Notes:

Been slacking on that timeline ya'll. Sooorrrry. I mean, I cleaned the house, took kitty to the vet, oil painted some doggos, got my cello fixed, practiced cello til my fingers hurt, RP'd a bit, played some maplestory, and made some creamed corn for Thanksgiving, so I'd say this weekend wasn't wasted. Oh and my roommate and I went for margaritas and yogurt. That was fun.

Now back to work, sigh ~

Cheat Sheet:

Reiryoku → reiatsu → reishi

Die Königin (The Queen)

Aspect: Vengence, Life

Location: Geisterwelt (Spirit World aka: Soul Society)

Physical medium: Die Augen der Königin (The eyes of the Queen)

Ability: Das licht (the light)

Kinder: Quincy (Manipulate reishi)

Quincy host: das Herz der Königin (The heart of the Queen)

Current Host: Adaliz (F)

- xxx -

Alteza (High King)

Aspect: Regret, death

Location: Hueco Mundo (Hollow world)

Physical medium: Las manos de Alteza (the hands of the High King)

Ability: La sangre (the blood)

Niños: Hollows (feed off of reishi)

Hollow host: El corazón de Alteza (The heart of Alteza)

Current Host: Kurosaki Ichigo (M)

Previous Hosts: Aizen Sousuke - Mictlāntēcutli

Ganbari masu!

Dioses Falsos

Kill your Gods. Devour your oppressors.

- xxx -

Grimmjow Jeagerjaques

He'd spoken with Kurosaki and Harribel about this beforehand, it wasn't a surprise that he would be point, but the lack of supervision caught him off guard. He watched Kurosaki disappear into that darkness, stunned. He wasn't the only one, most of the Espada looked to Harribel by default.

She reiterated what Kurosaki said, "You heard him, this is Grimmjow's show." Her eyes settled on him. "Choose, tercero."

Now that the shock was wearing off, he couldn't stop the smile that stretched across his face. "Yylfordt, Edrad, Shawlong."

Szayel scoffed in disgust and turned away, muttering incredulously, "Color me surprised."

Grimmjow's patience for Szayel was nonexistent, and Kurosaki was no longer present. He growled, "Maricón."

Szayel narrowed his eyes, but didn't take the bait.

When Kurosaki got bored sparring with him, then the hollow would come out and play. Sometimes the visored even fell asleep, and he and the hollow would talk. All Zangetsu gave a flying fuck about was battle and carnage and Kurosaki, so their topics were limited. They wouldn't speak much, just a few words here or there, but he'd heard about the Espada's interest in Kurosaki and it only made him hate the other more.

Szayel left angry, and the rest of the Espada followed suit, save for Neliel and Harribel. Apacci cleared her throat, pointedly drawing his attention. "I wanna go."

Yylfordt asked, "What for?"

"Revenge, why else? I wanna go."

Grimmjow looked her up and down, then to the two that flanked her. "You never go anywhere alone, that means I have to take all of you?"

Mila crossed her arms and bristled. "You say that like you didn't just default to your old fraccion."

Everyone had their safety blankets, and he knew his old fraccion inside and out. Grimmjow shrugged it off. "Enough yammering, let's go already."

He stepped into sonido and the rest of the Espada followed, with Neliel hanging back. It was a blessing that Kurosaki often held these meetings in large, open areas, it made coming and going that much easier. The visored didn't seem to like being caged in a small room, and Grimmjow had to admit, he didn't seem to fit in one. Even without feeling his reiatsu, his presence was huge, enough that Kurosaki looked distinctly out of place. In fact, the only place that seemed to compliment him were the naked dunes of Hueco Mundo. Creatures like Kurosaki needed room to stretch, and Las Noches wasn't the place for that.

They crossed a distance of miles in minutes, stretching out his pesquisa to find the cluster of fraccion. He'd never liked them, they'd always thought they were more important than they really were. Now that they had the balls to try to carve out their own territory inside Kurosaki's. For that, he wanted to crush them.

It seemed the approach of a an armful of Espada was enough to warrant their attention. The closer they got, the closer together the fraccion drifted, until they were huddled together in one easy to manage group.

