/*Hi all! Just dropping in to say thanks for your patience. As of right now, I'll be continuing the bi-weekly update schedule. Without further delay, here is chapter 2! Enjoy! */
Chapter 2 -
"Ruka…"
She stirred from her slumber, the lumpy straw bedding causing her muscles to ache and her skin to itch incessantly. The other Shinigami in the room were still lost to sweet oblivion, gently snoring and tossing and turning. By now, they all knew it was a mistake coming here. It was a mistake to follow him.
"Ruka…"
She heard it again, a voice so familiar it left a longing in the pit of her stomach. Who would call her Ruka? No one ever called her that.
With bare, chapped feet, she silently moved to the doorway, pushing it open quietly; surprised to find it unlocked. Her breath stopped as she listened for any stirring among her brethren. When there was nothing more than a pained groan, she continued, gripping her zanpakuto tight.
The cold stone floor relieved some of the burning ache in her heels. Hueco Mundo always felt so cold despite being a lifeless desert stuck in the night and the palace was no exception to it. Each step forward pulled at her curiosity more. The voice that seemed to be calling her grew louder, begging her. She knew where it was taking her.
She had grown knowledgeable of the hallways simply by marking the stone walls as she passed. She knew she was heading straight for the room of god himself. No, she would refuse to acknowledge him as anything more than a devil, a monster in disguise. She would not fall for his tricks any longer. She knew how to see through his methods.
When her feet finally took her to stand before the towering throne above, it wasn't as she knew it. The back was cracked and crumbling, the armrest chipped, and the seat of it malformed. This wasn't Aizen's throne.
"Ruka." She twisted around while unsheathing her weapon, anxiety running through her entire body. Her eyes flickered as they landed on the tall unruly Arrancar that felt so unbelievably familiar.
"I know you." She stated, her fingers trembling around the hilt. He stood strong and imposing, his reiatsu a chaotic storm that surrounded him. His unkempt blue hair only added to his menacing appearance as it wavered in the air, the sheer power of his reiatsu actually causing the air to move.
"You shouldn't have come here." He stated and instantly he approached her, his hand impaling through her chest. She flinched, her eyes closing as she expected to feel the blow. However, the pain never came.
Her eyes slid open and she took several steps back. Her face distorted in shocked horror as she watched another woman gasp out her last few breaths, her blood pouring down the arm of this familiar man. Then, without a single care, he tossed her limp body to the floor. It landed with a cold thud as the remaining of her lifeforce trickled onto the stone. The man then tilted his head towards Haruka, his eyes set in a narrow gaze.
"I told you not to come here." He stated on a dangerous tone.
"Who are you?" She shouted, her voice ragged. She glanced down at the dead woman, a hint of familiarity tickling the back of her mind. Did she know her?
"Ruka…"
"Stop calling me that!" She yelled as her eyes lifted again to meet his intense sapphire stare; and then the world shifted. The room started spinning, the stone becoming a blur, the throne evaporating from existence, and the lifeless body disintegrating. The only thing remaining constant was the intimidating figure standing before her, blood soaked and chaotic.
"Ruka…"
"Ruuuuuki…" The whispers of a familiar voice tugged at her consciousness. "Oh, Ruuuki."
Her grip tightened around Dairokkan as her eyes fluttered open. She shot up, the point of her sword at Nel's throat. Nel smirked while tilting her head. "I'm all for a game of sword tag, but I really think we should get going." Nel pressed into the top of the blade, pushing it to the floor.
Haruka attempted to get her breathing under control as her dream slowly started to drift in the background. "The sight is not a dream." Haruka's eyes shifted angrily to her shining blade.
"It was a dream. I do not have the Sight. No one did." She thought as she slid her zanpakuto back into its sheath.
"Refusing your own abilities is destructive." Her weapon declared, the whisper nearly deafening her.
"Let's go, Nel." She said as she pushed herself to a stand, attempting to focus on the reason she was here. She gripped the small transponder in the palm of her hand while brushing the dust and sand from her clothing.
"Okay!" She cheered while moving to a stand. "Let's go find Grimm-Grimm!"
"Noooo! Nel-sama! Why must you leave us here again!?" