Chapter Eleven
"Hello, Arturo Plateado…" Aizen said with an amused grin on his face. He had never met Arturo personally in the past. The incident in Soul Society with him was long before Aizen's time. However, he had heard many stories, and was interested to see that the Arrancar had found a way to escape his stasis prison. Aizen looked around his throne room, noting that all of his former Espada were dead, huge splashes of blood all over the room the only proof that they had ever been there. Arturo hadn't really needed to absorb them. He wasn't wounded even once fighting them. However, if he absorbed a powerful Hollow for reasons other than self-regeneration, he would become more powerful, slowly building himself up to the level of power that he once held. The shards that he possessed were indeed powerful. However, even he had not learned to fully harness their power. He had more borrowed the power from the shards for a one time escape plan. Since then, he had not figured out how he could fully harness their power. In fact, he was rather jealous that Ichigo had harnessed his just by absorbing his Cero beam. As it was, the shards were making him a little bit more powerful, but not enough to make a significant difference.
"So, you come to my palace, raze my structures, annihilate my soldiers, and then you stand here like nothing is wrong. What is it that you have come here to do?" Aizen asked, his smile wavering for a moment as he looked Arturo in the eye, seeing the icy glare that he was receiving back. Slowly, but surely, though, Arturo bent his right knee and knelt, holding his sword out in front of him, tip down in the traditional show of submission.
"I have come…" Arturo said, bowing his head, mostly to conceal his true motives that hid just behind his eyes. "To kill you…" he whispered, flickering out of sight and appearing right behind Aizen, having swung his sword in a graceful and long arc in order to decapitate the former Shinigami. When he got there, though, he found that the only thing that he had decapitated was the back of Aizen's throne. Aizen was standing in front of Arturo, and used a Kidô to hit him at point blank range. Arturo easily dodged, though, teleporting up into the air and using Sonido to cross the throne room. He then landed gracefully, using Sonido again to take Aizen's side by surprise and slash at him with his energy sword, which grew right out of his hand.
Aizen just barely managed to escape from this attack, but he did take some damage. He noticed when he finished his Shunpo that his side was cut, and his robes were stained red with blood. The brown haired ex-captain smirked at Arturo and drew his sword, and released it right when he was sure that Arturo was looking at it. Aizen then disappeared and took Arturo's back, slashing at him, but the Arrancar had already thought two steps ahead, and was up above Aizen. He twisted around in midair, and did a powerful kick to Aizen's face that sent him staggering backwards. After a moment, Aizen managed to regain his footing, but he was shocked.
"How? You watched me release my sword!" Aizen said, his smile a thing of the past. His face was now contorted with anger and concentration, for he knew that he couldn't win this with simple tricks and illusions, now.
"I may have watched it. But watching it doesn't ensnare me in it. Can you say with certainty that I actually saw your release?" Arturo asked with a superior smirk. Aizen grimaced angrily.
"You blinded yourself just so you could defeat me!?" Aizen asked in abject disbelief. He had known people to do crazy things when they were desperate, but never this crazy. He had seen Shinigami remove an arm, remove even an eye, but never fully blind themselves. It was truly ludicrous.
"Please! I have done nothing so crude. I have merely done what humans have been doing for at least twenty-five years."
"Contact lenses. You put contact lenses in your eyes that would make your eyes appear to be normal, but would prevent you from seeing while they were in. Very clever. However, your greatest asset, is also now your greatest weakness. Hadô 90: Kurohitsugi!" Aizen said coldly, watching from a distance as the black box of death enveloped Arturo and skewered him dozens of times. Before he could be satisfied at Arturo's defeat, though, he was forced to spin around and block Arturo's energy blade with his own sword.
"B-but how!? You can't see!"
"You are far too quick to assume, Sosuke Aizen. While it is true that my eyes are of no use to me, I can sense spirit energy, and a huge mass of spirit energy, such as the one that would build up when a high level, long range Kidô was about to be used, would be a dead giveaway as to where you were. Oh, and by the way, you aren't the only one who can use Kidô." Arturo said with a self-satisfied grin, as he teleported up into the air, activating a pair of wings so that he could hang there for a moment while he incanted his Kidô.
"Sinners run rampant. Darkness holds them just by their throats. Honor the vow to purge not with water but with fire for a new start. Hadô 95: Dawn of Megido." Arturo said, and immediately, the air around him lit up, and violet and red flames began to fall on the throne room below, incinerating everything that they hit. One of those things was Aizen, and he was killed almost immediately, turned to ash. There could be no coming back from that. Arturo put out the flames with one swift sweep of his wings, and then landed on the scorched floor. Aizen had been extremely powerful. He walked over to the man and put his hand on Aizen's face, absorbing the ex captain's spirit energy for himself. As he glowed, he took in a deep breath, and then exhaled. Finally, he had managed to absorb the Shards' power fully. He could feel his power increasing, and flowing through his veins like electricity. He only needed Ichigo's, and Karin's shards, now, and he would be unstoppable once again. Not even that fool, Yamamoto could beat him. He chuckled to himself as he put out a mental call to all Menos in Hueco Mundo to join him. He was going to lead the greatest army of Arrancar Soul Society had ever seen, and he would be utterly without equal. Destroying the Soul Society would be a simple matter, and destroying the human world even easier.
Of course, Arturo had known about Aizen all along, and his desire to transcend the limits of a Shinigami. He was the one who planted the idea in Aizen's head. He did it telepathically. Then, just to amuse himself, he did the same to Gin, and "suggested" that he "suggest" to Aizen what they should do. Therefore, all throughout their partnership, each of them believed themselves to be the other's superior when in fact both of them were merely pawns in an even larger conspiracy. Arturo knew that if he could cause enough havoc in Soul Society when Aizen, Gin, and anyone else stupid enough to go along with them defected Soul Society, that he, Arturo could potentially break free of his most hated prison, and loose himself on Soul Society once more. He never figured, though, that Aizen would go along so perfectly, and get the Ryoka to come to the Soul Society, and do all of the work for him. Then, in an even more perfect move, the Ryoka known as Ichigo Kurosaki destroyed the Sokyoku, and its pieces were scattered hither and thither. Some of them were trapped in Ichigo's own body, and some of them went into his younger sister's body… go figure. But, some of them went exactly where Arturo had wanted them to, and he was the recipient of several, which allowed him to make a blast large enough to break through the seal of his stasis prison, and escape once more. Having done that, he went around discreetly, destroying people and Hollows that had shards, and taking them. Then he watched as Aizen was killed and Gin took over, then Aizen came back and killed Gin to once again rule Hueco Mundo. And all along, Aizen really believed that he was all powerful, that he was a god. If only Aizen had known just how insignificant he really was… Arturo laughed to himself. It was funny how arrogant and prideful Aizen had been, and in the end, it was his downfall. He believed that he couldn't be killed, and so, he didn't keep his guard up. And that was when Arturo struck.