Verse 13

Our hearts become stained in darkness...

Bound by thorny vines, our hearts ache with every beat.

…

"King Shunsui! King Shunsui! WAAGH!" A nervous voice came tumbling into the lab. Her rather disastrous landing which had exposed the love heart pattern panties underneath her labcoat ruining the serious mood in the room.

"Arakawa-chan, what brings you in here my sweetheart." Shunsui had suddenly ceased his battle with Nyu as he went over to help up his researcher like a gentleman would.

"Sorry for intruding on your battle but..." Arakawa picked up her glasses, making sure they were on straight. "A large horde of Masked-Diclonii have begun raiding our headquarters."

"Darn, I must be the most popular guy in the post-apocalypse." Shunsui regarded quite light-heartedly as he helped the bespectacled female scientist to her feet. "Now even the demon chicks want to hook up with-AGH!" Shunsui's chauvinistic boasts were swiftly silenced by his Queen's elbow to the head.

"How dare you try and imagine one of your perverted harems at a time like this." Nanao scoffed at him as if he were a mischievous teenage boy.

"Sorry my dear Nanao-chan, you'll still be in my top two anyway-GAGH!" Shunsui's foot was now feeling the taste of Nanao's harsh justice. "Well sometimes you can be ahead of Arakawa-AGH! OKAY! OKAY! YOU'RE MY NUMBER ONE NANAO CHAN!"

"Humph, honestly for someone who's meant to be over 800 years old you have the mind of an eighteen year old." Nanao turned her back.

"Um...So does this mean you will be fighting the Spade's army now?" Nyu interrupted the awkward scene.

Shunsui gave the horned girl a wink as he sheathed his swords. "Looks like you're lucky miss, I was just about to get serious when we were interrupted."

Nyu smirked as she picked up the injured Nana. "Hehe...I was just about to get serious too."

…

RUMBLE.

"What was that?" Komamura shook under the force of what felt like a mini earthquake. A group of soldiers rushed over to the fox-man to convey an urgent message.

"Commander Komamura! We are under attack by the Spades Army."

"Them too?" Komamura's canines were clearly visible in his shocked reaction.

"What will you do now Captain?" Hisagi limped over, carrying Tatsuki over one shoulder. "Can we fight together like old times?"

Komamura twitched his nose as he pondered his decision. "Under these circumstances, I believe your assistance would be quite useful."

"You always liked finding new ways of saying, 'yes' didn't you Captain Komamura?" Hisagi grabbed the fox-man's giant hand as they began to move out and face the real threat.

…

Ichigo and Byakuya had suddenly found themselves covering each others backs as they faced the oncoming Hollow-Diclonii horde.

"They've even brought over their grunts." Ichigo mentioned as he noticed the large monstrosities that were the result of the failed fusion between Hollow and Diclonii DNA.

Lucy waved an arm forward signifying the lower level Hollow-Diclonii hybrids to attack.

"GUEERRGH!" Ichigo charged into the crowd of fangs and horns, slicing up the beasts as if he were slicing up the regular hollows back in Karakura Town. "C'mon!" Ichigo pumped himself up as he slashed off their limbs and stabbed into their eyes and other weak points.

Byakuya remained far more reserved in his slugfest. His smooth flowing sword strokes didn't give any hint that he had been seriously injured in the gut.

"Hey, now I can't let you take all the glory." Ichigo laughed as he clung onto another beasts horns with one arm before slicing across the side of its face – slaying it instantly.

Byakuya continued weaving and cutting down more of the horned beasts as Ichigo hacked and slashed his way through the army. But soon Ichigo was halted by Lucy's sudden return to the frontlines.

"GAH!" Ichigo tumbled backwards onto the sand, using his black sword to recover. "Lucy!" Ichigo struggled to bring himself to try and attack this opponent, even though he knew this was the complete evil manifestation of Lucy's soul, somehow he still viewed the Arrancar as the original pink haired girl he had grown to love.

"You fool Ichigo!" Byakuya scorned the fiery haired boy as if he were his own Lieutenant from soul Society. "The Arrancar are converging on your position!"

"CRAP!" Ichigo rolled out of a sudden blast of sand as he dodged the invisible hammer strikes of several Masked-Diclonii. These girls appeared much more human in appearance compared to the Hollow class hybrids but judging by the asymmetrical and multiple (sometimes even only one) eye holes in their masks, Ichigo deduced that these were probably Gillian-class Diclonii-Arrancar.

Ichigo rolled out of one of the Diclonius' invisible strike before he ducked down and swept his foot under her legs, knocking her down to her feet. Before she could recover, Ichigo quickly stabbed his sword into her abdomen, spraying blackish blood over her naked body. He quickly removed the sword as two others pounced with their vectors. Ichigo hacked down their legs before slashing diagonally across one's chest. The other one grabbed his arms with her vectors whilst another two slowly advanced for the kill.

"Shit I can't move!" Ichigo struggled as he tried freeing himself from the transparent ropes that bound him. But just before the two mutants could sink their 'hands' into their prey one of the mutants head exploded whilst the other one was shot in the side of her head.

Ichigo glanced to his right and found his white haired saviour. "Nyu!"

"I thought the father was suppose to save the daughter..." Another voice called out.

"Shunsui?" Ichigo recognised the former Captain as he held two trophy girls by each side.

