Another one bites the dust! Song for Grimmjow in this chapter is NF- Real. Not my normal style of music, but sets the mood of his state of mind. Ruh-roh.

Chapter 49

Captain Unohana's serene eyes widened in shock as she entered the operating room. It was in shambles. Holding out her arms, she stopped her companions from walking in while she surveyed the destruction in the room. She could tell with out looking that their eyes were as wide as hers.

Lured by the obscene waves of Mara's spiritual pressure, Unohana had found a small crowd gathered in the waiting room of the 4th Division medical center. Of course. She hadn't expected her greeting to be interrupted by a bleeding first year who told her that they needed help down here. Nor had she been able to dissuade her peers from following.

Unohana hadn't expected to be leading Captain Byakuya, Captain Soi Fon, and Shihoin Yoruichi into the bowels of her hospital. She hadn't known what to expect when Mei, bleeding and exhausted, had run in for help. Of all these shattered expectations, she wasn't sure why she hadn't been prepared to walk into a chaos worthy of a battlefield.

Sparks flew through the air from where light fixtures were pulling loose from the ceiling. Burn marks from small cero's that the hollow had somehow managed to get off scorched into the walls. Half of the Kido Corps members were knocked out cold. She was unsure weather it was from exhaustion or hits from the flailing hollow off to the side. Kira was on his knees beside the hollows bed, bleeding from clear claw marks across his temple, and his face was a mask of concentration as he focused on maintaining his spell. The other Kido Corps members were in similar stances around the bed, but the hollow in question was barely being contained.

A puddle of blood surrounded his bed from where he had torn himself apart trying to reach the center of the room.

This was carnage.

Fascinating.

Grimmjow let out a hollowfied roar that finally succeeding in breaking a sheet of straining glass in one of the viewing windows as he reached futilely for the center of the room again. For the girl. She could only be described as surrounded in a tornado of raw power that swirled with the hues of the ocean. It's punishing winds had enveloped Lieutenant Abarai's and Captain Hisagi's forms. And yet, inside the vortex, they lay peacefully.

At least it seamed peaceful until an animalistic scream ripped from the captain. Blood bloomed on the sheets as he seemed to bodily turn over in the bed, exposing his back, ripped anew.

Until it wasn't.

Doubly fascinating

Unohana ignored the sounds of the other captains shuffling around the room as she watched the skin of Hisagi's back knit seamlessly back together. Not a scar nor blemish remained. He was as good as new. Back to fighting shape.

"What is going on here?" Byakuya demanded repeatedly, but no one was answering, either too deep in focus or unable.

"Reign it in, Byakuya-boy, they're busy" Yoruichi scolded the stern man, earning a dour frown as she came to join Unohana in observing inside the reitsu storm. "Huh," she remarked, "Mara-chan never displayed healing capabilities in the real world."

"I assume her mortal body held her back from much," Unohana replied thoughtfully before being jogged from her thoughts by another deafening shriek. "Much like this one is being held back by seki seki from achieving his final form to absorb and eat all this power," she added with a disconcerting smile.

"The cuffs are still on?" questioned Soi Fon, "I thought those were only for the punishment."

"That bastard Mayuri extended his experiment, apparently," Yoruichi replied dryly, "This right here, this lack of restraint… That's the real test."

"Yes," Unohana nodded in agreement, "He wants Grimmjow to prove he is still a mindless hollow by ripping though those he says he is loyal to."

"But my Lieu-" Byakuya cut himself off with a cough. "What of the girl and the losses of ranked officers?"

"He probably thought that the other two would protect the girl- whom he hopes will be his next test subject," Soi Fon answered.

"But they are grievously injured."

"Not anymore they aren't," came a small voice from the doorway. Mei had followed them back down again. Yoruichi nodded encouragingly at her for her bravery.

Slowly, Mei sank to the floor with her back against the door jamb for support. "It started when Mara-sama finally went to sleep, she'd been up for so long that we made her lay down," she said slowly, regret tinging her words, "And then… then she just emitted all this power, like a- a bubble and it encased her and Lieutenant Abarai. He started to heal. Completely heal, not even a messed up tattoo. Those should have been gone. There was no skin."

