Evening y'all, and welcome to the last installment of the back story :) Hopefully, all the pieces will fall into their logical place, now, in the end.

Thank all for reading and commenting - and I'd especially your notes on this one :) As usual Maidros is my hero. When he's not compiling a list of Shinigami to kill in the final battle, that is. o.O I wonder, after killing Ulquiorra, could I get away with killing Shiro-kun? (I weep in my pillow).

Chapter 36 - Where folks die very, very angry.

'By that time, there the shame of the pact was gone, and we felt strong enough to return to being Quincy. We'd kept our side of the agreement, but we were growing restless, just like the world around us. And slowly, when the Shinigami were not looking, we returned to the old ways, and did what was in our nature to do. We did not refute the pact first; it was clear to all that the Shinigami were slow in responding to our calls, and that the strength in our numbers and the closeness of our clan kept us from becoming fewer each month.'

'They were late,' Ishida muttered. 'That was the plan.'

'They were always late,' Stark snarled in response. 'No one ever thought it was anything more than purposeful ill-intent. The later they were, the more danger we had to run to keep the Hollows alive and cornered – so sometimes, we did not. I for one, never even tried. Each time that I materialized my bow, I saw Lilinette's father before me, and I shot to kill, praying with each arrow that he would feel enough guilt to hang back and be corrupted, and that eventually I could take filth like him out of the flow.'

'The Shinigami noticed eventually, and they warned us to stop; when we didn't, there were a few skirmishes, but nothing strong enough to completely crumble the peace treaty. Our leaders did not want to return to a war state, and I think neither did Yamamoto, because we really gave them hell…so, we did what we knew best, they kept trying to punish us as best they could. Yet, though, nothing was ever spoken of, we were as much at war as we had ever been. The peace was just a veil over a leper's face.'

'When we became aware of a giant Hollow infestation in my friend's village,' the Arrancar followed, 'I thought all my prayers had been answered. With no word to the Shinigami, we went there en masse - some forty of us, and we were still too few. I, of course, kept very quiet about my past connections to the place. They surfaced eventually, but by that time, all were too engulfed with their duties to take notice.'

'The place,' Stark said, shaking his head at the memory, 'was barely recognizable. Life was all but extinct; a few old people, weak and wrinkled, still slithered in the shadows of buildings. None could explain it, but for almost a decade, few children had lived past ten; some drowned, some fell from trees they had climbed hundreds of times, and some just fell ill with fever and died. It was like God had turned his face from them altogether. No one could tell while doors swung open in the night, why windows broke and why shadows crept in the moonlight, why trees dried up and died, shedding their leaves in hours, why nothing grew anymore and why even the waters in the fountains had turned stale.'

'All agreed that everything had happened after the lady of the big house had died. No one knew why she had hanged herself from a tree in the garden; folk whispered that she saw ghosts and spirits in her later days, but given that she'd grown increasingly insane in the last year of her life, they were unsure if she was right.'

'But we could tell she was,' the Segunda grinned. 'There were not tens, but hundreds of Hollows, what I would now know to describe as a colony. The place teemed with them, the air writhed, and at sunrise, they all crawled back to the place we easily identified as the core of the infection.'

'Your friend's house,' Ishida whispered.

'If one could still speak of it as such,' Stark shrugged. 'He'd paid a visit to his wife's funeral, but never returned to live there after she killed herself; in truth, we had slipped out of touch, and all I knew of him was that he was happily remarried. The house stood alone, growing monstrously out of the untended garden, and it took us close to a month to even get near. It was not that the Hollows were particularly strong, but that there were many; it was as if they had been pouring out of an continuously open Garganta, drawn into the human world like moths to a flame.'

'No matter how many we'd slay, they'd return in equal numbers during the next night. Though we were never pressed for strength, we seemed to advance only inches, each time, and there were quite a few of us who had begun to fear the Shinigami would eventually take notice. And this time, I think none of dared hope they'd let it pass with a skirmish, for no other reason than that we were so many, and we so openly flaunted the pact…In any event, we decided we had to press somehow and get to the source sooner rather than later – the inflow would not stop until we sealed the Garganta, and purified whatever stood at the center of the madness.'

'During our next attack, we encircled the house, drawing the Hollows outwards, and I, who had the least to lose of them all, used Hirenkyaku to get to the roof.'

'You went alone?' Ishida frowned.

'No one else was suicidal; people had children and families. I had no one and my parents were dead by this time.' Stark shrugged. 'Besides, it is just like you've previously said – some things never change. My Hirenkyaku was the fastest of them all, and it barely left any reiatsu trail; I guess one might even have referred to it as blinking' he said, a tremble of bitter amusement in his voice. 'I got through unnoticed. I was even wondering why we hadn't thought of it earlier; we could have saved ourselves a lot of aggravation, and not run the danger of attracting the Shinigami.'