"Reckless as always young Ichigo." The giant fox-man also came out of the headquarters with a new wave of soldiers.

"Reinforcements." Ichigo's relief quickly turned back into the dire reality when he noticed the other Diclonius still had him restrained and was about to slice of his head.

GLUSH. A sword pierced through the back of her head and out of one of her three eyes. "Byakuya, thanks for saving me."

"Now you owe me a proper rematch boy." Byakuya maintained his pride as he returned to fighting the small fry (which were in fact the large beastly hybrids). "So don't let yourself be killed until then..."

Ichigo swayed his head left and right as he noticed Shunsui and Komamura taking the two flanks of the Hollow-Diclonii, backed up by an impressive number of soldiers. As they pelted the enemy with their bullets or chopped them into bite sized pieces with their swords, Ichigo's spirit grew in confidence when he finally realised...

...This alliance against the Spades is official...

"C'mon King Ichigo, stop spacing out." Hisagi came over to Ichigo's right side and offered a taunting smile before he leapt onto another oncoming Hollow.

"Yeah Ichigo, you're gonna let me beat you again." A roughed up looking Tatsuki grinned as she jumped onto another enemy on Ichigo's left, cracking open its mask with her fist before plucking out its purple eyes.

"Looks like we finally have a winning chance, father." Ichigo turned back throughout the human vs hollow melee to find Nyu holding an injured Nana around her shoulders. "Let's finish these ones off so we can head back home and tell everyone the good news dad."

Ichigo smiled as he gave his Diclonii daughter the thumbs up. "Yeah!"

…

LATER ON:

The battle had been a roaring success with no human casualties. By the time most of the hollow-class Diclonii had been cleared, the tiny band of Menos-class Diclonii-Arrancar had begun their retreat. Ichigo remembered seeing Lucy turn her back before she and the other Arrancar vanished in Sonido; the way she turned in that brief second, it almost appeared as if she were carrying some sort of regret or sadness.

Could Lucy's Instinct also feel such emotions? Ichigo pondered as the Hearts and a few of the Diamonds headed back to the Hearts camp on horseback.

"I look forward to seeing your Hearts camp." Komamura said to the fiery haired Heart's leader.

"Yeah, if we can consolidate both our forces, then we can finally take on these damn Spades and end the violence for good." Ichigo said with enthusiasm.

"Ugh...I think I'm gonna be sick." Arakawa struggled with the constant motion of a horse and was lying on her saddle. "Hey do you guys have running water by the way? I could REALLY go for a shower right about now."

"Commander Komamura." Genjobi rode up alongside his commander. "Does this not detract us from our original objective?"

Komamura laughed lightly as he turned to his subordinate. "Let's just see this as an opportunity to eliminate one of our other major objectives – eliminating the Hollow-Diclonii."

The dull sand filled sky was now beginning to fade into further darkness – indicating that night was about to befall the group. It wasn't much longer before they had returned to the camp before night completely smothered the scorched earth.

Ichigo and the small band of followers he had gathered on his brief mission away from the hearts camp entered the camp with high spirits, but they were greeted with nothing more than despair and devastated souls.

"What's happened here? We were only gone for the day but..." Ichigo noticed from the villagers trudging movements and lowered heads that a tragedy had indeed unfolded in the small camp during his absence.

Ichigo and Nyu were the first to dismount their horses and enter the main tent. Their vision was immediately confronted by what appeared to me a large vigil inside the tent. A number of villagers circled what appeared to be a large body that had been covered in a white sheet. In the centre of the vigil was a girl with draping pigtails and rosy cheeks.

"First Jinta has to go, but now Tessai must leave me too?" Ururu sobbed as she laid another flower on the giant's resting body.

"Ururu, everyone, what happened here?" Ichigo was shocked. "Don't tell me that's..."

"While you were away King." Kurama came over from another room. "The Spades raided our main camp." His glasses had become fogged with burden. "Tessai fought for this village until his last breath."

Ichigo was speechless, he could only mouth the word 'why' as he gazed over towards the fallen warrior who he had become acquainted with at the shop Urahara used to run.

"I'm afraid that's not all King..." Kurama continued conveying the bad news. "Unfortunately the Spades have taken-"

"NYU! ICHIGO!" Ren burst into the room when she heard their arrival, she hugged Nyu as she continued sobbing. "It was terrible, they took...They took her away!"

"Who did they take away?' Ichigo inquired as he began dreading the answer.

And his dreading became all to much to bear when he heard Ren say the name: "It was Kaede...They took Kaede..."

…

MEANWHILE:

Lucy was the last to return to the Spades after an order of retreat had been sent by the King through their advanced telepathic communication. She Sonidoed into the throne-room standing before her King.

"Welcome back my dear Queen." The King said with his arrogant tone as always. "I thought you might like to be part of this occasion." The King waved a hand for another group to come forth.

Number 28 and three other Masked-Diclonii escorted Kaede into the throne-room. They stopped in front of the mighty ruler of the Diclonii-Arrancar as the King greeted his guest. "I hope they weren't too rough-handling when they brought you here."

Kaede spoke out to the depraved leader. "What do you intend to do with me, King of the Spades?"

The black-haired King's smirk rose as he answered his defiant guest. "Never you worry yourself about that my dear..." The King scratched his stubble as he continued. "...and please, you can just call me Kakuzawa."