A/N: Trying to get this out in a slightly more timely manner. Thanks again to those of you who have reviewed, followed, and faved. It's an honor to read what nice things you have to say about the fic!
Disclaimer: Bleach and all associated characters and places are the creative property of Kubo Tite. I'm just here to pretend I'm not excited that all the holiday advertising has started so early this year.
Coronado
Chapter 25: "...I'm Inside You"
When he finally arrived at the center stage battlefield, Grimmjow's very fingers itched with eagerness. He alighted on a stone overhang, compelled to observe the scene before him silently as his wounds continued to mend themselves slowly. His ebony claws clicked softly on the rock beneath his hands.
This was it: the part where he made ready to confront his former master and unseat the vile overlord once and for all. The anticipation of a hundred years simmered beneath the surface of his armored skin – had he been any less disciplined, he would have fidgeted. Patience was a virtue many seemed to suspect he did not possess.
They could not have been more wrong.
His earlier disgust with the girl – Orihime, he reminded himself bitterly – had withdrawn somewhat, forced aside and compartmentalized for later. A part of him already knew that anger was actually directed at himself; his begrudging admittance would have to wait for another time when he could entertain the distraction. His focus needed to be here and on the battlefield.
The Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, himself, had challenged Aizen.
As his crystalline eyes scrutinized the situation, they narrowed in disbelief. Aizen could not even be bothered to fight this battle himself.
The traitorous former Shinigami had sent a pawn in his place.
The simple Wonderweiss had undergone a grotesque transformation, reminding Grimmjow of everything he hated about Aizen. The disregard with which the cruel mastermind used the simpleton was borderline obscene. The half-functional Arrancar was less than a mere pawn to their master; he was an expendable attack dog, beneath humans, below even Shinigami.
He was less than dirt to Aizen, because he was a Hollow.
Grimmjow's teeth grinded in his ears. His pride would not take such discrimination lying down.
The former Shinigami spared no emotion when the underling met his end at Yamamoto's skillful manipulation of Kido. Then, Aizen's words upon Wonderweiss' violent demise merely stoked the ice cold fire of Grimmjow's loathing as they tickled on the edge of his hearing.
"A soul that has become a Hollow has no purpose. It does nothing more than meaninglessly hunt down souls to prey on." His next question, rhetorical at best, came out as a dangerously seductive purr.
"What is so cruel about granting meaning to such an existence?"
The old Shinigami Captain-Commander clearly would have none of Aizen's prattle, and he advanced on his former traitorous subordinate with lethal purpose. Grimmjow, however, felt his own cold rage curdle in his stomach like sour milk. Every carefully chosen word oozing from Aizen's lips was like a sweet-smelling poison, his drawl convincing despite their clearly pornographic meaning. The former Sexta's hackles raised in rage, his mane bristling in a sizzling animalistic fury.
Then, the battlefield was suddenly consumed by an inferno.
Grimmjow counted himself fortunate when he found his vantage point only left him on the fringes of Wonderweiss' unexpected martyrdom. He noticed that the Captain-Commander did not fare nearly so well, and the self-destruction left him practically incapacitated.
It seemed Aizen had yet another victory to tally.
Yet, as Grimmjow continued to look on calculatingly, his partially-healed wounds throbbing as they continued mending themselves with his extraordinary regenerative abilities, he began to notice his potential opening.
Aizen was getting cocky. Grimmjow was familiar with such hubris, he thought with some self-accusation, and as such could readily recognize it in his former ruler. He was taking immense pleasure in this supposed surefire victory, and he did not seem to notice the resolve remaining in Yamamoto's tense posture there in the dirt.
This could be his chance.
Aizen drew his sword, now nearly atop the leader of the Gotei 13. With every echoing step he watched him take, Grimmjow's muscles tensed and coiled, ready to attack.
When Yamamoto's surprise Kido engulfed the shocked Aizen, Grimmjow sprang into action. Muscles burning, he concentrated his reserves of energy into the tips of his claws until they began glowing. With all of his might, he descended upon the former Captain as he escaped from the cloud of debris.
"Desgarrón!"
The cry that accompanied the ultimate attack boomed over the roar of reiki that Grimmjow poured into his claws. He felt an ember of satisfaction in his belly at the look of surprise on Aizen's face, and that soon fueled the kindling that was his hope.
He felt it. He felt as his azure claws tore into Aizen's shoulder, rending his supposedly untouchable flesh in an unmistakable blow. No illusion could have imitated that satisfying sensation for the Arrancar. His lip curled over his fang with adrenaline and victory.
Grimmjow's pleasure was short-lived, though.
When Aizen recovered and parried Grimmjow's next series of blows, it did little to dampen his spirits. The disturbing smirk on the former Shinigami's face, though, pissed him the hell off.
"What the fuck are you smiling at?" the Sexta snarled at his former master.
