To all readers: Lil' Shadow-san shall not be giving a chapter for a an unknown amount of time, for personal reasons. As soon as we here from her, we shall tell you.

We own nothing you are familiar with.

Raen's POV

I couldn't take this much longer.

An intense blaze of rage, and upset was coursing through my veins, causing my head to pound painfully.

The last few minutes had been extremely difficult. My partner had been taken away, and I had lost my cool.

It was embarrassing, grabbing onto Cecilia's leg like that, begging her not to turn her back on us. I couldn't understand how she could do that; loyalty ran too deeply through my soul for me to turn my back on anyone, as I had proven by coming to her aid.

But…that's not all that caused me to react like that. I was still feeling the aftereffects of my little power fluke, and her attempting to turn on us rang way too familiar to what had nearly caused my death long ago.

Mitsuteru…

Abandonment.

Left to die.

I never had expected it to happen like that, for someone to just up and leave me there like that.

It was painful.

I thought I would have died right then and there, left on top of that ruined old building.

How could someone do that to me? Betray me like that?

His words still rang through my mind, burning me from the inside out.

"You…I do not need you anymore. There is no room in this world for weaklings, and I have no patience for them. Stay here and die alone; you are unwanted and useless."

The whole scene was too cliché; a ruined rooftop, pouring rain…but even still…it was unbearably painful.

I watched as he gave me one last glance; eyes cold as ice, before he leapt off the rooftop and out of sight.

"Sephiroth…" I moaned, crawling towards the edge, even as the blood pooled around me from the gash he had left.

"You… you promised you would help me!" I shouted. "You can't! You can't just leave me like this! Please, you've got to help me! Help him!" I was sobbing as I screamed, knowing full well that he was already gone. "You have to help me bring him back!"

Why did history have to repeat itself? In his place, was Ceci ready to abandon me too. I couldn't take it; it was too much.

I fell to my knees, my body heavy from the earlier attack. My hand shot out and grabbed her ankle.

"No!" I shouted, causing everyone to start and stare at me.

"You can't! You can't leave us now! Please, you've gotta help me…help her!" I suddenly shouted, clinging "You have to help me get her back!"

I couldn't let things happen the same way; I couldn't let myself feel this helpless again.

I stared at the floor beneath my fingertips, feeling lost and defeated. My mind was elsewhere; reliving once again the painful memory of Sephiroth's betrayal and the realization that one of my loved ones would never come back.

It felt like all the color was draining from my world; everyone's voices were becoming dim, just sounds without decipherable meaning. And then, Cecelia's voice cut straight through the fading light.

"You'll regret this."

Was she…going to stay?

Aella let out a laugh.

"Good to have you with us again. Anyone got a plan? Cause I sure don't"

"Aella, I swear...what am I going to do with you?" was Ceci's reply. I could almost hear laughter; dark laughter, but laughter none the less. "Do you have a plan?"

I looked up at her, color returning to my world. It would seem history would not repeat itself…for the moment.

"I don't even know exactly what we're up against. To be honest I had kept myself hidden since Hojo and Weiss were killed" I sighed, "Not even Aella here knew where I was..."

I sat more upright, mentally slapping myself to try and pull it together. Now that things were returning to normal (if you could really call anything like this normal) I felt horribly embarrassed that I had flipped out on them like that.

I cleared my throat. "Well, uh, you see Aizen was a former captain of the 13 court guard squads. He betrayed us shortly after a human boy by the name of Ichigo Kurosaki broke in the Soul Society. We had been told he was in Hueco Mundo building up an army of hollows..."

"Stop a sec, Raen. What's Soul Society...or Hueco Mundo...or Hollows?" she asked, totally confused.

"Soul Society is where the souls of the dead go. Hueco Mundo is where the hollows live. Hollows are malevolent deceased souls. They eat other souls. And arrancar are hollows in a shinigami type form." I explained. This was a conversation I had gone over with many people over the years, so I had it pretty well rehearsed.

