A/N: Sorry about the delay ~This chapter was like pulling freaking teeth, and it wasn't even that long! I don't know if I told anyone about this, but I never plotted this story all the way to the end. I guess I started and then got lazy. I mean, I know more or less what's going to happen, like the giant stuff e.g. Karin, but everything since the Vizards showed up 2 chapters back I'm making up as I go along. So I guess it's making me a bit unmotivated. Don't worry, I will definitely finish this. My #1 pet peeve (besides people who smack their gum, seriously I think I'll end up going to therapy for that one) is when people abandon a fic. Hiatus is okay; slapped up, stick on endings are okay, but I hate when people just abandon fics. –cough- So I never will.

PS. If you like HitsuKarin, this chapter is where it starts to get interesting. :D (if you like HinamorixHitsugaya, gtfo. Hinamori would be so cute with Izuru…Ahem.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, jeez. Back off, peoples! I don't know why they make us say this every time. To me, it seems kind of obvious, you know cause the site's called FANfiction...? not AUTHORfiction, not OWNERfiction, but fanfiction. Grr.

Ulquiorra said the first thing that popped into his mind.

"Aunt Karin?"

Immediately he wished he hadn't spoken. Grimmjow and Hallie looked at him disbelievingly, but Ms. Karin didn't bat an eyelid. At least, not at the boy's utterance. She actually looked more surprised at something else.

"Wait. I thought there were eleven of you?" she asked, leaning heavily on the wall beneath the torch.

Ulquiorra's eyes hardened. "One is dead," he said emotionlessly. "The others are safe, hopefully, with the Vizards."

He stood and walked to the bars, grasping them in his hands. Grimm joined him, pressing his face to the metal, and Hallie stood silently on his other side, her sea green eyes calm, but calculating.

"Kensei and his friends?" Ms. Karin said, her breath coming heavy.

"Yes." Ulquiorra shot a glance at Aizen, and saw the man relaxing against the wall, an easy smile softly gracing his features.

Ms. Karin coughed, her body spasming with the movement. "That makes it easier, then," she said when she recovered. "We need to get out of here."

"Why are you here?" Grimm demanded, staring up at her through wide cerulean eyes.

"I thought that they'd kill Sora if anyone tried to save us," Ulquiorra added, confusion making his own thick eyebrows furrow.

Ms. Karin laughed weakly, sending herself into another coughing fit. When she was done, she wiped her mouth with a grimy hand and said, "I didn't come here to save you. I need saving as much as anyone else."

This confused Ulquiorra, so he looked down with his eyebrows knitted together to puzzle it out.

"Anyway," said Ms. Karin, pushing herself off of the wall and stumbling a little on her twisted – or worse – ankle, "we should hit the road. If we want to make it out of here alive, we need to run before Soul Society figures out we're here."

"How are we gonna get out of the cage?" Grimmjow sneered. "Didya think that one through, Karin-san?"

She didn't waste her energy glaring. "Of course I did, brat," she said tiredly. With the arm not holding her shoulder, she reached into her stained kimono and produced a set of keys on a ring. "How did you think I broke my ankle? I had to knock out the guard and get these handy-dandy keys. And don't think it was easy. At least there was only one guard. And I'm not sure if he was even a guard – he had cleaning supplies."

She limped as quickly to the door as she could and started fitting keys into the slot. Aizen stirred with interest, and she paused, drawing a useless key from the lock to fix him with as much of a death glare as she could muster with her face so covered with dirt and blood.

"I know you can't get out, Aizen. There's a force field that is sensitive to your energy alone. Tôshirô …told me about it."

Her voice cracked on his name. Her shaking hands had a hard time fitting the key into the keyhole. But she eventually pushed in the right key and turned it, and with a click, the cell door swung open. She caught it with her hand and controlled the swinging.

"All right," she said, opening it just wide enough so that the three children could file out. "Let's go, guys."

Grimm padded across the dank cell and led the way up the stairs, casting a flickering shadow on the stone wall. Hallie followed behind him, joining his grotesque shadow on the wall. As Ulquiorra began the long climb upwards, he glanced back at the smug-looking Sôsuke Aizen in the cell and wondered if he was the only one who remembered the microphone in the room.

They burst out into the sunlight, onto the clean bright tiles, short of breath from the climb and squinting against the light. Ms. Karin's face was screwed up in pain as she held all of her body weight on her shaking, uninjured leg. Her left arm crossed her chest and clutched her shoulder tightly, her head bowed and her jaw clenched. Sweat dripped down her face.

"Are you okay, Ms. Karin?" Ulquiorra asked.

She nodded, gulping hard, but in obvious pain. Ulquiorra looked at Grimm helplessly. The small blue boy had his brows set decisively, and with only a slight quiver in his step, he made his way over to Ms. Karin and took her arm, slinging it around his shoulders and grasping her palm.

He was a little short, but the relief that washed over her features was immediate. It was quickly replaced by surprise, and then by a small smile. Grimm had a look on his face like he was just daring anyone to ask him what he was doing, he'd be happy to rip out their spine and play jump rope with it.

"We good?" Hallie asked after a short silence.

"We're good." Grimm grunted an affirmative. Ms. Karin used her free hand to hide her smile, but Ulquiorra didn't fail to notice the way her dark eyes crinkled in the corners.

"Let's go, then."