Aizen merely chuckled, veering to the side and missing a swipe of claws by inches. "I will admit, you were always rebellious, Grimmjow, but the extent of your insubordination has come as a surprise to me. And taking the girl, too!" he tsked, looking around as if expecting to see Orihime hovering on the sidelines. He heard the low growl building in Grimmjow's chest and capitalized on the reaction.
"While she may have served her role of luring the Shinigami armies here, I admit I was hoping to take advantage of her exceptional powers. Maybe even give her to Szayel for some… tests." He curled his mouth into an oily smile.
Grimmjow sneered. "Don't give me that shit! You never had any intention to use her for anything," he accused. "What a waste of potential."
This gave Aizen pause, and he eyed Grimmjow shrewdly. The Arrancar faltered at his slight change in demeanor, then braced himself for the poison that was sure to pour from his mouth.
"Do you remember, Grimmjow? Being one of the first?" Aizen asked his former subordinate quietly, thoughtfully. The former Espada could not have heard him if he hadn't been so close. "Your Fracción came to me in the beginning, testing the waters for their leader. They were so loyal, weren't they?" Grimmjow's brow twitched as his arm trembled, his claws struggling to hold the Shinigami's blade at bay. That particular wound was still quite fresh, and it seemed Aizen knew just which buttons to push.
"Then you went and got them killed." The wound was rent open again. Grimmjow grit his fangs.
"Now what about this girl, though? Is it possible that the young princess has tamed the beast?" he mulled, dry amusement lacing his tone. "Or are you going to let her get slaughtered, too?" Grimmjow's eyes narrowed at the amusement in his voice. Aizen continued, his excitement bleeding into his increasingly accusatory tone. "This is really too perfect. The loose-cannon Sexta Espada allowing himself such a weakness. A woman." His voice grew harsher. "Tell me: how did you convince her to come with you? Did you threaten her? Seduce her? Is the little princess merely a harlot in disguise, eager to jump at the chance of joining a monster like you?"
Grimmjow snarled at Aizen finally, shoving at his blade and backing away to create some distance between the two. The language was uncharacteristic of the usually formal Shinigami Captain, but the attempt to unseat his opponent mentally was very much in his personality.
Regrouping, Grimmjow made a noise of frustration when his renewed physical attack was repeatedly parried by Aizen's blade, claws clanging against metal.
"You've gotten stronger, Grimmjow," Aizen said almost proudly over the noise of the clash. The Hollow's disgust was compiling.
"When do you shut up?" he hissed. "Are you just trying to talk off the fact that I just ripped you open?" He was referring to the earlier blow his Desgarrón had landed, blood still seeping from the jagged edges of the frayed flesh along the Shinigami's shoulder.
Aizen merely smirked again and looked down at the wound as if noticing a mosquito bite. "You seem very proud of this, Grimmjow," he said, patronization oozing from his words.
The former Espada watched in horror as the injury began mending itself before his eyes.
"Rapid regeneration…?" he questioned under his breath, astonished. This made Aizen no different than Ichigo, now.
"No, fool," he purred. "This is so much more than that. I am not merely undergoing Hollowfication like that substitute Shinigami. No." The hair on the back of Grimmjow's neck stood on end as he watched. Aizen slowly pulled open his haori.
There, in the center of his chest where his sternum would have been, was the eerie prismal shimmer of the dark Hougyoku embedded in his body. It seemed to generate power like a heartbeat.
"No…" Grimmjow gasped desperately. Aizen had already merged the relic with his own body. Now how was Orihime supposed to reject it?
Tendrils of panic began grasping at his throat. Was he too late? Did Ulquiorra and that fucking Shinigami boy waste so much of his time that his plan was ruined?
He shook his head. Orihime wasn't here. It was time for a new plan. He'd have to win this without her, anyway. He reengaged his opponent with a roar.
The next few minutes of battle were like a whirlwind. Grimmjow's overall condition had improved from his fight with Kurosaki, but he could tell that the former Shinigami captain before him was pulling his punches. His black feet flew out to land a roundhouse kick, but his paw was caught and his momentum redirected. He crashed into a cliff face before he knew what hit him.
Aizen appeared before him with a shunpo, looking down his nose at the Arrancar embedded in the rock.
"You're fucking filth," Grimmjow cursed, spittle glimmering with the red of his blood staining the Shinigami traitor's cheek. Aizen recoiled in disgust.
"And yet you are at my mercy, you worthless animal," he hissed in return, his mask of propriety cracking with his long-contained revulsion for the Sexta. "You always were a gamble, Grimmjow. One of my very first and most successful creations, and one of my most expendable. Yet your resilience has turned you into a pestilence for my plans." He waved a hand to gesture at the throngs of Hollows warring in the distance. "I should have eliminated you the moment Tousen ripped your arm off." Grimmjow snarled again and pulled himself from the rubble to lunge wildly.
Aizen caught his clawed hand in his own, and Grimmjow's eyes widened with shock and the knowledge that in his impulsiveness he had made a costly mistake.