'You see,' the Arrancar followed, shifting positions, 'I had no doubts over the source of the infection. That woman had been so cruel and bitter in her life, that I just knew it had to be her. And I took great pleasure at the thought of purifying her.'

'They should not have let you anywhere near that place, if they knew your history,' Ishida said, shaking his head. 'Vengeful intent taints.'

'There are many things one should not do, Uryu,' the Segunda sighed. 'We were Quincy, but we were also human, and while vengeful intent does taint, it holds extraordinary healing powers; last thing you'd want to do is die with unresolved anger. Would you not agree?' Stark bitterly asked, softly tilting his head to the side, to look at Ishida; the young man frowned, but could not contradict.

'I was a bit surprised,' Stark continued, after a few seconds of silence, 'when I found the second floor of the house was almost empty. But for a couple of stray Hollows that were still about, there was nothing, or at least nothing of any impressive size. Still, I could feel something was there, something unlike anything else I had felt thus far. I kept telling myself it was a Menos Grande, but in the back of my mind, I was certain it would not be the case. Their reiatsu howls, it is fully uncontrolled; one can sense them from a mile away, even before they cross. This spiritual pressure was high and it pulsed steadily. Also, to be thoroughly honest, I had never seen a Menos Grande that could fit inside a house.'

'There were more Hollows on the ground floor, but still no trace of the source.'

Stark stretched his fingers on his thigh, pausing a moment before continuing.

'And by the time I made it to the cellar, I understood it was not the lady. I just could not bring myself to believe…'

He shook his head and shrugged helplessly.

'Though it made perfect logical sense,' he continued, in a blank tone. 'Nothing could, in fact, make more sense. Lilinette had had so much spiritual power…And she still was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, pure, blinding light, just in front of the darkness of the Garganta.'

'She looked like what humans often describe as a specter, a little, translucent shadow.' Stark whispered. 'Just like they describe the Menos as ghosts – the sheets, the chains…I guess they lack the proper vocabulary to accurately name what their eyes show.'

'She was already a Gillian?' Ishida asked, in a small voice; Stark laughed.

'No, my young friend. She was already an Adjucha. First one I had ever seen, first one I had even heard of.'

'But Adjuchas almost never cross into the human world,' the young man protested.

'No, they don't.' Stark nodded. 'Lilinette didn't cross either. She had never actually left…and bloody hell, she was fast. I didn't even see her come at me; nearly took my head off in the first move, then melted into the wall behind me to dart up from under my feet. I got out of the way, of course, but not even the Hirenkyaku was fast enough to prevent her from touching me. She half burned my left arm and dissolved my bow before I could take aim, though she was barely a foot away.'

'I drew one of the Steele Schneider but it she moved around it – it simple went through her; she was really incorporeal, no Hollow flesh. Just energy. Each time she passed in front of the Garganta, she made it inches wider, and every time she moved away, it receded. It was almost as the thing had opened to swallow her, and that every time she moved in close, it licked its fangs in expectation. The rest of the Hollows had simply, accidentally come through, drawn to her light, and she'd consumed enough of them to make herself evolve...to keep herself out of the Garganta.'

Ishida nodded.

'They say you never know your strength until you truly need it,' Stark whispered. 'The same is true about speed. I had never laid down a Zeichen on my own – I had never truly needed to - but this time, I made it on the first attempt, and I got her, light trapping light. Then, I just stood there, having absolutely no clue what to do. Until she spoke to me.'

'I was waiting.'

'I knew she had been.'

'But they didn't help me wait. They let me go.'

'I knew that too, perfectly well.'

'Do you know what I was waiting for?'

Ishida cringed, biting his lower lip. 'What did you answer?'

'Nothing,' Stark shrugged. 'What could I tell her? I was shocked enough that she could communicate, and then, I could not believe she didn't remember…I answered nothing. I just stood, bathing in her light.'

'Why will no one tell me what I was waiting for?'

'She sounded so lost…So helpless. I didn't even realize if I actually heard her, or just imagined hearing her, but…'

'I asked everyone. But no one would answer. It's like I don't exist…It's like they can't hear me.'

'Her light was growing faint in the binds of the Zeichen, and I feared it was hurting her, but it was not. She was just settling; for a moment, she even gathered human shape – still featureless light, but it was doubtlessly the shape of her body.'

'You can't hear me either. You're just like the lady that was here, you cannot hear me; you just look at me, like you see me…But you can't hear me. How can you not? How could she not? I was so close to her, all the time, all the time I was asking, I was screaming, but she didn't answer, she just fled from room to room, and she never answered. She wouldn't tell me what I was waiting for, and then she went away for good, she ran away outside, and she never ever told me. Do you know?'

