Author's note: Well, here it is! The final chapter of this story. It actually makes me a little sad, but at least I'll be able to work on my other stories which have been lying around! If you like the way I write, I would really appreciate it if you read some of my other fanfics.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited (still not a word, but meh) and followed this story! I never, ever dreamed that it would get so popular, and I have you all to thank for that! :D

P.S - There's a footnote at the bottom. You'll know you've got to scroll down to read it when you see the asterisk roughly halfway down the chapter.

Aizen surveyed his Espada carefully as they drank tea around the table. Due to the fact that he was at the meeting, he had not seen the security footage of Gin's appointment with Yammy, however, from the previous footage of Gin's psychiatry sessions coupled with the Espadas' current demeanour (beyond annoyed), as well as Aizen's Superior Intellect, he had a fairly good idea about how the 10th Espada's appointment was currently going.

"Has anyone seen Szayel Aporro Granz?" asked Aizen neutrally.

The Espadas either shook their heads or muttered a negative. They knew full well that Aizen would not start the meeting without Gin and Yammy, whose absences were excusable. Szayel's, however, was not. Every being in the room was certain of the fact that Szayel was sure to suffer horribly as soon as he decided to show his face.

And so Aizen waited, tea in hand. He noticed the Novena Espada sitting rather still in his chair, almost in a trance, the cup in front of him untouched.

"Aaroniero," said the Lord of Hueco Mundo, "I don't feel as if I have your undivided attention."

The arrancar's two heads turned to look at him. "Pun intended, Lord Aizen?"

"Have you learned nothing? If I decide to repaint Las Noches, it would have been done so for a very good reason. If I decide to kill Grimmjow, right here and now, it would have been part of the plan from the start." Aizen noticed the Sexta immediately tense up, a hand straying to Pantera's hilt.

Noitora grinned in a slightly disturbing way. "What're you so worried about, Grimm-kitty?" he muttered to the lower ranked Espada. "You've got eight more lives, don't you?"

Grimmjow turned to him, eyes ablaze. "Shut. Up."

"And if," the soul reaper continued, "I use a pun, it has of course been intended. Now, drink your tea, Aaroniero. It is what it is there for."

Grimmjow and Noitora stopped arguing, and everyone turned to the Novena as he – she – it tried to find a way out of its current predicament. Having a glass tank for a head made it more than a little difficult to drink anything. The small skulls floating within the strange liquid looked down at the enigma that was the china mug, and then looked back up at Aizen almost helplessly. The renegade captain gave no sign that he had noticed the Espada's predicament and sipped his tea slowly, causing Noitora to roll his eye and slump down into his chair.

Finally, Aaroniero figured it out, and switched into Kaien Shiba's body, fully equipped with a mouth (he had made sure of this earlier).

"Well done," said Aizen, a tad wearily. He had not been able to get much sleep, plagued by a recurring nightmare of a shadowy figure tampering with his precious collection of hair products. He had awoken early to find that (thank goodness) everything was still intact. The Espadas were looking a little bored, so he continued talking to break the silence.

"And just where is Szayel?"

…

Yammy had already crushed two chairs under his considerable weight. The third one that Gin had mysteriously procured was large and bore a strange resemblance to Barragan's throne.

The large arrancar looked around the chamber. This place didn't look much like a torture chamber, as the others had taken to calling it. It was large, spacious and mostly empty, apart from the two sitting across from each other in the centre. Yammy suddenly realised there was another item of furniture in the room.

"There's a closet there," he said, and indeed there was a decent sized cabinet pushed against a wall, partially hidden behind a pillar. "Why haven't I noticed that before?"

"Oh yes," said Gin airily. "That's where I keep my victims."

Yammy nodded along absent-mindedly before what his psychiatrist had said finally struck home. "Wait, what vict –"

"Let's start!" interrupted Gin cheerfully, clapping his hands together. "But just one thing – Szayel?" At this point he turned his head up to the ceiling. Yammy frowned. Szayel didn't usually hang around on the rafters, did he?

