Notes:

I have a beta! Thanks to Ink and Blade!

Late, sorry! At least it's long? Mirrored on Archive of our Own, so if FF ever goes down and you're itching to read, check over there or Wattpad.

Cheat Sheet:

Reiryoku → reiatsu → reishi

die Königin (The Queen)

Aspect: Vengeance, Life

Location: Living World - Geisterwelt (Spirit World)

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: Kurosaki Ichigo

Previous Host: Adaliz

- xxx -

Reiō (Soul King) -Destroyed-

Aspect: Disruption

Location: Souru Sosaeti (Soul Society)

Physical Medium: Crystal

Ability: Kekkai

?

Kuriētā: Shinigami

Aspect: Balance

Location: Souru Sosaeti (Soul Society)

Physical medium: ?

Shinigami Host: ?

Current Host: None

Previous Host: ?

Shinigami

Aspect: Neutrality

Physical Medium: Sekki Sekki

Ability: Soul Filtration

Location: Souru Sosaeti (Soul Society)

- 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

Previous Hosts: Aizen Sousuke - Mictlāntēcutli

Ganbari masu!

La Cólera

- xxx -

Kurosaki Ichigo

Harribel looked surprised to see him, which confirmed his concerns that she and everyone else were starting to wonder if he really was dead or had mentally fucked off. Her concerns weren't necessarily invalid, but it did make it feel more real to find himself face to face with the consequences. He felt almost normal now, but that was a very recent development, and likely a very transient one.

Once she had established he was coherent, she jumped right into business. "Soul Society doesn't seem interested in talking. I return every day, carefully outside of their barrier, and they still have yet to acknowledge my presence. The only one interested in talking was your shinigami friend. The girl, Rukia. She was very concerned."

Ichigo wasn't sure why it surprised him to hear that, but it did. He asked, "What did you tell her?"

"That you're alive. No more, no less."

From the way she spoke about Rukia, she was fond of her, and given the company she kept, he really should have expected that. No doubt despite her fondness, she wasn't willing to risk sharing more information than she should.

The look he gave her was full of gratitude as she continued, "She tells me the shinigami you brought to Hueco Mundo lied for you, he kept your mental state to himself. She also tells me she has reason to believe they will attempt to seal you."

That took him back. He remembered the tactics they tried against Aizen in startling clarity. The ache of failure and despair hadn't faded much with time. They had come so close, and each time Aizen had come out on top, smiling like it was a goddamn picnic.

By comparison, Ichigo knew he was just as massive a threat, and just as unpredictable. Running over the events leading up to Zangetsu's interference, it hadn't been a pretty picture. At the time he felt just fine, but seeing it through Zangetsu's eyes was uncomfortable. He would do the same if he was in their shoes, but it still stung.

"They don't know, King. They saw you kill a man that hurt a girl and slaughtered the Central 46. They didn't live it, they didn't see you kill a monster, someone that destroyed everything that mattered."

It wasn't the reconciliation he wanted. He didn't expect to be given some sort of hero's treatment, he wasn't that naive, but to be treated like another Aizen? That gave him pause.

"You are nothim, King. I don't know how many times I need to say it."

'That's not what they think.'

"Fuck what they think."

Harribel waited until she had his attention before she asked the question that mattered most. "Does this change anything?"

Did it? Probably not. He already knew they were desperate when they put living people at risk just for a chance to kill him. Even the reminder was enough for him to dig his claws into his palms in a simmering anger he hadn't even begun to get over. "A little. I'm going alone."

That irritated Harribel, he could see it in the narrowing of her eyes and the squaring of her shoulders. He would be ticked off too if he was being cut out of the picture after putting in the time, so he made an effort to explain why. "I'm going alone so they can spring their trap. If you get tangled in that mess, you could be captured or killed, and then who's left? Starrk?" No offense to Starrk, but the arrancar was even less of a leader than he was.

There was a reproachful edge in her tone. "Is it wise to waltz straight into their trap?"

She had a roundabout way of implying he had a few loose marbles, but it was a effective. He said, "I'd rather walk into it on my own terms then have it sprung on me when I'm not prepared."

She looked briefly amused, tilting her head. "Ichigo, you're always prepared for the worst."

He gave her a helpless look and a slight shrug. "Fine, I'm cautious, but I'd still rather deal with them when I'm looking for it."

She asked, "You know what they'll do?"

In the past, Soul Society has gotten rather creative with their Kido attempts, each more devastating than the last. He didn't even understand Kido and he knew the spells were complicated, and powerful, but he'd never had them turned against him before. Well, nothing short of high tier offensive spells from Aizen. "I have a pretty good idea, and even if it works, it won't last."

"You know that for certain?"

"Alteza has always breezed past Kido like it isn't there. It might affect me, but it won't affect the Gods, and they won't stand to lose their precious host."

There was a sarcastic bite in his voice, one lined with anger and an undercurrent of hysteria, but this was something Harribel was used to. She wasn't daunted by the shift in his tone. "You always do as you please, I can't stop you, but I don't like the idea of you going alone."

"Noted. I'm an arrogant asshole, I can live with that."

"Must you go alone?" she stressed.

He recognized that look, and he owed her more than a brush off. He said, "I'm not taking Grimmjow, I'm not taking anyone that could potentially be captured." He clenched his hands into fists at the reminder, resisting the urge to pace. Grimmjow had already come painfully close to becoming another one of Mayuri's experiments. It was luck that he'd remembered him, pure, stupid luck. If his thoughts had swayed just a little too far from his own heart, he might have killed Grimmjow himself, and he wasn't going to forget that.

He shook his head, adamant. "They'll kill you, but they can't kill me."

He still felt ill, he'd come so close to everything unraveling, and he was just one solid push away from a ledge he wasn't sure he could climb back up on. He didn't hide that from Harribel, he'd promised he wouldn't, but he was ashamed that she noticed nonetheless.

She put herself in his line of sight. "You take too much responsibility for others, relax. If we both must compromise, let someone keep tabs on you from beyond Seireitei's walls. I'd much rather know where you are than have to rely on rumors and conjecture."

She was right, and of course she was right, she wasn't in the thick of it, she had the perspective to see him from the outside. He let out a long, slow breath, his expression slightly guilty. "I won't bring Grimmjow but...I'm not opposed if you send someone to shadow me." He added hastily. "From a distance."

Her shoulders fell, relieved that he wasn't going to fight her. "Who would you send?"

He couldn't help the slightly sheepish grin that snuck its way onto his face. "Starrk?"

She definitely didn't like Starrk, but she couldn't offer up anyone better. She asked, "Will he even choose to go?"

"If I ask." He knew that without a doubt, and he wasn't quite sure where the confidence for that came from. "He didn't want to get involved, but he's strong and he's smart, he won't rush into a fight."

She nodded in begrudging agreement, shifting smoothly into another topic. "Speaking of Starrk. What were you going to do with Ulquiorra?"

He stiffened at the name. "What do you mean?"

Harribel shifted, under the sudden realization that she was the bearer of bad news. Her tone was flippant, so it couldn't be that bad, but it was enough that she was steeling herself for anger. He pressed, "Harribel."

She spoke slowly. "Your father came looking for you. Ulquiorra attacked him, but Grimmjow and Starrk intervened before it could get rough."