Byakuya couldn't help his flinch. They had given the girl an impossible task.

"But even though he was healed, he still didn't wake up," Mei continued, "But Instructor Jaegerjaquez did. We gave him sedatives, we tied him down, Kira brought reinforments… nothing worked." Mei gestured around the room before settling her forehead in her hands and taking a long shaky breath.

"And Captain Hisagi?" Soi Fon questioned impatiently before grunting as Yoruichi elbowed her in the ribs for impatience.

"He was the first one to seal the instructor," Mei answered, leaning her head back up against the wall, "He said Captain Mayuri had sealed him with the seki seki- that he was 'starving the hollow' like he used to when- well, you know. Then Hisagi passed out and Grimmjow almost got loose but Kira pinned him down and we got more people… but Mara-sama's spirit bubble just expanded over the captain and just keeps growing. And the more it grows the worse the instructor-"

"It's okay," Yoruichi said softly, dropping to her knees to cut off the frightened young shinigami with a hug, "You did well."

As Mei dissolved into quiet, overwhelmed sobs against Yoruichi, the captains looked blankly at each other. Before they could form an idea of what they were supposed to do, however, another deafening hollow shriek rand through the room followed by a series of screams and dull thuds.

Turning with wide eyes, they saw that Grimmjow had managed a broad swipe that had left the remaining Kido Corps members out cold, blood smeared on the wall behind their slouched figures. Only Kira held the line now.

In tandem, Byakuya and Soi Fon spun toward the far side of the room, hands outstretched. "Bakoudo 61: Rikujokoro!"

Twelve more bolts of light, straight and strong, plunged down from the ether above Grimmjow's struggling, desperate form to pin him solidly in place. Mostly.

"Unohana," Yoruichi called out, "Knock him out."

"I'm afraid I can't," Unohana replied placidly, eyes affixed to where the rods of light further dug into Grimmjow's mangled flesh with macabre focus, "The Fourth cannot interfere in the treatment."

"Your secret is safe," Soi Fon ground out as she held her kido in place with sheer force of will. How much power did this damn espada have? She could have sworn he was only the 6th! How the hell did Hisagi keep this beast under control but by respect alone?

"There is no need for a secret," Byakuya said in a surprisingly fierce monotone. His voice betrayed his strain though his face remained the pinnacle of calm. "It is not treatment; it is disabling a threat. No one can ban you from defending your squad."

Unohana seemed to not be listening as she looked inside the whirlpool of power again. Hisagi's healing had completed but she noted that now both Renji and Mara appeared to be smeared in blood from a source unknown. It did not seem to be theirs.

"Very well," she answered distractedly.

Walking up to the fierce hollow as if danger were nonexistent, she placed a small hand on his forehead, dragging it over his eyes and he slept instantly. Her lips didn't even move. All the other captains furrowed their brows as they regarded her, fearful for an unknown reason. All except Kira, who had passed out and fallen over in exhaustion.

May watched with wide eyes from the doorway, still held by Yoruichi, as Grimmjow fell still. An eerie silence seemed to settle over the room. Mei looked at the powerful figures who had saved the day when she saw movement in her peripheral vision. Mara's spirit bubble seemed to bounce irregularly on the side. Just a wobble… just like…

"Move!" she screamed at the captains, but they just turned to look at her in confusion.

Too late.

Mara's rietsu, awash with foreign swirls of red and gray, surged through the room with the force of a tsunami. It broke the powerful binding kido like toothpicks and threw the captains against far walls with a hard crash before enveloping Grimmjow's prostrate form. Like a receding wave, it pulled back and dragged Grimmjow, bed and all, into formation inside of it with the others. It recondensed into it's thick whirlpool form.

Captain Unohana ran to the mass of rietsu. Eyes peeled and regardless of the blood that was beginning to drip down the back of her neck, she began to see Grimmjow's own bright aquamarine rietsu rise to join the cacophony of colors. It was faint, but Mara seemed to be calling it to join her own power despite the seki seki strapped to his ankles.

His face was anything but restful as he began to writhe, not for escape, but in pain. A smile tugged at the corners of Unohana's lips.

Fascinating.

.

.

