Yoooo hooo!

The corridor seemed to go on forever, with no real indication that it would be stopping. As I continued to fly, my mind off worrying about several things, I spared a glance at the structure of the corridor. The ceiling was high, and supported by large beams. It was kind of strange, and reminded me of buildings in the Seireitei. Something different to the Soul Society was that we didn't have people following us in the rafters above us.

I halted, crouching on the ground with one hand on my zanpakutō as I watched the shadow move above me. "I'm alone for five minutes and I already have something following me," I complained quietly, trying to make out if my new stalker was anyone who I had seen before. The shadow paused, as if just noticing that I had stopped moving. I narrowed my eyes, staring back at the figure.

It was pretty small, almost like a kid. Now, that's creepy.

I pulled Tatsumaki out, readying the blade, but the shadow started up again, darting forwards in the direction I was going. I gave a little start of surprise, before shooting after it. I followed the trail of my anonymous companion for a few minutes before I stumbled out of the corridor, blinking my eyes against the light of the sky.

"Wait…I'm outside?"

"What did he do to you?"

"Nothing, I swear! Please, Iggy, listen to me!"

Iggy groaned softly as Orihime grabbed his wrists, taking a seat beside him on the mattress. He could almost feel her staring at him desperately. "Then why were you saying those things?"

"Because I had to!"

Iggy sighed heavily. "This Ulquioba guy-,"

"Ulquiorra," she corrected.

"Japanese confuses me," he muttered, frowning. Sure learning the damn language turned out to be a good choice, but that didn't mean he didn't get confused by big words. Frequently. "Like I said. He isn't someone you can listen to, okay? Don't let him brainwash you, Orihime."

She remained quiet for a moment, letting out a loud sigh. "I'm sorry, Iggy. I didn't mean to worry you."

Iggy sniffed indignantly. "Get over yourself, I wasn't worried."

A small giggle escaped her, and she curled up against him. The room was cold, but at least the conversations kept it bearable. Iggy was glad Orihime didn't have to spend god knows how long in this place alone.

His ears perked up at the sound of distant clashes of metal on metal. Did that mean that there was fighting going on? "Max…"

What was that about not being worried?

I looked around, peering back into the dark corridor for a moment. I was on some sort of walkway, high up from the ground.

Turning back around, I noticed that I was no longer alone. There was a tall… someone… standing at the other end of the walkway.

"Would you look at that, there is life here," I muttered, readying myself.

Be careful, gauge your opponent, Tatsumaki whispered, I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

Believe it or not, I could have remembered to do that by myself, I replied. "Alright, who are you?" I shouted, raising Tatsumaki. It was a good thing I did, because a moment later the blade was clashing with another. I grunted, digging my heels into the ground as best as possible.

My hair whipped around my face as we went skidding backwards. I detached from my attacker, jumping onto the rail of the walkway with an indignant huff. He's fast, I noted. But I'm faster.

Don't get cocky! Tatsumaki warned.

"What's your deal then? One of the Espada?" I asked casually, keeping a tight grip on the katana.

"No… I am a Privaron Espada, number 106: Armendáriz Akihiko," He replied slowly, staring back at me.

"Privaron, huh, haven't heard that one before," I commented. "Are you too amazing for normal Espada ranks, or are you too crap for them?"

The tall Privaron's eye twitched, he let out a huff and pushed some dark hair out of his eyes. "Nothing of the sort. Since that bastard arrived and making his own new Espada, we who were formed naturally have been deemed useless."

"So Aizen kicked you out because he thought he could make better models?" I clarified, tucking the information he was feeding me in the back of my mind for later. If he was making Arrancars, that could be very bad for us. "Why are you attacking me then, shouldn't you be going after the guy who demoted you?"

He stared blankly at me for a moment, before shrugging. "Competition is scarce. And nobody, nobody, will defy Aizen. Not even those who hate him most."

"Why not?"

Akihiko made a noise of disgust, turning his head slightly away. "It's because Aizen is too powerful, even for us."

Making a face, I shot forward, slashing Tatsumaki in the Privaron's direction. He deflected easily, and I diverted to land a few feet away from him, clenching my teeth. "He wouldn't be if everyone wasn't so distracted by fighting each other!"