Her fears were justified, he was beyond angry. His eyes shifted to the side, his attention focusing inward. 'Why didn't you tell me?'

"It was just gonna make ya angry, King. Your old man can take care of himself."

'That isn't the point. Ulquiorra should have been able to tell who he was, he did it deliberately.'

"There were more pressing problems to attend to, Ichigo."

And that was the best apology he would get. His eyes snapped back to Harribel and she tightened her jaw, daring him to take his anger out on her. That would be unfair at best. He was angry that Ulquiorra targeted his family, but that wasn't her fault.

He folded his arms over his chest, physically reminding himself to be still. He asked, "What happened?"

He thought he saw a glimmer of pride in her eyes, she seemed pleased that his trigger response hadn't been to simply hunt the Espada down and kill him.

"Progress, Ichigo."

She said, "From the way Starrk reports, it sounded as if the Espada was toying with your father. I would wager his interest is in you, not the shinigami. Although, I can't say why."

She looked to him like he might explain, but Ichigo wasn't so sure he could. He settled for a half truth. "He wanted to make me angry." His voice was insipid. "It worked." Ulquiorra was a demanding bastard, and never at an opportune moment. Just the threat of taking something important to him must have been enough to fascinate the arrancar. He could live with a threat to Grimmjow, but not his immediate family.

He knew his father could take care of himself, but it wasn't just his life on the line; it was Yuzu and Karin and whatever sense of normalcy in their life they might have left. His father was an idiot for putting that at risk to come to Hueco Mundo, but he knew he'd come in part on their behalf. Older brothers were supposed to be there for their little sisters, and he just wasn't. Their frustration with him was entirely warranted.

"Ichigo?" He looked back at her, unsure how long he'd been quiet, but it was enough Harribel noticed.

He boxed those feelings up, it wasn't an immediate problem, and he was angry enough without heaping more kindling onto the fire. He tried to reassure her, but even he could hear the tilt in his voice. "I'll deal with him later, for now I'm going to confront Soul Society."

"You often don't realize, so let me remind you. The arrancar are afraid." She pointed up, and that was more than a thousand words. "They deserve answers, and they won't hear them from me. Alteza is your domain, not mine." She lowered her arm. "That beside, many don't even believe you're alive, you can't afford to be absent."

She was right and he knew it. Las Noches was more her responsibility than his own, but his extended to all of Hueco Mundo. Some of that was self imposed, but the rest, the part Alteza wouldn't allow him to ignore, not so much. It was an ever increasing, nagging urge to change things, and he could only attribute it to the sudden lack of the Soul King.

The ruin and chaos that made up Hueco Mundo wasn't natural, Alteza pressured him to fix what had been broken with a deadly need that was no different than having a sword at his throat. He would have to, eventually, but for now, its focus was balance. Whatever that meant.

Regardless of his own plans, Hueco Mundo had a pulse all its own, one he was compelled to protect as much as die Konigin was braying to devour what was left of it. It was a strange synergy, but so long as he forced his Quincy side down, it was manageable. For now, Hueco Mundo needed the attention he didn't need to give, but what he should give.

He growled, "You're right, I can't." He didn't like it, but that's the way it was. If Harribel thought he shouldn't shirk that duty, he was inclined to believe her.

She stopped him before he could act on that decision. "You should wait for Grimmjow."

That caught him off guard, his brows furrowing. He didn't understand her urgency. "Why?"

"For starters, you're never seen without him. If you show up alone, it would raise doubts."

He hadn't thought about that. Lately, where he went Grimmjow was close behind. He depended on him for more than he should. He knew others had started to notice, but to this extent? "Fuck," he muttered.

"Is there a problem with that?" She didn't sound too concerned, she knew well enough that if something bad had happened to Grimmjow, she and everyone around him would know about it.

"He looks...different." It would raise questions, and not good ones.

"What do you mean by different?"

He hadn't told her why he was awake yet. He didn't want to, but when she looked at him, she could see he was hiding something from her, and rather than be frustrated with him, or upset, she looked patient. He hadn't anticipated that, and he was once again struck with the thought that it was unreasonable to hide reality from her. It had everything to do with her, with all hollows.

He started slowly, "La sangre changed him..is changing him." He lifted his hand to his face, a claw tracing his jaw in a mirror of Grimmjow's mask fragments. "His mask is black with it, so are his eyes. None of you are strong enough to withstand Alteza, you've seen what happens to arrancar I pull through it, and that's only brief contact. It's poisoning his soul, he's sharing the burden, and that's what allows me to live unhindered." As if he sanity were some great privilege.

He dropped his arm and forced himself not to look away, his voice wavering. "It's killing him and it's because I'm still not strong enough." He chewed on those words in aggravation, claws biting into his palms.

He held their lives in his hands, he could shape their very souls, and it still wasn't enough. He knew she would try to console him, she always did. The only people he let himself crumble before were Grimmjow and Harribel. Around everyone else, he had to be unfailing, powerful. He couldn't always succeed, but it was what he had to project. He couldn't afford to let himself become a target, because that painted a target on the backs of everyone he cared for.

He'd started to breath harder and faster, swept away by that creeping panic. Harribel reached for his chest, her hand hovering over the void in his heart. "Shhhhh. Many, many people believe in you, Ichigo, and not all of that is to do with your strength. I've seen you do things that should be impossible. If anyone can save your fraccion, it's you, and if ever there was a more stubborn arrancar than Grimmjow, I've never met them."

She started to draw her hand back, but he caught it, squeezing her fingers together in a gentle grip. It was an impulsive action, and one he didn't regret. Harribel was by no stretch of the imagination weak, but just the right amount of pressure could shatter the bones in her hand. She wasn't scared of him, not on a personal level. She trusted that he wouldn't harm her, by accident or on purpose, and while he wasn't one to seek contact of any kind, he couldn't let that gentle offer go.

It wasn't much contact at all, but he could feel the depth of her trust in her heart; her desire to protect the arrancar she cared about, her confidence, her pride, her regret...She knew her heart was an open book, but she offered anyway. He let go, his hand slowly uncurling from hers. "I don't know how you can have so much faith in me, I'm unpredictable."

"That isn't the word I would choose." She dropped her hand, tilting her head. "There are a good many things you can be counted on for." She added delicately. "Not to say all of those things are strictly positive. You never forget a slight against those under your protection; that's as predictable as can be."

She wasn't wrong, Aizen had ruthlessly exploited that trait to the point of lunacy. He let out an exaggerated sigh. "You know what I mean."

"I do, and I'm telling you that isn't how you're perceived." He looked at her, brows drawn in confusion as she explained. "You've turned over a hundred arrancar at great risk to yourself. You enforce punishment on arrancar that prey on weaker arrancar within Las Noches. You brought back the arrancar still being held by the Quincy, you gave them another chance. They fear your power, and they fear your vengeance, but they don't fear you. Not anymore."

He hadn't given it that much thought, he didn't like to mingle with any arrancar for any extended period, he was afraid he would slip, that he might harm them, or kill them, or show weakness. He hadn't realized that in the process, it allowed something of a myth to spring up around the truth. "And you want me to talk to them, show them I failed, that I let my own fraccion be dragged into my mess."

