It will be painful. Grimmjow blinked and found himself in his inner world.
"What hasn't been lately?" He sighed and the tiger came to lay his head on his lap.
True. I miss them too.
"We'll find them. We just have to get past this whole mess and we'll be okay."
But you must not do anything rash.
"I won't risk not finding her. But imagining her out there, with people like those thugs who were going to–"
I know. But then what world doesn't have that?
"Heuco Mundo."
There was silence and the tiger looked at him.
"I'm serious. All the espada are dead, there's no hollow that can challenge me and some of the palace is still in place."
You'd shut her off in your own world to protect her? Would she be happy?
"She'd be safe."
You know she would hate it.
Grimmjow almost protested but then he nodded. "I know. But it's the one place where all these people couldn't reach us."
They said nothing more for a long while. Grimmjow closed his eyes against the tree and then he felt the world tremble a little. Kokaku was waking him.
"We'll sort this out Zizimu." He said as he opened his eyes and breathed in the cottony scent of his pillow. He was back upstairs, its looked to be mid day– he'd been asleep for at least twenty hours.
"What happened?" he murmured.
"You were exhausted. Kisuke is researching but he said you need to heal more before we attempt anything."
Grimmjow squeezed the pillow hard to suppress his frustration. He sat up slowly. He felt the pain but it wasn't sharp like before, just dull and constant. He tried not to let it show on his face.
"Don't let anything touch it and the pain will stay level, at least that's was Kisuke says." Grimmjow nodded and noticed he was shirtless and no blanket had been placed over top of him. His other wounds were slowly coming along but also needed some time.
"Damn that guy." He muttered. Kokaku ignored him
"Time to eat!" She grabbed his forearm and pulled him up. He staggered but found his footing.
The next few days were more of the same. He slept, ate and did as much exercise as he could but occasionally his right leg would give out for not reason other than an extra twinge of pain at his back and his knee would come crashing into the floor. It was beyond frustrating. But then the day came when he descended to the basement, prepared to take whatever punishment was necessary to get his powers back.
Kokaku finished sealing off the room so no spiritual power could leak out and called Urahara. Grimmjow lay on his stomach and Gangu came to his sides holding straps in his hands. Grimmjow immediately tensed and made to get off the bed but the twinge in his back sent him flat.
"Trust me man, its for all our safety." Gangu said but he did not make a move without Grimjow's permission.
"What are they going to do?"
"Re-open the scar tissue. You broke a railing last time sis barely touched it, what do you think is going to happen this time?"
"I don't like being out of control."
"Its been weeks, you don't trust us?" Grimmjow didn't answer. He owed the siblings a lot but his trust was a hard thing to come by.
"Just do it." He said finally. Gangu slipped the padded straps around his wrists and ankles. His body remained tensed the entire time as if it was Kurotsuchi himself doing the procedure.
"Now Grimmjow." The voice over the speaker made him turn his attention away from his uncomfortable position.
"Yeah old man?"
"You and Zizmu are going to need to work together on this. Zizmu is going to want to burst right out of you if this works, but you really need to get your spiritual power flowing inside of you again. Try to think about it like your blood circulating." There was a moment of silence and they knew Grimmjow was talking to Zizimu.
"Okay. He's gets it."
"But you have to help him. Restrain him."
"Restraint isn't really my thing."
"Try. We would sedate you, but its crucial that you control the flow of your energy."
"Okay, I get it."
"Okay, good luck." Kokaku nodded to her brother and he put his hands against Grimmjow's shoulders.
"Try to relax" the woman's voice was actually kind and soft, it unnerved him and he felt her cool hand slide across his back, easing his muscles to relax. He did his best until it came that spot. The hand raised away and he tried to look to see was she was doing but Gangu was purposely blocking his view.
An instant before it happened he felt the cool thin edge of a blade, then there was white light and nothing but agony.
All thoughts of energy and circulation left him. In fact all thoughts left him altogether and he was trapped in an endless sea of white. He couldn't even see Zizimu. He thought he would drown in the pain but then a voice floated to him and it receded. His body still trembled but he looked around apprehensively. The voice called again, a little clearer this time and he knew who it was.
He was not one to normally feel fear, but he felt it now.
"Grimmjow."
He had fallen to his knees but now he turned behind him and saw the brown hair and those white robes that made the figure look bodiless in this place of light. He squinted but there was no doubting who it was.
"Aizen."
He approached and the light seemed to get brighter and Grimmjow was forced to close his eyes. He felt a cold hand on his shoulder.