'I told her she had been waiting for me. I could feel the thoughts which had been whirring with her energy suddenly quieting down; I thought she had been trying to figure out if I was lying to her, but she simply accepted the answer. Or the memory flickered though her mind. I do not know.'

'Did you come?'

'I told her I had, and I swear, for a moment, I actually felt she was happy. She radiated the sweetest, purest light.'

'I told them you would.'

'And then, the light faded. Grew cold.'

'They didn't believe me. They didn't help me. They should have helped me. I wanted to wait just a little bit longer…though it hurt so much…'

'She curled on the floor, at the center of the Zeichen, and I sat down too.'

'I know they didn't help me. All I wanted to do was wait for a little bit longer. And I did, I did…but it was such a long time to wait, alone…do you know what I was waiting for? I forgot.'

'Oh Gods,' Ishida whispered.

'It was only then that I noticed the door that I had come through was gone. You should remember that one, she used it on you when we first met – it is a solid form of Negacion that I have never seen anyone else manifest. It wasn't an illusion, trust me, I actually felt along the wall. It was well and truly gone, the room sealed shut with nothing but me, Lilinette and the pulsing doorway to Hueco Mundo inside it. And if you must know the truth, the moment that I realized that there was no way out, I wasn't frightened for a single instant. In fact, I was unspeakably happy.'

Stark smiled wryly.

'Because, if there was truly no door, no one else could follow me in; no one else could see her and, of course…'

'…no one could kill her,' Ishida breathed.

'Why should they have?' Stark snapped, the row of fangs beneath his jaw suddenly lifting to his chin. 'What had she done to deserve it? All of them had passed quietly, all of them had flown back to the cycle – the man who had used her as if she had been livestock, the woman who made her existence hell, but she was still there. Why would she out of them all be purified? She was already pure.'

'What were you thinking?' Ishida muttered, in true horror. 'You had no right to decide that!'

'Who else had the right to?' the Arrancar snarled, turning his face towards the human boy; his eyes sparkled, not with fury, Ishida suddenly realized, but with the very same insanity that had posessed him centuries before. 'Who else if not me? I was the only one who ever loved her, the only one who ever saw her like she truly was. I could not let them touch her…I thought, maybe, just this once, just this one soul…could be returned to the cycle. That she alone deserved another try at a human life that had so completely, utterly failed her.'

'But I could not give her that. I could not judge her, I could only destroy her.'

'What did you do?' Ishida breathed.

'Nothing spectacular,' Stark shrugged. 'I set the beacon that we were supposed to use to call the Shinigami whenever we cornered a Hollow, I sat back down and waited for them to show.'

'You gave away your position?' the young man whispered. 'Even though you knew all too well that once the Shinigami came, your friends, our clan…'

'If you could think of any other way in which she could have been judged, instead of destroyed, Uryu, I'd be most grateful for a retrospective alternative solution.' Stark answered, letting the silence that followed his words grow ominous and frozen. 'Besides,' he breathed, closing his eyes, and leaning his head back, 'I hoped they would not kill them, though in the back of my mind, the moment that I set up the beacon, I knew exactly what would happen. They did not have to kill them all, though…It was not necessary. But hope and reality are so far apart, Uryu…they did it, nonetheless; when they finally found me, and made it in though the Negacion, their swords were covered in blood. Not black, like the one that now runs through my veins, but red, like the one that flows through yours.'

'They said we did irreparable damage,' Stark followed, frowning as if simply uttering the words had taken a tremendous amount of physical effort. 'Hundreds of souls erased, a true massacre; it would take decades for the balance of the flow to be restored. They said we were a treacherous breed, that they could never risk anything of those dimensions occurring again. And thus, although they did not need to, they killed them all. Just to be safe.'

'Except for me, of course,' the Arrancar whispered. 'Because I had performed well, according to the pact. Or something along those lines,' Stark added, coughing to adjust his voice. 'I did not really pay attention – all that I cared for was Lilinette, so I kindly asked them to judge her, then kill me too, if it was not too much of an inconvenience.'

'I have a faint memory of their faces; they meld together, although, once they made the Garganta close and swallow my beautiful, perfect Lilinette, I tried to make it a point out of remembering them all, because, you see, I didn't understand…how…'

'I don't either,' Uryu whispered. 'I couldn't from the moment I saw her, but I guess the Hollow malice was too deep, that once she had been touched…'

Stark nodded, fast, eager to make the young man quiet.

'For her, it would have been better if you…' Ishida's voice trembled and faded.