Harribel made a chiding sound. "Give Grimmjow more credit than that. He's loyal, he follows you so closely for a reason. What is a subordinate, but support where it's needed most? They won't see failure if you don't allow them to see it. They'll see an arrancar with the fortitude to put his very soul on the line to help his king, and a king with the humility to respect that sacrifice."

For a moment, he was taken aback. He hadn't considered it that way, and she was right, Grimmjow wasn't a victim, never that, and treating him that way was only diminishing what he'd done, regardless of the fact he hadn't quite known what he was getting into to begin with. He looked away, feeling foolish for not realizing sooner, and let out a sharp exhale. "You're so much better at this than I am. You spend more time fixing my mistakes."

Humor shone in her eyes. "You're very used to handling things on your own. To an extreme, even for an arrancar, but you're adapting quickly."

He balked. "You're just trying to make me feel better."

More humor. "It worked." She made a sweeping gesture. "Now you may go."

He let out a snort of breathy laughter. "Thank you, jotei." She was right, he was rude and he did as he pleased, though it was never out of any disrespect for her.

With Harribel's advice in mind, his plans had shifted. While it was tempting to seek out Ulquiorra, he knew he should wait. If he didn't know from past experience how little Ulquiorra actually listened to authority, he'd think he was shrugging off his threats as bluffs, but he knew that wasn't the case.

Before he could work himself up over it, he went after Starrk. His reiatsu was usually a strong, steady tenor in the backdrop of Las Noches, but he'd noticed it was different. It was, in all reality, comparable to his own. No one could feel it, but Ichigo's reiatsu still dipped and spiked all over the place. It was tied to his emotions, and that was a fucking roller coaster, even hollowfied.

He stepped through la sangre, careful not to drop himself close enough to startle. Unfortunately, he still ended up behind him. He wasn't that good, not when Starrk's reiatsu was a few steps short of aggressive. It hung around him in a cloud, obscuring his mental visual enough that he had to wonder why.

"Starrk?"

The arrancar stiffened, clearly surprised he was there, and as he turned, Ichigo saw how wildly uncomfortable he looked to see him. He also looked tired. A week of restless sleep wasn't doing him any favors.

Lilynette wasn't there, and if he focused, he could sense her miles away with Pesche. He didn't think it was such a good thing that Starrk was isolating himself from the other half of his soul. He knew from experience just how damaging that could be.

Filing those thoughts away, Ichigo said, "You protected my father." Starrk looked like he was struggling to maintain eye contact. "Thank you." That did it. Starrk looked away in what looked like shame. That was unusual, and Ichigo couldn't think of a reason for it.

The Espada said, "I hardly did anything, I just showed up. Grimmjow was the one fighting."

He hadn't heard the story, but it wasn't surprising to him anymore that Grimmjow would fight to protect people he didn't necessarily give a damn about. Somewhere along the line, Grimmjow started fighting to protect the things Ichigo cared about, without being asked or coerced, and he still wasn't sure that kind of loyalty was deserved.

Ichigo closed the distance between them with a casual flicker of sonido, but it was still faster than what Starrk could follow. Regardless of that, he didn't flinch. Starrk had the confidence of someone who had always been at the top of the food chain, he didn't have the same kind of reflexes Grimmjow had.

Ichigo said, "Regardless of what Grimmjow did, you have my gratitude. Why does that bother you so much?"

Starrk still wouldn't quite look at him, his eyes wandering along the walls. "I hate people that take advantage...I realized I'm one of those people. I went crying to you to fix problems of my own creation. You've done me a lot of favors, intentionally or not, and I've done almost nothing in return."

Ichigo interjected. "I didn't expect you too."

Starrk finally looked at him. "I know...and that's what cuts deepest. I'm glad you couldn't fix me, it would have just been one more favor I didn't deserve."

"Starrk." His tone was harsh, feeling a spike of anger, although he was unsure of the source. "If you feel the need to return some sort of debt, I can't change your mind, but what you deserve isn't up for debate. I decide what you deserve, and you don't deserve to suffer a broken soul. I will fix you." Starrk stared at him in shock. He paused, his voice losing volume. "Until then, try to be patient, and stop punishing yourself."

He looked away, looking for all intents and purposes like a kicked dog. That wasn't what he wanted to see. He grabbed him by a fistful of jacket and turned, pulling Starrk after him until he got the hint and kept pace.

"You needed something?" Starrk sounded a little hopeful.

"In fact, I do, but before that, you're going to get some fucking sleep, you look like death."

He scoffed, tone heavy with sarcasm. "Thanks."

It was weird being on the other end of the sleep argument, he could see why Zangetsu and Grimmjow and...everyone, got so upset about it. Except he was wielding several nukes worth of power...yeah, now he got it.

After a moment, Starrk started to realize where they were going, because he asked, "What happened to you? The one that looks like you...what's his name..."

"Zangetsu," he supplied.

"He wouldn't let anyone close."

He remembered that from Zangetsu's memories, although deterring an upset Harribel and a single adjuchas had been enough for word to spread. His steps slowed as he mulled over his answer. "Doesn't matter," he decided. "I'm better now." He hadn't completely convinced himself of this, but he hoped Starrk believed him. If he didn't, he made no mention of it. He added, "I'll talk to everyone once Grimmjow wakes up." That caught Starrk's attention; maybe it was the way he said it. He thought he'd been careful.

"He's asleep?"

"We're not going for a stroll because it's romantic. I'm already babysitting one sleeping arrancar, what's one more?"

"I don't need-" he started.

"A babysitter?" Ichigo finished. "You do, because I'm going to make you sleep." Before he could argue, he added, "No, you don't get a say in it."

Starrk shut his mouth, looking a bit peeved, but he had no more comment. That was another reason he liked Starrk; he wasn't too talkative.

Ichigo slipped into a slow sonido, and Starrk followed silently until they were close enough to Grimmjow and his Zanpakuto to actually see them. The Espada flickered into sight beside him, his eyes locked onto the mask on Grimmjow's face.

Ichigo preemptively deterred any questions by simply knocking Starrk unconscious. He was down and out before he even knew what hit him. A whole lot of Kido. Potentially the only Kido he could reliably cast.

He caught Starrk before he could hit the ground. Laying him down near enough to Grimmjow that they were both in sight. Zangetsu didn't seem to care much either way that they were plus one unconscious arrancar. His hollow asked, "What's the wolf doing here?"

"He still hasn't been sleeping, and if he's going to be any help at all, he needs it. He's also my responsibility," he lifted his shoulder in a shrug, "and I just feel sorry for him."

Zangetsu couldn't exactly argue that. Ichigo caught him up to speed on "the plan". Which wasn't all that different from the earlier plan, but this one involved being a little less emotional about it. Zangetsu didn't seem to mind either way, he was still going to be watching his back from the shadows. Zangetsu wasn't exactly stealth personified, but anyone that ran into him would be down for the count, so it was close enough.

There was another he'd brought Starrk back to Grimmjow. He was going to sift through his soul...without his explicit consent, but he'd rather do it when the Espada wasn't awake to look him in the eye and know he'd seen all his darkest fears and pain. He was a little bit of a coward about it, especially when Starrk was so similar to himself.

