Grimmjow had recovered somewhat from Aizen's attempt to take back his power. His real problem now was the gushing wound at his side which he held with both hands as he sat propped against the wall he dragged himself to and watched the epic battle between the two most powerful forces in the universe.
Since the initial transformation, Ichigo had continued to change, descending further into hollow form. Grimmjow was sure that Ichigo no longer fought Aizen out of necessity and to protect his friends, he just felt the animal urge to kill him.
Grimmjow slowly worked his way up the wall. He needed to regroup with the others, figure out what they were going to do now. He managed to get on his feet when the wall beside him exploded and he was sent straight back to the ground. He looked up and saw that Ichigo had been slammed into the wall and now he struggled to right himself.
Both beings suffered several wounds already, but now Ichigo was bleeding heavily. He grunted and got up but paused when his yellow eyes found Grimmjow.
"Hey...Ichigo..." Grimmjow said not knowing what else to say but daring to hope the kid would recognize him. But all he got in response was an angry grunt and the creature lunged at him.
"ICHIGO!" Grimmjow whipped his sword around but it clanked harmlessly against Ichigo's palms. He had been afraid of hurting the kid, but now he realized that probably wasn't even possible. "I'm on your side, remember?"
Again all he got was a bestial growl and then he was dodging an attack. He stumbled away and the ground shook in the impact of a strike meant for him, but he bumped into someone else. He froze when he saw it was Aizen.
"Shit..." But something else was happening. The air was filled with pink lights, like rose petals, and Aizen's eyes fixed on them instead of the espada before him.
"Nice try, Captain Kuchiki." the pink lights drove towards them but at the last instant they were blown away by Aizen's spiritual power. But then the captain was on them and Ichigo had come back.
It was at this point that Rangiku came in. She'd planned to create a distraction, but the room was already in chaos. What she did need to do, was get Ichigo away from the others. She braced herself and threw herself at him.
"Rangiku, what are you doing?" Grimmjow cried when he saw her slam into Ichigo. He himself was currently engaged with hollofied human.
"Help me get him away from Aizen." Grimmjow didn't question. He just built up the biggest cero he could muster.
"Sorry kid." he released it point blank against Ichigo's chest. He didn't think he'd hurt him too badly, but the impact did send him flying, and Rangiku was on him in a second. The next moment, their friends had arrived at they all worked to restrain him.
"Captain!" Renji cried out and was forced to leave the others when he saw Byakuya take a terrible blow to the chest. He reached him just in time to block Aizen's next blow, though it shook him from head to toe and his hands could barely support the weight they were forced to bear.
"Oh Renji..." Aizen smiled, pulling away to smash back into his victim. Renji was sent to his knees with the second strike, after the third he was sure he couldn't hold the next. But a blue arrow flew past his head and caused Aizen to pause before he landed the next blow.
"Renji, get out of there." Uryu called. Renji didn't hesitate, he grabbed his Captain and flashed back to the others who were having a time trying to restrain Ichigo. Yammy had his foot on his chest, trying to keep him down with pure weight and gravity; Rangiku had tried a spell of binding but it broke instantly. Chad was using his strength and Ikkaku his sword to try to pin him but he just did not want to be contained. Orihime still could not get close.
"I'll use my shield." she said to Ulquiorra who stood beside her and watched.
"No, you will need every ounce of your strength to do this, let them restrain him." but as he spoke the words, Ichigo blasted everyone away with a burst of power and was back on his feet.
"Crap." Grimmjow said beside them, he had been taking a moment to breath, the wound in his side sapping much of his strength. "Ulquiorra, get ready."
Orihime didn't understand but appearantly the fourth espada did. His small hands closed around her shoulders and Grimmjow stepped into Ichigo's path. He didn't try to stop the attack, just braced himself for the impact.
The hollow Ichigo snarled and lunged on him. They flew across the room until they finally smashed into a wall, splintering it from floor to ceiling. Grimmjow spat blood and couldn't even start to count the bones that were broken, but shock kept the pain at bay for few moments.
"See you on the other side, Ichigo." The golden light was on him. Ichigo reared but could not escape, the process had already begun. Ulquiorra had sodinoed Orihime to them as soon as Ichigo had his back to them. Ichigo's clawed fingers dug deep into Grimmjow's arms, but he saw the change beginning and endured.
Aizen's attention turned away from the now unconscious Quincy and a heavily bleeding Chad and Ikkaku to the far side of the room. He saw what Orihime was attempting to do and knew that if anyone in this world could defeat him, it would be the substitute Soul Reaper. He could not allow his return.
"Hey wait!" Ikkaku cried, trying to stop Aizen from interfering but it was no good, he was gone in a flash.
"Not so fast." Rangiku had seen what was about to happen and flash stepped before Aizen. She hurled into him, sword drawn, but he just caught her blade between his fingers.
