Thanks to HTM for reviewing, I really appreciate it!
This chapter reminds me of the song 'The End' by Mayday Parade and 'Wake For Young Souls' by Third Eye Blind.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, nor the"lyrics".

*~Narrators Verse~*

Shortly after Grimmjow fled the scene of his regrettable crime, Inoue scurried down the hall as requested by Aizen. On sight of the bleeding girl, Inoue went straight to work, but not without wondering how Aizen knew Gracie would be attacked. Within seconds the bleeding stopped, and a full five minutes later Gracie had nothing but a large scar that Inoue worked on for another short time before that too; disappeared.

With the completion of her healing, Gin showed up to move Gracie back into her room, again; on orders from Aizen. Inoue figured that his timing is just impeccable, but Gin knew better. His knowledge of Aizen's orders cause him to feel sorry for Gracie, after all that she's been through just for the sake of Aizen's master plan.

Even now, Gin observed, when he placed Gracie on her bed she is distraught while in what was supposed to be peaceful; sleep. Even the depths of her subconscious couldn't comfort her. Shortly after his observation, Gin retreated from the room and went to Grimmjow's.

Two knocks on the door later, a brooding brute opened the door angrily. Peering inside, Gin saw that his whole room lay in disarray. With holes in the walls, furniture flipped over, and a shattered glass scattered the floor from what used to be a mirror.

"What do you want Gin?" Grimmjow raged.

"Aizen wants ta see ya."

"Ya? Well Aizen can go screw himself."

Making a move to slam his door, Gin stopped it and repeated himself, "Aizen wants ta see ya," then added, "I don't think he would appreciate not getting the report on the completion of your task."

Grimmjow knew he would have to see Aizen about this eventually, but after he sees Aizen the act would be complete, and the reason for Gracie's broken trust in him will be finalized. Seething, Grimmjow stormed out of his room, leaving the door open. Gin walked into the destroyed room, stopping his mental note of the damage needed to be requested for repair only to read a few sentences on a piece of paper.

-Hey Grimmjow?- He could tell the hand writing belongs to a girl.

-What?- Knowing that the slightly messy handwriting belongs to Grimmjow he figured that the girl he is writing to would have to be Gracie, since she's the only girl, well person really, that Grimmjow would talk to willingly.

-Can I tell you something?-

-No.-

-I'll take that as a yes,- Gracie drew a smiley face here, -I just wanted to let you know that you are one of the few people that I can trust now.-

-Oh really?-

-Yea, and I also wanted to let you know that you're a really good friend.-

Unknowingly to Gin, this was said within the first night that Gracie and Grimmjow talked. But from this note, Gin hypothesized two things: one, that Gracie is quick to trust people and two, that's the soul reason why Aizen used such a disturbing method to make sure she would be included in his master plan. Mentally Gin cursed Aizen for playing such a god awful card on Gracie.

With one more look at the piece of paper, every question about Grimmjow's room clicked, Gin understood why he did this, for Gin did the exact thing when Aizen made him break Matsumoto's trust as well. Then the sympathy for Grimmjow fell into place, and Gin vowed to help Grimmjow make things right with Gracie, as he will soon have to do with Matsumoto.

Shortly after Gin left Grimmjow's room, the prior returned to his room. After a tense half hour, of brooding and cursing Aizen mentally, Gracie awoke with a scream. Grimmjow cringed when he heard it and once again, his room suffered as he punched a hole in the door, then kicked it down.

He stormed back out of him room and stomped to the door of another's, but then stopped himself. No longer could he talk to, and be calmed down, by the girl who has been acting as his anger management.

Said girl heard the steps coming to her door and began to whimper quietly out of fear, letting a few tears slip down her cheeks when the realization hit her that Grimmjow did really do the things she thought was just a very, very bad dream.

Realizing his mistake, Grimmjow retreated from Gracie's door as fast as he could possibly go with his sonído. When Gracie no longer heard the breathing coming from the other side of the door, she checked her stomach. Seeing no scar, just perfect skin, she started to sob loudly.

To her, she would rather have the scar. For without the scar, it's as if Grimmjow never betrayed her and everything was right in her life; something she wanted to be true more then anything at the moment. But no, she had to have the memory of him selling her out, and nearly killing her in the process.