Grimmjow stopped a cautious distance away, the Espada behind him making it clear in the way they arranged themselves that he was in charge. He liked that, being at the top and having that much more power at his disposal. He didn't need their help, but it was a damn good feeling to know that he did.

Baraggan's fraccion wasn't arranged in obvious way, none of them seemed very submissive. If Ichigo hadn't dealt with them now, there was a good possibility of infighting, if it hadn't happened already. Arrancar that were so independent and aggressive rarely stayed together without one much stronger leader, and Baraggan was six feet under.

The blonde spoke first. "Need something?"

Like they didn't already know. Grimmjow said, "It's cute how you think you can bend the rules and carve out your own territory with no consequences."

The blonde let out a condescending bark of laughter. "Who cares what happens to a few weak hollows?"

"Yeah, who cares?" Yylfordt growled. He squeezed his Zanpakuto, but didn't draw, not before Grimmjow.

Apacci shouted, "You can't just run around dismembering arrancar on your side."

The one with nasty looking tattoos smirked. "And why not? They're weak."

Grimmjow kept his tone uncharacteristically even, making a real effort not to devolve immediately into cursing. He could feel Neliel's eyes on him, even if he couldn't see her. "You've cut off the entirety of the southern side of Las Noches. It wasn't yours to take, and you're gonna stop."

"And why should we?" asked the one with the catlike skull on his head.

Grimmjow's answered, "Because you're a nuisance and it's a direct order. You don't need another reason."

The one with the cat-like skull reached for his Zanpakutou, but the blonde one only laughed. "So where's White then?"

"You think you're worth his time?" Grimmjow laughed, loud and full of condescension. "He's got better shit to deal with than a handful of unruly numeros."

Tattoos curled his lip in disgust. "White isn't even a full arrancar. His reiatsu still has the reek of shinigami."

That angered Grimmjow more than he'd like to admit. His eyes narrowed, baring his teeth in a silent snarl. "When you can sense it." Kurosaki could wipe them out with a well placed swing of his sword, they were trash.

Tattoo's blew him off. "Whatever, for all we know, he's just real good at hiding it. Baraggan can't be dead, he was God of death, how can he be dead!"

"You must be brain dead," said Mila. "Or do you think you imagined Baraggan getting obliterated?"

Grimmjow reached for his own Zanpakuto, drawing it slowly, the scrape of steel noticeable in the silence. "Enough. Last chance." They couldn't possibly think Baraggan was coming back, they had to be delusional.

Baraggan's fraccion all drew their swords in near unison, their choice made.

"Fine," Grimmjow said, "Die for nothing."

- xxx -

Kurosaki Ichigo

He hadn't left Grimmjow to handle all the fun exclusively for his health, he had his own shit to deal with. The kind that involved crossing the expanse of miles in a footstep, the kind that he had to do alone. He hadn't forgot Loly's warning of hollows going missing, he'd agonized over it like all the other problems in his life.

He'd started running patrols, of a sort. Die Königin was just as relentless as ever, but every now and again, he noticed a haze in his awareness, a kind of gap not unlike Mictlān's grave, or the pillars Adaliz had anchored in the sand when she'd first begun her assault. Whatever was causing the stutters in his awareness, he had no doubt it was tied to das licht.

He still couldn't help but feel he was playing a hopeless game of tag. He was reacting to what Adaliz did. For all intents and purposes he was trapped in a snowglobe while she raked her nails over the glass and shook his tiny, collapsing world. She could track him if she tried, he couldn't block out the vision of those eyes, not entirely.

He jumped across Hueco Mundo, skipping massive expanses of space. He'd step out into more sand, ruins, the peaks of what appeared to be mountains, trees, a seemingly bottomless pit; Hueco Mundo was small, compared to the living world or Soul Society, but it was by no means tiny. He kept coming up empty.

Until he got lucky.

He found a bloodied and battered arrancar, and it wasn't one of his own. He caught sight of him silhouetted against the dunes, a trail of blood stretching only yards behind him, starting from nowhere. There were no signs of a fight, no traces of reishi lingering in the air, but this arrancar was clearly either running from something, or he'd been dumped here, yet he saw no signs of a garganta.

