"Have you gotten Zangetsu back?" Grimmjow asked as he pulled on his clothes.

"Only when I am training with father."

"Oh." Grimmjow left it at that. Ichigo stretched in the bed and put a hand against Grimmjow's lower back.

"Did she heal it?" He answered his own question, peeling down the bandage. Grimmjow winced. "She barely did anything."

"It's closed over now," Grimmjow said. "They sealed most of her powers so she couldn't do much."

"And what's going on with you? What was all that you were spouting last night?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it." He made to stand but faltered. Ichigo caught his arm and pulled him the rest of the way down.

"Don't do anything stupid," he warned.

"I won't."

"Good." He let him go and stood up. "I'll be back tonight."

Grimmjow lay there for a while longer, listening to the shower, then Ichigo left. He felt the heat left on the sheets and sighed, wishing it was the real Ichigo who'd left that warmth behind.


"Is that the barrier holding them back?" Grimmjow asked Hanataro. He'd run into him a few times over the last few days and now he consciously or unconsciously found him every time he was weighed down too much by the loneliness of living with the quincy Ichigo.

"Yes, but it is weakening, they'll be here soon." His voice was forlorn, Grimmjow looked at him.

"Doesn't that mean you have a chance of rescue, shouldn't you be glad?"

"I want them to save us, but what if they don't? What if they fail? Then there will be no hope."

Grimmjow watched the young soul reaper. "I thought they were the best of your soldiers."

"Few have ever seen them. I mean, I don't know anything about them."

"Well if they're anything like the others, you don't stand a chance."

"You mean we, don't you? We won't stand a chance."

"No I don't. I'm afraid my chance was gone long ago. Later kid." He left the stunned soul reaper to continue about his care taking of the prisoners.

Grimmjow walked toward the Twelfth division, wondering if that was where they were keeping Zangetsu, maybe Pantera too. He'd just gotten his sword back and now it was gone again. He couldn't hold onto anything, not even those things that were a part of him.

"Is that you Grimmjow?"

His head shot up at the snake-like voice that floated down the pathway. He felt his stomach drop when he saw that terrible smile, those long fingers.

"Stole your breath did I? I'd heard you were around, I had hoped to run into you."

Still Grimmjow found no words. His body had frozen.

"Come on, that boy will be busy all day, why don't you come with me and we'll remember old times."

When his hand closed over his upper arm, Grimmjow snapped back to life. He wasn't in chains this time. He wasn't injured like he had been then. And all that training under Aizen, all that lifetime of military precision came out automatic, without thought or hesitation. With a quick jab, he broke Faus' nose. With an open palm, he drove the cartilage into his brain. And when he fell, Grimmjow drove his knee up into his face just to make sure. Faus collapsed dead on the pathway before him in under ten seconds.

"Bastard!" Two soldiers came running his way.

Grimmjow avoided the first strike but when a second soldier intervened his arm was caught and he took a stunning blow to the back of his head. They didn't stop there though. A knee broke his nose. Three punches to his side rebroke the ribs Ichigo had broken. And a cruel twist dislocated his arms.

"Argh." He wrenched free and ducked another shot, but got a kick to the back of his knee that sent him down. They took their opportunity and pinned him to the ground.

"Keep him down." One said. The pressure lifted at Grimmjow's back and he didn't realize what was going to happen until the arrow went through his shoulder.

"Fuck!"

The blue shaft pierced his shoulder and kept him pinned against the ground. He couldn't move.

"What do we do with him?"

"He killed a soldier, we fuck him up."

"Don't touch him." The voice came out so low Grimmjow almost didn't hear it, but the threat dripping from it was so thick he couldn't miss it.

"Uh, Kurosaki..."

"You do know he's mine, don't you?"

"Well he uh... killed a soldier."

"What?" Ichigo looked to the ground. His eyes narrowed in recognition. "Do you know who that scum was? He deserved death. Now walk away."

"But-"

"WALK AWAY!"

There was silence, then Grimmjow felt them move away.

"Shit." Ichigo knelt next to him and took hold of the arrow.

"Agh!"

"Shut up, don't move." With a ripple of power the arrow dissipated. Ichigo slid his arms under Grimmjow and pulled him up into a sitting position.

"You've lost alot of blood."

"Just...take me back to the manor."

Ichigo leaned him against him and the world blurred by. They were in the manor in seconds.