The sobs turned uncontrollable, until they became screams muffled only by her pillow. Before long, her tear ducts practically dried out and no more tears fell. But just because there are no tears, does not mean that her screams and sobs stopped either. Not even her inner spirits could calm her this time, and she started to fall into a slight depression.

*~Graceful Melody~*

'Gracie, please do something.' Ry begged me.

'Gracie, do not become numb!'Ella began to yell at me.

'Gracie, please at least speak with us. We know you are upset, and angry and every other emotion, even the ones that haven't been given names yet.-'

'I thank you all, but I just want to be left alone now.'

"Why Grimmjow... why?"

*~Narrators Verse~*

Gracie's actions, over the night, became the only thing that Ella, Ry and Celest could rely on. Never once did Gracie block out the three of them, so they figured that she wanted to be comforted with the presence, not the words that would do nothing for her.

Her muffled screams of, "why," the phrase that she latched on to, lasted until the early morning when she passed out from exhaustion. Throughout the night, the muffled screams kept Grimmjow up. Although he couldn't hear them that well, those plus the screams he heard before and the whimpers from the other side of Gracie's door, played on constant replay in his mind. He realized now that this feeling is worse then any torture that Aizen would have given him if he said no to this whole scheme in the first place.

When the sobs finally died out, Grimmjow was left in an eerie silence to debate with himself. That one piece of paper that means more than he could fathom to him could possibly be used as a message to Gracie. He debated on weather or not to write something down on the back of the paper, or just to leave the piece as it is and sneak it into Gracie's room.

As sleep started to overwhelm him, he decided to deliver the paper to Gracie- well, leave it in her room.

Honestly the irony practically smothered Grimmjow, this one piece of paper signaled not only the start of their friendship but, now; the end of it as well. Some small part of Grimmjow hoped that it also will signal a future friendship, possibly even more in the end.

Using his hunter's stealth, he snuck into Gracie's room and left the paper on her bed spread. It went unnoticed by him that he placed it over her heart.

"I'm sorry," he whispered into her ear one last time.

Those two words stopped Ella from materializing in the room and beating the crap out of Grimmjow. The regret his tone still held caused the confusion of the three spirits.

Quickly after he spoke his words, he turned to leave. Stealthily, he walked out just as quickly as he walked in. But something stopped Grimmjow at the door.

"Grimmjow..." Gracie called from her slumber.

He turned to the girl, whose subconscious seemed to recognize him, with a spark of hope that he tried to suppress. But the idea that she could forgive him seemed closer to him then ever before with that one word. As he looked back at her, he realized how wrong Ulquiorra is when he claims that arrancar cannot have hearts or human emotions.

"The day I felt my soul, I felt it die inside of me.."

His heart broke just a little at her expression, one of which showed horrible pain. Her face scrunched up and tears escaped her closed eyes. When she started to whimper, he had to make himself leave the room because of the reaction that elicited from him. Not only did he feel like he would go into a depression just because she is going into one, but the gagging came back. He hurried out of the room just in time, for as soon as he faced his door, his stomach expelled the remains that lay digesting inside.

This one visit finally broke his composure for he finally came face to face with what he caused.

When he finally entered his room, he couldn't help but feel slightly empty inside. It was strange for him, for he normally would be angry at the world right now, he would be brooding, but really; he shouldn't have cared about her at all in the first place. Hell, it would have made both their lives, at this point; bearable.

He fell asleep thinking about why he changed so much, in such a short period of time. About why he felt so broken hearted and above all, why he felt all this and more for his brat.

His.

The next morning when Gracie woke up, she felt slightly better for some reason. When she stretched out, she felt the paper on her bed spread and figured out why. When she read the few sentences over, she laughed at the memory through her tears. Though they weren't tears of distress and depression like they have been for what felt like an eternity, this time they were tears expressing some amount of joy.

The positive message Grimmjow wanted to get across by leaving the paper on her bed was received just as that; thankfully. But then Gracie realized something, he betrayed her and lied to her before, perhaps this is just another sick little game that he wants to play with her.

For once in her life, she considered herself pray, more specifically the pray in this emotional game Grimmjow has been playing with her.

Now, doubting her original thoughts on the paper, her tears once again turned to ones expressing despair. She placed the piece of paper on the couch where Grimmjow normally would sit, and with that action she made a pact with herself.

No longer will she be so quick to trust everyone or anyone, because she judged them to be a good person, with good character. More than once that, what used to be a skill, has failed her and caused her more pain then anyone should ever feel in their life time; including the afterlife as well.

