Enjoy!

Chapter 36

The blue haired Arrancar was lost. He knew he was still in the Seireitei, but that was as far as his knowledge went. He thought he was inside one of the squads but couldn't figure out which one, since he had leapt over a few walls to get to where he now was. He was walking through a forested area, and if he hadn't known better, he'd think he was deep in the Rukongai. However, the scent of the hollow's reiatsu was getting stronger and he was confused.

'Can't the shinigami feel them?' Grimmjow asked himself for the umpteenth time. The energy was muted, almost as if it was under water, or some other barrier, but it was still strong enough for him to make out. 'Heh, I'm, surprised no one's come after me. Of course I did hide my reiatsu,' he chuckled quietly. 'But still...'

The forest suddenly gave way to a clearing and he could see a large cave up ahead with what looked like an iron door blocking it. There was no one around. Grimmjow scoped out the area and was just about to head to the door when he felt a terrific blow to the back of his head and he knew no more.

He awoke a little later with a pounding head and groaned at the pain. He found himself tied up in a huge cavern that looked like it was supposed to house...someone. He was pretty certain that the hollows milling about were not the original residents of this dank place. He tried to break free but something was sapping his reiatsu. That was when he noticed the collar around his neck. He tried to snarl but all that came out was another moan. He knew he didn't have his zanpakuto any longer and quickly glanced around until he spotted Pantera lying nearby but still out of his reach.

The hollow closest to him finally noticed that he was awake and came over. It was an Adjuchas and it moved with an arrogant cockiness that made Grimmjow's blood boil on principle. "So you finally came to," it said in a gravelly, self-satisfied voice.

"Yeah, where am I?" the blue haired Arrancar hissed with a sneer.

"You were so curious, we decided to bring you inside to see what you were missing," the Adjuchas sneered right back.

"Huh, cozy place ya got here," Grimmjow said with heavy sarcasm, "who's yer decorator? Better yet, who brought you here and how in the Three Worlds has no one found your little hidey hole?" The hollow laughed at the questions but didn't mind answering them. This uppity Arrancar would never leave the place alive to tell anyone of his discovery.

"Our master recruited us and brought us here," he said, obliquely referring to the shinigami who had made all this possible. He left out the identity, of course; he wasn't that stupid. "We have these little gadgets," he continued, referring to the collars they all wore, "to keep us hidden. Of course we can remove them when we need to."

Grimmjow snorted, "I found ya with no trouble! You ain't that hidden."

"You're one of us, a hollow, so of course you found us. The shinigami aren't that adept," he snorted in contempt.

"I wouldn't take 'em too lightly, jackass," the blue haired Arrancar snarled, not liking the comparison. He was nothing like these weak animals! "When they find ya, there won't be enough of ya left to bury."

Before the Adjuchas could retort, there was a loud commotion at the entryway and the hollows fell to the ground in dogeza. Grimmjow's eyes widened when he realized who he was looking at.

The shinigami came the rest of the way into the room with a hollow carrying an unconscious body over it's shoulder. "Take him down to the lab," the traitor ordered the hollow who bowed with difficulty and moved toward the other end of the room and Grimmjow. Blue eyes widened when he saw who was being carried.

"What're ya goin' to do with him?" he yelled at the leader of the group. The shinigami smiled but didn't answer. With a turn to the others who had by now gotten up, his captor began directing them on the next phase of their mission.

"It's time to gather the rest of the whole/hollow children. I'll provide a distraction while you go and fetch them. My research can't be concluded until I have them all."

Shunsui was impatiently waiting for Grimmjow to return when he felt the Arrancar's reiatsu completely disappear. He sighed and slowly got up from his desk. 'I suppose I'll have to go find out what happened to him,' he thought in frustration. 'I hope Ichigo didn't kill the bastard.' As he was leaving the Squad One barracks he was practically run over by his lover. Jushiro looked frantic.

"What's going on?" Shunsui asked in concern.

"Have you seen Koyoute?" Jushiro asked tensely.