He sat down cross legged beside him and closed his eyes. He looked. He looked and looked and looked, and didn't see any easy way to fix him. He had indeed torn his soul in two, it was as frayed and raw as a broken heart, and just as uncomfortable to look at.

In the way of all arrancar, he was a compounded mess of souls, but what he wanted to know was how Lilynette was formed at all. She wasn't like a Zanpakuto spirit, she reminded Ichigo of the panther he'd seen in his inner world. Grimmjow's inner heart was just an adjuchas version of himself, or at least, that's what he assumed. He didn't care to know why, it seemed too personal. Somehow, Starrk's soul, was to the Espada, a young girl. Why that was, Ichigo didn't know, nor was he entirely sure it was relevant.

Starrk was right about Lilynette hosting different aspects of his soul. It wasn't that Starrk couldn't feel happiness, it was secondhand, in the way he could often feel Zangetsu's anger and rage. What he didn't know how to do was put him back together. "Fixing" Hirako had been easy; he'd guided his soul through hollowfication, preventing soul suicide from even being an option. La sangre was greedy, and it didn't play well inside a shinigami soul.

Fixing Starrk would be a lot like reattaching a limb...or performing heart surgery with nothing but hopes and dreams as surgical tools. Segunda etapa was a good guess on how to fix himself. Grimmjow was denying his heart, accepting it was hard, but it was still in him. Starrk had gone one step past Ulquiorra and mutilated his soul beyond recognition. His resurrección was a quick patch at best, but his fear of his own power even held that back. Ichigo couldn't even be sure of how little of his power Starrk was accessing, but it was pitifully small.

Ichigo knew what it was like to fear his own power. He'd hurt so many, intentionally, and accidentally and merely because they dared be close to him at all. Starrk's own fear bordered on insanity, and maybe it was.

He opened his eyes, frowning down at the sleeping Espada. He propped his head on his hand and muttered, "Fucking hell, Starrk…" All of his arrancar were fucked in the head, but some suffered more than most, and he wasn't sure if the urge to fix them was always his own, but the desire was a strong one nonetheless.

"Think you can put 'im back together?" Zangetsu asked from somewhere behind him.

"Maybe...if I was going to successfully do it, I think I'd need to rely on memories from others that I can't easily access, thanks to Grimmjow, and if I could, apparently it makes me raving mad." Frustrating.

Zangetsu asked, "What's the worst that could happen?" He wasn't being facetious, his question was genuine.

"A lot can go wrong. Starrk could reject his soul, or they might have been separate long enough that merging them back together isn't possible...not while retaining who he is."

"Can't you practice on an arrancar we don't give a single shit about?"

Ichigo snorted. "I have yet to discover an arrancar that's done this. Ulquiorra comes close, but it isn't nearly as severe."

He could tell it physically hurt his hollow to suggest it as he growled, "Could Szayel help?"

He hadn't considered that. He was silent for a stretch, eyes narrowing. Maybe Szayel could, if he actually let the Espada try, and if he trusted him to do it. He could remember flickers of what the Espada had done to him, enough to know that soul-wrenching agony he'd felt had actually been pain of the soul. The reminder brought back the sweeping prickle of forgotten pain over his skin. He wasn't weak, he wasn't, he was whole. And Starrk decidedly wasn't.

He pushed the memories away, focusing instead on the lilting whispers and howls of the Gods.

He had time, Zangetsu would let him know when Grimmjow was awake. He straightened and said, "Watch him." It was redundant, they both knew Zangetsu would watch him with just as much attentiveness as Grimmjow. He couldn't stand it when people under his protection were hurt.

He stepped through la sangre to Szayel, not giving him nearly the same level of consideration he'd given Starrk. He appeared behind him, and it gave him immense satisfaction to see the arrancar jump when he spoke. "Szayel."

The Espada whirled, annoyance and a flicker of fear in his eyes. He said nothing, waiting to see what Ichigo wanted, but he caught wind of his mood easily enough. Ichigo pressed. "You research hollows, don't you?"

A spark lit in Szayel's eyes, his lips twitching up into a stiff smile. "I dabble."

Ichigo knew he did more than dabble, he'd been on the receiving end of his attention once before. He'd been turning a blind eye to whatever the fuck it was he did, just so long as he left his arrancar alone. Ichigo knew Szayel had gotten the point; Las Noches was off limits. What he did outside those walls, well...he couldn't save everyone, and he wasn't so naive as to forget the nature of the hollows he ruled.

Ichigo asked, "What would you need to rejoin a split soul?"

Interest glittered in his eyes just as much as that masked sadism. "Hnnn, you assume it can be done at all."

"Giving up so soon?" Ichigo derided.

Szayel smiled. "What spurred this question?"

Ichigo considered ignoring him, but decided he might actually need to know. "Starrk."

"Ah, I see. He's a fascinating one. Are you offering to let me study him?"

"What would you need?" Ichigo repeated.

Szayel's smile widened, confident in his answer. "The soul in question, of course."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed. "I'm not letting you experiment on and potentially destroy my strongest Espada."

"Then we're at an impasse." Liar, liar, liar.

Ichigo closed the distance between them, his fingertips resting over his heart. He articulated slowly. "Can you, or can you not, do what I ask?" Szayel's eyes widened, his confidence wavering under the gentle threat. Ichigo pressed forward, leaning closer. "I know you didn't stop taking things apart. You just can't help yourself, can you? You tinker, you take them apart and put them back together. I just don't know how you're hiding it from me."

He could feel no living hollows in his lab besides his fucked up fraccion, but he knew without a doubt he hadn't stopped experimenting. He had a feeling Szayel went out of his way to test his limits. He wasn't feeling cautiously for a line to cross, he'd brazenly waltzed over it and tested to see what he could and couldn't get away with.

Szayel started. "You said-"

"I know," Ichigo snarled, "what I said." Szayel flinched, but stayed very still, his eyes dropping in the hope he would back down. He'd allowed him to hunt hollows, but doubtless the arrancar hid it from him as a sort of challenge so he couldn't disapprove of his methods. "Now tell me, this time be truthful. What would you need?"

Szayel's eyes stayed focused somewhere on the floor, not willing to invite violence. "A living arrancar...preferably several. Even then…"

"I can shape a soul, to an extent. It's primitive, and very unpredictable. You would have that skill to draw on." Szayel's eyes flicked up to meet his in shock, clearly the scientist hadn't expected participation. He asked again. "Can you do it?"

Szayel looked insulted. "Tsk, if my hands aren't tied, then yes, I believe I could rejoin a soul." He stepped carefully around what he said next. "You aren't going to ask the shinigami?"

He could only mean Urahara, and that he was asking at all only meant he was reaffirming the job he'd just been given. "No." Ichigo leaned back, giving Szayel a touch more space. "He isn't one of us. You're going to do it, and only with the hollows I bring you."

Szayel waved a hand in casual dismissal, too eager to move on. "Yes, yes, I understand."

Ichigo really wasn't in the mood. His hand snapped out, tightening around his throat. "Do you?" Szayel stiffened, real fear clouding his eyes. It felt like yesterday he was digging, twisting, tearing his soul. He hadn't forgotten, he hadn't, he couldn't. He ground his teeth rather than the bones in his neck, uncurling his fingers one by one.