"I didn't ask about that..." she muttered.

I grinned sheepishly. "I explained before you did. Anyway, he was building an army of hollows to fight the Soul Society. But apparently he has more to his plan than that"

"So this Aizen guy is stronger than you?" Aella asked.

I turned and looked at her, a sarcastic grin on my face. They really had no idea what they were getting themselves into, though really I didn't either.

"Well, I think we could take him. It's just him and a bunch of these arrancar deals, right?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"When he left, he took two other captains. And certain arrancar are stronger than shinigami." I replied.

"Which ones?" Ceci asked.

"From my understanding, the ones from 1 to 10. And I have no idea how many are here" I replied.

Ceci sighed. "So to put it simple...We're doomed."

That's one way to put it… I thought, zoning out on them for a moment. There was something that called to my attention, something that had to do with Raio. Just before she had been taken away, she had said she had known about Aizen's plans prior to his betrayal...

I felt a spark run up my spine; how could she just sit idly by when she knew? And she had been fooled by him; just like Momo. Damn it…

And that look she had given me; it was enough to rival my own, if I had been pissed instead of instead of shock. Just what was this partner of mine?

"Who else has a phone? Maybe you guys could get a hold of your friends…?" asked Ceci suddenly. I blinked and automatically pulled out mine, before coming to the realization… seki-seki stone meant there would be no connection at all…

"Damn…dead…" I snarled, shutting it.

"You could use mine," she offered. I smirked slightly.

"No, normal cells can't call Soul Society; thanks though."

She sort of frowned, before drawing herself up to her full height.

"Okay, well, what are we waiting for? We could use all the help we can get." She smirked.

I shut my phone and crammed it into my shihakushou, before looking around the room. All of the rest of the unfortunates were still there, watching us. Well, we were blocking the exit, and we were also pretty formidable…but…

"Hmm…I have an idea…" I muttered, my eyes locking on Kanda. He stared back at me with a suspicious expression, trying to read me.

"Ehh? And what's that?" asked Aella, walking over to me. She looked at Kanda and the others with the same sort of thoughtful expression, putting things together. I turned and gave Jolene and Ceci a grin.

"Hey…why not employ these guys to help us out? The merrier the morrier they say…I think."

"Em…ploy?" asked Jolene, her eyebrows rising. "And they would agree…why?"

"Well… if it weren't for us…they'd still be stuck here, right?" I replied, gesturing slightly.

"Speak for yourself…" growled Kanda.

The tall vampire took a few steps forwards; immediately Aella and I tensed to attack. He gave us a bemused grin.

"Yes, what Mr. Yuu said… haven't you learned not to underestimate me yet, little shinigami-san?"

Ohh….his voice was very patronizing. I felt my face flush red.

"Don't call me that! If it wasn't for you, things wouldn't have turned out like this!" I walked right up to him, despite the differences in power and height. I jabbed him in the chest. "I should kill you right now, vampire scum-"

"Now jus' hold on a minute there," cut in Aella, her hand on my arm. I tried to pull away, but her grip tightened.

"What?" I snapped.

"Tch. I can't have you killing off my marks, ya got that? I get your point, but back off."

"Make me," I seethed, turning on her, my hair standing on end.

"Is tha' a challenge?" she replied, facing me full on, her body tense.

"Hell yes it is-OW!" I shrieked, as something came in contact with my forehead. I caught it…a shoe.

"Would you two cut it out?" snapped Jolene, standing on one foot. Her other one was balanced over her other knee, shoeless.

"What the hell Jolene? Throwing shoes at us?!" shrieked Aella, irked but amused at the same time.

"Yes," she snapped with annoyance. "Now give me my shoe back, before I really make you shut up."

"No, finders keepers, shoe-less weepers." Teased Aella, grabbing the shoe from me and waving it in the air.

Cecilia slapped her hand to her forehead, while Kanda just stared at us.

"Who the hell are you people?!"

"Ignoring that…someone's got to say something to pull everyone into working order," said Ceci. "But who?"

Aella and I stared at each other. I would be perfectly able to do it, but she obviously wanted to as well.

Out of seemingly nowhere Jolene reached in and retrieved her shoe, smacking us both on the head as she did so.

"Well I rule these two out; they'll just cause more trouble."

Ceci nodded.

"Fine; you do it then."

Jolene glanced at her, before slipping her shoe back on. She brushed her hair back as she stood tall.

"Alright, then. Well, fellow…uh…fellows… How about you help us kick the enemy's ass for locking us up like this?" muttered Jolene, obviously not used to addressing people like that.

There was no answer; the others just stared at us and grumbled slightly.

I turned and stared at Kanda.

"Oi, Kanda, are you just going to walk away? There's a chance the Earl's behind it, seeing as one of his Noah are here."

"Urusai!" He shouted, "Whether or not I continue this charade is none of your business, you wannabe exorcist!"

My teeth ground together in annoyance, and I was ready to yell back, but surprisingly Cecilia put her hand over my mouth.

"We can't force them, so stop yelling. You're giving me a headache." She let go and went to the opening in the wall.

"It's up to them whether or not they will fight. Either way, let's go."

"Tch. She's right…but those that don' fight are pretty wimpy if ya ask me…" Aella muttered, before stomping out, Jolene following, as if to make sure the demon behaved.

I sighed and looked away from Kanda.

"Well, whatever; I at least have a bone to pick with Tyki, so I'll see you around."

Before he could answer I climbed out of the hole, Ceci's brother Vincent following.

"Alright, let's go!" yelled Aella, running down the hallway. The rest of us followed after, silently and swiftly.

"Oi…we need to get our weapons first, Aella!" cried Jolene, tearing after her, her red hair flashing in the dim light.

"And that would be?" replied Cecilia, easily keeping time with Jolene.

The both looked at me.

"You…you did that weird thing earlier, didn't you? Where you could sense where things were or something?" asked Jolene.

"Yeah, couldn't you just use it to find out where our weapons are? It'd be a lot easier than running blindly through this place!" cried Cecilia.

I smiled apologetically, my legs cramping from not being able to use them for so long.

"Not really… I don't have control over it, and it hurts like hell to use it!" I replied. "And I can't even activate it on my own anyway!"

Both women frowned.

"We really could use it right now…" said Ceci.

"Well…if worse comes to worse…we could always ask Alucard to do whatever he did-"

"Hell no!" Ceci and I yelled in unison. Of course it was for two different reasons, but at least someone agreed with me on something.

"Urg…there's got to be another way…" growled Jolene.

I suddenly sped up to catch up with our demon.

"Oi, Aella…use your damned nose and sniff out my stuff, why don't ya?!"

She turned around.

"Eh? Thinking you can order me around?!"

"No!" I snapped, "I was asking for your help!"

"That didn't sound like asking!"

We both had skidded to a stop and were facing each other, growling dangerously.

"I'm getting t-OOF!" I cried, as I was knocked over by someone as they ran. By the sound of it, as I went rolling in surprise, Aella suffered the same fate.

I started to get to my feet, only to duck as a certain blue haired exorcist went flying over my head, a very subtle grin on his face.

"Kanda…" I growled, leaping to my feet and chasing after him. I whacked him on the back of the head as I went by, causing him to roar in outrage and chase me instead. I just laughed and caught back up to Jolene and Ceci, who were both shaking their heads at me. Aella was in the front again, grinning smugly.

"The two of you are such children," muttered Cecilia, frowning slightly.

"Ahahaha, only because it's fun," I laughed, ducking as Kanda attempted to grab my neck. "If we're serious all the time, we'll never have any fun!"

"Whatever you say," replied Jolene, a slight smile on her face.

I smiled back before setting my eyes on wherever Aella was leading us.

Fun or not…things are going to become more difficult…