Chapter 11

The Old and the New

Grimmjow

To say that he was astonished would be an overstatement for the blue haired man. True enough, he was quite appalled at having met someone like the man before him at the moment, but still, it did not shock him entirely to send his mind reeling and avert his attention from the situation at hand.

"Who the hell are you?" The 6th Espada asked in a slightly befuddled manner. His gaze was currently pursed low, regarding the man before him in a gaze filled with malice.

Primra's eyes slowly turned to look at the man beside him, along with his head, finally making light of the situation before him. His earlier surprise had all dissipated, and he had all but dropped his earlier action of sending a vast group of Hollow to attack the human girl that had decided to stay behind to deal with them.

A faint smirk appeared on his face, "Surely this isn't your first time seeing another Hollow, right?" Of course, it was Primra's first time seeing another like him, but something in his gut told him that the blue haired man had seen more of his own kind.

Grimmjow mirrored the expression on his fellow Hollow's visage at the moment, replying with a smug tone this time," You're right. But, owing to your appearance, and the sword strapped at your waist, you aren't a normal Hollow, right?"

This time, a shadow of a smile crossed the man standing opposite across him in the vicinity, and he responded in kind," My name is Primra. Formerly of Lord Barragan's army in Hueco Mundo."

Grimmjow tilted his head slightly to the side in confusion this time, clearly a bit thrown back by Primra's sudden declaration. It wasn't something he had expected in all its entirety, but his counterpart had no reason to lie to him in such a situation, so the blue haired man decided to give him the benefit of the doubt," Barragan? That old geezer? He kicked the bucket quite a while before."

Primra closed his eyes momentarily, however, his senses were still as sharp as he had always kept them, "True, but if you think that's the reason I'm here right now, I'm afraid you're sorely mistaken on that account."

"Heeeh , I see, well, it seems as if someone seems to have strayed too away from home. What, Hueco Mundo was too boring for you or something?" Grimmjow asked, his hands currently in his pockets. Somehow, the strange Hollow before him had managed to pique his curiosity.

Primra still had his eyes closed as he continued engaging in the conversation with the man before him," Hmm, where does the story start? Let's see, I'll first start by telling you about how it all started. When the shinigami known as Aizen Sousuke came and took on Hueco Mundo as his own territory, Barragan was clearly displeased, as were some of his Hollows. The displeased ones staged a rebellion, hoping that they would manage to kick out the Human who had pried upon our territory and successfully restore the true King, but alas, we were proved powerless before the might of the Shinigami. Many of us were eliminated, the ones who were unlucky to cross swords with them. A few others, of course, such as Tier Harribel, Nnoitra Jiruga, Neliel Tu Odershvank and Szayel Aporro Grantz decided to submit, so they were taken in Aizen's new army. Someone like me, who was not foolish enough to resist openly, or cowardly enough to submit to the stronger force of the Soul Reapers that were upon us, decided to flee Hueco Mundo. Originally I thought I would hide out in some area of the Human World, but while I was travelling through in the Garganta, I came across this place."

Opening his eyes to signify the end of his tale, Primra refocused his gaze on his soon-to-be opponent, and was slightly dismayed to find out that he had made no attempt to move from his original spot. He had half expected Grimmjow to find an opportunity to attack him by thinking he was not paying attention, so realizing that the blue haired man was curious enough to listen till the end of his tale came as a disappointment to the man. Still, it didn't prove as much of a deterrent, so he decided to pay attention to any moment that Grmmjow would take to attack him.

Funny enough, Grimmjow had a bored expression on his face at the moment. He was not exactly particularly impressed with Primra's story, since he was there at that moment as well when the Realm was under siege by vastly superior powers, although at the time he was just an Adjuchas who had no fealty to anyone. He had been minding his own business in the deserted fields along with his comrades, who were going to be part of his Fraccion in future. The siege had done nothing to interfere with his day to day life, although that was only till the moment when his Fraccion had laid to him the suggestion of becoming stronger in order to go join Aizen's army, where he would no doubt find other stronger people like him.

"Hueco Mundo is free territory right now. You should be able to go back anytime you feel like," he said in a nonchalant manner, rubbing his ear slightly with his thumb. He was nearly at the edge of boredom, he realized, and was poised to launch an attack any moment at the foe before him. Originally, Grimmjow had thought the man to prove quite troublesome due to his Hollow Summoning ability, but being in close proximity with him like this gave him a rough measure of the adversary's strength. His reiatsu was quite subdued, for someone of his stature, so Grimmjow realized that this fight would probably not take such a very long time, if all his assumptions held true.