"Szayel," Gin repeated, "If you're up there, I just want to let you know that I will follow through with what I said before. I'm going to take those weird glasses of yours, all twenty five of them, and then I'm going to sit back and watch them go out of style." He waited a few moments before turning to the Espada seated before him with a smugly psychotic smile on his face. "Excellent."

…

Aizen had no doubt that at any moment now, Yammy would come tearing into the room, yelling in outrage and smashing things.* Gin wouldn't be far behind, grinning that creepy grin of his (that unnerving smile was pretty much the only reason why Aizen was proud to call him an Evil Villain).

"I have no doubt," said Aizen, "That Gin has been strictly professional in the task I set him to do."

Several Espadas spluttered on their tea, Hallibel's eyes turned wide with anger and Barragan's omnipresent frown deepened. Grimmjow was hitting his chest with his fist, trying to dislodge the drink from his throat. Aizen managed to contain his amusement behind his paternal smile and continued. "I hope that the tea isn't too bitter, my arrancars. Now, as I was saying, I'm sure Gin would have used a variety of psychological methods to create an accurate profile for you all."

…

"Now then," said the aforementioned silver-haired soul reaper, "Let's use some situational therapy. I'm going to describe some situations to you and you're going to tell me how you would react. I'll be taking notes on my clipboard right here."

Yammy nodded. It sounded sensible enough.

"Good, good. I'm going to enjoy this," said Gin, clearly pleased with the way things were playing out. "First situation: You have a giant bowl of soup, you're in Resurección, and Noitora's just standing there. What do you do? Go."

"Use Noitora's spoon hood to drink the soup," replied the Espada immediately. "I mean, there's got to be a reason for the hood, right?"

"Indeed," said Gin, while sketching this out on his clipboard. "Great answer! Okay, second situation: You find out that Noitora put your dog in the soup, and you've just eaten it all. What do you do? Go."

"Destroy Noitora," said Yammy.

"Just what I would have expected! Third situation: You find out that it wasn't Noitora who killed your dog, it was Aaroniero dressed as Noitora."

"How would that work?"

"Just go with it," replied Gin, still smiling. "How would you react? Go."

…

Grimmjow had recovered from his coughing fit and was staring at Aizen a little strangely, no doubt still in shock from the comment Aizen had made earlier.

Said soul reaper outwardly appeared to be blissfully ignorant of the reactions of his subordinates. "Indeed," he said, "I also expect that Gin has been keeping strictly to the brief I set him: No straying from the topic at hand."

At this, Starrk raised his eyebrows. Gin was practically going out of his way to break that rule in every way he could think of.

…

"So, Yammy," said the silver haired man. "What do you think of Ulquiorra's woman?"

"Not much. She's Lord Aizen's hostage, isn't she?"

"Got that right," said Gin. "You like food, don't you?"

The large Hollow seemed surprised by the sudden change in topic. "What's this got to do with anything?"

Gin waved a hand nonchalantly. "It's all part of the session, believe me."

Yammy smiled widely. "Well, in that case… hey, hang on a second," he said. "Ulquiorra told me something about the Inoue girl's cooking."

The perpetually grinning man sitting opposite leaned forwards, intrigued. "Go on."

"He said it was something I should definitely try. We were actually headed down there, but then Lord Aizen wanted her and Ulquiorra took her to see him. I was really annoyed. I really wanted to try some of her cooking…"

How interesting, Gin thought. It sounds like a great idea, and the results could be catastrophically brilliant! In front of him, Yammy carried on rambling.

…

"I expect," continued Aizen, "that Gin has been conducting himself well. I've always known him to be an exceptionally patient and focused man…"

Sounds like you don't know him at all, thought Barragan, who had been on the receiving end of Gin's impatience more than a few times.