With new determination, Gracie dried her tears. This time, she hopes, for good.

Shortly after, there was a knocking on her door.

*~Graceful Melody~*

"Who is it?" I called to the door.

"It's Inoue Orihime," Inoue answered in response.

"Then come on in."

I expected Ulquiorra to be walking in with her, and when he wasn't behind her like a shadow as per usual, my eyes shot up in surprise.

"Hiya Gracie," Inoue waved at me after she closed the door behind her.

"Where's Ulquiorra?" I blurted out.

"He had to go to a meeting so he dropped me off here."

"Oh."

An awkward silence descended upon both of us, we never really talked before and it was strange how this was the place Ulquiorra dropped her off.

'Now's your chance, could you possibly talk to her about the power you must learn?' Celest asked.

"Good point," I accidentally said out loud.

Inoue looked over at me like a lost puppy.

"How am I supposed to 'learn' your power? I can't just absorb someone's abilities, so how is this going to work?"

"Well, my powers come from these clips," Inoue pointed to her flower clips in her hair, "Shun Shun Rikka."

Without notice, six little fairies like spirits appeared around Inoue.

"Are they who you get your powers from?" I asked her, not familiar at all with this type of manifestation of spirits.

"Yup!" Inoue said happily.

"So... how does your healing power work?" I asked her in absolute doubt of being able to even learn the technique.

"Ayame and Shun'o combine and when I called out the phrase Soten Kisshun, I reject; a barrier forms and it restores what was formally there," Inoue finished her speech, happy as usual.

"This is hopeless," I said. Thanks to my mood, my normal optimism left me. Then again, no way was I going to be able to copy, learn, or absorb these powers. Which just so happen to be part of her spirit so any other idea is basically out because I'm not her.

"Not exactly," the fairy that Inoue pointed to before spoke; Shun'o I think he is.

"What do you mean?" Inoue asked, her face scrunched up in confusion.

"Well, since we are part of you, you don't necessarily need the clips-"

"I think I see where you're going with this," I added my input and also trying to rush this little encounter along, "Inoue, can I see your clips?"

"Oh, uh, sure."

She took them off, and to hide the fact that I have them, I clipped them behind my ears and underneath a layer of hair.

"Now Orihime," Shun'o started, "activate your powers, you should be able to even though the clip is not present."

Inoue nodded slightly, still confused, but did as requested of her, "Soten Kisshun, I reject."

The orange barrier appeared over Gracie's arm, where Inoue directed it.

Shortly after, Inoue stopped the power and Shun'o appeared again to speak the rest of his idea.

"Gracie, do you have any way of creating a barrier or shield like Orihime does at all?"

"Yes, it's a type of force field," I nodded my head; still not believing that there is really a way to 'learn' Inoue's power.

"Would you activate it?" Shun'o asked me.

Nodding, I activated the gravity field, but did not add any extra pressure. It encompassed the whole room, and Shun'o nodded in approval.

"That's good, and it's barely noticeable. Since you can make it spread over such a wide area, this will probably work better," Shun'o said.

"So what now?" I said, but still kept the force field up.

"Ask Orihime to activate the powers," he said.

"But Shun'o, people will hear if she asks me," Inoue pointed out.

"Not necessarily," I added when it looked like Shun'o was stumped, "I can send, well really implant, messages or thoughts into peoples minds. So I could just ask her mentally."

"Great, would you please do so?"

I nodded my head in compliance, 'Inoue, please activate your powers.'

"Soten Kisshun, I reject," her hands were not hovering over anything, but because of the properties of the force field I made, her power lit the entire area of the field up with her healing power.

"You can even heal yourself with this Inoue," I pointed out, to which she nodded.

"But how is it supposed to look like I activated it?" I asked, not sure of what to do, "and what would happen if my force field couldn't reach Inoue?"

"Orihime, stop the power," Shun'o commanded, Inoue complied, "now Gracie, say what Orihime said."

"Okay," I said kind of skeptically, I didn't expect this to work, "Soten Kisshun, I reject."

Very surprisingly, the orange glow came from my hands and spread all through the force field. I gasped, not expecting it to work at all.

"Now it will automatically stop at the duration of time that Orihime kept it on. It's very much like charging a battery, the clips being like the battery; retaining the power. Orihime can keep her power on for a shorter time then you can because she has a lower reiatsu than you. If you can find a way to multiply that power then you will be able to keep it for a longer amount of time."