With a violent slash, Aizen sliced clean through the hierro hardening Grimmjow's skin, carving into his pectoral and snapping the ribs beneath, reaching his vitals under even that. Blood erupted like a geyser from the wound. The former Shinigami captain took a moment to catch his breath, a wild look of triumph blossoming on his face before it became closed with the return of his control.
"Aizen!" The Sexta's eyes slid sluggishly to the blurry form of the substitute Shinigami rushing to his aid. He sat back on his heels, the blood flowing freely. Funny, he thought. I don't remember kneeling.
As if from behind glass, he watched Ichigo Kurosaki, garbed in the long black haori of his Bankai but clear of the haunted look of Hollowfication, plow into Aizen from the side, catching the powerful leader off-guard.
As he lost blood, his vision tunneled, and he heard nothing but silence from the likely deafening battle before him. His senses grew detached one-by-one, and he began to feel his equilibrium spinning as he slowly tilted to the side.
When he didn't immediately faceplant, his awareness momentarily returned to him.
"…-jow! Grimmjow!"
He flinched at the assault to his sensitive ears. "Don't yell, stupid," he slurred. "I'm right here."
He turned his head slowly to look down at the girl into whose arms he had slumped. Where the hell did she come from? Tear stains trailed down her face – it reminded him of that stupid bat – and her eyes were rimmed with red.
"What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be eating that kid's face right now or something?" he asked her drunkenly in a bastardization of his earlier accusation. He felt as she hefted his heavy body more upright again, struggling against his dense and limp weight. The thought of helping her crossed his mind, then vanished again when he remembered how tired he was.
"Stop talking so I can heal you," she ordered in a watery voice, clearly mad at him. He hummed as two fairies sparkled from her hairpins and enshrouded him in a welcome golden glow.
"I should eat your face right now," he mulled, making plenty of sense to himself. He had lost a great deal of blood. "Stop touching my face," he corrected absently when he felt her warm hands on his cheek.
"I'm not."
"Oh." Then, "…Why not?"
Orihime laughed.
A moment of silence passed between the two as her powers began mending his gruesome wounds. Awareness returned to him more fully, and he felt her softness on him, one arm wrapped around his middle and the hand from the other resting on his chest. She paid no attention to the battle as she watched the progress her fairies made on his injuries, and he couldn't help the tinge of satisfaction that he was all she was looking at. He, in turn, watched Kurosaki taking up Aizen's attention with his assault. Bawabawa and his new Fracción were nearby, as well, keeping any threats away, and as his faculties returned Grimmjow was starting to conjecture how they had gotten here. He turned to look at the top of the young woman's sienna hair.
"D'you knock some sense into fruit-brain over there?" he mumbled, both eager for and afraid of the answer.
Orihime shifted beneath him, and she refused to meet his eyes just yet. Then she spoke softly. "Kurosaki-kun couldn't control it," she said defensively. "I think… I think he's better, now, though. You saved him, Grimmjow," she said, gratefulness lacing her tone.
Grimmjow snorted. "Great. That's exactly what I was aiming to do," he said sarcastically.
She was silent again, words escaping her. She concentrated harder on her powers. He watched as one of his black hands, seemingly of its own accord, lifted a strand of hair behind her back, twisting it gently and watching how the colors shifted in the light.
Grimmjow sighed deeply once it didn't hurt too badly. "You should get out of here," he said quietly. Orihime's eyes finally shot to his face in shock.
"But… the Hougyoku…"
"We'll defeat him without that. You need to take this chance for what it is and escape. Go home. Get out of here." He'd turned away from her by this point, unwilling to watch as she made her decision and instead seeing the battle play out. She doesn't belong here.
This time, there was no mistaking the feel of her hand on his cheek. Her fingers alighted on his jawline, delicate but demanding as she urged him to face her. His eyes returned to hers, and he was surprised to see such an earnest expression on her face.
"I'm not leaving you, Grimmjow. We're going to stop him together," she said with conviction, her gray eyes searching his. They scanned his face, and an unfamiliar tenderness flooded him with warmth when she tried to smile. "You can't get rid of me that easily. You still haven't told me what your favorite food is!" she joked with difficulty.
He felt as some of the tension left his shoulders inexplicably, and he leaned forward. Orihime closed her eyes as his lips rested on her forehead and his nose buried itself in her hair, not quite leaving a kiss but lingering as he breathed in her scent. Her fairies had stopped healing him minutes ago, and neither of them had noticed.
"You're stupid," he rumbled warmly against her skin.
"I know," she whispered back, a smile in her voice.
He didn't expect her admission to make him as happy as it did.
A/N: I've been meaning to mention this for a while now, but there is an excellent GrimmHime fanfiction by author pennyandpearl called "Unfinished Business" that I read a while back. Ironically enough, it remains unfinished (badum tss), but it leaves off at a not entirely dissatisfying point in case it is indeed an abandoned fic. Perhaps we can inspire the author to revisit the fic with a surge of reviews? Be warned, there is some hanky pank, so avert ye gazes, kiddies.
Your reviews inspire my writing! Please let me know what you think about this chapter!
EDITED: 21 FEBRUARY 2016