The adversary glanced to the side a little, staring into the nothingness that stretched out before his eyes, before continuing, "True enough, I had considered the option when I heard of Aizen Sousuke's demise, but then again, what we are about to accomplish is something that will make Hueco Mundo seem like a pipe dream. I can guarantee it."

Grimmjow prodded at his ear once more, still in the same disinterested demeanor he had assumed for a while now, "I have no particular interest in this 'accomplishment' of yours or whatever, but then again, I can swear that I knew someone like you who was talking about his dreams a while back. Well, things did not work out too well for him."

A shadow of a scowl crossed Primra's face, but he did his best not to make it evident that Grimmjow's taunt just then had gotten to him a little. Luckily enough, Grimmjow missed it, or even if he had seen it, did not give away any hints that he had caught on to that. Clearing his throat, he replied in a curt manner, "Aizen Sousuke-

"-is gone," Grimmjow interrupted him impromptu, this time focusing his gaze on the man seated opposite across him in the room. He was nearly at the edge of his patience with the man before him, originally thinking that he could have turned out to be an interesting fellow upon first learning he was an Arrancar like him. His first impressions had been proven entirely wrong however, so he was almost ready to put an end to the conversation he had been unwittingly engrossed in.

"And you'll be joining him in a few minutes," the blue haired man concluded his sentence, placing his hands ahead of him in a combat pose.

A moment of silence elapsed, before Grimmjow spoke up once again; breaking the slight tension that had taken hold of the atmosphere," Tell me one thing."

"What?"

"I've more or less caught on to the fact that you're a former Espada, or a Privaron Espada for that account. What was your number?"

Primra was befuddled by Grimmjow's out of field question. He did not quite understand what the blue haired man was getting at with his latest question.

"Why does it matter?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.

Grimmjow gritted his teeth in a menacing manner," I want to confirm something." The tone of his voice just then mirrored his facial expression just then.

"4," The Arrancar responded in an unsure tone, and his hand travelled to the sword strapped at his waist.

A laugh erupted from Grimmjow's mouth. He looked skyward, and laughed, a high pitched laugh, much like the way he laughed when Kurosaki Ichigo had dorned his Hollow Mask in their final battle. Placing a hand over his eyes, he contemplated his luck over finding someone with a number he hated so much, since he joined Aizen's army.

Freeze, Yukitora.

The words came out in a low tone, and a fraction of a second later, the blue haired man was encased in ice. He was still looking skyward in his new frozen form, his mouth still wide agape, although there was no sound that came from it this time.

Behind him, Primra had all but assumed a new form. His body, which was hairless beforehand, was now covered in snow white fur, and his front teeth had grown elongated to the size of fangs. The fur was striped in the area around his torso, and also the area above his eyes. On his hands, his finger nails had also increased in size, growing to the size of claws, and there was a sliver of mist originating from his right hand. It was the hand that he had used to strike Grimmjow earlier, rendering the man frozen and unable to move, effectively ending the bout.

Glancing back from the corner of his right eye, he focused on his now defeated opponent, "You shouldn't be confident enough to laugh in battle you know, unless you're well assured of your victory."

He had known, for a while now, that Grimmjow was going to surprise him any moment with any attack, but he was not going to give him any leeway for that. Shifting his gaze away from his fallen foe, Primra began walking away and back to the castle, where he would assist his newfound comrades in taking down the opponents that had happened upon him.

At that moment, however, while he was still basking in his victory, he heard a voice speaking up from behind him.

"No, I just realized that this must be some sort of weird coincidence. See, I've always hated the number 4, considering my relationship with the previous Number 4 Espada, Ulquiorra Schiffer. And here you are before me."

Primra only had a moment to glance back, catching a glimpse of shards of ice falling to the ground before him, when a sharp pain crossed through his abdomen.

Grimmjow stabbed the former number 4 Espada with his hand, grinning ever so maliciously as he twisted his hands through his inner organs. Focusing reiatsu on his now outstretched hand inside Primra's body, he chanted.

Gran Rey Cero.

The blue wave of reiatsu coursed through Primra's body, and the air shuddered with a ripping sound. Moments later, the collapsing body of the Arrancar fell to the ground, a hole now ripped through him, releasing wisps of smoke into the air in front of Grimmjow.

The blue haired man looked at the falling form of his enemy, and cursed slowly underneath his breath.

"But, that wasn't enough to take you down, right?" He said, now turning to look behind him where Primra stood, unscathed. He was still in his Resurreccion form, and he looked at Grimmjow in a puzzling manner.