"He was going over to Ichigo's for the afternoon," Kyouraku answered with a frown. "Isshin and Masaki put together a BBQ day for the kids and Koy wanted to spend some time with his friends from the Home..." Jushiro was shaking his head.

"I just came from there, they haven't seen him." The Sotaicho's face turned grim.

"Grimmjow's reiatsu just disappeared. I was heading over to find Ichigo and see if he turned up there. He wanted to spar again with Kurosaki; said something about 'evening the score.' Come on, we'll get to the bottom of this."

Ichigo could only shake his head over the crowd in his backyard. He was again glad that they had so much land; with all the children gathered together, it was a necessity. He grinned as he watched his friends and family playing with the kids. Byakuya and Kenpachi were involved with the smaller children and Yachiru, playing what appeared to be Hide and Seek. It looked like Byakuya was 'it' and Kenpachi was the 'safe' area. Over on the other side of the yard Ryuu had gathered the older children into what looked like a game of 'Hollow Hunt.'

Isshin, Masaki, and Hisoka were near the porch manning the BBQ grill and having a great time. His father had managed to find his 'Kiss the Cook' apron and was wearing it proudly, laughing like a fool. Ichigo shook his head again as he turned away from the nursery window and looked over at his sleeping girls with a small smile.

'I can hardly wait until you guys are old enough to be outside playing with everyone,' he thought as he heard a knock on his front door. He quietly left the nursery to answer the door and was almost knocked down by both Shunsui and Jushiro.

Before he could do anything more than look surprised, the Sotaicho asked hurriedly, "Have you seen Grimmjow?"

The younger man shook his head with a scowl. "What's he done now?" he asked in amused frustration.

"His reiatsu disappeared a little while ago," Jushiro broke in. "First Koyoute went missing and now Grimmjow."

Ichigo grew serious and turned to the backyard, catching both Byakuya's and Kenpachi's attention. The taichos hurried over just as Isshin noticed what was going on and curiously approached as well. When they all stopped just inside the door, the younger man explained what was happening. As he finished the terse account, they heard a scream and saw Nemu burst into the house, uncharacteristically hysterical. They all saw that she looked as if she'd been in a fight; her face was bruised and her uniform torn.

"S-sotaicho!" she gasped as she looked fearfully behind her.

"Shh, calm down," the brunette tried to calm the frantic young woman as he gently patted her back. "Take a few deep breaths and tell us what happened. Who did this to you?"

"M-Mayuri-sama did it," she gulped as she began to gather her wits about her and slowly settled down into something resembling her usual blank expression. "I found out..." she trailed off looking a bit scared before squaring her shoulders and meeting the Sotaicho's eyes firmly. "He's the one who's been after the children. I found him with your son. He's been using the Precipice World survey to cover his tracks. There's a make-shift lab set up in there."

Everyone's expression grew dark as she finished. "Damn it!" Shunsui growled. "I knew something was off, he was far too casual about what's been happening around here." He turned to Nemu and asked, "Is he there now?" When she nodded, he looked at the assembled officers. "Byakuya, Kenpachi, Jushiro and I'll go detain Kurotsuchi. Ichigo, send word to Renji. I want the two of you and Isshin to protect the children in case any hollows attack." Ichigo nodded and quickly went to send a hell butterfly to his mate before coming back to the group. Kyouraku finally turned toward Nemu and said gently, "Stay here and rest, you're safe now. I'll send for Unohana-taicho to come over and check you out."

She smiled slightly but shook her head. "I will be fine. Mayuri-sama gave me the ability to self-heal so there's no need to send for her." Shunsui slowly nodded.

"If you're sure..." he trailed off when she nodded once again. "Right, we'll be back shortly," he informed the Kurosaki's. "Keep an eye out for any hollows."

Isshin nodded, "We'll hold the fort here, you just stop that bastard."

As the rest turned to go, Renji burst into the house. Before he could ask anything, Kyouraku said, "Kurosaki-san will explain, we have to go." Ichigo was leading Nemu over to his mother who was trying to offer comfort while they settled her onto the porch. Isshin quickly explained the situation to his son-in-law.