"King." With as turbulent as his emotions had been, he was surprised it took nearly killing Szayel to draw words from Zangetsu.

'I'm fine.'

Szayel sucked in shuddering breaths, watching him like a cornered animal. Ichigo wasn't done. He lifted his chin with a claw, baring his throat, and asked, "Do you understand?"

This time Szayel's answer was genuine. "Yes, heika."

He drew his claw away, drawing blood as he did. "Keep this between us, Szayel."

The arrancar dropped his eyes with a stiff nod, doing everything he could to seem smaller. He wasn't about to invite death, he wasn't that stupid, and his ego wasn't so intrusive he would cave to it.

"Who's getting the axe?" Zangetsu sounded a bit too eager.

'Any adjuchas I'd rather violently murder than allow to live in Las Noches as an arrancar.'

"Any reason you're keeping it a secret?"

'I'd rather my family not know I just gave a psycho permission to torture arrancar to death.' He didn't think he needed a better reason. Let them think the best of him, even if it wasn't true. He had absolutely no regrets over letting Szayel do to others what had been done to himself. He'd already gone out of his way to name himself judge, jury, and executioner, he might as well follow through.

He gave Szayel one last warning before he left. "Do not mistake indifference for ignorance. I choose to let you continue your games because, frankly, I'd rather not know the details of what you do with your time." He had enough unpleasant memories, he didn't want more. His attention was on the hollows within Las Noches, if Szayel tried to cull the herd, he would know, and he hadn't, so he got to keep on living.

Szayel bent in a stiff bow, unwilling to make eye contact, and it gave him a twisted sense of satisfaction that he could still scare the Espada. He hadn't changed his mind, he loathed Szayel, and if he wasn't useful, he would be probably be dead. "It's at least something to think about."

He meant that broadly, leaving Szayel in his lab alone to put some sand dunes in their place. He was angry, and he'd rather work out his aggression on unsuspecting sand than on his arrancar.

- xxx -

Candice Catnipp

It wasn't that Candice hated Hueco Mundo, especially not she saw the way Neliel's eyes lit up when she spoke about the desert, about the fun she'd had with her friends there. Weird that, to imagine hollows having friends and relationships, but she was slowly getting used to it.

To Candice, it was still a place she'd considered to be a hunting ground, and it made her a bit uncomfortable to know she had been the monster under the bed for Neliel when she was trapped as a child. Quincy and shinigami both had ruthlessly hunted her kind, and now that she knew how different an arrancar was from a mindless hollow, she felt...bad?

Standing there next to Neliel, she got more than dirty looks, some looks were outright murderous. Neliel acted different when they were in living world, or alone. Standing here among Espada and arrancar, she looked...hot was definitely a word she would use, but that wasn't very descriptive. She looked assertive, strong, unwavering.

Neliel stood close to her, no longer her jailer or her keeper, but a friend. That was still weird to consider, and it still made her a bit angry, and she wasn't sure why. Neliel took her anger in stride, she didn't think she deserved that kind of forgiveness. She tried to push her away, but Nel just wouldn't go.

Nel thought she was the assertive, strong one, but that wasn't how Candice saw it. Hers was a mask, something to put on like boots. It helped in the moment, but when Nel looked at her, when she didn't let her hide, it made her angry.

She'd recently seen the tattoo bold on her lower back, and asking what it meant, she discovered there was a good deal she didn't know about Neliel. Neliel's past was fuzzy, and she didn't seem too keen to talk about it, no more than Candice wanted to talk about her own past, so they focused on other things.

Nel knew how much she liked living world, and Nel liked it too, so when she got the call to return to Hueco Mundo, Candice figured it must have been urgent. She said Harribel was calling a meeting, with everyone apparently, and with how large Hueco Mundo was, it took some waiting for everyone to actually get there, and those that couldn't would just have to hear it from someone else.

Despite some of the arrancar's unhealthy interest in her, most kept their distance, all except for a trio of women she'd had plenty of fights with, she just assumed they were Espada. They didn't look or dress any different, but the weaker arrancar parted like the fuckin' Red Sea around them.

The brunette cast Neliel a sly smile. "Finally tamed the Quincy?"

Candice opened her mouth to object, but Neliel beat her to it. "If that's what they're calling fucking these days."

Apacci blushed and Candice looked aghast. It was always surprising how filthy the words that came out of her mouth were. To be fair, she fucking liked it, but the surprise came at the casual ease that she announced it. "You going to blab to everyone then?"

Nel smirked innocently, standing a little straighter. "Brag, not blab."

Candice got a good handful of her hair, tugging her a little closer. "I told you not to tell."

Nel's eyes burned mischievously, the arrancar knew was she was doing, the adorable little brat. Her mouth slid into an easy smile despite the anger on Candice's face. "Oops."

Apacci fumed. "You were supposed to watch her not fuck her!"

Candice let her go, turning her attention to the smaller arrancar. She was a loud bitch, and now everyone knew. She gave her an angry smirk. "I fucked her." Nel beamed. "I'm not tame."

The brunette looked less smug. "Should she even be here?"

"Because I'm a Quincy?" sneered Candice. Nel caught the shift in her tone, tensing, but didn't intervene. "You won, don't you get it? It doesn't matter."

If her tone bothered the arrancar, it didn't show. She looked like she hadn't thought of that, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're the enemy, of course it matters."

Candice snapped, "Isn't that up to your asshole King?" She didn't get it, he was ludicrously strong, but she didn't understand why Nel liked him so much.

Her comment earned annoyance from everyone but Nel. Every time she talked shit about Kurosaki she felt like she was swearing in front of a nun. Nel didn't look angry with her, or even like she wanted to convince her otherwise, she just looked distantly disappointed, and she didn't know why.

Apacci hissed, "I still don't see why he let you all live."

Nel cut in, real anger in her voice. "Ichigo wouldn't go so far. The shinigami did." Candice looked at her, certain this was the first time she'd ever heard Nel be vocal about anything that had happened to the Quincy. Then again, Nel had a strong sense of justice, she shouldn't be surprised.

None of them got to say more, reiatsu fell around them all, heavy and oppressive. Kurosaki's reiatsu.

Just like that, he was there, and he had everyone's immediate attention. He stood among the Espada, not even a hundred feet from her. He was different than she remembered. She'd seen the visored when he was furious, but she hadn't seen him in his element.

He stood with his hands at his sides, shoulders squared, relaxed, confident. It was hard to gauge his expression with the dark streaks obscuring his eyes, but his irises blazed against dark sclera, fixing on her for an instant, before moved on. Even being the focus of his attention for that moment had Candice stiffening in fear. It was embarrassing how relieved she felt when his attention moved on to someone else.

She was so distracted by Kurosaki's commanding presence, she almost didn't notice the blue haired one. He was there the first time, so she could see now that he was different. His eyes were dark, and the jawbone on his face was black. She didn't think she'd ever seen a black hollow mask, it was strange enough to catch her eye, and keep it. He still had that scowl on his face, he seemed to be fine.

