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*Chapter 19*

*Raeyah's POV*

"Sorry I'm late!" I gasped, skidding to a stop in front of Grimmjow and Hara. Renji was right on my heels, followed by Rukia.

"Took you long enough," growled Grimmjow. I smirked at him.

"Your brothers aren't coming?" asked Hara, looking around.

"Eh? Brothers?" I replied, "Well Cyan's my little bro, but Raven's just a teammate. But yeah, they're not coming. Someone's gotta hold up the fort while we're gone."

They both had insisted on coming, Cyan to the point of going against my orders, but I stopped him in his tracks. Like I had just said, someone needed to stay behind, and also…I knew this trip was going to be dangerous. I didn't want to put them in any more danger then they already were, especially when I could handle it better myself.

"So…what's with the weird get-up?" asked Grimmjow, eyeing the cloth around my neck. Renji and Rukia wore the same thing.

"Ah, Hueco Mundo's a desert, right? Byakuya gave us these so we didn't have to be buffeted by the sand. I've got two for you guys too," I shook out the bundle in my arms.

"I don't want it," snapped Grimmjow.

"I'll take one," said Hara. Her arrancar counterpart glared daggers; I grinned and passed her one.

"Oi onna," he called out suddenly, his blue eyes locked on me. "Where the hell's my sword?"

"Ah yeah, uh, Renji?" I turned to the red-head. He threw a blue sheathed sword at Grimmjow, before tossing a small katana at Hara. I watched as the girl practically hugged hers, while Grimmjow unsheathed his and made sure it was intact.

"Alright," I said, raising my voice to a more commanding one, "Everything's set now, so shall we go?" Everyone stared at me; there were no objections.

I turned and grinned at the arrancar. "Alright then Grimmjow, can you open up Gargantua?"

He stared at me.

"Well how the hell did you think we were getting there?" I asked, answering his glare. "It would take too long for us to make a gate, especially when the squads are all busy preparing." He didn't seem fazed; Hara gave him a slight nudge of encouragement; he glared at her.

"Oh and open it a good distance from the compound…we don't want them to know we're there just yet. We need to find that Kurosaki first anyway."

"Tch, fine." He growled, turning slightly and making a subtle gesture at the air beside him. There was a tearing sound as the gate opened, showing white sand and black sky.

"Ah thanks," I said, taking a few steps towards it. I turned around to face them all. "Well here we go guys, let's kick some ass!" I turned and jumped through, landing lightly on the sand.

*Grimmjow's POV*

I let Gargantua shut behind me, my eyes boring a hole in the back of the woman's head. Did she fucking think I was going to take orders from her? No. And Hara wasn't helping, being all calm and friendly with her.

We should split from these guys and just nab that human girl ourselves, I thought, looking around. They couldn't stop us, and we'd be a hell of lot faster at it than them. Screw that dumbass Kurosaki, I don't need his help!

"So Ichigo's already here?" asked Hara.

Raeyah turned around. "Huh? Ya didn't know? He and two friends of his ran off to somewhere around here yesterday. So we need to find him and team up, yeah?"

"I guess," she replied.

Raeyah chuckled. "You guess right. Now… I need to search that Strawberry out…hmm…" She closed her eyes and turned around.

I grabbed Hara's elbow and silently dragged her out of earshot; the redhead and the short girl didn't notice.

"Let's go," I hissed into her ear. Hara glanced up at me in surprise. "We don't need them, and they're already slowing us down, let's ditch them and deal with this ourselves-"

"I don't think so~!" called out a voice, cutting me off. It was that damned woman, Raeyah. She marched over to us. "I had a feeling you'd try pulling something like this… can't we just work together?"

I opened my mouth to argue, but she moved to try and handcuff me like when she dragged us to soul society.

"I don't fucking think so," I snarled, catching her wrist and twisting it. The handcuffs fell into the sand.

"You were going to imprison us again?!" shrieked Hara, her eyes flashing silver.

"Only if you guys rebelled and tried to ditch," gasped Raeyah, her other hand moving to the hilt of her zanpakuto. I let go and jumped back, ready for an attack. Hara drew her blade and stared at Raeyah angrily.

"Stop it!" cried the short shinigami, jumping between us. "This is pointless! We all want to save Orihime, and fighting over it will only waste our energy!"

"Shut up Rukia!" snapped Hara, "Stay out of it!" She pointed her zanpakuto at Raeyah.

"You… I was willing to trust you! Even after the hell we went through because of you! And then you go and try to imprison us again?" She turned to me, her eyes blazing. "You were right Grimm. Let's go our separate ways right here-"

Raeyah leapt for her, only to find her blade caught in my hand. I threw her backwards with ease; being back in Hueco Mundo was giving me a boost in strength. There was no way I was going to lose to some shinigami like her now.

"Tch, looks like I'll have to resort to the old methods here…" growled Raeyah, putting her hand on her blade. She opened her mouth to call out her zanpakuto, but before she could, there was a sudden explosion nearby. We all turned to see a huge cloud of sand and dust, coming from over a hill.

"The hell?!" gasped Raeyah, stumbling backwards as the ground shook. A familiar reitsu rang through the air, making me grimace.

"Tch, Kurosaki?!" I cried; the redhead and other shinigami both looked at each other before running towards the source.

