So yeah, this story is going to end soon. Real soon. I'll be posting at least once every three days (internet connection willing - I'll be out of town for a bit) until it's over.


Chapter 28


"Orfeo! You idiot!" Kennana shouted, running forward. Grimmjow lowered himself to the ground, looking over to where she was running. The dwarf was on his back on the floor, eyes staring unseeing at the ceiling. Dead. Grimmjow felt a brief stab of loss. Yeah, he wasn't close to the dwarf, but the guy was a friend.

Kenna was casting. Haroldus came over to look at her work.

"You are exhausted, Priestess. Leave off, lest the effort kill you too." The paladin said.

"No!" Wailed Kenna. "I will not let Orfeo go!"

"Zen at least let me help." Haroldus knelt beside the body of the dwarf. Golden light flowed from the both into the corpse.

"Brosh, are you alright?" Ilya called, joining her tauren lover.

"I am unwounded. Is there nothing you can do for Laric—Laricgos?" The huge shaman asked. Grimmjow walked over to where his sensei was bleeding on the floor. Ilya, upon hearing her lover's words, joined the arrancar.

"Laric, can you hear me?" Ilya asked. The dragon turned huge, pain-filled eyes at the draenei.

"Yes." Laric wheezed.

"I'm going to try to heal you. Hold still!"

"Wait." The wounded dragon gasped. And then he bellowed in pain as magic gathered in his wounded paws. His form shrunk suddenly, becoming human. Grimmjow stared. Laric was back in his human form, but his hands were flayed up to his wrists, and the ends of his fingers were nothing but exposed bone. Blood soaked through his boots and through his hemline.

"Hey old man, how's your ass feel?" Grimmjow asked, suddenly remembering the fact that Laric's tail had been flayed too. Despite his worry for his teacher, he couldn't resist getting in a jibe.

"Shut up you cat-brained lunatic!" Laric snapped. "Girl, I would be very grateful if you were to heal—,"

"Of course!" Ilya interrupted him, already concentrating the green nature power she would turn to mending him. Before Grimmjow's eyes, his sensei's wounds closed, flesh wrapping once more around bone and skin regrowing to cover flesh. A few more spells and Laric was fully healed, breathing a sigh of relief as he flexed his fingers experimentally.

"That sucked." The mage commented. Grimmjow gave a snort. Laric rounded on him. "And you, I expect a little more respect out of you. Your behaviour has been atrocious, apprentice—,"

"Stuff it, Laric." Grimmjow smirked. The mage gaped at him. "Do you really think I'm going to start bowing and scraping just because you turned out to be an overgrown set of luggage? Come on, kusojiji. You should know me better than that by now." Grimmjow rolled his cat-pupilled eyes at his teacher.

Laric grunted. "I suppose I should expect no less from you, Disappointment." He said. His words were harsh, but in his tone was grudging pride.

"Not half as disappointing as Johnny boy there." Grimmjow grinned, gesturing at the shattered fragments of Mordanis. "All his posturing and he ends up so much garbage to sweep up at the end of the day."

"That reminds me..." Laric trailed off, walking over to the scattered remains of the lich. Grimmjow watched as the mage picked through the remains, clearly looking for something.

"Grimmjow, are you injured?" Vellena's voice interrupted him. He turned his attention away from Laric to face his night elf.

"Not really. You?" He replied.

"I'm fine. A little battered but I'll make it." She looked to where Kenna and Haroldus still laboured to try to resurrect Orfeo. Gorric, Brosh, and Orzul were crouched nearby, watching the proceedings tensely. Vellena's face fell.

He wrapped a clawed hand around her shoulder, pulling her close to him. Her armour clanked against his scale robes, which were only slightly mangled by his transformation. (He was frankly glad that he'd put the hole in for his tail, or his ass would be only somewhat more comfortable than Laric's had doubtless been.)

"Don't worry. Kenna is good. She'll have him up and running around again soon enough." Grimmjow reassured her.

"She's exhausted, Grimmjow. They both are." Vellena said. She turned to Laric and Ilya, who had come to stand beside her and Grimmjow. The polymorphed dragon was carrying something large, flat, and blue. His father's scale. "Is there any way you can help them?" She asked.

"I am not nearly skilled enough to bring back the dead." Ilya said, sadly. "My magic is the wrong type to combine with theirs."