"Brace yourself," Hisagi stated calmly, ignoring the sound of the wind rushing by them as they fell.

"No shit, Sherlock," Renji grumbled, bringing Mara up higher until her head was level with the men's shoulders. They could land from this fall. He wasn't sure if she could.

"Again, with the world of the living euphemisms," Hisagi complained, tightening one arm around Mara and latching onto Renji with the other.

"Not how that word is used there," Renji grunted.

Hisagi was unable to reply as they hit the bottom with an echoing thud.

CRACK

What they had though was the bottom gave way beneath them under the force, depositing the ball they had formed onto a cleanly tiled sub floor. Rolling over each other, the pile tilted until Renji lay on bottom, wedged against the rubble.

"Ow," he groaned, but no one moved, "I'm so sick of floors collapsing."

"Is it over?" Mara asked, her fearful voice muffled from where she was squished between their two large frames. "Are we alive?"

"Yeah, Koi, we're good," Hisagi told her gently, bending to kiss the top of her head.

"Good," Renji grumble, "Get off."

Hisagi grinned back at Renji's glare. "I mean, you did say-"

"Shut the fuck up and get off me."

Chuckling to himself Hisagi extricated his hold from them and rose to his feet. He reached to help Mara, who had begun to squirm when Hisagi's weight lifted off her, when Renji's strong arm snaked around her.

"You, not her."

Hisagi sighed as he straightened, "Dick."

"Ace," Mara whined even as she chuckled and pushed against his chest.

"Douche," Renji replied with a grin before finally setting Mara loose from his hold.

Hisagi wasted no time scooping her up into a princess carry to check her over from the fall. Mara was tired of cooperating, however, as evidence by her crossed arms and glare levied at the two men.

"I have legs," she pointed out to them petulantly, "And you guys took the brunt of that fall. You can put me down."

"Nope," Hisagi replied shortly, carrying her over the rubble as Renji rose behind him.

"Nope?" She asked back indignantly, eyebrows raised high at him.

"You're fun to carry, Ippin," Renji told her with a grin as he rose, "You're fun size."

"Fun size?" she questioned eyebrows raising along with the two men's attempts not to laugh.

"You know," Hisagi told her in a deceptive croon, "A perfect little pocket person to carry around." He erupted into full blown laughter as Mara playfully peppered light punches across his check and wiggled in his arms. "Stop it, Koi," He warned her playfully, cocking his brow.

"Or what, Otto?" she said, exaggerating his nickname as she cocked her arm back.

"Bakoudo…"

Heat entered Mara's eyes as she looked at him, his deep sexy voice drawing out the word until she could feel her insides fluttering to its resonance. "Yes, sir," she whispered, lowering her arm slowly while never breaking his gaze.

Renji watched the interplay between them with an equal mix of fascination and loathing. On the one hand, Mara surrendering was… well, it was fucking hot. That's what it was. The utter rush to feel the tempest that raged in the small woman be quelled must be exhilarating. Except it wasn't for him. Of course not. He loved what he had with Mara, but he…

Was jogged from his thoughts at Mara's high squeal as Hisagi let go from behind her back, swinging her in a full circle by her knees around his arm and back to a princess carry.

"What?" Hisagi teased her, "What can I not do?"

Renji was almost sucked back into just watching them again. The change in his friend was striking. He hadn't seen Hisagi play or smile like that since… ever. It had never happened. Would it be so bad of it kept happening if they could both be happy like that?

"Otto!" Mara squealed again as Hisagi actually tossed her lightly in the air and deftly caught her again, "I cave! Uncle!"

"You going to tell me how I can't possibly hold your weight for much longer now?" Hisagi kept going, tickling her until she gasped, unable to answer.

"Ace," she gasped, drawing in Renji's distracted gaze, "save me!"

Renji's stoic face shifted back to a grin that reached just a little closer to her eyes this time. "You challenged him, Ippin, so you get to handle it."

"No!" she gasped, laughing and snorting and practically climbing Hisagi's body to get away from his torturous touch, "Please!"

"Alright, alright," Renji said, moving his feet apart and holding out his arms but making no move to come closer, "But there's only one way you will be in my arms instead of his." Renji lifted his chin at Hisagi, who acknowledged it with a downward tip of his own.