Ichigo crossed the distance in the rush of sonido, the tattered ends of his shihakusho settling around him as he crouched beside the arrancar. He hadn't turned to dust, he was still alive, but he looked dead. He was dressed in all black, a tattered cloak wrapped around his shoulders. Ichigo could see the wet glisten of blood. It matted his hair and dripped off his mask.

He moved to touch him, and the arrancar jerked back before he could, finally noticing him. He looked up at Ichigo with blind panic, trying to drag himself away. While he was missing an arm and his leg was broken, he wasn't going to make any sort of progress, it was more than pitiful to watch.

Ichigo reached out and grabbed him by a fistful of his cloak, dragging him back. The arrancar made a choked, agonized sound, but stopped trying to escape. He was shaking like a leaf, both in fear and pain. One of his eyes was red with blood, narrowed and watering as he struggled to see. Ichigo demanded, "Who did this to you?"

The arrancar said nothing, and Ichigo growled in annoyance. He pulled him closer with a fist in his cloak, and with his other hand, he stuck his fingers in the open wound where his arm use to be. He felt for the traces of whatever reiatsu was left. The arrancar seized in pain, but Ichigo's sympathy was rather nonexistent. This was something he'd done enough that it had become routine, even if he hadn't needed to recently.

He pulled his hand away, the human nature of this reiatsu drawing a scowl on his face. Quincy. And not a signature he recognized. He wasn't the best at this sort of thing, it did help that whoever did this was strong. He didn't realize he'd been afraid he'd sense Ishida until he hadn't, it was only brief respite from a larger problem.

He flexed his fingers, feeling something he could only classify as bad, and realized this was a remnant of das licht. He had a feeling this might hurt if he could feel pain.

"It's not that shocking, King, you already knew the Quincy were meddling in your business."

'But what purpose does this serve?' He gestured down at the dying hollow. 'How are they even getting here without opening a garganta? Outside of Nelliel, no one else has been coming or going from Las Noches. Not with any trackable method.' He'd have gotten a warning from Szayel if a garganta was opened. Around Las Noches, there was never any activity, but farther out into Hueco Mundo, occasionally hollows would go to or from the living world. He couldn't control every hollow, but he could watch, and for those instances Szayel noted, he'd never found anything suspicious about it.

Zangetsu didn't have an answer, but Ossan did. "If Adaliz is interfering personally, it's more than possible she could open a path between worlds. It would explain how she set the pillars without our notice."

Ossan made a good point, but he had to wonder what he was supposed to do about this when he couldn't even sense it happening. Maybe if he also had centuries of practice, but he didn't. He had a sharp learning curve, but this might be asking too much of him.

Ichigo's attention returned to the arrancar. He was mostly dead, and he wasn't a miracle worker when it came to healing Kido. He could drag him through la sangre, but that in itself would probably finish him off. There was no saving him.

He finally dropped the arrancar, who immediately resumed trying to drag himself away. Watching him struggle to live when there was no hope made his insides squirm. He drew Zangetsu, turning the blade in his hand and holding it above the arrancar's head. He brought his sword down without hesitation, killing him quickly.

He pulled his sword free, watching the blood congeal in the sand with a shiver. He'd long since stopped feeling so unbearably sick when he killed out of mercy. Now he felt very little, but even a small amount of regret or disgust was too much. At least this one wasn't begging...or a young shinigami.

"Don't go there, King."

So he didn't. He turned and went home, crossing leagues in an instant. He stepped from la sangre into an empty hallway, and he'd made sure it was empty beforehand. He was going out of his way not to startle any arrancar.

Grimmjow was right, he was King, but he was also their boogeyman. He wasn't some omniscient God like some of the lower ranked arrancar believed, but he had a good deal more than reiatsu to throw around. He was taking Harribel and Neliel's advice when it came to not frightening the arrancar. His inner spirits weren't much help, their opinions were unsurprisingly brutal.