There was a ripple of unease across the arrancar, one Kurosaki acknowledged with a gentle canting of his head. His reiatsu pulled back, disappearing completely now that he had their attention. He projected, "I'm sure all of you have noticed." He pointed at the sky. It wasn't visible from the room they were in, but Candice would never forget the nightmares she'd seen there. Nel had made certain to open a garganta directly within the walls of Las Noches after that first trip back.

Kurosaki continued, his voice noticeably steady. "It looks hellish, but it's harmless...to you. If you want to be cautious, I wouldn't go firing any ceros at it. I killed the Soul King, Alteza is ravenous to expand, and without the Soul King to pressure Hueco Mundo, its power is only growing, which is why you can see what I see."

A blonde Espada boldly interrupted, but Kurosaki didn't seem to mind. "You want us to ignore it? Are you insane?"

That question forced a bark of laughter from Kurosaki, the gleam in his eyes sharp enough that the Espada took a step back. "Yes. You're all children of Alteza, it won't cannibalize its own unless you're dead. La sangre might be unpleasant to touch, but being a hollow has nothing to do with being comfortable." He cocked his head at the blonde and asked a rhetorical question. "Does it?"

A creepy looking arrancar with green eyes and a flat expression spoke from the back corner of the room. "What happened to your fraccion?" So that was the question on everyone's mind, his mask wasn't normal.

The look Ichigo shot him was cold and murderous, but it didn't match his tone of voice, he still sounded carefully calm. "He might look different, and his reiatsu might feel different, but-"

"I'm the fuckin' same!" Grimmjow's voice echoed in the space, making some of the weaker arrancar cringe back.

Kurosaki shot Grimmjow a look that was leagues different that the one he'd flashed the other arrancar. The exasperated and bemused look on his face was shocking to her. That was a look shared by family and close friends, not hollows and tyrants. It had taken until that moment to see him as a person with friends and a life and responsibility...not just a monster.

Kurosaki continued, "His mask is black because he's been changed by la sangre, that's really all you need to know."

The green-eyed arrancar pressed harder. "Why?"

Kurosaki looked briefly annoyed, then his shoulders fell with a sharp sigh. "Is it easier to break one arrow, or two, or twelve?"

The blonde male blurted, "What?"

"It's a metaphor, Yylfordt," Apacci groaned.

"The fuck is a metaphor?"

"It means," said Kurosaki, "that Grimmjow is holding up some of the weight, some of the pressure Alteza and die Konigin put on me. Doing so frees up my mind." He didn't explain what that meant, but Candice couldn't help but remember how much more volatile he'd been before.

The creepy arrancar asked, "What is the cost for such an exchange?" He asked it like he knew, but how he knew, Candice couldn't say.

Grimmjow answered instead. "A whole lot of dying." His expression was twisted into a snarl just daring anyone to challenge him. Kurosaki looked at him, but his expression was very carefully blank.

The creepy arrancar said, "And how many do you intend to drag into your suicide pact?"

It was the first sign of real emotion Candice heard in his voice, thought she couldn't put her finger on what emotion it could possibly be; Disgust, anger, judgement?

Kurosaki's posture shifted, turning to face him more fully. "Only one, Ulquiorra."

In a flurry of movement Candice could barely track, Ulquiorra and Kurosaki blurred into sonido. Kurosaki cancelled out a cero by grabbing Ulquiorra's hand in his own, black reiatsu smothering green in a violent overflow of energy. Kurosaki whipped him around by his wrist and threw him bodily into the wall. It cratered under the impact, cracks painting a spiderweb in the wall. Instead of slouching to the ground, Kurosaki drove a sword straight through his chest. No, he drove it through his hollow hole, pinning him in place.

She realized it wasn't Kurosaki's sword, his were still on his back and at his side...she hadn't even seen him take Ulquiorra's. The Espada grasped the blade of his sword in his hand, trying to alleviate the pressure in his chest. Kurosaki pushed the sword in deeper, leaning closer. She couldn't hear what he said, but Ulquiorra's reaction was shock.

He grabbed the Espada by the mask on his face, claws digging in like he was testing its very endurance. His mask cracked, a sharp sound that made Candice's guts clench, and he began to scream. A chill raced up her spine, taking a sharp step back, directly into Nel. She felt her drop a hand to her shoulder in reassurance, and glancing around, no one else seemed concerned by this. Kurosaki had overwhelmed an Espada with his bare hands, and now he'd done something to his very soul, she could feel it in the reishi around them.

Nel spoke softly. "Ulquiorra is always getting under his skin, this isn't out of nowhere."

"It sure seems like it," hissed Candice.

"Ulquiorra attacked his father, I'm shocked he didn't just kill him. This is more mercy than I expected him to show." Candice struggled to see how this was mercy.

"What did he do to him?" asked Candice.

"I don't know," Nel admitted, "but Ulquiorra has been vying for his attention for some time, and Ichigo always has a reason."

Kurosaki yanked the sword free and Ulquiorra would have fallen if he didn't catch him by the jacket. He tossed him to the ground, several arrancar skipping out of the way. She could see now there was something dark gushing from the void in his chest and the crack in his mask. His screams were cut short when the dark burst from his throat, coating him in the stuff. It reminded her of watching a human turn into a hollow, it made her feel ill, and she didn't think the arrancar around her would disagree.

She looked away, her eyes settling on Kurosaki instead. He spun the katana in his hand as he paced over to the writhing arrancar, then drove it into the ground beside him. He took a step back and drawled, "Does anyone else have any questions?"

From what Candice could gather, Kurosaki didn't look altogether too pleased about what he'd done, he looked downright nauseated. Every arrancar present carefully ignored Ulquiorra, all except Grimmjow. He was glaring down at the Espada in what looked like pity...but that didn't seem right.

Yylfordt bravely ventured, "Did ya kill 'im?"

"No," said Kurosaki.

Grimmjow growled, "He gave the sorry bastard exactly what he wanted."

Kurosaki silenced Grimmjow with a look, but he raised his voice to address everyone present. "It stays between me and Ulquiorra." He repeated, "Any more questions?"

A taller, stoic looking Espada asked, "What of Soul Society? If the Soul King is dead…"

"The same rules apply," said Kurosaki. "We stay on our side of the fence, they stay on theirs. If they don't, we make them. That goes for the living world. The second you set foot there, you become the Quincy's problem. I might command them, but make no mistake, if you find yourself in their sights, you do not have my protection. Living world is their hunting ground."

That surprised Candice, she thought for sure they were being punished, herded together just so they would be out of the way, so they would die in isolation. It sounded a lot like he intended for them to continue as they were. That didn't feel entirely accurate… things had changed.

Candice felt a flicker of shame for what she'd done to hollows in the past. There was putting a hollow down, and then there was torture and toying with them until they were dead. Despite how much she hated hollows, she was starting to think they didn't deserve all the things she'd done to them. She'd seen a fox hunt once...she wasn't hunting foxes.

A few arrancar glanced her way and she folded her arms defensively. A female arrancar she recognized glared at her and asked, "What about her?" This was the arrancar that knew one of their captives, what was her name...Loly. Yes, she remembered Loly.

Kurosaki's eyes locked on Candice, and while she expected to see hatred or disgust, she saw only understanding. She hated it. He mused over her name. "Candice...Catnipp." There was a twist to the way he said it, like he knew.