…

Speaking of whom, the soul reaper was leaning back in his chair, listening to the arrancar talking about his favourite foods. Gin had zoned out a while ago, thinking only about the plan he had put into motion earlier on. Captain – or rather, Lord Aizen had put a ban on random pranking during the invasion of Las Noches that was still going on, but it seemed that the invaders weren't getting anywhere anytime soon, so Gin had gone ahead and set a gag in place anyway.

It was about time that they re-joined the others, and so Gin decided to interrupt Yammy's extremely long-winded description of his most recent meals.

"Listen, Yammy," he said. "I'm going to tell you something, and I'm only going to tell you once, all right?"

"Okay," replied the behemoth of a man.

"I couldn't care less about what your dietary habits are. I know you eat arrancars for breakfast, everyone seems to around here. Now please, just… stop talking. I've got more than enough for my report. Let's go!"

…

When a very calm Yammy walked through the doors to the meeting room, followed by a still smiling yet equally calm Gin, Aizen was slightly surprised, but a little relieved. Less things were being destroyed, and so all was well.

"Yammy," he said, by way of greeting, "Gin. Please take your places."

"Where the heck is Szayel, Ichimaru?" asked Noitora. "He's not here and I know you've got something to do with it."

"Me?" Gin put a hand to his heart in a gesture of sincerity. It might have even been believable if a) no one there knew him well enough to know that he was never sincere, and b) he stopped beaming like a deranged hyena. "Why, I haven't seen Szayel all day!"

Gin walked to his usual position, standing beside Kaname Tousen behind Aizen's chair.

It's only a matter of time now, thought Gin.

Three.

"I would like the full report soon, Gin."

"Of course! But what about the invasion? Some of the soul reapers have managed to defeat some of the Privaron Espada. Surely our efforts now should be directed at setting up a Garganta to Karakura town?"

Two.

"I hope that wasn't your way of trying to get out of giving me your report, Gin."

"Of course not! I was just being helpful."

One.

The first that they heard of the Octava Espada was an unsettlingly feminine scream which echoed down the corridor. As it came closer, Gin was able to distinguish the words that he was saying.

"I swear, Ichimaru, when I get my hands on you…!"

Ah, so the plan worked then, thought Gin. Suddenly the doors burst open and Szayel ran through, clutching his head. There was a sudden snort, and Grimmjow burst out laughing, clutching his stomach. Noitora was grinning widely, but Ulquiorra looked on expressionlessly. Aaroniero, still in Kaien Shiba's body, chuckled quietly.

"My beautiful hair!" Szayel wailed. "What have you done? Why?"

Gin looked at the Espada. His formerly rose-pink hair was now a lovely deep sapphire blue.

"I think it suits you," the soul reaper commented, just about managing to keep his tone smooth and snicker-free, and took a small object from within the depths of his robe. "It really brings out your eyes." Noitora, Aaroniero and Yammy began laughing out loud, and Grimmjow was practically rolling around on the floor. Aizen was watching the scene with a hint of amusement in his soft brown eyes, no doubt thinking that Szayel had now suffered for his tardiness.

"Damn you, Gin!" cried Szayel.

Gin brought his camera up to his eye level, and snapped the picture.

*The damage indirectly caused by Gin's psychiatry sessions were taxing, to say the least, on the arrancar builders Aizen had hired (read: enslaved) to fix things up. Due to the fact that they were unpaid and unappreciated, they had signed a petition, having no other method to protest which guaranteed them getting away with their lives.

Naturally, Sosuke Aizen had merely ignored the petition, and assigned the poor builders to the entrances of Las Noches, where the soul reaper invaders were predicted to hit first. This was a win-win situation for Aizen, as if the arrancars defeated the soul reapers (unlikely, but still a possibility) then there would be no invasion to be concerned about and he would still have his builders. If the soul reapers defeated the arrancars, then it meant fewer annoying petitions, and Aizen could easily replace them with some other unfortunate souls.