He put his finger to the communicator in his ear and said, "Report." At the moment it was set to only communicate with Neliel, but if anyone wanted to use it to find him, he was sadly very, very found. His privacy was next to null unless he had a buffer.

Neliel answered, her voice perky. "Kitty completed his task with no losses on our side. Want me to send him to you?"

"Why not, I'll stay put." He was about to let her go, then asked, "How did it go with Pesche?"

She laughed. "As you can expect. He was a bit upset about it, but he'll be fine."

With the dedication Pesche gave towards protecting Nel, he had no doubt he saw this as an interference to his goals. He said, "Once he makes out that this means he'll get to hang around you, I'm sure he'll be more than fine."

He heard her sigh fondly. "We can hope."

There was silence from the communicator and he turned to the wall. He touched it, pulling the walls apart with la sangre. It opened up to Hueco Mundo, a cold breeze snaking through the growing gap in the wall. He sat and leaned forward on his knees and closed his eyes. He was bone tired, but he was no less twitchy now than he'd been weeks ago. The difference being the consequences for sleeping were much lower than before.

Ossan reminded him. "It has been too long since you slept, Ichigo."

"How long?"

"The passage of time here is strange, but I would wager it has been a couple of days."

For how little sleep he'd gotten, he felt relatively okay. "Shouldn't I be more exhausted?"

"Perhaps it is the effect of la sangre? You've needed less sleep. Or rather, you appear to need less sleep."

He would have to go with the latter if he was a betting man. He still couldn't feel pain, and this might have something to do with that. Or he didn't know what the fuck he was talking about.

He thought about Ishida. He tried not to, but the look of betrayal on his face haunted him. He ran that conversation over and over in his head, and he saw no other outcomes. His friend was angry, and he couldn't help him.

Ichigo found he'd dozed off when he was jolted awake, sucking in a sharp breath. He sensed Grimmjow's reiatsu nearby, not necessarily too close for comfort, he just couldn't get over the fear he was being snuck up on. He stretched, looking over his shoulder when Grimmjow stepped in. The Espada looked pleased with himself, which was good, his self esteem lately had been too low to be normal. He supposed it was only natural when he lost all the time. There wasn't anything he could do about that without stomping on his pride, so this was the best he could do. Ichigo asked, "Did you kill them all?"

Grimmjow made an exasperated noise. "No, one of them surrendered, and he doesn't have his pals to back him up, so he's done, I let him go." He sat down on the edge, his legs dangling over the side and flopped back, folding his arms behind his head. He observed, "You smell like blood."

Ichigo glanced down at his hands, now bloodless, but he supposed nothing could get past Grimmjow's nose. "I found a dying arrancar some leagues out, not too unusual, but the reiatsu in his wounds was Quincy." He didn't mention how shaken the arrancar had been. No sense starting the rumor mill.

The look on Grimmjow's face flitted from surprise to angry confusion. "What? How? Isn't that pink-haired motherfucker monitoring travel in and out of this place?"

Ichigo shrugged. "I'm assuming it's something he can't track, or something that looks a whole lot like what die Königin is already up to."

Grimmjow asked, "What are you going to do about it?"

"Not much I can do, other than patrol and cross my fingers, hoping I run into someone."

"Sounds frustrating," Grimmjow said.

"You have no idea." Running around in circles in Hueco Mundo reminded him of the war, and it was just as boring, no matter how quickly he could cross the distance now. He yawned and changed the subject back onto Grimmjow. "So. Debrief, tell me what happened."

Grimmjow's head rolled back to look at him, then his eyes refocused on the ceiling. "What's there to say?"

Ichigo snorted softly. "I don't know, that's why I asked." It took a lot of effort not to tack 'stupid' onto the end of that sentence. He liked to think moments like that were proof he wasn't the teenager he felt like.

"Shuddup...Didn't you ask Neliel?"

"I'm asking you first," said Ichigo. Technically that was a lie, but he was going to try to get the full story from Grimmjow first. Besides, the Espada was arrogant, but he wasn't a narcissist. If he wanted to know how Grimmjow fared from an outsider's perspective, he'd need to talk to Nel.