"What are you guys- BALLS!" Mara screeched again as Hisagi launched her into the air, only for her to be deftly caught in Renji's waiting arms.

Swinging her up effortlessly, he deposited her over his shoulder, butt in the air.

"You guys suck!" Mara yelled, pounding Renji's broad back with small fists and only earning a quick swat on her ass as a reward.

"Nah, keep going, Ippin," Renji urged as he felt her stop resisting. The sharp poke in his back of her elbows gaze away that she was propping her head up on her hands and sulking. "I kinda want an excuse to spank you again," he crooned suggestively.

Her wiggled hips were expected but Hisagi's sharp, heated look was not. Then he fully remembered Hisagi's favorite type of play. Maybe, just maybe, there could be some common- and fun- ground there. Maybe.

There was no more time to ruminate on it, however as a blood-curdling scream rended the air from further down the hallway. Mara found herself on her feet faster than she had bargained and stumbled slightly into the two solid backs in front of her. Noiselessly, and faster than sound itself, both Renji and Hisagi had planted themselves in front of her, dropping into fighting stances and scanning the hallway with murderous intent.

"Guys…" Mara asked tremulously, before stopping abruptly as Hisagi raised a closed fist. Stop. She did.

For a full minute, the guys watched the exposed hall in silence but there was no more noise, no movement. Slowly their shoulders dropped and they loosened their limbs. Mara wasn't fooled, however. With a hand on each of their backs, she could feel that they were still tense and coiled, ready to strike.

The happiness from a moment before was forgotten as Hisagi and Renji exchanged wordless looks.

"Guys," Mara started again, "what was that?"

"Something bad," Renji mumbled, sepia glare scanning for threats.

"I figured that," Mara mumbled, looking around them with her men.

The hall, which she had previously not really taken in, was so long that it led away from them into darkness. While the walls and floor and ceiling all appeared to be sterile white, the darkness made it hard to tell if that was the case or not. Every ten feet or so, small lights glowed from the seam where the walls met the floor providing enough illumination to walk by but not much else. It cast an eerie glow up the walls that only emphasized the shadows.

Looking now, she shouldn't have been surprised at the terrified scream. This place reeked of evil. It shouldn't have even been hard to tell.

Mara also looked up at the hole they had come through. More correctly, she looked at where the hole should have been. The ceiling tiles were still in disarray from the descent, but the dirt was back in place, tightly packed and just waiting to be patched over.

"We're stuck," Hisagi stated, following Mara's line of sight to the solid ceiling. "Looks like the only way out now is forward."

Slowly, the three started making their way away from the debris pile, all that was left to mark their entry. The men automatically assumed a protective stance around her, echoing the time she had gone to the Rukongai. Hisagi led them, Kazeshini already drawn, while Renji covered the rear. Unfortunately, Renji's sword had never seemed to make it to the dreamscape they had been whisked through, but Mara had no doubt that the formidable lieutenant, even unarmed, would give any attacker pause.

But there were no attacks. There were no people. Nothing. While the men stayed on guard, Mara could see them begin to relax as nothing appeared.

Nothing except a door. A large, steel door with inlays of seki seki set into it. Multiple bolts rested above a simple pull handle. There was even a spot for a bar to be laid across it and be latched into steel rungs that protruded from the wall on either side. However, the bar was absent, instead laid up against the wall next to the frame.

"No…"

Mara could barely hear Hisagi's whisper even in the silence of the hallway. Glancing at Renji, she could tell he was just as perplexed and worried as she was at Hisagi's small exclamation.

"Where is this, Otto?" she rasped, but instead of a response she heard a sharp cough and gurgling from behind the door, followed by what could only be described as a final gasp for life.

Silence.

"Fuck," Hisagi whispered again, eyes closing at some truth that only he knew.

Before Mara could attempt to ask more, the silence was broken once again by… laughter. A maniacal, insane sound that echoed through the door and down the hall in a cacophony of horror. It was the sound of unhindered malice, left to run rampant in a broken mind.

Mara winced as she let it wash over her. She may not have known where they were, but she now knew who they were with.

They'd found her espada.

.

.

.