"O-Oi! Get back here dammit!" yelled Raeyah, watching as they disappeared over a sand dune. She turned around and stared at us. "Dammit all… Well you two, are you going to fight with me? Or do you want to work together and save your friend? If you guys run off without my permission, Seireitei won't trust you guys again. You'll be put down as enemies and arrested…so, the choice is yours!"

Like I fucking care, I thought, glancing back at Hara. She dropped her zanpakuto to her side, her expression darkening. Her eyes flashed to me.

"Even if we get out of this, they're not going to leave us alone…" she grumbled, before turning to Raeyah. "We'll stick with you on one condition; you aren't going to try anything stupid like imprisoning us again, got it?"

There she went acting like I had no say again. I gave her a glare before turning to Raeyah.

"And you're not going to order us around either," I growled.

"Alright, deal," she grinned, "But at least act like we're in this together, okay? I'd really rather not have to fight you guys…not when we've got bigger fish to fry."

"Fine," I grumbled, while Hara nodded. Raeyah smirked before turning to stare at the dust cloud.

"Well, shall we go?" she asked, before breaking into a run.

Hara nudged my arm, making me stare at her.

"We'll just have to stick with them for now…" she grumbled.

"I don't like it," I replied, frowning. "That woman can't be trusted!"

Hara leaned against my arm.

"I know… I'm sorry. I should have listened to you, but what could I do? We're kinda stuck…"

"Tch, whatever…" I grumbled. "Let's just get this damned thing over with."

"Alright," replied Hara as she let go of my arm. "I'll race ya over there!" she cried, running full speed over the sand.

"Tch," I replied, chasing after her.

*Hara's POV*

I slid to a stop on top of a tall sand dune, Grimm stopping next to me. Below us stood our team, including Ichigo, Chad, and Ishida; Ichigo lay sprawling in the sand, a red mark on his face as if he had been punched. And it looked like he had, judging by the way Rukia was standing over him.

"Aren't we your nakama Ichigo?!" she cried, "Why didn't you wait for us?!" Renji glanced at him from over his shoulder, frowning.

Nakama… Her sentence brought back memories of when she, Renji, Ikkaku and Yumichika had caught me. It was a different situation, but even still hearing that word shouted like that made me shiver in remembrance.

Ichigo smiled slightly, making a slight chuckling sound. It snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Hmm… so it did make you understand after all. But I don't ever wanna have to say that kinda thing again!" she said, turning away. "Now let's go, don't just sit around like that, we've got to save Inoe!"

I grinned slightly, seeing how embarrassed she was. That girl did seem to have a bit of a soft spot for him…

"Well said, Rukia!" cried Raeyah, stepping forward. She peered down at Ichigo who was still sitting in the sand. "How're ya doin' there, Strawberry?"

"Eh? You? What the hell are you doing here?!" shouted Ichigo, pointing. Raeyah laughed and pulled him to his feet.

This seemed like the perfect time to join them; I slid down the dune and walked up to the group.

"Hey Kurosaki, they're not the only ones wanting to help you," I grinned.

Ichigo turned and stared at us.

"You guys too?!" he accused, his jaw dropping slightly.

"I said we were going to help, didn't I?" I asked, "And Hime-chan's my friend too…" Not to mention the fact that Grimm and I have some unfinished business with Aizen…

"But why the hell is he here?!" Ichigo cried, staring at Grimmjow. Grimm raised an eyebrow at him.

"Got a problem Kurosaki?" he growled.

"Well I was wondering what the hell an arrancar would be doing, helping us," he replied, eyeing him.

"What was that?!" snarled Grimm, "I can do whatever the hell I want so-!"

"Guys…" I began, sighing.

"Speaking of arrancar, who are these guys?" called out Rukia, pointing to three strange things huddling against a rock. One of them was a little green haired girl, her eyes big and scared. On either side of her stood two arrancar who looked close to being hollows; one with a bug mask, and the other looking like some sort of tiki monster.

"W-who are we?! How rude!" cried the little girl. "Nel Tu!"

"Dondochakka!" cried out the tiki monster.

"Peshe!" the bug faced one.

"And together…" they cried in unison, "We are the Three Great Desert Brothers!"

Everyone stared at them silently, before the three strange arrancar all let out a shriek.

"Y-you guys are all shinigami!" cried Nel, lisping. "T-they're all bad guys!"

"Aw, you're cute," commented Raeyah crouching down beside her, "An' were not bad guys, kiddo. We're just rescuing one of our own-"

"EEP!" cried Nel, her eyes wide with horror as she looked towards me and Grimm. "G-Grimmjow-sama! Oh no now we're really in trouble!!!" she shrieked, her two arrancar buddies panicking behind her.

"Would you shut up?!" shouted Grimm, glaring daggers at the little girl. "Do you want all of Las Noches to hear you?!"

WHAM! I punched him in the arm.

"Be nice! She's just a little kid for god's sake!" I turned and smiled at her. "So your name's Nel? I'm Hara." She gave me a nervous smile, before Raeyah cut in.

"Uh, as nice as introductions are, we don't really have the time, do we?" she turned to Ichigo, "So Strawberry, ready to go and kick some ass?"

"Would everyone stop calling me that?!" he snapped, resting his sword on his shoulder and turning towards Las Noches. "And yeah, let's go rescue Inoe."