"Matsumoto, you have outlived your usefulness." She screamed as she felt his powers seeping into Haineko as she had seen happen to Hyorinmaru more than a year ago. It was suffocating, it was all consuming.
Then it was over. She felt herself lifted off her feet and then falling to the floor, another body beside her.
"Don't move." Gin whispered in her ear. They watched Aizen turn towards them and take a step but then he stopped. Faster than they could even see a whole section of the room was frozen, with Aizen hovering mid step. Her captain was powerful, but he'd never displayed abilities like this before.
"C-captain?"
Gin sat up, wheezing from his cero wound, and Rangiku pulled him the rest of the way to his feet. She walked around the massive block of ice to see three figures kneeling in a row, her own captain still bent over, his hands against the floor. Rukia was rolling him into her lap and Harribel stood.
"It won't hold him long, but hopefully, it will give the girl enough time."
"What did you do?"
"We combined our powers, since they are all elementally the same. It was the only way to stop him fast enough before he could react against our attack."
"Quite ingenius." Gin said smirking, but their triumph was lost in a scream from the far side of the room.
...
Grimmjow was holding back his own screams as best as possible as the claws dug down to the bone in his arms, but Ichigo's voice would have drowned out any sound he ever could have imagined making. He did, however, feel a vague hope as he watched the face of the boy begin to appear behind the shattering hollow mask.
Little by little his body shrunk back to human size, the deformations smoothed out, his skin turned back from a pale white to a lightly tanned, more healthy colour. Finally, Grimmjow was staring back into brown, tear filled eyes, and the voice that screamed was completely human. The golden light dropped, Ichigo fell silent, and blinked at Grimmjow.
Grimmjow was breathing hard from the pain, but saw the black robes, the smooth sword and knew Ichigo was a Soul Reaper once more, possibly the only Soul Reaper who could beat Aizen.
"You're back." Grimmjow said finally. Ichigo realized his fingers were inside Grimmjow's arms and pulled them out immediately, evoking a hiss of pain from the latter. With nothing left to hold him up he slid down the wall and hit the floor.
"Grimmjow! I'm so sorry, I don't know what–"
"Ichigo!" The boy stopped at Grimmjow's strained voice. "Go." he turned and saw an exhausted Orihime. She was already falling to her knees when Ichigo caught her. He helped her lay down, but over her shoulder he could see the block of ice, and the figure clearly reflected beneath its surface. His eyes were staring straight back at him.
"There's no time." Ikkaku urged.
Ichigo glanced once more down at Orihme and back at Grimmjow before releasing the girl and standing up. No more hesitation, this was it.
He unleashed his bankai at the same moment Aizen broke free of his prison in a colossal burst of spiritual pressure.
They met even as the air around them still shimmered with frosted dust: their blades cut through the sea of diamonds as if they were frozen in the air: no one could follow their battle clearly, most of it was just blurs. The one time Aizen really needed the power of his illusions, it was useless to him: Ichigo was the only one who couldn't see it.
Five years of oppression, five years laying in wait, Zangetsu was ready to give everything, ready to break and die if it would finally end it all. Ichigo's hollow self had been amazingly powerful, but this– this was something else again.
When the last flake of snow fell, the blades had struck countless times, blood flowed from both men, and everyone else took one deep breath as the next flurry began.
"We should go now." Harribel said though her eyes never left the battle. "If he loses, it will be us next."
"If he loses," Ulquiorra responded, "it won't matter."
No one disagreed. It was too late anyway, as epic as this battle was, it would not last more than a few minutes.
There was so much debris and so much dust in the air, that when they felt the quake in the floor, and saw the shadow of a body on the ground, it was impossible to tell which one. But after a few seconds of held breath, the air cleared to reveal the slim figured boy, blade dangling out of blood slicked palms, staring down at a broken man.
It was Ulquiorra who came to Ichigo's side first. He showed no concern for the human, but he stared down at his broken lord through dead eyes.
"It seems we made the right decision." Was all he said before moving away. Aizen coughed up blood but his neck was twisted at an odd angle and they could see he was fading fast. In fact, the movements of his body might have been more spasmadic than actual signs of life except that his eyes were fixed on Ichigo in a gaze that said :
you killed me. Now live with it.
Ichigo met the gaze through weary eyes, betraying no guilt if he felt any. The others began to gather round to stare down, to lay a hand on their hero, to steady him when he finally let Zangetsu clank to the ground. Grimmjow managed to get to his feet and even Rangiku approached with Hitsugaya in her arms and they all saw the final breath of the monster named Sosuke Aizen. The lips froze half parted, the eyes glazed and a few seconds later his body evaporated into white dust.
Well, as promised, a quick update, you all deserve it after the ridiculous long wait last time! Almost finished now, but as always, I'm not good on the short conclusions so it will either be one beefy chapter or two chapters and I can almost be positive that it will all be finished before Christmas! Let me know what you think so far, thanks for reading!