He sent me a tired look, as if he was dealing with a little kid that asked too many stupid questions, before looking away from me. "Why did you come here, shinigami?"

I watched him steadily, keeping a tight hold on Tatsumaki. "Because you took my brother."

"The disabled human is your brother?"

"He isn't disabled," I growled. "His senses are better than anyone I know. Why did you guys take him in the first place?!"

I caught the shift in his gaze, shadows casting over his dark eyes. "If that boy is your brother, then you are Maximum."

"What's it to you who I am?" I asked uncertainly, feeling Tatsumaki bristle defensively in my mind. Not good. Not good. Not. Good. It was the very first time that I felt anything other than a condescending calmness from Tatsumaki, the fact that even they were getting edgy from Akihiko was not doing anything to make me feel confident about my opponent.

"You are the one," He started, readying his blade. "We have been ordered to bring to Aizen-sama at all costs."

Oh, shit.

"Hunt, Destruir."

"Sit down, Iggy, please!" Orihime cried, latching onto Iggy's arm. He growled as the crashes became louder, his worry spiking. Max was out there, Iggy just knew it, and if she was out there then she was getting her ass handed to her; if not, they would have already returned home.

She froze in her protests as the door creaked open. Iggy took the opportunity to both slip away from the girl and make a dash for the exit. He had to get to Max, to warn her about the Aizen-bastard.

Iggy's escape was caught short when one of the people that had entered caught him. A cold hand wrapped around his neck. "You were warned not to attempt to escape," Ulquiorra said calmly in his ear. Iggy thrashed around, wildly beating at the junior creeper's arm, panic beginning to take over. He had to get out, he had to get to Max. They could make it out together.

Ulquiorra's other hand landed on his right wing, folded against his back, and he immediately crushed the bones and feathers in his hand, ripping an agonised yell out of the boy before dropping him onto the ground.

"Hey! Get away from him!" Orihime cried, running forward.

"Orihime, stay there," Iggy shouted, pulling himself up. His warning made her freeze, thankfully, because this guy didn't seem to be in the mood for holding back. As soon as he had turned back to where he stood in the doorway, Iggy was send flying backwards, thrown into the ground, the tiles moving and cracking from the impact. Iggy could almost hear the bone in his wing breaking further. This time, Orihime crashed down next to him, her hand touching his hand lightly before being ripped away from me. "Orihime!"

"Iggy!" She yelped.

"Clean this mess up," Ulquiorra said over their yelling.

There was a sigh from the other side of the room after the door was slammed shut, followed by footsteps. Iggy turned, trying his best to shield his already injured wing. "That was intense…" Asher's familiar voice commented. "Can you stand?"

"Get away from me," Iggy growled, sliding away from him.

"If you don't get up your wing isn't going to heal, is it? Come on. If we were ordered to kill you, Ulquiorra would have finished you by now." His reasoning made Iggy pause. He took the opportunity to grab his forearm and haul the human to his feet, helping him over to the mattress. "I'm not a medic or anything," he sighed.

"What's happening out there?" Iggy asked hesitantly as he gently unfolded his wing. "Why didn't he just kill me?"

"Because Aizen wants you alive," Asher replied, clicking his tongue. "There really isn't anything I can do for this. If you behave maybe Ulquiorra will bring Orihime back and she can do that thing she does, that'll fix you."

"Orihime can heal people?" Iggy repeated unsurely.

"Something like that," he replied, not sounding very sure about the details himself. "How'd you even get these?" he asked, poking at the other wing curiously.

"I was blessed with not only opportunist parents, but also a whole team of mad scientists dedicated to making me what I am today. The same with Max," Iggy replied bitterly. "H-Hey, is it her fighting outside? Please, I gotta know."

Asher sighed heavily, pausing his inspection of the wings. "I believe it is, as well as others. They sure are putting up a fight to save you."

"Huh, well at least they're here for me, too; I was beginning to think I'd have to mutate myself a pair of big ol' boobies in order to get saved from here. I don't like the damsel in distress thing, but if it gets me out of here, I'll take it."

"I'm surprised this is your first escape attempt," he commented.