'Do you not think I know that?' the Arrancar returned, looking at his extended palm. 'Do you think…I do not understand that I selfishly condemned us both to…this?'

He shook his head, gently raising his hand to cut off his own thoughts.

'After the Garganta had closed, and all of them had left, I want out to the garden and laid under the tree, waiting. It was high summer, a beautiful day. I looked up at the sun through the leaves of the apple tree, and I idly wondered if the lady, her mistress, had hung herself on one branch or the other…Do you imagine the edge of the Steele Schneider is cool, Uryu?'

'Sort of,' Ishida answered, softly.

'I assure you, it is hot. Maybe it is just that it was hot under the sun, that noon, or maybe it was the sheer hatred... I was never less grateful for the Quincy code than I was that day; I did not think that I deserved that kind of death, so fast, so clean... A single Steele Schneider stab through the heart, over in a flash. Those who came for me did not even ask me why I did it. If they had been able to immediately kill the soul, they would have, I am sure. I wanted them to. How many things of oneself can one actually betray in a few hours?'

Ishida looked to the side, to Stark's sharp, expressionless features. The Arrancar glanced straight into the darkness, so immobile he might have been mistaken for a statue.

'So here we are,' Stark ended simply. 'Here we all are, yet again.'

The archer nodded, remaining quiet for a few moments longer, feeling as if words had been bubbling in his heart and ascending to his lips for as much as he wished to keep them quiet. The Arrancar had not sounded as if he had been looking for commiseration, and Ishida suspected anything he might have added would be painfully artificial. Still, the words emerged of their own volition.

'I don't know what I would have done, if I was you,' Ishida whispered.

'You do not need to be kind,' Stark returned, gently. 'You would have stuck to the Code, and been a better man for it. Which is, in the end, the conclusion of my pointlessly sincere admission. I hope you now understand my temporary lack of a sense of humor, in Kuchiki's presence, and hopefully your desire of moderating the incident in his favor is gone. Was that not why you followed me out?'

Ishida cranked his nose in childish dismay, and the Arrancar chuckled.

'I am sure you meant to tell me that Kuchiki is a lot kinder than he sounds - that they are not all bad people. And I am sure you are right, and that they are not. But that's the very danger of the company you keep, Uryu. Be wary of them.'

The human drew a trembling, deep breath.

'Do not ever rely on the Shinigami. Never. For any reason or purpose; no matter how they inwardly feel, and how kind they may be as individuals, they will always keep to the moral safety of their laws. As should you.'

'Kurosaki…'Ishida began, clenching his fists – an image of his father had floated through his mind; he needed to exorcise it as he needed to exorcise the words of the ghost beside him. He looked up in surprise, when Stark burst into laughter.

'Kurosaki is fine,' the Arrancar managed, though cold chuckles. 'Keep away from Abarai and his lot…But you can trust Kurosaki; if he is your friend in that group, Uryu, then you have chosen well. A disturbing choice, if we were to judge by the Code alone, but, with some degree of added wisdom and flexibility given by my current condition, I'd say a good choice nonetheless; at least he is not stuck in any moral code. I should have trusted Nellie's nose,' he concluded, almost to himself.

'How so?' the human asked, shaking his head, and finally making the Segunda face him.

'He's not a Shinigami. He cannot be one.' Stark said, frowning in confusion. 'Don't you know?'

'Know what?' Ishida breathed. 'What is with Ichigo?'

'You truly do not know.' Stark kindly smiled. 'But that is alright.' Without turning his head, he softly and reassuringly brushed his hand against Ishida's forearm. 'You'll learn soon enough, I think.'

'What do you mean?' The Quincy asked, in momentous confusion.

'Kurosaki has a little secret,' the Segunda smiled wryly. 'And it is not my secret to tell, so I will not. However, I can tell you this much - if captain Kuchiki has his way, your Ichigo will need more protection from the Shinigami than you do, before the end. Just about as much protection as I shall.'

The Quincy frowned reproachfully, soliciting no more than an arched eyebrow from the Arrancar. Understanding that Stark would truly not give him further clarification, Ishida sighed in surrender and shook his head.

A long, rectangular limb of light stretched between the two as the door to the chamber opened; followed by Kenpachi and Unohana, and then the assortment of vice-captains, Kuchiki Byakuya made his way out. He spared the Quincy and the Arrancar no more than a passing glance, and though his features had not changed expression in the least, Ishida had perceived the glance as sternly disapproving. He almost instinctively straightened his frame and defiantly lifted his chin, not noticing Stark's almost cruelly approving smirk.

Up next - we return to our regularly scheduled programming. Szayel gets appreciation, and Ishida gets coffee. Can't be all bad.