"I'm surprised you noticed it. You're the first person to see through my Gemelos Sonido on its first use," the Privaron Espada said, in a displeased tone. Truth be told, he had not expected Grimmjow to force him to use his Sonido to escape his attack, but what surprised him more was how the blue haired man had escaped his earlier attack. In his Snow Tiger form, anything that his claws touched froze instantly.

"You, just how you escaped my earlier attack?" he asked, growing displeased with every passing second.

Grimmjow grinned, and a millisecond later, he had disappeared from his initial position. Primra outstretched his claws before him, luckily enough, because Grimmjow descended upon him moments later, his sword clashing on Primra's claws. Sparks went into the air from the point of contact of the two attacks.

Bearing down on the Privaron Espada with the weight of his sword and also his reiatsu, growing heavier with each passing second, Grimmjow responded, "The guy just below me in the ranks had a trick just like yours. I saw it a few times in Las Noches, so it isn't a first time for me. " Stretching out his hand below him, this time focusing a mass of red reiatsu on it, he added, " And as to your second question, just freezing the top layer of my skin isn't enough!"

With that tone of finality, Grimmjow released the Cero he was preparing on his hand, and again, the air shuddered with a ripping sound. Of course, the blue haired man did not expect this trick to work, just like with the first time. Especially since this time he had given Primra all the distance he needed to dodge his attack.

Leaping out of the way for a moment, Grimmjow effectively evaded a descending attack that would have proved troublesome in case it had hit him. There was a resounding crash owing to Primra's attack, and the Privaron Espada proceeded to leap towards the evading man after his initial attack had failed.

Pressuring him with relentless attacks from his claws, Grimmjow realized that he had slightly underestimated his opponent. A wave of excitement coursed through him as he surmised that this would not be such a dull battle after all.

Bastard, he was intending to rip me in half with that earlier attack. Heeh…

The Sixth Espada parried each and every attack that came his way, making sure that none of the claws reached him. He could feel the Privaron Espada's killing intent increase with each blow he aimed at him, and likewise, his own growing sense of excitement was increasing as well.

Still, it would not do for him to continuously stay on the defensive like this. The blue haired man placed a foot ahead of him, kicking him on his abdomen with enough force to throw him back. Primra's attacks halted momentarily, his body arching backwards as he felt the wind slightly knocked out of him. Realizing that this would give Grimmjow the opening he needed to launch a counterattack, something that would be in his disadvantage at the moment, Primra immediately moved to steady his body, but he was a moment too late.

Grind, Pantera!

There was a huge burst of reiatsu from in front of the Privaron Espada, and a tremendous gust of wind that caused the reiatsu particles in the air to go up in a flurry. Primra held his hands in front of his face to protect his body from the reiatsu that threatened to blow him away, but it came to pass shortly afterwards. What emerged from the area before Primra, was nothing like the man he had been dueling with moments before. It was something more feline and predatory.

Grimmjow, now in his Resurreccion form, released a Sonic Wave, holding the same power as his initial surge of reiatsu. Primra steadied himself on the ground with his claw like feet, resolving not to even let loose for a moment. Pressing his now enhanced feet, in the shape of paws that were jet black in color, on the ground behind him, Grimmjow pounced on his opponent, who was still in a daze. Primra's eyes widened, tightening his grip on the ground, as he brought his claws before him, grasping Grimmjow's black claws that threatened to tear the head off his shoulders.

Grimmjow's momentum was stopped, but this did not parry him, as with his now free hand, he attempted to rip through Primra's torso. The Privaron Espada saw through this as well, this time raising one of his legs that were rooted to the ground before, and kicking away Grimmjow's arm. Grimmjow grunted a little from the pain that shot through his body, but nothing would have prepared him for what was about to happen ext.

Primra tightened his grip on Grimmjow's arm, sending another bolt of pain though the Espada's arm, but a moment later a chilling sensation went through Grimmjow's arm. Looking in slight shock at it as he tried to pry it effortlessly from Primra's grip, he realized that his arm was slowly becoming encased in ice. Letting out a low guttural sound from his mouth, he sensed a mass of reiatsu gathering from in front of him, and realized that a Cero was about to be sent in his direction point blank from Primra's now open mouth. From the position he was currently in, Grimmjow could see the fangs in his opponent's mouth.

Cero.

The word came out at a frightening pace, just before a white mass of reiatsu erupted from the Privaron Espada's agape palate. Grimmjow was allowed only a moment of reprive, before the mass of reiatsu enveloped him. There was a chilling sound in the air, and when the tempest had gone down, a trail of ice lead from the Arrancar's mouth, stretching out quite a distance. Primra closed his outstretched mouth, from where the Cero with ice properties had come from, and realized that the arm that had been in his grip moments earlier had fallen limp. A faint smile crossed his mouth as he came to the conclusion that Grimmjow had been frozen solid in the earlier torrent of ice, which he should not have had enough time to dodge owing to the point blank attack.