He spoke in German, cutting his arrancar out of the loop. "There's nothing I could do to you that you haven't already done to yourself. You aren't my enemy, you're my responsibility."

She flushed, trying to convince herself he couldn't know, but he looked straight into her like Adaliz had, and it tightened her heart in her chest to see the differences there. Adaliz judged her, made her earn her worth, but Kurosaki was different. The look in his eyes was unmistakable; I see you, you can't hide from me. He didn't want to change her or judge her, he was leaving her be.

Kurosaki's eyes left her and she finally felt like she could breathe. He addressed all of them this time. "She's still off limits. Like it or not, Quincy exist, they're going to continue to exist, and there's about to be a whole lot more of them. We're all going to have to learn to share."

Loly hissed, "You know what she did!"

His tone was harsh. "I'm not asking for forgiveness, I'm asking for tolerance. You don't have to like each other, but I sure as shit don't want you killing each other."

She gestured broadly towards Ulquiorra and sneered, "You get your vengeance but we can't have ours? Hypocrite!"

Candice fully expected Kurosaki to harm her after what he'd done to Ulquiorra, but he seemed unfazed by her words, he didn't even look shocked to hear them. Grimmjow, on the other hand, took a step forward, snarling, "You little cunt!"

Kurosaki got a grip on his bicep, stopping Grimmjow in his tracks. He tried to jerk his arm free, but that wasn't going to happen, Kurosaki's grip was like steel.

Looking from Ulquiorra, to Loly, Kurosaki said, "This isn't vengeance."

"What else could it be?!" she shouted.

From the way they were speaking to each other, Candice got the feeling this was frequent, especially given the reaction of the arrancar around her; They took what she said with a grain of salt, and they all looked to Kurosaki for his answer.

He said, "I try not to drag your personal demons into the light but some of you make it really fucking difficult. For reasons I don't expect, or want you to understand, this isn't to punish Ulquiorra, it's to help him."

Candice's eyes drifted back to the arrancar. He was still rigid with pain, every muscle in his body taut as a bowstring. If that was what "help" looked like, she didn't want to see "punishment".

Loly wasn't sold. "Bullshit! He attacked your blood relative, didn't he?"

Grimmjow glared at Kurosaki, and this time when he jerked his arm, Kurosaki let him go. He bared his teeth at Loly, looking for all the world like he wanted to tear her throat out, but he stayed put, held back by an invisible leash. "If Kurosaki wanted vengeance, he'd be king of nothing but corpses. Think that anger you're feeling would just fuckin' go away if no one but you could even remember it happened?"

Loly grit her teeth, hunching forward in a desire to fight, held back by the simple fact she was weaker. Grimmjow snorted. "Yeah, I thought not. In another life you beat the ever loving shit out of his girl, I skewered his friend, don't get me started on Szayel. He ain't in it for vengeance. If he says they live, they live, an' if you've got a problem with it, take it up with me."

Loly stared him down, and when it became clear Grimmjow wasn't going to back down, she spat a swear and spun on her heel, leaving. Grimmjow only made it one step before he was stopped by some unspoken sign from Kurosaki. When Grimmjow didn't take his eyes off of her, Kurosaki warned, "Let her go."

At first, Candice at thought it was her imagination, but she saw now that Kurosaki was watching Grimmjow with the same vigilance she'd seen from Grimmjow back in that church. He was looking for something, and he must have found it, because he reached out, casually laying a hand on the back of Grimmjow's neck. The Espada stiffened, hands clenched at his sides in rage, but didn't try to shrug him off. He glared at Loly's back, then looked away, some of his tension uncoiling.

She hadn't cared to know much about hollows, but she wasn't blind to assertion of dominance. Kurosaki left his hand there, despite how uncomfortable it made the Espada, and that was probably the point. Kurosaki said, "Believe me or don't, my orders still stand. Disregard them at your own risk."

He let go of Grimmjow, taking a smooth step forward. "This desert and every god forsaken soul in it is mine." He raised his hand, clenching it into a fist. Darkness surged around him, around them all. It parted around Candice, to her relief, but it passed directly through every hollow present as if they weren't there. Their reactions were all the same; fear, discomfort, awe, but they didn't run.

It fell away like a crashing wave, and Kurosaki said bluntly. "Try not to forget." With little to no warning, he, Grimmjow and Ulquiorra disappeared in a swath of black power.

Nel let out a heavy breath along with most other arrancar in the room. For those that didn't, it was still tangled in their throat. That was the man she had expected, the one she pretended didn't scare her.

- xxx -

Kurosaki Ichigo

Grimmjow was pacing, muscles tight with rage. It was strange to be the one looking in. Seeing that blatant aggression made Ichigo wonder if it was a mistake to drop him in a crowd of arrancar. He did better than he expected, but that didn't mean he wasn't critiquing his own choices. He wasn't entirely sure what la sangre had done to him yet, but all this did was solidify his choice not to bring him to Seireitei.

His eyes flicked over Starrk, debating waking him up, then came to rest on Ulquiorra. He hadn't intended to draw him into la sangre at first, but the Espada was pushing so hard to get a rise out of him. Ulquiorra couldn't kill him, so the next best choice was his own death. The Espada thought he wanted to die, but rather than grant him a few seconds of solace, the fear of creeping death would have to be enough.

Ulquiorra's crisis worked out in Ichigo's favor in the end, but it was far from vengeance, he was letting Ulquiorra get just a bit too close to his soul for comfort. This wasn't the same as what Alteza had done to Grimmjow, but it was a close second. La sangre would chew away at his soul just the same. If he wanted to feel his mortality, it was actually an easy request to fulfill.

He crouched next to Starrk, reaching for his mask. He seemed to be doing fine, so he saw no reason to wake him yet, he still had Grimmjow to deal with. Without looking up, he said, "Relax, Grimmjow, ignore it. I know you can."

He snapped, "And if I don't want to?" Ichigo looked up, eyes tracking him as he crossed from Starrk to Ulquiorra and back. "You're angry. You should be, you have every right to be." Grimmjow stopped to face him, demanding, "Why don't you do something about it?"

Ichigo deflected the question, well aware Grimmjow could feel the fury he had boxed up inside him. "La sangre is making your instincts louder, try to ignore it."

"Answer me!"

Ichigo's expression fell into a frown, and after sharing a look with his bored inner hollow, he stood. "Because I can't afford to, do you really need to ask?" Grimmjow was seething, and not all of that anger was second hand. He wanted to feel it, and Ichigo had a good idea as to why that would be. Anger was easy.

Ichigo stepped over Starrk, and Grimmjow took a small step back, caught himself, and stayed still. His fraccion was deep enough in his instincts to be afraid, but not so much that he would cave to that fear. Always so stubborn. "Killing everyone that pissed me off would feel good in the moment, but where does that leave me?" He stopped within arm's reach, and still Grimmjow hadn't moved. "Alone."

"But you already know that. I'm sorry you have to live with my frustrations, but they are mine." He took another step forward, and Grimmjow tensed, ready for a fight. "Stop dwelling on my feelings and face your own."

Grimmjow snapped into motion, closing the distance as he drew the sword. Ichigo caught his sword on the back of his wrist, looking to the blade. They both knew his attacks were useless, but it was still cathartic to try to cut someone. He hadn't grabbed the blade on purpose, and so Grimmjow tried again, faster, but still too slow.