"You're trembling." Said the falsely soothing voice. The ground beneath him shifted, he could feel the darkness and opened his eyes again. They were in the throne room at Heuco Mundo. Still, Grimmjow did not move. His confusion overrode every other emotion. Aizen's hand moved to his chin and their eyes locked.
"You know I heard you."
Grimmjow's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
"When you sat there, in my throne. You wished I could see you, but I could, I did. You hate me."
Grimmjow finally got a hold of himself and ripped away from his old master. He tried to stand but his body was still trembling and even here the pain ripped through his kidney and his knee let go. He tried to hold in the cry but failed.
Aizen swooped down next to him holding his trembling body against his own in some sort of false gesture of comfort. Grimmjow tried to pull away but the pain was coming back and he slumped against the ex-soul reaper.
"I control it. I'm the only thing keeping the full force of it from hitting you." And just as if to prove a point he let Grimmjow feel the full force of the agony for a split second, enough to make him scream and fall deeper into Aizen's arms.
"Have I died then? This is my Hell?" He asked softly, his words muffled by the white fabric.
"Oh no, I could never allow that, because then we would both be dead."
"But you're already dead you bastard."
Again the pain struck and he couldn't hold back the whimper. Pain had never brought him to tears before but he was pretty damn near close now.
"Careful, I'm still your master."
Grimmjow remained silent. "But...what is going on?"
"I always knew Grimmjow. The moment I saw you I knew you were the legendary King. You just weren't matured yet so I helped the process along with the Hogyoku."
"Yamamoto said it wasn't our time."
"He's right. You weren't supposed to arrive for another hundred years or more, but then, I didn't want to wait that long to bring down the Soul Society."
"But you died."
"Part of me, yes. But you're body was mine as soon as I seared that six into you."
"What do you mean?"
"I want to be King. I knew that no matter what happened, even if I won the war, you would eventually challenge me, when the time came for Zizimu to rise. I had to ensure my survival, and my supremacy."
"Where is he? Were is Zizimu?" Aizen's grip around him tightened almost like a hug.
"When they released the energy I pushed him out. Don't worry, now you have me."
"Bast– " The word was cut off by another scream and this time Aizen let it go on longer, enough to feel his white robes wet with the arrancar's tears. When it was over Grimmjow was completely limp except for the two or three sobs that still managed to escape his exhausted body.
"You know how this is going to play out. The pain will keep coming until you give this body to me."
Grimmjow remembered the monster Haku, how he'd wanted to eat him to become king. Aizen knew the thought as it passed through his mind.
"No. Its not the same. Haku was stupid. You have to accept me so that I can control Zizimu, otherwise this will never work."
Since Aizen seemed to be able to read his mind Grimmjow didn't bother trying to fight past the exhaustion to speak. His continued confusion was laid out before his former master.
"It's simple really. I used the Hogyoku to infuse a piece of my soul into you. When my mortal form was burned to ashes, the rest of my soul reverted back to here. But I was trapped. Hie captured you and messed with your mind and soul too much for me to get the upper hand. He was awakening Zizimu. Then Toshiro came along and woke him up completely. That was never part of my plan. I was supposed to get control before you connected. Zizimu is the king after all, I couldn't challenge him. Then you made things even more complicated by getting that woman involved. You actually went and fell in love, there was absolutely no room in your soul for anything else. I had hoped when she was killed I could take over, and indeed, you blocked out Zizimu, leaving your soul wide open. That's when I figured out I was trapped. I hadn't infused myself in your body, just this one spot. But now that its been opened, I finally have free range. You know, if you hadn't come looking for that bitch none of this–"
Grimmjow didn't have much left but he hurled it all at Aizen. He managed to get one hand on his neck while screaming obscenities before the mind shattering pain struck. Aizen let him writhe on the floor for what seemed like eternity in reality was only a matter of minutes.
He couldn't believe he was conscious when it ended, his mouth wall full of blood where he'd bit down hard on his tongue, his eyes stung from tears and his every muscle spasmed. He had to get out of this place, where ever it was, and find Zizimu.
"I afraid that's not going to happen, Grimmjow, you have no power here."
"Get out of my fucking body." He spat. Another jolt of pain, he jerked up and smacked his head against the tile.
"Language."
"Fuck you." His back arched in pain, Aizen put a foot on his stomach and pressed him flat against the floor, increasing the pain, if possible, when the tattoo struck the stone tile. When Aizen closed off the pain he remained with the one foot on Grimmjow's heaving stomach and leaned close.
"Are we done with this game yet? I won't break your mind, that would be no good, but I'll take you to the very edge if you make me." The pressure lifted, Grimmjow coughed and rolled to one side to block Aizen out of his sight. It was all he had the strength to do before passing out.