As he released the hand to fall limply to the ground beside the now frozen body, Primra was just about to get out of his Resurrecion form, as he was already considerably tired from a battle that had gone on longer than he had initially anticipated. However, his eyebrow arched wide open as he was enveloping himself in the familiar light that signified going back to his initial Hollow form, and he immediately leaped into the air, creating quite a distance between him and Grimmjow.

It wasn't enough.

Garra De La Pantera.

There was a sound of ejection, and five acutely shaped bombs emerged in the air in front of Primra. Both his eyes widened as he realized that the bombs were slowly closing in on him, five of them in total, no matter how much he increased the distance between him and the blue haired man. From the distance he was currently in, he tried peering out to see whether Grimmjow was lodged in the ice column he had summoned earlier, but unluckily he was at a distance where he could not see anything other than a white silhouette. Cursing silently under his breath, he went skyward, hoping that the bombs would continue veering in their current direction.

To his horror, however, the bombs followed him even as he ascended into the space above him. A small gasp escaped his lips, as he came to the conclusion that the bombs were homing. Unless he did something soon, he would be in for a world of pain.

Stretching out his hands before him, Primra clawed the air in two sweeping strokes, and from the point of point of contact with his claws, ten arcs of ice were formed. The ice figures descended upon the incoming bombs, and a minute later, there was a resounding crash as both powers from both Arrancar clashed in mid-air.

Realizing that his counterattack proved effective enough to parry what he thought was a last minute attack from the Sixth Espada, the Privaron Espada heaved a sigh of relief as he prepared to descend to the ground below him, where he would soon be on his way to the rest of his comrades. His body was slowly going downward, when he heard another sound again, this time, a sound of something ripping through the air much like his earlier attack. He was only allowed a moment of reprieve, looking behind him where the sound had come from, and he caught a brief flash of blue, before a sharp feeling of pain pierced into his back.

Grimmjow sank his claws into his opponent horizontally, a grin appearing on his face when he realized that he had drawn blood owing to the wet feeling that appeared on his hand. His earlier intuition that the Arrancar's Hierro wasn't as tough as his was proven right, and as his opponent fell to the ground chanting a flurry of curses, Grimmjow's paws glow a bright shade of blue. The air around him shook a little as ten long blades of blue appeared a second later to both his sides. A few paces below him, Primra had managed to steady himself in his downward motion, now in a position where he was looking upward at the man who was looming over him. Trying his level best to prepare an attack of his own as he became aware of the imminent danger he was in, he realized that it was a futile attempt since the gash Grimmjow had given him on his back was too deep that he couldn't focus well. He could still muster the energy to talk however, and in a voice seething with anger, he shouted at his opponent,

"How did you survive my Cero earlier?! I'm sure the attack hit you! Why are you here right now?!"

The words tumbled out on top of one another, and with a tinge of regret, Primra realized that he had no way to dodge the attack that was now slowly bearing on him.

Grimmjow smirked.

"Fine then, I'll do you a special favor and tell you. In my Resurreccion form, my Hierro is much tougher than in my original form, so merely increasing the volume of Ice in your attacks isn't enough to overpower me. I was able to escape your attack, albeit with much more difficult than with your first attack. If you want to properly defeat me with ice, you'll have to freeze my inner organs or freeze my head then lop it off," Grimmjow said in a condescending manner, and after registering the look of resignation on his opponent's face muddled with realization, he let loose his final attack.

Desgarron.

The blades of reaitsu closed the distance with their prey and upon contact with him, tore through his body in all directions. There was a howl of pain, followed by tenure of silence, before the segments of Primra's body that had not been torn through cleanly dissipated into reiatsu particles, melding with the air full of reaitsu particles around Grimmjow.

A/N: Well, first allow me to apologize for the really lengthy delay in posting this update. A lot of stuff has happened, and well, I don't get as much free time as I used to in the past, so well, I have to make do with the little time I have. Still, rest assured, I have no intentions of dropping this story, so well you'll be seeing it through till the end.

On another note, I hope this fight turned out okay. It was the first fight with the new opponents I've brought in this story and who else other than Grimmjow to take him on! Leave a review and tell me if it went all okay. Till next time then, Ciao!

'They say you have to love yourself before loving someone else.'

Bullshit!

I have never loved myself.

But you, oh God, I loved you so much,

I forgot what hating myself felt like.