Dearest readers, welcome back to the latest chapter! This is one of my favorites to write and I can tell that the next one will be one as well. Obviously, this chapter is the second part of the invasion of Hueco Mundo! The first part was just the beginning of the invasion, this is the middle, and the next chapter will be its conclusion. Not the conclusion of the story as of yet, so do not worry! It won't end for a couple more chapters. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 21

I could sense her overwhelming presence just before the battle started. I had been absorbed in a restless slumber when I felt a huge wave of spiritual pressure wash over Las Noches. Another wave and I straightened up as I could feel the presence of a large mass of Hollows being alerted. A third wave made everything go deathly silent until the fourth and final wave, which caused all hell to break loose. A roaring that hurt my ears could be heard and then the rumbling of thousands, if not millions, of feet running towards the outskirts of Las Noches. I figured that Zayn would make an appearance so that he could gloat over the fact that my wife was now close, but a half an hour passed with no sign of him. I couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing for Imayru.

I could then hear a strange roar that seemed to echo throughout the dungeon from afar, a roar that wasn't familiar to me before I felt a huge amount of spiritual pressure belonging to Ichigo being blasted throughout Hueco Mundo. I bet that was his Inner Hollow that I've heard him speak of, I thought to myself. I just hope that he didn't turn into that and go out of control. After a few minutes, I could feel her presence getting closer with two others, their spiritual pressure revealing that it was Ichigo and Captain Kuchiki, before it stopped just outside the center of Las Noches. I could pick up on the reiatsu of Tier Harribel and waited in hopes that her words were true about helping Imayru, only to be pleasantly surprised as they all began running in my direction. I looked down at the ground, observing all the fresh blood that had seeped between the cracks in the stone. When I looked back up again a few minutes later, there she was. I thought for sure that this all had to be a hallucination as she just stared at me.

"Shiro," she whispered, feeling disbelief that surpassed my own. I could see tears beginning to well up in her eyes just before she flash stepped to me and wrapped her arms around my neck tightly, hugging me to her the best she could. If she said anything else, I couldn't tell as I felt my breath hitch. I'd almost forgotten how warm she was and she burned away all the pain that I had suffered here, replacing it with a fire deep down in my soul that I only felt when she was near. Her tears dripped down on my skin and I wished more than anything right then to be able to hold her.

"Imayru," I whispered her name, taking comfort in her presence and her familiar scent that had never failed in making her fire in my soul burn a little brighter. "You're going to hate me for saying this, but I would have preferred to die here than to force you into coming back to this place. I know what it did to you last time and I don't want to see it happen again."

"You'll just have to deal with it," she said, her voice muffled since she had her face buried in my shoulder. "I had to save you exactly because I had been tortured here. I couldn't allow for you to go through anything like I had suffered."

"I could have escaped on my own eventually," I told her, even though I knew it was a lie.

"Oh really?" she said flatly before she poked the bruised area on my ribs where they had been broken by Zayn. I let out an involuntary hiss of pain and she smirked in a knowing way. "Yeah, it really looks like you were capable to do so. I'm pretty sure that you would have escaped already if you could."

"You aren't going to be able to break me out of here!" I yelled in frustration. "I've tried to freeze the manacles! It didn't work! I think it's magic resistant."

"Please, I'm an escape artist now," she said mockingly as she grinned at me. "If it happened to me a second time, I could get out of here within ten seconds." She pulled away from me and formed a ball of dark flames on the palm of her hand. It got darker and darker until it finally let out a laser that cut through each one of the manacles simultaneously. They fell back to the wall and I nearly collapsed had Imayru not caught me, wrapping her arms around my waist to avoid any injuries and helping me back on my feet. "See? It's easier the second time around. In fact, this part is effortless compared with what is to come next."

She made a small noise of surprise as I finally acted upon the wish I had since first seeing her in the dungeon with me. I hugged her tightly to me, ignoring the pain from my ribs and feeling my soul leap joyously at having her in my arms. Keeping one arm wrapped around her, I gripped her chin with my free hand, tilted her head back a little, and kissed her hard on the lips. She made another noise before kissing me back and I could feel through our bond the longing she had to be with me that went straight down to her core, her soul fluttering at the same pace as her heart that reminded me of a hummingbird's wings during flight. After the seemingly long kiss, I pressed my forehead to hers with a sigh and closed the one eye that wasn't swollen shut.