After a moment, Grimmjow started. "I went after the tattoo one and what's his name...Ggio. The tres bestias went after the real big, stupid one with that thing...Ayon? Whatever. That blonde bastard went after Yylfordt. The girlie one and Nirgge went against Shawlong and Edrad. Ggio surrendered once I killed the tattooed one and all his friends went down."

"Sounds fair," said Ichigo. "Seems like things went your way, so why are you frustrated?"

"Who said I'm frustrated?" Grimmjow snarled.

"You're bouncing your knee and your reiatsu is all over the place. You're an open book."

"Fuck you," Grimmjow snapped, "Like you're any better."

"Never said I wasn't. So what's bothering you?"

There was a long pause, then Grimmjow muttered, "It's really fuckin' stupid." Ichigo said nothing, he knew if he pushed harder, Grimmjow wouldn't say anything at all. A few more minutes crept by, and he was starting to make peace with the fact he'd never know. Grimmjow's voice was barely audible from where Ichigo sat. "...just the lack of fuckin' respect."

Ichigo looked at him, unsure what he was talking about. "Respect?"

Grimmjow stiffened, twisting to see him. "For you! You dumb fuck. Doesn't it bother you?"

"Does it bother you?" Clearly it did, but Ichigo could put his finger on why. Grimmjow growled, and Ichigo heaved a sigh. "And what would fix it? Killing everyone?"

"Sure," the Espada grumbled.

Ichigo asked, "Does that mean I have your respect?"

Grimmjow looked at him with wide eyes, then looked anywhere else. "Don't let it get to your head, dumbass. You're strong."

That was a bit flattering, especially from Grimmjow. He laid back and asked, "Did you have someplace to be?"

"Why?"

Ichigo muttered, "Tired." That was all he needed to say, and Grimmjow didn't move to leave. It was nice that he didn't make him beg. There was always Zangetsu, but there was always the chance Alteza would interfere. Over the months, Grimmjow's presence had become familiar, and he knew without a doubt that Grimmjow wouldn't hurt him while he slept, he was too prideful for that.

Curling up on his side, Ichigo left his Zanpakuto where it was. The weight wasn't necessarily comfortable. The edge dug into his side and his shoulder in a sharp, painful way, but it eased his thoughts to know it was close at hand. He was exhausted, he drifted off rather quickly. He was too tired to notice the tug on his reiatsu, he slept straight through it...

- xxx -

Zangetsu

His wielder was sound asleep, and it was the prime opportunity to talk with his fraccion. He materialized beside Ichigo, and Grimmjow barely even moved. He must be getting use to him if he barely even acknowledged his presence.

Grimmjow snapped quietly, "What? Am I not a good enough babysitter?"

Zangetsu sat, crossing his legs, his knee brushing King's shoulder. He didn't stir, King trusted him. "Yer fine. Wanted to talk to ya."

Grimmjow just glared, but he was listening. Good enough. "You heard about the shit with the adjuchas."

"I have ears and Nel has a mouth; Of course I did, everyone did."

He'd figured, Nel really knew how to run her mouth. "Do me a favor, try to keep King in your sight for awhile."

"Why?"

"It's all getting to him." Zangetsu said.

Grimmjow asked, brows scrunching together. "What is?"

Zangetsu narrowed his eyes. "Everything." He looked down at King, aware his dreams weren't pleasant. They were never pleasant. Ever since his doubts about Soul Society had started to fester, since he'd spoken to Ishida, the wind howled.

King wasn't happy.

He hadn't been asleep too long, but he started to mutter in that strange language he wasn't privy to. That annoyed him almost as much as Alteza's mutterings. Loud fucker.

Grimmjow noticed, staring for a moment in disquiet before he asked, "What's he sayin'?"

"I don't know," growled Zangetsu.

Grimmjow accused, "How can you not know, aren't you the same?"

Zangetsu nearly brushed him off, but Ossan's presence in Ichigo's soul reminded him to be calm. "Now that you have it back, can you imagine having part of your soul taken away? There are places in his soul even I can't go. It's infuriating."

Grimmjow sat up, frowning down at King. Given the death grip he had on his Zanpakuto, maybe the Espada could imagine it.