Iggy shrugged indifferently. "I didn't know where I was or if anyone was coming to get me, it seemed fine to play house with a babe for a while. But now I guess I have to get serious."

"…Play house with a… babe?" he repeated, followed by some sort of amused snort. He stepped away from him, walking towards the exit. "I'll try my best to get the babe back; she should be able to heal you in no time."

Iggy laughed tensely at his jeer. "Yeah, thanks…"

I jumped back again, watching Akihiko's blade slam into the space I had been standing on. It flew back into his waiting hand, and the small spot on the ground exploded, leaving a large hole. "Well crap, that's handy," I commented. Too bad you don't do that, Tatsumaki.

"Give it a rest, Max. No zanpakutō will be the same."

I glanced down at the elongated blade of my shikai with a frown. You don't even do anything; you just look cool and give me some adrenaline rush. Tatsumaki sighed heavily as I dodged Akihiko's attack again.

"You've had shikai for how long, exactly? A few weeks? Do you really expect to know how to use me to the fullest already?"

Well, if you feel like sharing some nifty tricks to keep me alive, you're free to share, I replied, growing annoyed at the amount of explosions occurring. "Hey! Stop doing that already, at this rate the walkway is going to collapse!"

"That's no problem to me," he replied simply, reaching his hand out to receive the blade, which landed in his palm a few moments later.

If I can land an attack while his zanpakutō is returning to him, he'll be off guard, right? But how can I get close enough and land a decent hit in that amount of time?

"There are long distance attacks for times like this, Max. Honestly, it's like you have no faith in us at all."

I paused, shocked by the static-like noise that filled my head. What the hell, Tatsumaki?

"Not Tatsumaki. Go ahead, pour your reiatsu into the zanpakutō and take a swing at him when his sword is stuck in the ground," the new, gravelly voice said. I clenched my teeth, unsure what to think of the voice, but followed the advice. After narrowly dodging Akihiko's sword, I focused my energy into the blade and sliced downwards through the air. A shot of dark…something… flew from the blade, shooting out towards him. It connected, sending Akihiko shooting backwards into the railing of the walkway. He shot back up immediately; the area around his shoulder smouldering and looked to be bleeding.

"That's more like it," I said slowly, readying myself. Akihiko threw his zanpakutō towards me, I focused my reiryoku into my own sword and clashed against the attack, pushing backwards as the impact caused another explosion mid-air. Hey, I didn't die!

I almost felt like I wasn't even controlling my actions as I began a retaliation. A huge grin made it's way onto my face as I slashed at the arrancar, bursts of dark energy flying in different directions as he deflected and combatted the swings.

"MAX! Stop this, you shouldn't be able to do that!"

…Tatsumaki? If I'm not meant to do it why can I?

I faltered at Tatsumaki's words, giving an opening to Akihiko, who promptly sent me flying with a long gash down my right shoulder. "Gah!" After crashing to the ground, I glanced up, straining to keep myself up, the gash burned.

Akihiko stepped over to me, readying his sword as I grasped around, looking for mine. It was a good twenty feet in the other direction. "You are going to pay for that little power trip, Maximum. Aizen will learn to forgive what I'm going to do."

Akihiko raised his arm above him, pausing for a second to look somewhere past my head. I kicked upwards, aiming for his jaw, but nothing connected. I fell back to the ground as Akihiko went flying backwards, into the darkness of the corridor I had come from.

Scrambling up, I ran over to Tatsumaki, brandishing the katana as I began to shunpo in the opposite direction to the fight, avoiding the large craters in the walkway made by our fight. Even as I ran, I could hear the distant sounds of metal on metal and growling. The door wouldn't budge under my grip, so I opted for launching myself off the walkway, unfurling my wings on the way down.

With a few beats of my wings I was above the walkway, but still close enough to see the small arrancar that emerged from the darkness, a hollow mask that looked like some sort of animal skull on the top half of their face. I circled cautiously, holding Tatsumaki close, as the small arrancar lifted a hand and pulled the mask back, setting it on top of the mess of brown hair.

The arrancar looked up at me, holding my gaze. I froze, my breathing stopped, the only thing keeping me up was the robotic movement of my wings.

No way.

"…Ari?"