"Shit!" Renji growled as he ran his hand through his hair. "It figures it was that bastard." He looked over at Nemu. "Is she goin' to be alright?" he asked.

"We'll just have to make sure she is," Ichigo answered as he came back inside. "We need to keep the kids safe. Most of them haven't noticed anything yet, and I'd like to keep it that way, if we can."

The small squad of taichos halted right outside the house and Shunsui quickly sent off a message to Unohana to come and check out Nemu; he wanted to make doubly certain that she was alright. Something didn't quite sit right with the Sotaicho but he couldn't put his finger on it. Zaraki felt the same way, so he wandered over to the side of the house and caught Yachiru's eye, giving her the signal to hide and keep a lookout. She nodded and under cover of the game, shot up into one of the tallest trees on the property in order to keep watch. She knew it was important when Ken-chan gave her that signal.

Jushiro was chuckling and calling his lover an old man as they regrouped and made their way toward the proper Senkai gate. Shunsui just frowned and picked up his speed, falling easily into shunpo; something was very wrong.

When they arrived, they saw Akon manning a computer terminal. "Where's Kurotsuchi?" Shunsui tersely asked before the younger man could say anything. Akon silently pointed toward the gate with a confused frown and the four men hurried inside, Byakuya and Kenpachi quickly outflanking the crazy scientist.

"What's going on here?" Kurotsuchi asked as soon as his research was interrupted. When Byakuya quickly bound him with Kido, he grew angry. "What's the meaning of this outrage?" he screeched as he struggled to get free.

"Where's Koyoute?" Jushiro asked seriously.

"Who?" the taicho asked in angry confusion.

"Our son!" Shunsui snapped, barely holding onto his temper. "What have you done with him?"

"What would I want with him?" Mayuri asked, all while struggling to get out of his bonds.

"You know he was one of the Espada we fought!" Jushiro exclaimed heatedly. He knew his son's life was in danger and the questioning wasn't going quickly enough.

"Oh, that," the scientist finally stopped struggling as he shrugged at his captors. "I have no interest in any of those children. They're no longer Arrancar, they're wholes now."

"Then why did you try to adopt Hachi and his brother?" Byakuya finally asked.

"And I would have too, if Unohana hadn't beaten me to it!" Kurotsuchi snarled. "But it wasn't to turn him into a test subject."

At their confused expressions, he sighed and began slowly explaining as if to dolts. "I fought Granz during the war. He was an exceptionally brilliant scientist in his own right. When I realized who the pink haired boy once was, I was delighted. I assumed that his mind had just as much potential and I wanted to adopt him so that he could realize that brilliance. He would have made a wonderful assistant. I had no interest in his brother at all, but as Wakahisa wouldn't split them up, I decided to adopt both."

Shunsui began frowning as he listened to the other man's explanation. He believed him, he could tell Mayuri was telling the truth. "If it wasn't you..." he trailed off, his eyes widening. The other three caught on at the same time.

"Nemu."

Back at the house, Ichigo was having a mental discussion with his zanpakuto. 'Yo, Getsu, can you trace Grimmjow's reiatsu?'

He heard the watery voice of his hollow inside his head, "Yeah, but it's muffled. Yer too much of a shinigami ta pick it up.'

'Shut up and tell me where it's coming from!' Ichigo mentally yelled.

'Ya want me ta shut up or tell ya?' the hollow huffed but with amusement tinging his voice. Ichigo closed his eyes and sighed.

'Which way?' he finally asked resignedly. When Getsu gave him the right direction, he thought, 'That's the opposite of where the taichos were headed.' He heard a sound and looked up to see a group of hollows descending upon his house from above and then he heard a small bang and looked over to where Nemu had been seated. She was now standing demurely and looked like she was holding a small detonator.

Then the exploding mist cloud hit him full in the face and right as he passed out, he heard her say to the hollow closest to her, "Gather all of the whole/hollow children and bring them back to the lab."

A/N: Now you know who's been up to no good. ^^