Tuning out his wielder's mutterings, Zangetsu said, "Distract him. Fight, shout at him, I don't care. Get him out of his head."

"Is it really that bad?"

Zangetsu snorted under his breath. "You know how he is. The longer this goes on, the greater the chance he kills someone he doesn't mean to."

Grimmjow eyed King's back dubiously. "He seemed alright." He didn't sound so sure anymore.

"Just...watch him." Before Grimmjow, he returned to his soul to the shifting black sands that held his wielder captive. King did a good job repressing the things that made him panic, but this was one huge problem he was doing his best to ignore. He was doing better, he was letting people in, but there was no one person he really let in. Out of necessity and desperation Grimmjow was high on that list, and as painful as it was to keep turning to him for help, he was remarkably reliable.

Ossan came up behind him and reminded him. "Grimmjow respects Ichigo, he looks to him for guidance. Ichigo is in good hands."

Zangetsu grimaced, kicking a stone out onto the sand. It hissed and swallowed it up, just as dangerous as it looked. He growled, "Hands that would kill him if he could."

"You know that's no longer true. Ichigo doesn't trust blindly, the Espada is worthy of it."

Zangetsu knew that was true, but that didn't mean it sat well with him. He could sense Grimmjow there, he could feel his eyes on King, yet he never woke. Ossan was right, it meant a good deal that King could sleep with someone so dangerous sitting only a few feet away.

Zangetsu muttered, "He's a hot-headed mess." The only thing that was a good fit was that somehow King trusted him.

"The Espada is still our best option."

- xxx -

Grimmjow Jeagerjaques

Kurosaki slept a long time, more than he was expecting him to. It had been awhile since he'd been on guard duty. He preferred to pretend Kurosaki needed protection, and not the other way around. He was just too damn strong. Even sitting near him, it kept his hackles raised. He'd ended up with his hand around his neck or a sword to his gut more than enough times to be wary. Not that it could save him in the end.

What kept him coming back was the fact that Kurosaki never followed through, and the one time he had, he'd fixed him. It might be a shallow reason to trust him now, but he did. He watched him sleep, brows drawn tight even while he was unconscious.

He didn't know why the bastard could never relax. The happiest he'd ever seen him was with his swords in hand, cloaked in his own immense power. It suited him. Seeing him asleep was always surreal, but any illusion of weakness was only that; an illusion. If he so much as sneezed, he'd end up with a sword in his gut.

Grimmjow couldn't be sure, but he thought he liked the risk, even if he didn't like dealing with a confused, aggressive once he was awake.

He noticed Kurosaki stiffen, but he blinked, and in a cloud of gently settling reishi, Kurosaki was pressed to the far wall, his short sword in hand. He stayed still, letting the visored come to grips with where he was on his own. Kurosaki blinked, his eyes focusing on Grimmjow, then he breathed, his shoulders sagging.

He'd never pried before, but what his inner hollow had to say didn't sit well with him. Grimmjow let out a tense breath, and asked, "Nightmare?"

Kurosaki seemed just as unprepared for the question as Grimmjow was for asking it. He blinked, rising from his crouch and sheathing his sword. "Is it a nightmare if it happened?"

"A memory?"

Kurosaki narrowed his eyes, crossing the room to sit back down nearby. "Sort of. Mine mixed with a few memories I'm pretty sure aren't mine."

Grimmjow looked at him. "You don't know?"

He thought he saw embarrassment on Kurosaki's face, but he wasn't sure. "I've killed a lot of hollows, so have the adjuchas I'm helping evolve. Sometimes it's hard to tell."

He'd heard that much from Nel, but to see proof was strange. To see someone so strong crippled by dreams wasn't fair. Grimmjow said, "Surely the ones where you're running scared aren't your memories?"

Kurosaki blushed, both in shame and anger, but the predominant emotion was anger. "Let's see you fight a war when you're sixteen."

Grimmjow growled, "You're sixteen? Fuck off."

The visored rolled his eyes and snorted. "Was. Now I'm...shit, Ossan how old am I?"

