Nel ran forward, her eyes narrowed in determination. She could feel Nnoitora's spiritual pressure raging like a solar flare, just on the outside of Los Noches. It was clear he was waiting on the roof, probably thinking he would come in through the hole in the dome that his 'troops' were poring through.

She didn't know why everyone was taking his attacks so seriously. He was just a beast, an animal full of blood lust rooming the desert in search of prey. But the weak do not prey on the strong. He would be easy to take down.

She felt it was her responsibility to fight him. In the past she never had, simply because there was no reason to. The last time she had fought him she had done so to protect her newfound friends.

This time Nnoitora really had crossed the line. He was not just attacking her friends- he was attacking his fellow espada and arancar. He was attacking their home.

And so he had to be put down like the beast he was.

He had already caused too much pain and misery.

She made it to the roof, flashing between enemy arrancar, not harming them. She wouldn't attack anyone who did not directly provoke her.

She appeared right before Nnoitora. He looked the same as always. His injuries, remarkably, had been healed. He had that smirk on his face, eye crazy and full of the power only a madman would take such delight in. It made her sick to see him, she could actually feel acid rising in the back of her throat. She didn't want to fight him. She didn't even want to look at him.

"Neliel!" He cawed, strutting forward. "You're not a little brat anymore, ne?" He cackled, kicking one of his troops hard in the cut and sending him flying when the boy got too close.

Nel narrowed her eyes. That was why Nnoitora had to be killed. He was cruel. "You're nothing but a beast, Nnoitora." Nel calmly told him with a slight frown, "You are disgusting. You have no regard for any around you. Where is you fraccion? Do you not at least care for him in some way?"

"He's dead, bitch." The man snapped. "And it's his own damn fault, not my problem!" He hefted his huge zanpaktu over his head. "Enough questions!"

He charged forward, but Nel didn't have any trouble dodging. She was instantly upon him, attacking him with a grace that she was so well known for.

He's changed. She noted, watching as he took the time to back away from her blade. He no longer rushes. He is taking care not to be injured.

She cuts a thin slash in his upper arm, watching through glassy eyes as he cursed and spat.

He is the same, though. She thought. In most ways. His skills are the same. He, as a hollow, is the same. But he… he is careful about death now.

She winced when he managed a shallow cut over her right cheek.

He's a little faster… She went on. Could it be he's improved?

"I'll crush you into dust, Neliel!"

No… he's simply died the death he's always dreamed. He doesn't want to die again. She found herself almost sorry about what she had to do. He knows that it won't happen twice. I won't drown him in a bath of his own blood. This will be over before it even begins for him.

"Pray, Santa Teresa!"

Neliel was surprised to se him suddenly change into his resurrection form, but easily parried. She would at least give him the satisfaction of being killed by her released state.

"Declare, Gamuza."

She was surprised that there were no ceros in their battle. She had thought that it would be a simple matter of time, and then she would have to return each one he fired.

But it was a simple battle of blades.

I have mis-read him. She thought, a tinge of remorse tugging at her gut. He's not cautious about death. He wants to die again. He wants this to be as drawn out as possible. He is upset that he has been revived, because he had died the death he wished. He was finished.

Neliel wasn't one to draw out someone's suffering. She didn't even kill those weaker than herself. She didn't enjoy blood shed. She didn't even relish fighting.

But hadn't she been the one to call herself a masochist?

I should not have been the one to engage him. She cursed in her mind. But… if I hadn't… would this end the way he needs it to?

She wasn't so precise in her next attack. She was loose with her blade, drawing out her cut in a way she wouldn't normally.

Blood arced up in the air, glinting in the moonlight. His clothes began to drip with it, his chest oozing the crimson liquid.

And for a moment he looked surprised. He had come thinking he would be exterminated by her. But then, in the second it had appeared the look was gone. He looked up to her for just a fraction of a moment, and his smile had meaning for once. Thank you.

"You think you're fucking better than me, bitch?" He roared. "I'll tear you to pieces!"

She didn't reply- she wasn't one for petty banter.