Grimmjow sneered down at the body in front of him. The idiot's blood spilled onto the floor from where his throat had been ripped out and leaked toward the central drain of the room. A pathetic end for a pathetic weakling.

[That is what he gets for treading too close to the King.]

The hollow was right. It often was. Idiot thought some chains and meat hooks meant he'd been turned into a kitten? Fuck no. A laugh gurgled from his lips and quickly grew as his mind struggled to wrap around his current situation yet again. How many times had he been pulled apart now? How many ways had they poked and prodded before locking him in here, chained with seki seki? What were they waiting on? For him to die?

If the fucker on the floor was any evidence, they still had a long wait. The thought made him laugh harder. It was a waste of a Gonzui to suck in his weak ass soul, not that he could absorb any power with so much stone strapped around him. But he did it to prove a point. He wasn't dead yet.

"You hear that, Mayuri?" Grimmjow yelled to the silence, "I'm not dead yet!"

A skittering of power. That's all it was in Grimmjow's mind, but he felt it. It gave him a small but needed boost to lift his head and look around the room again. He didn't know this power, this light electricity that seemed to barely crackle in his mind like a tiny electric shock. Always brief and always gone before he could take hold of it and wield it.

His eyes went back to the lump of bleeding flesh on the floor. The blood had reached the drain, now mixing with his own. The guy was just doing his job. He had even brought him food…

[They're watching.]

The hollows voice was separate now, too. Had been for a while. It felt like gravel dragging across the open wound of his psyche, but it was right. It was always right.

"I know you're watching, Mayuri," He sing-songed with a grin. He new Mayuri was definitely watching now. His pride wouldn't let him not. "How many more of your lambs are you going to send to the slaughter?"

His wild eyes slid to the pile of broken bodies and bones slowly decaying in the corner. Mayuri had no problem sacrificing his own. And they called hollows evil. They thought the hollows were the monsters. Fuck shinigami in general. Fuck Mayuri especially.

"Who's next?!" he roared.

[He thinks he can break you.]

"You think you can break me, you coward?" he yelled into the ether, "You think your little minions can touch me?"

[No, they can't.]

"No!"

[Never.]

"I will never break!"

[King.]

"I'm the fucking king!"

Silence. His powerful words were swallowed by it and left to echo only in his own ears. Always with the god. damn. silence. He swore sometimes he thought that he had made up his hollows voice just to keep himself company.

Grimmjow felt that foreign power skitter across him mind again, light and fresh and all too brief. He yanked his head to the side, ignoring the bite of pain in his shoulders as he did so, as if trying to catch the spark. Instead, his eyes landed on the door.

The door… the door… THE FUCKING DOOR. It was unlocked. He knew it was. He also knew he couldn't get out of the chains. He had tried that for- weeks? months?- who knew. He had kept trying until one of Mayuri's peons had come in laughing about it. Said they had all watched his fruitless struggles. Said they had popped popcorn for the show. That was the last time Grimmjow had ever struggled in his chains.

It was also the first time he had eaten an assistant.

They weren't laughing now. Fuckers.

Lowering his head, Grimmjow again affixed his eyes to the mesmerizing swirling of blood down the drain. The shinigami's had petered out now, the remaining trail just a smear on the tile, but there was still so much blood. Was he bleeding more than normal? Who knew… who cared?

"What are you gonna do now, coward?" Grimmjow asked quietly, no longer caring if he was heard.

Voices outside the door drew his gaze and again, that annoying itch of power bounced in his head. It emitted no words, but it gave of a distinct feeling. Something was coming. Something was different.

"…have to… back…"

"… abso… not… kidding me…"

"… got her…"

"… no way… behind…"

"… not… you knew…"

"… still Grimmjow…"

Now they really had his attention. There were three voices but two of them were getting heated. And they knew his name.

"No!" The command rang in the air and was followed by silence again.

The seconds felt like minutes as Grimmjow watched the door. A slight tussling, muffled yelling and more silence before the door slowly pushed on its hinges to reveal a tall man with dark hair and a darker glare.

Scars marred one side of his face and the other was covered in tattoos. He wore his sword at his hip, but his lean muscles and rough hands said that he didn't need it. He was a warrior, there was no mistaking it. The lieutenant badge on his bicep confirmed this was no average lackey.