Ichigo stepped into sonido, appearing just behind him. "You're scared." Grimmjow whirled, pure power sluicing off the blade. Ichigo was already gone, luring him away from Ulquiorra and Starrk. He reappeared at the far end of the room, slowly drawing the khyber blade. This side of the room was nearly obliterated thanks to Zangetsu, it made for something more interesting than a box to fight in.

Grimmjow crossed the room without a word, reiatsu flaring around his fist in a bala. Ichigo caught his punch in his palm, raising his sword to block a swipe for his ribs. Grimmjow's reiatsu skittered over his hierro, slicing deep trenches in the stone behind him.

Ichigo stared back into fiery blue eyes, accepting every ounce of blame he found there. Ichigo leveled a fact at his Espada. "And you're angry." His claws tightened over Grimmjow's fist, digging into the tendons on the back of his hand. "Can't feel that, can you?"

Grimmjow's eyes widened, looking caught. He ground his teeth together, pulling his fist free at the cost of his own hand. Blood splattered the ground and he swiped again, his blood mixing with the bala and doubling the power. Ichigo blocked with Zangetsu, raising his sword before him to cut through the wave of reiatsu with his own. Grimmjow shouted, "I won't die like this!"

Those words scraped his heart, but he didn't let them cut. He was responsible for this, Grimmjow was his arrancar, a wild thing he'd just gifted a slow, pathetic death.

Grimmjow swung wildly, but with plenty of skill to be deadly to anyone that wasn't a hybrid monster. Ichigo carefully blocked and dodged his attacks, letting Grimmjow have the satisfaction of steel ringing against steel. He didn't hold back too much, that would just be insulting. He caught Grimmjow by the jacket, throwing him bodily through and into a cluster of rubble.

The air was knocked clean out of his fraccion's lungs, his knees hitting the ground hard when he slid from the stone. Before he could recover and find his legs, Ichigo was there, both swords drawn. He crossed the blades, sinking them into the stone in a deadly 'X' across Grimmjow's throat. He leaned in, and Grimmjow was forced flat against the stone, the blades close enough to flesh to draw blood when he swallowed. Ichigo remarked, "Almost nostalgic, isn't it?" The situation was familiar, but only in action, not in meaning.

Accusation smoldered in Grimmjow's eyes, unwilling to voice them for fear of all the weaknesses it would lay bare. Ichigo said, "Your life has always been in my hands. Your pride and your loyalty means too much to me, I won't let you die like that. If I fail, I'll kill you myself. I won't put you down, you're not a dog. You'll die with a sword in your hand and a smile on your face."

Grimmjow stared as Ichigo leaned back, drawing his swords away along with that threat. Ichigo said, "Now hit me, swing at me, swear at me, do whatever you need to do to work it out. Gotta get used to your limits when you can't feel pain anyways."

Grimmjow stood, shaking out his mangled hand. He could still clench it into a loose fist, but his hand didn't want to obey. He spun his sword in his uninjured hand, tilting his head to the side in thought. "Why do you have to fuckin' speak sense. I want to beat your fucking face in." He looked back at him, his eyes narrowed in anger, but it was far less severe. "You're not supposed to agree with me, retard."

Ichigo spread his arms apart, taking a few steps back. "I never do what's best for me, you shouldn't be surprised. I'll even give you a free hit."

"Asshole," Grimmjow hissed. He swung wildly, and this time his sword connected with Ichigo's chest, the blade stopping short on his armor.

Ichigo's arms lowered a touch, a small smirk turning up his lips. "Is that it?"

Grimmjow swung again, and this time Ichigo dodged, crouching on a heavy block of rubble a few feet away. "Try a little harder."

He did try, and no matter how many times he swung, he didn't get any closer to doing damage or hitting him, and after over an hour of that, Grimmjow started to tire out. He was gasping for air, and Ichigo wasn't even winded. It wasn't a real fight, Grimmjow hadn't even released his sword, and Ichigo still had Zangetsu manifest to watch Ulquiorra and Starrk.

Ichigo asked, "Feel better?"

Grimmjow was breathing too hard to respond, but he shot Ichigo a venom filled glare. There was no heart in it, Ichigo could see straight through him. Crossing over to his fraccion, Ichigo sheathed his swords, then held his hand out towards him. Grimmjow was leaning on his knees, looking at the offered hand in confusion. "What d'yu want?"

"Your hand."

"I'm fine," grit Grimmjow. He straightened, but the tremor in his hand was noticeable, even when he tried to hide it.

Ichigo repeated himself with more steel. "Your hand. You're useless if you cripple yourself over your pride."

The Espada reluctantly held out his hand, pointedly looking anywhere else while Ichigo did his best to heal the worst of it. Grimmjow asked, "If I can't feel pain, how's this going to go?"

Dying...he didn't want that to happen, but the reality was still there. He nothing but a drowning man dragging down his would be rescuer. He ran his thumb over healed tendons, Grimmjow's fingers twitching in his hand. His own body could handle the rest, he let him go and answered, "I don't know, but I can guess. You saw what happened when I pushed myself too hard, I got slow, my body wouldn't listen."

Grimmjow sheathed his sword, brows scrunched in thought. He idly flexed his hand, realized he couldn't feel it, and looked down at his hand, testing his mobility. He seemed satisfied, his eyes roaming back towards Starrk and Ulquiorra. They were far away, only Zangetsu's silhouette was noticeable from where they stood.

Grimmjow asked, "Did you mean what you said?"

Ichigo chided, "Don't ask stupid questions." His voice fell, lost in a hiss. "When you die, you'll fall to my sword. Your life is mine."

"I don't belong to you!" snapped Grimmjow.

Ichigo found his hand clenched tight over Grimmjow's mouth. He blinked, startled by his own movement, but it was no less wanted. Grimmjow reached up to pry off his hand but Ichigo didn't budge. He spoke softly. "Deny it if you want, you're mine. If you didn't want to be, you would have left months ago."

Lifting his hand from his mouth, Ichigo saw his fingers left marks on his skin. He hadn't thought he'd used that much force. Despite that, the look in Grimmjow's eyes was the same. He would stay, he wanted to stay.

Dropping his eyes, Grimmjow didn't deny it. He sank into a crouch, catching his breath, and for once tried deflecting attention away from himself. He growled quietly. "Fuck off, Kurosaki."

He walked past him, lifting his hand to study his claws. Red, always red. He paused and ordered, "Watch Ulquiorra."

"Where are you going?"

Ichigo shot Grimmjow a look that was enough for the arrancar to second guess any would-be argument. "Seireitei." Without his fraccion, that much was obvious.

"You wore me out so I wouldn't argue." Grimmjow ground his teeth in annoyance, but he watched Kurosaki warily, as if that comment might incite violence.

"That was just a perk," Ichigo admitted. He turned away from him, easing Grimmjow's concerns the best he could. "Don't leave his side unless he wakes, I'll be back soon."

- xxx -

Ichigo is fucked up. So what happened was I combined my idea for a sequel into this one because why not, it seemed to fit, and now this fic is loooong. Did anyone notice or care that Zommari basically doesn't exist? He's boorrrring.

Thanks for reading!

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