"Ossan?" he questioned.

"Inner spirit." Kurosaki looked away, distracted by whatever inner conversation he was having. "About 28, including the surprise time travel."

Grimmjow's eyes widened. "Stop fucking around."

Kurosaki protested, "I'm not!"

He was a shit liar, he really did look like he was telling the truth, and he really didn't seem that crazy, nor the type to lie on purpose. He blinked, realizing a kid conquered Las Noches, invaded Seireitei, and fought the Soutaichou with less effort than Aizen needed to get dressed in the morning.

His laughter started low, than grew into a crescendo, tears pulling at the corners of his eyes. "Fuck right off, Kurosaki!" His tone was more or less teasing, he was having a hard time swallowing this, and Kurosaki was sitting there with this baffled look on his face.

He got his laughter mostly under control, running his hand through his hair. "Christ, you're just a kid."

"Hey," Kurosaki groused, "I'd be considered an adult if I was still alive."

Grimmjow smirked. "Keep that shit to yourself, half the arrancar here would kill themselves out of pure embarrassment if they knew that." He sighed, his question regretful. "How did you get so goddamned powerful?"

Frowning, Kurosaki folded his legs. "I meant it when I said it: we're all Aizen's experiments. He mucked around with your life as an adjuchas, and he mucked around with mine before I was even born. He made me a weapon, it's what I'm good at."

Grimmjow scoffed lightly. "I guess it's good he slipped up and ended up shooting himself in the face...so to speak."

"He gave it a good old fashioned try." Kurosaki chuckled darkly. "He never tried to be my friend or an ally, you know how he was. Nooo...he just made me strong, and set Soul Society in my sights, but...he underestimated how much I hated him."

"You make it sound like Soul Society is the enemy, but Aizen was worse."

Kurosaki sucked a sharp breath in through his teeth. "It's complicated. Soul Society suffers from some of the same problems as human world." He let out an overdramatic sigh. "I prefer Hueco Mundo. Things here make sense."

Grimmjow made a soft, derisive sound of agreement. For the few minutes they'd been in Soul Society, he saw no reason to go back. He preferred the chaos of Hueco Mundo, far and large. He said, "You didn't answer. Is Soul Society the enemy?"

Kurosaki sighed through his nose, and looked genuinely exhausted, despite the sleep he'd gotten. He looked weary, he never would have guessed he was just barely clear of his teens. "I'd prefer they weren't, but I'm afraid that answer is yes."

Despite his age, and what he was, and all of his indecisions, being close to him was always daunting. Grimmjow wasn't sure if that was a result of Alteza or Kurosaki/s own aura, but his presence was vast and made him feel small, vulnerable. The same way he felt his own mortality when he tread water in the ocean, the bottom sloping too far down into murky darkness for him to truly know what lay beneath him.

He blinked, surprised by the memory. He remembered a huge expanse of water, despite never having been there. He could almost taste the salt and feel the sting in his eyes. He shook the feeling off and asked, "You going to pick a fight?"

"Che...no. But when the time comes, we'll retaliate. I'm tired of this."

Grimmjow didn't know what to say to that. He didn't know what he would do in his place. Actually, he would probably pick a fight and get everyone killed. Kurosaki wasn't doing a half bad job, but he agonized over every moment as if it was his last. Baraggan enjoyed ruling so much he got bored and killed everyone. Aizen was a manipulative, sadistic fuck, but Kurosaki...Kurosaki suffered. It didn't feel good to watch, but for once, he didn't want to take his place.

- xxx -

Thanks for reading and sticking around this long! This is quite long *shame* I couldn't help but write more Grimmjow things. And I tried so hard to abstain.

Current Espada Ranking

King Strawberry

Fraccion: Grimmjow, Nelliel

0 - Harribel

1 - Ulquiorra

2 - Starrk & Lilynette

3 - Grimmjow

4 - Zommari

5 - Szayelaporro Granz

6 - Shawlong

7 - Cyan, Mila Rose, Apacci (Quimera Parca: Ayon)

8 - Yylfordt Granz

9 - Edrad Liones

10 - Pesche