"Oh, how I've missed you…" I whispered. "I think I would prefer to see your face one last time if I'm going to die."

"You won't," she said stubbornly. "That's the whole point behind me freeing you from this place. I'm not going to see you die, just like the last time."

Just as she pulled away again, the door to the dungeon opened up to reveal the Espada, Ichigo, and Captain Kuchiki. Ichigo gave me the biggest grin as I nodded in acknowledgment to them, letting out another hiss as Imayru pressed her hand to my broken ribs again. "Hush," she scolded as she began to use healing kido. "I barely touched you this time. I'm going to heal your ribs just enough so that they aren't broken and then fix that black eye. The rest of the healing will just have to wait until we can get you back to the Soul Society."

"I didn't know that you could use healing kido," I said incredulously.

She groaned in exasperation. "Seriously, what is with you people? I lived out in the Human World for a hundred years! I needed to know how to heal myself out there so I wouldn't need to go back to the Seireitei every time I was hurt! Jeez, you're worse than Ichigo…"

I looked up when I heard Ichigo snicker in amusement. "I said the same thing when she was healing me. Glad to have you back, Toshiro. Imayru has been insufferable while you were gone."

"It's just something that takes time to get used to," I told him, wincing when she purposefully tapped my broken ribs with her finger as a warning. "And it's Captain Hitsugaya to you, Kurosaki."

"Now I see why you two are perfect for each other," Ichigo said under his breath.

"As fun as this little reunion may seem," Tier said impatiently, "I would really love it if we could just move on now before Zayn shows up. I very much doubt that if he discovers you here that he'll just let you all go. If he's going to find you, I would prefer it to be outside of this compound."

"I'm almost done with his ribs," Imayru said simply. "His eye shouldn't take but a few seconds and then we can go."

Just like she said, my ribs were back to their unbroken state and she pressed her hand to my black eye, only to have that healed within ten seconds. I pulled my clothes back to their proper place, putting on my captain's haori over it and wrapping my scarf around my neck. I wrapped the chain around me and clipped it together with my star clip, wishing more than anything that I had Hyorinmaru here. It was then that I noticed something that was strapped to Imayru's waist.

"Missing something important?" she asked with a devious grin before pulling it free from the sash around her waist. In her hands was a familiar Zanpakuto with a blue sheath and a lighter blue hilt, the four-pointed bronze-colored guard that looked like a star gleaming in what little light there was in the room. She walked behind me and strapped it onto its proper place on the chain around my body. "I hope you don't mind the fact that I used Hyorinmaru just to get here. He temporarily gave me access to his ice."

"How did you—?" I tried to ask before she cut me off with a wave after standing before me.

"That is a long story, one we don't have time for me to explain right now," she told me. "I will tell you about it later, but we need to leave this place now while we have the chance. Think you've got the energy to at least run until we get outside?"

I nodded and she pulled up the hood on her dragon kimono before we all started running out of the dungeon. I didn't have the energy to flash step or we could have escaped a lot faster, which only served to irritate me with the fact that I was at my weakest point right then. Maybe because I was concentrating so hard on just running that I heard a strange rumbling noise, almost like the compound of Las Noches was angry over something and wanted to stop us. I looked back behind us, but couldn't see a thing coming after us. I didn't see the dip in the ground ahead of me and my ankle twisted with a snap, making me fall to the ground. It was pure luck that I didn't fall to my face and I growled to myself as I tried to stand back up. Imayru heard me, sliding to a halt before running back to me while the rest of the group waited.

"What happened?" she asked calmly, although I could feel her nerves fluttering and I knew it had to be because of the rumbling noise.

"Twisted my ankle badly," I said with a wince as I tried to put weight on it. "For all I know, it could be broken as well. I'm not going to be able to run away now. You need to leave here while you have the chance. I have a bad feeling about this place."

"I'm not leaving without you," she told me without missing a beat. She turned to the others before yelling, "Go on ahead of us and make it to the outside! I remember the way there and we'll be right behind you!"

"Imayru, we—" Ichigo tried to protest, only to be cut off before he could.

"Just go!" she yelled. "That is an order as a Captain! I know what I'm doing! Captain Kuchiki, take Ichigo with you and follow the Espada out of here!"