"Alas, my flight has no dominion over life and death. For that, you would have to speak with Alexstrasza's brood." Laric said, eyes sad, as he put the scale into a magic bag. "We must wait and see if Kenna and the paladin are successful."

"I hope we don't have to wait long. Aizen escaped back to his room – we need to kill him. Every second we lose is critica—," Grimmjow broke off suddenly as he caught sight of Orfeo's gauntleted hand twitching. "He's alive. They did it!" The arrancar said quickly, hope rising in his voice.

"Oh! Orfeo!" Kenna shouted. The dwarf twitched, sitting up. The night elf priestess leaned in, hands on her thighs. Haroldus gasped and flopped onto his back, clearly exhausted. Grimmjow could see sweat beading his homely face.

"Oy, Kenna, wot's the fuss about? An' didja have to rush it like that this time? I was this close to bein' able ta touch her bubbies—," The dwarf's words were cut off by the sudden sound of Kenna's booted foot colliding with his plate-clad crotch. "Eh, wot was that for?" Orfeo asked mildly, clearly unharmed.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Kenna yelped, grabbing her foot and hopping around like a demented bunny rabbit. Grimmjow couldn't help himself. He snickered.

"I'm not healing zat." Haroldus said.

"Alright, seriously people, enough with the joking around. Mordanis is dead but Aizen is still on the loose. We need to kill him, and fast." Grimmjow stated, getting everyone's attention. "We wasted too much time fighting each other under his illusion. Remember your damn earrings, that's why Laric and I slaved away for weeks making the damn things." If he had his druthers, he'd never make another fucking magic item in his life. That was the most boring, tedious shit he'd ever had to take part in. It made patrolling the halls of Las Noches look like a party in comparison. "Brosh, you say you got something for mind control?"

"Yes. Both Ilya and I have totems that will counter magic that steals the senses."

"Well, make sure you use them on this fight. But pretend like you're caught in the illusions. You should be able to see them over top of the reality. That way we might be able to surprise him." Grimmjow said. "Now let's move out, alright? We don't have a lot of time to lose." He turned, tail flicking.

"Eh, Grimmjow..." Orfeo began.

"What?" The arrancar quirked an impatient eyebrow at the recently revived dwarf.

"Wot's wit' tha tail?"

Grimmjow felt his ears flatten automatically and his tail lashed in annoyance. "We don't have time for this shit. Let's get moving." A female voice behind him snickered at his response, he thought it might be Brosh's girl. Grimmjow moved towards the doors he'd so recently knocked from their hinges. "Start running!" He ordered, as he began to tear down the hallway. The clanking of armour told him clearly that his team was following him.

Vellena and Gorric caught up with him, taking position on either side. He risked a glance behind and saw Orfeo keeping up the rear with the rest of the party in between. Signs of their recent efforts were stamped on the faces of all except the tireless death knights. Even Laric looked a little careworn. Well, the damage was repaired now, but what Mordanis had done couldn't have been comfortable. Grimmjow was pretty sure the lich had been attempting to transform Laric directly into a frostwyrm, skipping the inconvenient waiting-for-Laric-to-die-first.

It was fortunate that they'd managed to knock off Mordanis before the lich could succeed, or else they would have likely had to fight Laric too. Grimmjow was pretty sure they could have done it, but the idea of having to destroy his own teacher was mildly distasteful. Which was really a testament to how much Azeroth, and Vellena, had changed him. Because, really, the old Grimmjow wouldn't have given a flying fuck about that.

The hallway was clear of undead. However, the corridor where they'd stopped pursuit previously was still blocked. There was enough space for maybe an agile human or smaller to crawl through (which is probably what Aizen had done), but it was not going to be passable for the group. The ex-Espada sighed. Now they'd have to undo their previous handiwork.

"Alright, anyone got any quick ways to knock down walls?" He asked the group.

Brosh cleared his throat and tossed down a totem. The barrier began to move, loose rocks falling down towards Grimmjow, who took a few steps back to avoid them. The arrancar quirked puzzled brows, until comprehension dawned suddenly as the form of an earth elemental tore itself from the stone. Oh right, Brosh had used that thing to help make the wall in the first place.

Ponderously, the elemental freed itself and began smashing through the rest of the poorly-fused stone. Within 30 seconds there was enough of a passageway for the group to get through. Brosh gave the elemental a companionable slap on a shoulder stone, and the collection of rocks nodded and sank into the floor, dismissed.