It was slow work. Ms. Karin was limping heavily, and every step caused her features to contract. She was really in pain. Hallie was walking a little bit ahead, her keen eyes keeping watch for Soul Reapers.

"Do you see anyone?" Ulquiorra called.

Hallie turned. Her blond eyebrows were furrowed a little bit, her expression guarded but puzzled. "Not a soul," she reported.

Grimm let out a loud guffaw.

"Keep it down," Ulquiorra demanded, irritated. "Someone will hear your obnoxious voice, Grimmjow."

"Fine, Ul-kee-or-ra," Grimm snapped, "it was just kinda funny, you know, how you were asking about Soul Reapers and she said, not a –"

"We all heard it," Ulquiorra said loudly. "No need to repeat what she said, no one here is deaf."

"Haha, you said no one hear is deaf –"

"Except you if you don't shut up!" Ulquiorra said loudly.

"You're making just as much noise as I am!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Okay, we get it! Both of you shut up!"

Ulquiorra shut his mouth with a snap, his teeth clicking together, angry with himself allowing himself to be provoked by the smug blunette supporting their savior.

They walked on. The white buildings, capped with brown-red shingled roofs, seemed to lead in an endless maze around the Seireitei. It was long going, and every step seemed to put Ms. Karin in more and more pain. Finally she was leaning so hard on Grimm that Ulquiorra had to gather up her other arm and support her as well.

He couldn't shake the feeling that something was abnormally wrong. The Seireitei was a city that was filled to the brim with noisy, irritating Shinigami. He frowned. The city was silent, and it unnerved him. The atmosphere was tense, their footsteps resounding off the walls. It felt like the silence before the storm.

Finally, Hallie, who had gone to scout ahead, came sprinting back, her hakama pants blowing backwards in the wind of her passing, her black and white sandals slapping the tile.

Ulquiorra's heart began to pound. Had they been discovered…?

"There's a…clearing…up ahead!" Hallie exclaimed. "And an…arch that has…this glowing…white light in the…center! Thing!"

Ms. Karin perked her head up. Her body was obviously in torment; she was sweating so hard that the dirt and blood were being cleaned by little paths of sweat. Her eyes were heavy-lidded and exhausted, but sparkled with hope.

"An arch you say?" she asked, her voice haggard. "All filled in with white light?"

Hallie nodded, looking eager.

"Thank goodness," Ms. Karin murmured. "Pick up the pace, boys, we're almost out of here." She hobbled faster, and Ulquiorra also started to move quicker, eager to see what they were talking about.

Soon enough, they emerged into a space where all the buildings framed a large circle. It seemed to be the edge of Seireitei; because at the end they were facing the white tiles dropped off into a cliff. Right on the cliff's edge was a tall stone archway. The inside of the arch was completely filled in by a bright, pure white light.

"We're here," Ms. Karin whispered.

She stood in silence for a moment, looking so relieved Ulquiorra was worried she would pass out.

"Alright, kids," she said, and they gathered around her. "Listen. This is going to be very difficult since we don't have any Hell butterflies. We're going to need to run very, very quickly. If not, we may be sucked into the tunnel and will never be able to return." She gave them all a serious look. "I want each of you to know that if I fall behind, you have got to keep running. At the other end of the tunnel is a shop belonging to a man called Urahara Kisuke. He will give you shelter. Okay?"

They returned her serious gaze. "Let's go!" Grimm said.

All four fugitives made their way across the clearing. They were almost to the clearing when –

"Stop right there!"

Ulquiorra and the others froze. Turning, they realized just where exactly all the Soul Reapers had gone to.

Every tunnel, every entryway into the clearing was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of black-clad men and women, all holding deadly blades, unsheathed and pointing at the escapees. Hundreds upon hundreds of eyes narrowed against them.

And in the lead was Captain-General Genryuusai-Shigekuni Yamamoto.

Ulquiorra's throat went dry.

"You cannot escape!" the Captain-General shouted, slamming his staff on the ground. "For breaking out of prison and aiding the Espada, we sentence you, Hitsugaya Karin, to further imprisonment. And you three Espada – the third, Tia Halibel; the fourth, Ulquiorra Schiffer; and the sixth, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques – shall be immediately executed on the spot! This execution will be carried out by myself, Head Captain Yamamoto!"

Ulquiorra couldn't even move. He was paralyzed by fear. It took the old man one second to flash step over to them, another second to materialize his sword, and only one more second to raise it high.

Ulquiorra's throat closed and his pulse roared in his ears.

So this was the end.

He closed his eyes tightly and cringed.

A clash of metal made him give an uncharacteristic yelp. He tentatively opened his eyes and was surprised at what he saw.

A small figure was crouched above him, holding his sword upward to block the Captain-General's. Sea-green eyes were narrowed, white cloak flapped in the breeze of the movement. Hair stood shockingly white against the deceptively blue sky; the small mouth was twisted as though he had smelled something sour.

Behind them, Ms. Karin let out a whimper.

"That's enough, Yamamoto," said Tôshirô Hitsugaya.

I decided to do an experiment to see if I could review my own story. Guess what! You can! Hahaha. I'm not going to do it again, but you guys can go look at my self-review if you want, lol.

Ps. I don't know if any of you like the series Maximum Ride by James Patterson, but I write for that fandom too. Down with the Mylan and Faya! Up with the Fax! YEAH!

Reviews are loved!