"It's Tier Harribel," the Espada grumbled before pushing Ichigo in the direction of the exit.

They all disappeared without a trace and I knew that they had just flash stepped away from there. "Don't worry, I'm confident that we will be out of here before you know it," she told me as she wrapped one of my arms around her shoulders, gripping my wrist tightly while wrapping her free arm around my waist to balance me. "Just trust in my abilities. I can do this, I swear."

I looked into her eyes to see the determination blazing there and nodded. She gave me a relieved smile and began to help me hobble along at the fastest pace I could muster. I watched as the emotions that always showed themselves on her face completely disappeared as she concentrated on getting us out of here, but I could only wonder if some of it was because she didn't want me to see how worried she was. The rumbling intensified and I kept looking back periodically, still not seeing anything and that only served to make me angry. We were getting close to the edge of the dome when I finally caught sight of a dust trail on the horizon. It kept moving faster and faster in our direction and I knew it had to be an Espada. I could sense that it was Zayn's reiatsu and I began to try moving faster, making Imayru look up at me as her eyes began to turn crimson.

"Imayru, you've got to go right now," I told her. "You won't make it out of here if you don't just leave me! I don't want Zayn to capture you!"

"Shut up, Shiro!" she growled and I watched as her skin began to glow a little. Next thing I knew, she had flash stepped several feet away, flash stepping again before my feet could ever touch the ground before hers. She was going to hurt herself badly if she kept this up and I was going to remind her of this when she bared her fangs at me angrily, those red eyes of her glowing with an unnatural light. "Trust me. I can make it out of here before Zayn can fly closer. I just need to make it outside of the compound and we'll be free."

I knew that whatever protesting I could do would only fall on deaf ears and so I just turned my gaze to the approaching exit. It was getting closer, but so was Zayn. I could see him now, snarling at the fact that we were almost slipping from his grasp. I heard Imayru make a noise of pain just before flash stepping again and forming wings of black fire along with a tail. I didn't know what she had planned when a frightening smile formed on her face and she began to fly faster than Zayn could keep up, making sure that she had a tight hold of me. We flew into a dark antechamber, heading straight for one of the exits, before bursting through with a huge explosion of sand. She somehow let go of me and I went tumbling through the sand. I heard a shriek of pain and I pulled myself up to see that Imayru's wings were broken in several different places before she forced them to disappear. She must not have thought that she had time to pull them close to her body before flying through the opening and she panted as she laid there in the sand. I turned my head to see Ichigo just before he pulled me to my feet. The dust finally settled and I saw her get up just in time for Zayn to walk out in her direction.

"I freed him," Imayru said in a menacing voice, pulling her Zanpakuto free from the chain on her back. "I bet you didn't think I would get that far. If you did, then you certainly didn't expect for me to make it out of your compound!"

"Yet again, you have proven to me that you are resourceful," he said, clapping his hands slowly to mock her. "Not resourceful enough, I'm afraid. You're still here in Hueco Mundo and I fully expect to drag you back inside the compound."

"My plan still worked," she told him as her eyes burned even brighter. "I knew I would have to drag you outside. It is the only chance I've got to defeat you and I intend on taking complete advantage of it."

"What is she talking about?" Ichigo asked me quietly.

"I don't know, but I know enough to say that it's not good," I told him. "Imayru, what are you planning to do?"

"The one thing that will ensure my victory," she said without once looking back at me. "Byakuya, take Ichigo and Toshiro back to where the others are waiting and lead them back through the Garganta to the Soul Society."

"What?! No!" I yelled, about to rush over to her when both Ichigo and Byakuya grabbed me, holding me back with everything they had. "Imayru, you can't do this! You said that you wouldn't leave without me and I can't do that either! I'm not leaving unless you come with me!"

Finally, she turned her head a little to look at me out of the corner of her eye. She gave me a wan smile before saying, "Shiro, you have to let me go for now. I swear on my soul that I will come back to you no matter what. I just can't have Zayn use you as leverage. Just know that I love you, Toshiro Hitsugaya."

"No, please!" I screamed, trying my best to wrench myself from their grip, even with my injured ankle, as they pulled me back to where the fighting originated. "Imayru, I love you! Please come back with me!"

"Sorry, Shiro," she whispered as she turned back to face Zayn. "This is goodbye for the moment."