"Well, I have three different releases, then me normally, so I can charge in four different forms. I suppose that would work."

"That means that Orihime would have to use up most of her reiatsu more then once, that could be bad for her health."

"But don't forget Shun'o, with Gracie's force field helping my power I can heal myself," Inoue pointed out.

"Should we try?" I asked Inoue.

"Okay!" Inoue said, happy to help.

I put up the force field, then shortly after called to Inoue, 'release,' and she, in return, unleashed her powers.

"Soten Kisshun, I reject!"

After nearly an hour, Shun'o thought that the regular 'form' I can take on would have enough charge. Surprisingly, Inoue wasn't tired at all. Shun'o hypothesized an explanation for why that is. According to him, it's basically because it takes my reiatsu to make the force field, as Inoue uses hers to charge my mock Soten Kisshun, then my reiatsu is what is powering Orihime's Soten Kisshun to heal herself; and it keeps going on in some sort of a cycle.

"Should we keep going?" Inoue asked.

Shun'o nodded and I activated Ry's powers, "Bring upon the weight of the world Juryoku."

Now in shikai, my reiatsu increased and in return it took a shorter amount of time to charge. The same was true with Ella's powers and when I activated my bankai. As soon as I finished charging the last bit, and Inoue called back her fairies, Ulquiorra opened the door to my room.

"Your friends have arrived to save you," he said to Inoue and myself.

Our faces took on the same expression or shock, and immediately I reached out to search for the reiatsu's of who is here in Las Noches.

The ryoka, all of them; Ichigo, Uryu, Chad. Even Renji and Byakuya came. The most surprising of all is Kenpachi, but not so surprisingly Rangiku and Hitsugaya.

"They are trash and will be eliminated soon."

I glared at Ulquiorra, I knew that they would be able to save us, three captains, two lieutenants and even the ryoka Ichigo is at level with a lieutenant, even a captain if he would activate bankai.

"I wouldn't be to sure about that," I said to no one in particular when he and Inoue left the room.

Alone again, I got up off the floor and moved to walk around my room, and to stretch my sore muscles out.

Walking past the couch once more, my heart constricted at the note lying on the white surface. But I promised myself I would be strong this time around, I've been lied to and hurt too many times now and it's getting old. So I might as well protect my heart, but really it's going to kill me to start acting more cold to everyone that I can still count as a friend.

'It's also going to take a lot of work Gracie, and you're probably going to still trust anyone,' Celest warned me.

But it really wasn't just the trust, because trust in people is good, it's just my judge in character that's going to change. I also need to stop wearing my heart on my sleeve, it's too easy for people to take.

I got up from the couch and folded the paper in half, then in half again and placed it in my pocket. I need to keep things like that to remind me of what happened so that I will truly learn from my past experiences.

Finally I walked over to make my bed, just so that I have something to do in the mean time.

Though it would figure that as soon as I start to make my bed, someone would interrupt me. Three knocks on the door and a very distinct accent to be specific.

"Gracie-chan, let me in~"

"Come on in Gin," I said with a sigh. I continued making my bed while he opened the door.

"So what's up?" I said turning to him when I finished.

"I needa talk wit ya," he said seriously while plopping down onto, and messing up, my newly made bed.

"Okay, so talk," I said in response and sat down on the bed, facing him.

"Da only reason you 'nd Hime were kidnapped is 'cause right now y'all 're both servin as distractions, jus lures so dat Soul Society has it's guard down nd will be unprepared when Aizen's finally ready to launch his attack on Karakura."

"How do I know that I can trust you? You may be lying about everything and will just dispose of me with Aizen later." I found it a little strange that he would just come out at tell me all this information. So either he's lying, which I doubt, or this blunt way of revealing information is just his way of letting me know that I can trust him. But that was just an act, I do trust him. He knows that I'm not under the effects of Aizen's zanpakuto and yet didn't tell Aizen because if he did tell Aizen I'm pretty sure that I would have been dead already.

"I know a few tings about yar situation, but now's not da time to tell ya-"

"Then tell me something else so that I know you really are still associated with Soul Society!" I whispered to him exasperatedly.

"Fine, fallow me." He said getting up.