She parried, thrust, and skimmed about. She drew it out as much as she could, each slice of her blade, every bruise, every kick and punch. She slowly tore him apart.

Out of no where, suddenly, Nnoitora was him old self for just a second. He reached behind him, almost in slow motion, and pulled something from behind his back. Neliel's eyes widened, as everything seemed to boil down to slow motion, as he opened up a white bag that could be used to store things in another dimension. And out flew a body, so small, so fragile. Right into her path.

Neliel reared back, scrambling not to hit the little boy who had so suddenly entered the fight.

Heat- a roaring pain, seared across her exposed stomach. Blood flew from her form, dripping down her stomach into her furry legs, dripping onto the dome that they stood on.

Nnoitora hit the child, sending the boy flying out of his way, ready to get back to the fight. His whole move had just been to put them on equal grounds.

Nel flashed in a wave of Sonido, easily reaching the child before he could even begin to head down. She flashed again, safe, far off. She put him down, smoothing out his navy-blue hair. "Stay here." She told him.

She flashed back then, to Nnoitora.

He was laughing, smiling, madness seeping from his gaze. She wasn't so sure why she had stayed near him all those years. Why, in spite of everything, she hadn't tried to track him down first thing she had learned of him not being dead. She didn't know why she broke so many of her personal rules to let him live.

She was sick, unhealthy. She was twisted.

But she was just so… infatuated with him.

He had to die. He couldn't just keep hurting people.

Fitz.

Nel's eyes widened.

"You noticed, didn't you?"

She felt her breathing speed up.

"You noticed that I was faster."

She slowly turned, unable to believe it. She was a Sonido master. There was no way he had flashed behind her without her notice. It was impossible…

He smirked. "Shinigami are good for something at least, eh Neliel? Bastards know how to make thing." He spat blood over her shoulder, not caring that flecks splattered her cheek.

"Bye-bye, Neliel."

She was no fool- the wound would kill her. He had sliced her whole body in half. But she wasn't going down without seeing that she was the only one he would be able to kill.

Her lance charged, flying from her hands and strait through his chest. He fell to pieces, still laughing, cackling, unable to stop. He had finally lost all forms of his sanity, laying there beside her bleeding to death, his body torn apart and gaping in the moonlight.

"Neliel." He rasped, blood pouring from his lips. "Neliel!"

She heaved another breath, her lungs suddenly not working very well. Blood was trickling up out of her mouth, too. She didn't grace him with an answer.

"Neliel, you bitch. Can't talk?" He laughed harshly, his body shuddering.

They were both leaking spiritual pressure out into the air. Their resurrection forms disappeared, leaving them in their true bodies.

"What do you want, Nnoitora?" She managed.

"Funny that we would go out like this, eh? Fucking torn apart, even after all you said about being a warrior and that shit." He snorted. "You were always a lying little-"

"I don't recognize you as a warrior." She cut him off.

He blanched. "W-what?" His body was shuddering now, just as her own was, as they both struggled against the suffocating cloak of death around them.

"You are an animal." She breathed, looking at him one last time. "It's not a reason to fight. But you've hurt people who are very dear to me-"

She could see him loosing his smile. He understood, finally. There battle, so long unfinished, was finally at an end.

"And so you had to pay." She finished.

He made an indignant sound, bitter. "You always were full of shit." He barely smiled at her. "You liked tearing me apart."

She didn't reply.

The life had already bled from her eyes.

.

I'm back? I guess? Um, well, I promise not to give up on this story, and it is so close to being finished, but I don't know when the next update will be, really. I'm just... Ugh, enough of my whining! I'm sorry if this chapter was OOC- I have a really time writing these two. Nel, for one, changes her personality ALL THE TIME. And it drives me crazy. I had to go back and kind of look over some of the things she said for this battle, and then it hit me. She actually says a lot of things that Nnoitora thinks. ANd then I start looking into things and trying to work things out and... ugh, I just couldn't ignore there relationship. So this happened.

Anyway, I hope to hear from everyone. Thanks for sticking with me so long!