They dragged me along until I could no longer hear or see her, tearing my heart to shreds in the process. I continued to fight them all the while, even when we finally met up with the group that came with her to Hueco Mundo. Byakuya explained the situation to Head Captain Yamamoto, who nodded gravely before creating the Garganta himself for us to all head back. He told me that Imayru knew how to create one herself and would be back as soon as she was done fighting with Zayn. That didn't make me feel better at all and I still struggled to escape and go back to her until Captain Zaraki grabbed me so he could throw me over his shoulder. I shouted her name one last time as everyone jumped through the Garganta back into the Soul Society and closed it behind us.

"How noble," I heard Zayn say as I watched the large Garganta in the distance disappear. I turned back to face Zayn, who had an evil look on his face. "You sent him and all of your friends back to the Soul Society while you stay here in Hueco Mundo. You've even corrupted Tier Harribel. I'd have to say that is a first. Now, you are stuck in the one place that caused you the most pain in your life. Guess this means that you're going to be my mate now."

"No, it doesn't," I told him quietly, feeling my hatred for him welling up in my mind. "I hate you and your very existence. I would rather die than be your mate. Either you stop trying to make me yours or I kill you right here and now like I did to Aizen. Either way, one of us is going to die and there is nothing we can do to change that fate."

"Such petulance," he said with a growl as the darkness surrounded him like a shroud. "I've had just about all I can stand from you. If you don't want to be the least bit cooperative, then so be it. I will kill you just like you so crave and be done with you."

I had a split second to notice that the shadows acted like water for him before he rushed at me, pulling his Zanpakuto free just as I pointed mine at him and let my fire loose. I blocked his blade without much effort and knocked him back as my Zanpakuto went up in flames. This time, I charged at him with every ounce of speed I possessed, dodging his next attack and slashing him from right hip to left shoulder before he could jump back. All he did was lessen the damage I could have caused but he looked a little more hesitant in thinking that he could defeat me so easily. He grinned a little before pointing his blade downwards as he watched me.

"I think it's time to end this now before you can do any more damage," he said, his eye glowing violet. "Extinguish All Life, Armagedón!"

His shadows hit me hard and I thought I had been dropped into the deepest abyss except for the fact that I heard a noise that sounded like crashing waves. The next second and I could finally see again, only to take an involuntary step back as I looked at him. What remained of his Hollow mask now stretched across the top of his head and covered his other eye except for the holes cut out so he could now see from both eyes. They glowed with an unnatural light and I looked down to see black scales stretching across whatever skin wasn't covered in his clothes. His blade changed and got even bigger, almost looking like a broadsword. Huge scaled wings grew from his back and I thought I could see a tail behind him.

He moved at me faster than I could blink and I felt his blade slash into my skin between my shoulder blades. I hissed in pain and staggered forward but managed to stay on my feet, whipping around to attack him only to find that he had moved to another spot. He sliced my side deeply and I felt the blood begin to flow heavily, so I clapped my free hand to it and lashed out hard, hitting him in the leg with the tip of Tatsuya. It went a little deeper than expected and he growled, stabbing through my body just above my hip. For once, I can't keep up, I thought to myself harshly. I might just die here if I can't find a way to stop him.

He hit me with the flat of his blade next and sent me to the ground, stepping on the wound he'd just made and finally making me shriek in pain. I saw dark spots on the edge of my vision from the agony I was experiencing and began to pant heavily when he let up gradually. "You're mine, Imayru," he snarled, his teeth bared in a demented smile. "I will be able to kill you because you spurn the gift you have been given. You should have embraced the serum and the darkness. Perhaps then you would have stood a chance against me."

"No!" I screamed. "I won't let you just kill me like this! I made a promise to Toshiro that I would come back! I don't intend to break that promise to him!"

I shoved his foot off of me and he fell on his back after he lost his balance. I forced my body to get up and struck before Zayn could move, cutting into his leg as he howled in pain. I knew that I had slowed him down for a little while and went to slice his other leg when I had to leap backwards to avoid his Zanpakuto that was attempting to slash through my throat. He tried to stab me through the heart after jumping to his feet and I knocked his blade aside to stab him through the stomach. He laughed a little and looked down, watching as his deep wound healed within seconds. I looked down at his leg to see that it had been healed as well.