Grimmjow blinked as the spark came back. Just a quick snap of electricity. Wrongness. Grimmjow ignored it.

"Looks like Mayuri finally called the big dogs in to fight for him," he cackled, "Dunno what more damage you can do, big dog, but at least you know I can't block you."

Grimmjow said the words, felt himself say them but they didn't feel right. He didn't think it was right. He furrowed his brow and shook his head, screw the scouring pain in his back and joints, as he tried to clear it. The damn spark was there again, assuring him this was wrong, but he couldn't think with it bouncing around in his head like that.

He turned his attention to the stoic man who had only taken a single step into the room and was looking slowly around. Grimmjow expected disgust. The bodies decaying in the corner made even him want to gag sometimes. He expected anger. He was a hollow, after all, and there was a fresh shingami corpse staring up at them. But instead, when this new shinigami looked at him, all that Grimmjow could read in his gray eyes was an unspeakable sadness.

Panning the room again, the man took another step in. "Shit, I'd forgotten just how bad this was," he muttered, so low Grimmjow would have missed it if he had so much as twisted his chains.

"Aww, c'mon, big dog," Grimmjow hissed with a sneer, "not even gonna bite?"

This is wrong, Grimmjow realized as the words flowed from him as if scripted. He didn't even want to speak when he did, so why had he?

[Mind games.]

The hollow had to be right. What had been in that food? This was just a new form of torture.

"My name is not 'big dog', Jaegerjaquez. It is Captain Hisagi Shuuhei," the stranger- Hisagi- finally spoke, "And you need to wake up."

Grimmjow's eyes widened as the spark in his mind grew. His name. He hadn't been called anything other than 'the subject' in so long. Just the subject of an experiment was all he had been reduced to. How did this captain know his name? Why was he wearing a lieutenant's badge? Grimmjow felt out with his pesquisa and the captain did nothing to hide his rietsu. He was definitely a captain. A force to be reckoned with. The answer to the Espada.

He had so many questions but when he opened his mouth to speak the wrong words came out. "Ah, hahaha," he chuckled despite his screaming brain, "Tousen's greatest regret. So, you are here to avenge your beloved leader?"

Hisagi's eyes narrowed at Grimmjow. He was stuck. Just like Renji. Just like himself.

"Break script!" came an order called from outside the door, despite the sound of tussling and that the bearer felt winded.

Grimmjow tried to look, tried to see the owner of the voice but his body wasn't cooperating. Sweat broke out on his head against the strain and Hisagi was still looking at him with the saddest fucking eyes.

"Grimmjow!" Hisagi barked, drawing the bright teal eyes back to his own, "I'm here to take you home, but you have to wake up!"

I am awake!

[MIND GAMES]

Fuck!

"Mayuri won't let you leave with me," Grimmjow found himself saying. Not what he was going to say, but it was true. Grimmjow sagged against his chains as if all hope was lost but his mind still raced.

Hisagi stepped closer. Too close.

"I know what you're feeling. You're locked in. Your body isn't your own. But it's a dream, Jaegerjaquez, and you have to break free from it. Everything I would do follows the dreams path, so you have to break it. Look at me."

He couldn't look up. He had to be lying.

[Liar.]

{Truth.}

Grimmjow's head shot up as the spark of power in him found it's voice. It no longer shocked but flowed like soothing water, filling the cracks in him.

"That's right," Hisagi encouraged him, "Now I'm going to lean in to release your arm and you are going to try to bite me. Don't."

Grimmjow mentally furrowed his brow in confusion. Why would he do that? How would Hisagi know that? Unless..

{Because he is telling the truth.}

[NO! He is an enemy and they only lie.]

This mental war was going to get old fast, but the light voice was proven right again as Hisagi leaned in close and Grimmjow felt his head turn rapidly, mouth open and fangs exposed to rip out the captain's jugular.

No! I am the king, not this and not either of you! Grimmjow grunted with the strain but managed to snap his jaws together at the last second before the strike.

Hisagi jumped back, hand clasped to his neck, only to let out a sigh of relief as his fingers came away clean. "Fucking hell, that was close."