"Don't move," Ichigo ordered after setting him on the bed. He returned quickly with bandages and began wrapping his shoulder. "Dammit," he cursed repeatedly as he rushed against the flow of blood, then he sat back only to see the rest of Grimmjow's injuries. As he worked, Grimmjow started to go limp.

"Yo, stay with me, espada."

"Ichigo...It was him."

"I know." The teen calmed when he saw Grimmjow was just falling asleep and not in danger of dying. He lay on the bed next to him and placed Grimmjow's head on his shoulders. "You got your vengeance."

"No I didn't." Grimmjow's eyes were closed but he wasn't out yet. "Not until I chop the head of Juha Bach."

With that he passed out.


"Don't leave the manor any more," Ichigo instructed as he changed into his Vandenreich uniform.

Grimmjow didn't argue, he was far too weak to get out bed right away. But he did question Ichigo about one thing.

"I heard the barrier was getting weaker."

He caught a look in blue eyes that told him Ichigo was well aware, and that there was something more he didn't want to say in case they were being monitored. "Don't worry, Grimmjow, I won't let them ruin the sweet thing we've got going," he covered smoothly and left. Grimmjow sighed. Did that look mean Ichigo was waiting for the attack? Was it somehow in his plans?

The next few days were painful. Grimmjow didn't feel like returning to the Fourth for the minimal healing they could provide. Ichigo had popped his other shoulder into place, it was still very sore but it worked much better than the one the arrow had gone through. Still, he was an espada, and with his spiritual pressure his wounds were healing quickly.

He sat alone in the kitchen on a stool at the counter. He listened to the quiet, the calm. He could feel it, the end was coming, one way or the other. He wasn't sure if it was his spiritual pressure, or instinct, but he felt the final attack near. When the Zero squad came, they would end the Vandenreich, or they would meet their end. And if they lost, Ichigo would become the new tyrant, and there really would be no hope anymore.

"Who would have thought I'd be routing for Soul Reapers?" he laughed to himself, but then he stopped, his hands came down hard on the table and he felt his breath go quick. "Zangetsu..."

"Whoa, you look like you just saw a ghost." Ichigo swept in, sweating and already pulling his uniform off. Then he stopped and looked Grimmjow up and down. "Wait, you aren't seeing a ghost are you? I mean Halibel."

"What? No, I just, nothing, I'm fine."

"Good then get some food I'm starving. I'll be in the shower."

"Yeah..." he watched him go down the hall but made no move to prepare a meal. Ichigo had left his clothes in a pile on the floor. Grimmjow picked them up but it was clear his sword was not here.

He threw them back down, suddenly feeling hot, anxious and headed for the outdoors. He had a plan, but there was nothing he could do if he didn't get his hands on that sword.

"Grimmjow, where's the food?"

"What?" He was at the koi pond, where his feet seemed to take him on their own.

"Ah whatever, let's just skip to desert."

"Hey, Ichigo, my shoulder." Grimmjow yanked back from him but Ichigo grabbed him all the harder. "Ichigo don't."

He hit the ground hard next to the pond.

"Ichigo stop!"

"Shut up. Don't think I don't see it. You're scheming something. You're found some shred of pride in that messed up head of yours didn't you?"

"Let go!" But Grimmjow couldn't get out of the hold or escape what was coming. "Argh Ichigo!"

"You're gonna mess it all up for me. When that barrier snaps it's over. Bach and I will crush the Zero squad, and then I'll take him down, and I'll have everything."

"Ichigo stop," Grimmjow screamed into the ground as Ichigo continued his unrelenting assault.

"Tell me what it is that's given you hope."

"Ichigo..." Hot tears seeped out his eyes when Ichigo squeezed him tighter and finished. Everything hurt and he didn't move when Ichigo pulled away.

"Tell me or I'll do it again."

Grimmjow lay shaking but silent.

"Fine, have it your way." But before he could move the sky erupted in blue fire, an enormous crack split the atmosphere and a sudden hard rain hit them, lasting only a few seconds, just long enough to drench them, as if the clouds themselves had been broken by the force of the barrier breaking.

"They've come." Ichigo smiled. "This is it, the day of my victory." Then his eyes cast downward. "And you," He bent over his victim and yanked Grimmjow's pants back up, "stay here. We'll celebrate my victory when I return."

He left him face down in the dirt at the edge of the water.


Ugh, so dark...I've really been struggling with this story because of the challenging subject matter but here it finally comes, the conclusion is next chapter. Thank you all for your reviews!

Riza