest Nanao, would you please leave us alone for some while?" She frowned.

"But Captain I-"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just let me talk to these ladies for a little, okay?" Nanao simply nodded and after throwing a suspicious glance to the third Espada she was gone. Shunsui turned back to face Tier.

"So, what happened?"

The woman closed her eyes for a moment and when she reopened them she started telling: "Of course we didn't exactly see ourselves what happened, but Starrk certainly didn't escape all by himself. He was saved by someone."

"How can you be so sure about that?"

"It's because some minutes earlier someone appeared in front of my cell as well. I couldn't see who it was, the person was dressed in a black robe that covered everything but it wasn't the robe of a soul reaper. This person, a man, only asked me whether I am still loyal to Aizen or not."

"Yeah, we told him to fucking leave and to never mention that traitor's name again!" Apacci exclaimed but got silent right away after receiving a sharp look from Tier.

"Yes, we denied the question and the person disappeared. Moments later we heard loud noises which were coming from Starrk's cell and that was it."

"I see…" Shunsui said thoughtfully. "Well, thank you very much for the report, I really appreciate it."

"What the hell is going on here anyway?" Mila Rose asked sharply. "Who was that person?"

Shunsui was silent for a moment and then sighed. "That's a really good question…"


So Aizen reappears… I made him disappear during the fight with Ichigo but before the Final Getsuga Tensho... But I certainly don't want him to look like a freaking butterfly or the other form, so I decided that he should look like shortly before he was sealed away. Back then his appearance was at least decent…

I hope you liked that chapter! Please review!