Grimmjow's head hung as he gasped for air. It was like his body was still trying to rebel, but something was wrong. his arm should be down, and he should be knocked out. He knew it. He wasn't. His body was fighting to shut down even now but without Cap's swift palm heel to the temple it couldn't…

"Cap?" he gasped.

"I'm here, Jaegerjaquez," he answered immediately.

Memories flooded into Grimmjow's mind. This had all been done before. But this was different. Hisagi was different.

"Lieutenant?" he managed to push out, "Why- why are you a lieutenant?"

"Long story," Hisagi groaned out, "but let's get you out of here first."

"Still hard," Grimmjow bit out, not wanting to bite the man again… or almost bite him as the case may be. "This is a dream?"

"Nightmare really," Hisagi answered patiently.

"How are you here and not like the you in the dream?"

"Same long story," Hisagi huffed out, "Lets see… we were all in nightmares- You, Abarai, and myself. He got locked in first, and somehow Mara found him and broke him out of the dream. I was next, and they both got me out. Now we are somehow onto you, so we have to break you out. As to how it's happening: no clue."

"Abarai?" Grimmjow questioned, struggling to keep up. He knew the name but how was he involved… and Mar…

"Not the name I thought you'd focus on," Hisagi chuckled, "Top 10 enemies list for you? Red pineapple?"

"I know who he is," Grimmjow growled through gritted teeth as he felt the dreams pull weakening, "I mean, why him?"

Hisagi stooped to look in Grimmjow's still slightly clouded eyes. "Do you not remember the whipping?"

Whips. Pain. Seki Seki sucking out his very life. It flooded back in with all the gentleness of a freight train. Hurting. Starving. And a girl who held his eyes with heartfelt tears and promises of love.

"Mara!" he gasped.

"There's the name I thought you'd go for," Hisagi chuckled.

"She's here?" Joy and desperation warred in his mind. She shouldn't see this. He was a monster. This room proved it.

"Yup," he answered not missing Grimmjow's apparent mild panic. "We'll get you out of her first before she heals you ok?"

Nodding, Grimmjow looked at Hisagi in confusion. "She can heal?"

"Here she can," Hisagi answered, "that's all I know."

Without further ado, Hisagi stepped up to lift Grimmjow enough to get the hooks that held him suspended from his shoulders. He had been on them so long that the skin had reformed around them, despite the seki seki slowing his healing. Hisagi braced him on his shoulder, reaching an arm around him for better purchase and laying it straight over the open wounds on Grimmjow's back.

Grimmjow couldn't help the scream and subsequent groan as fire flayed through his body. How had he not felt that before? He had no time to ruminate as a crash echoed down the hallway.

"Le' me go to 'im!"

"Stop- ow! FUCK!"

Grimmjow managed to get his gaze to the door in time to see Mara careen clumsily into the open doorway, illuminated by the cell light, as she struggled to stop from her burst of speed. He could have cried at her beauty and her wildness and- fuckin' hell- just her. Instead he dropped his head in shame. He knew what she saw.

He wasn't surprised when he heard the gasp of horror. There ends the dream, boys.

Grimmjow was right. Mara's gasp was in horror. If the bodies and the blood and the stench wasn't enough, look at what they had done to her espada! She seemed to form tunnel vision, the rest of the room fading into nothing around her, all senses vacating, as she focused on him.

His hair was long, past his shoulders and dreaded into matted bloody clumps at the end. Smears of blood marred what was left of the rags of his clothing. Blood and bruising littered the skin that showed through, on his feet and legs. His bare upper half was thin- she could count his ribs. It was a far cry from the bulk of strong muscle that she was used to.

Tears welled as she followed the lines of his body to his ankles and wrists. Manacled in the largest seki seki cuffs she had ever seen and bolted loosely to the walls and floor; he was forced to keep mildly spread eagle. The joints of his shoulders, elbows, wrists… she knew where the scars came from now as she saw the red, inflamed flesh held together by rough and rusting staples. Grimmjow could barely seem to bear his own weight and Mara finally focused on how he was staying upright.

Meat hooks. Fucking meat hooks were run right through the fleshy area between under his shoulder blades and up above his ribs to come out under his collarbones.