"Extra fast regeneration," he said ominously. "You'd be able to do it, too, if you accepted the gift."

I saw him move fast like before and I was going more on the defensive now, which only served to infuriate me beyond belief. I couldn't beat him like this and all I was doing was batting feebly at the fate that was sure to overtake me, the one that led to my unfortunate death. I could feel my reiatsu weakening and my spiritual pressure was low, which meant that I was becoming exhausted. I didn't even see Zayn move one last time, only feeling as a huge blade stabbed through my back and out of my stomach. I felt blood pouring from the wound and I coughed up blood as well, hunching over as the fight left me faster than I could stop it. I had nothing left in me and I couldn't feel Tatsuya's presence any longer, as if he was just as tired as I was.

"You're done for," Zayn hissed in my ear. "I know you've got nothing left. Just accept your fate and die with honor." My body didn't want to listen to me anymore and I could feel the life seeping from my wounds as I closed my eyes. I could see Toshiro in my mind and I kept that last happy thought until I heard Zayn say something else. "After I kill you, I'm going to go back to the Soul Society. I'll tell Hitsugaya of your death and inform him that you died by my hand, that I felt your blood pour over my hands like scalding hot water. I'll watch as the light leaves his eyes just before I kill him, cutting him to shreds just before I let him die. I thought I would tell you this just before I take your life."

No… no, I can't allow for anything to happen to Toshiro, I thought to myself as I felt something in the depths of my mind stir. I simply can't just die knowing that this evil is on his way to him because I couldn't stop it. I felt a pang in my mind again as a burning sensation followed suit. Rage I didn't know I could feel began welling up from the abyss deep in my soul and a foreign determination caused my thoughts to blaze like a star about to burst. I won't let this happen. The star got even brighter, blinding me with its white glow. I can't let this happen. I am the only one who can stop this. The star began to grow even bigger, its light getting even brighter and a languishing noise echoed throughout my mind. I can't die. I won't! I will live on! I will kill Zayn! Just as the star began to shudder in the darkness, a final thought passed through my mind and it was as fleeting as a comet. I don't care what I have to do, I will take whatever power I have left and use it to save the ones I love! The star exploded and I felt the light burn through my soul as an inhuman scream escaped my lips.

I opened my eyes just in time to see the moon high up in the sky glow like that star and shoot down a beam of white light straight down on me. I shuddered violently as power of epic proportions burned through me, Tatsuya roaring in my mind as I screamed again. I felt the light shaping me to its will and finally stopping when my soul felt like it might explode on me. I turned my gaze slowly to Zayn, who had a look of astonishment on his face. I looked down to see that my skin was glowing with a mystical light and white fire surrounded my wrists and ankles like shackles.

"You accepted the gift," he said incredulously. "I've never felt… such power before. It's like standing in front of a sun."

"Any last words?" I asked him as I glared, the light surrounding me intensifying with each passing second. I could feel a familiar pain shooting through my body, but I ignored it as I waited for him to speak.

"We're even now," he growled. "You won't be able to kill me as easily as you think. You'll only contemplate why you were chosen to be a part of this experiment."

"No, I won't think about it as much as you assume," I told him calmly. "I will come to my own conclusions. Aizen was a sick bastard who though that he had the power of a god, only to discover that he couldn't change his own fate no matter how hard he tried. I killed him for trying to kill the one I loved. I killed him in exchange for forcing me into a situation I wanted nothing to do with. He deserved the fate he was given and I won't think about anything else. Quit trying to distract me."

"He chose us because we are the strongest, the fastest, and the most intelligent of our races," he explained. "We are analytical and harsh when the time comes and we don't allow for anyone to get in our way for our goals. It was why we were fated to get the same number as Aizen's Squad. It was our destiny for this to happen. We were destined to meet and destined to fight to the death to see who is the strongest. That is why we are the two sides of the same coin."

"I don't care," I told him as I allowed him to feel my wrath with a blast of spiritual pressure that sent him to the ground within a split second. "I will reject my fate and create a new one. I don't care what you say. I am the master of my own destiny and no one will stand in the way of me shaping it! Mark my words, Zayn Drabek, you will feel the power of a supernova just before you are turned to ashes by my hand!"

"So confident," he snarled at me before gripping his Zanpakuto even tighter. "Guess we'll just have to see whose will is strongest, mine or yours."