Grimmjow muttered a thank-you to the tauren and then leapt through the ragged hole. There was nothing on the other side but the mostly-destroyed staircase. The undead had all gone elsewhere – perhaps still trying to find a way to the chamber where they had fought Mordanis. The group made its way down the shattered stone steps carefully, and then began to run one more once they reached the landing.

They retraced their steps, running down the corridors. Orzul used some technique to make them all run faster, which Grimmjow was grateful for. The hunter was also on alert for any sign of undead. Fortunately, they were able to make the run from the chess room to Aizen's personal rooms without disturbance.

Grimmjow smashed the door open once more. Aizen looked up from where he was seated on a stone couch, reading some book no doubt stolen from Dalaran.

"Ah, there you are, Grimmy-kun. I see Mordanis didn't hold you back for long." Aizen said, mildly. "That's disappointing."

"Sacrificed him to save your hide, did you, shinigami? Just like you did the Espada?" Grimmjow snapped.

"Why should that bother you, kitty? It's not like you cared overmuch for your erstwhile compatriots." Aizen said, standing. His zanpakutō was already in his hand, though it looked to be unreleased. He heard the sound of battle behind him and looked briefly to see his party suddenly fighting off Scourge from behind.

"I always knew you were stupid, Grimmjow. But I thought you would be smart enough to know not to come attack me after your last failure. I give you credence for seeing through my illusory 'death'... eventually. But for you to think that you actually have a chance against me, here, like this, even with friends..." Aizen trailed off and tsked with mock dismay.

Grimmjow snarled and attacked, leaping at Aizen and slashing with his claws. They tore through air as the image of Aizen vanished. He growled in frustration.

Inside, Grimmjow was smiling. Because he'd seen Aizen plant the illusion and get up and walk away. He'd seen well enough that Kyōka Suigetsu was fully released. And he knew that his crew was fighting illusory undead. As did they – Brosh and Ilya had their special totems out. As they had been instructed, the group was pretending to be hoodwinked by Aizen's illusions.

Grimmjow made a show of looking around for Aizen, and 'spotted' the fake with glee. He pretended to ignore the fact that the real one was far away, faking susceptibility to the illusions. Aizen was too far away from his illusion to be attacked directly. Going after the real Aizen would instantly alert him to the fact that Grimmjow wasn't fooled. And then he'd lose his advantage. Grimmjow knew that sooner or later Aizen would try to make a potshot at him, he had only to wait until that moment, and then end this with one decisive blow.

Now that he was alert to it, Grimmjow could feel the suggestions Aizen was trying to implant in his mind. Aizen was trying to provoke him into attacking mindlessly, without thought for strategy. Grimmjow pretended to comply, leaping at the false Aizen with claws bared and a snarl on his face, and cursing viciously when the illusion dissipated. He made a show of looking around for the 'real' Aizen, and even of trying to scent his former master in the air. Aizen was pulling no stops – he'd even faked illusory scent. Grimmjow pretended to be torn between the false Aizen his eyes showed and the false Aizen his nose told him was there. Then he decided to go after the fake scent.

The room was a melee of bodies and spells. While Grimmjow tried to track multiple Aizens, real and imaginary, the shinigami was not idle. At one point he caught Vellena in a bakudō (number 61, by the looks of the beams of lights which froze her in position), and Gorric in a nasty Kurohitsugi. Well, if anyone could survive hadō 90, it was a death knight. Orzul was pinioned to the wall, spread eagle, by bars of blue light. The raptor was dead. Aizen had Laric boxed in a danku construction, where the dragon mage was trying to figure out a way out. Kenna had wandered too far from the totems and was whirling in a circle, swinging her staff to block illusory attackers. Brosh and Orfeo were tied up fighting fake Scourge, and Ilya and Haroldus were attempting to heal everyone from Aizen's spells.

Grimmjow closed again with another fake, and sent a cero at yet another. When that one dissipated, he launched at another, this time aware that Aizen was preparing to strike. The shinigami had neutralized the combatants he viewed as being the greatest threat. Laric would no doubt break out of the box soon, but in the meantime, if Aizen could kill Grimmjow, he could pick off the rest and then take out Laric easily. Grimmjow was pretty sure that was the shinigami's intended tactic.

One more foolish charge, and the arrancar was in range for Aizen to strike.