Like a baby duckling, I followed behind him closely as we went down passages and hallways I would have never though were in Las Noches. But that just goes to show how true it is when people say that things are hidden in plain sight. We went through an underground tunnel that led to some sort of small shed, that is completely sealed off from being sensed, far off in the sands of Hueco Mundo.

"Is that a-" I started.

"Senkai gate? Ya," Gin interrupted.

"But how- why does it- where does it- what?" I asked confused.

Gin chuckled at me, "c'mon, I'll show ya."

He placed a hand on the gate and it opened immediately, he walked through and motioned for me to follow. Doing as such, it was a short walk until we came to another door, one which opened as soon and Gin stepped in front of it. Out of the gate stood Yamamoto.

"What the-?"

"Ah, Graciela, you are doing alright."

"Uh, yes sir?" So many questions ran through my head right now, I couldn't even make a normal statement sound like a statement; that even came out sounding like a question.

"Why did you bring her with you Ichimaru?" Yamamoto asked Gin.

"She wanted proof dat I'm not lyin to'er bout my 'sociations wit Soul Society."

"Smart girl," Yamamoto said while looking at me.

"Are ya workin on preparin da fake Karakura?" Gin broke the silence.

"Yes, in fact we are almost done. Has the relief team come to rescue Inoue Orihime?"

"Yup," Gin replied matter-of-factly.

But what Yamamoto said raised a red flag in my mind, "what about me? Can I just stay here now?"

Both men looked at me, "well," Gin began, "Aizen goin ta be needin ya fer his plan and yu're goin ta end up bein stuck wit him until he attempts ta make the Oken."

"Oken?" I asked, not familiar with the term.

"Or the Kings Key," Yamamoto added.

Oh yea, so Aizen's reason is still the same; that's good to a certain degree. Now all that's left is to plan how to destroy it, or at least Aizen, that way he won't be able to make it.

"Would you care to join me for tea? It wouldn't be a proper meeting without it, and we have a lot to discuss," Yamamoto motioned for us to come into the room.

Apparently they really needed to talk, and I just sat at the table with a cup of tea I didn't even touch, trying to absorb all this information. Even in the original universe I had no idea how far back this dispute began.

"Well anyway, I thin dis check-in is done wit. We shud bes be getting back ta Las Noches." Hallelujah!

"Alright, and Graciela," Yamamoto added, "good luck, we will see you soon."

I nodded to him, and as soon as we were back in the shed, Gin used his shunpo to get away as fast as he could, and I transported myself back onto my bed.

Quickly, I refocused on everyone's reiatsu. Chad's I could barely feel and unfortunately it's the same with Rukia and Renji. Ichigo's reiatsu constantly clashed with Grimmjow's, with Ulquiorra's not for behind; possibly observing the fight. Orihime's reiatsu was also very close to the fight between Grimmjow and Ichigo. Uryu's reiatsu was slowly being replenished so Inoue must be healing him. Byakuya and Kenpachi are fighting against another, stronger reiatsu; probably Yammy's although I'm not so familiar with his. Rangiku and Hitsugaya hid their reiatsu very well, and currently are somewhere in the level under my floor in Las Noches. It appears that their target of rescue is me.

It's shocking how much could be going on in only two hours since I last checked on them.

That revelation made me realize something else entirely, that I'm probably not going to get any sleep tonight.

*~Narrators Verse~*

"Why hello Shiro, Matsumoto."

"Hinamori," Hitsugaya replied with much venom.

"What do you want?" Matsumoto asked through clenched teeth.

"I just thought that I would let you know where Gracie's room is," she replied nonchalantly, "it's on the third hallway to your left, up those two flights of stairs with the label '6' on them. When you reach the top of the stairs then go to the fourth door on the right."

"What's the catch?" Hitsugaya asked with much venom.

"You can't go up and see her until morning, it really would be a bad thing to interrupt her time with Gin-"

"What are you saying?" Matsumoto spat in anger.

"I'm not saying anything other then this simple fact: Gin and Gracie have really started to spend a lot of time with each other."

Hinamori left the two seething. Although it wasn't much more then the implantation of a false thought, she has done her job.

I don't think that the beginning of this chapter, of the last one have been as emotional as I would have liked them to be /:
But I'm happy that I got this out early, even though it took basically 12 hours (most of my car drive back form Florida) to finish this.
Anyway, review if you wish, message me and ask questions if you have any, I will answer all!

Wednesday August 11th 10:46pm.