This wasn't prison, this was hell.

And Grimmjow… he couldn't- wouldn't- even look at her.

"Mara!" Renji's voice echoed as he slid in behind her, jogging her from the stupor of the true nightmare in front, "you shouldn't- oh shit." His eyes widened and his voice hissed into a harsh whisper as he took in the scene in front of him.

Renji's appearance was enough to pry Grimmjow's eyes up from where they had focused on the floor in shame. The chains rattled as he bared his teeth at the unwelcome arrival but his growl turned into a groan of pain at the movement.

"This… this is…" Renji couldn't even get out the words. This wasn't inprisonment. This wasn't even an experiment. This was torture for the hell of it. This was… wrong.

Grimmjow cast his glare at the floor again, this time in anger. He had seen pity in those fiery eyes that had only ever held contempt. He didn't need pity and sure as shit didn't want it from Him. His enemy.

[That's right! Enemy. They are all enemies.]

"Now you see why I fight," Hisagi told Renji without looking at him, "How is this justice?"

{Are they though?}

The voices waged a war as power, dark and light, slashed through Grimmjow's mind. He knew these people. He KNEW them. They were once enemies, one may still be, but they really weren't, were they? SHE certainly wasn't.

His dream. His Yumekanau. Or… she was.

Grimmjow braced himself to look at her. Pity was the best he could hope for in her midnight gaze. Horror and hate could be the worst. No, fear would be even worse. She was seeing the monster.

He heard light, small steps approaching and squeezed his eyes shut. It was coming. They couldn't break anymore of him, but she could. After seeing all this, she would.

"Makenai hito." Mara's voice came out like a sob, feeling spilling over in the simple syllables.

Grimmjow's head jerked up at the endearment. He couldn't help it. He hadn't expected to hear it. His eyes met hers immediately. She had stepped so close and he was hung so low they were nearly at face level. She raised a shaking hand to trail just he fingertips down his cheek. Her touch was so gentle it hurt but her eyes- those goddamn eyes that reeled him in and dragged him into her like anchors- looked at him with shining tears and unmistakable love. Anger burned in the back of them, but not at him. It was a look he knew well. She was angry for him.

"Yume-" he gasped but the darkness in him seemed to sear wordlessly across his mind, leashing his tongue in a strangled sound. Breathing deep he tried to power through but found himself gasping again. "I didn't want you to see," he managed to garble out.

"You never want me to see, Grimm, I know," she said softly, other hand coming up to gently trace the bone mask on his face. He couldn't help but wince. It was the only truly sensitive place on his body and it had been cracked and mended more times than he could count.

"Oh god, Grimm," Mara sobbed out again, recognizing his flinch as the expectation of pain. "No, Makenai Hito," she said, moving her hand from the bone and cupping his chin to keep him looking at her, "No more pain. No more of this. I'll be good, I promise. I won't let this happen again."

The lightness danced across his mind as he looked in her eyes. Was that guilt? Why would she be guilty? And suddenly it was him that wanted to comfort her. His Yemekanau. His love.

[NO!]

The darkness screamed across his mind like a Hueco Mundo sandstorm. It blotted out his thoughts and enshrouded him in darkness that he couldn't escape. He could see through his eyes but the movements weren't his. Neither was the voice that emerged. Like gravel on a chalkboard it filled the room with menacing tones that caused the occupants to cringe.

"YOU!"

Mara froze, hands still touching him though Grimmjow could no longer feel their comfort. For a frozen moment, she did nothing but stare at him. Those damn observant eyes… could they see through what was going on?

"You did this!"

Slowly, Mara's eyes narrowed and her head tilted just a hair to the side.

"Mara!" Hisagi shouted at her, "Get away-"

Mara didn't move to acknowledge him but held up one finger, stopping him midsentence. "You're… not Grimmjow," she finally said slowly. In his peripherals, Grimmjow could see both Hisagi and Abarai tense and make ready. Good. He had no control right now.

"You're ruining it!" his harsh voice rasped.

Mara made no response but to bite her lip in thought.

"And you will die," it hissed. Faster than Grimmjow could realize what was happening, his body lunged at Mara, jaws snapping.

The Hollow was loose.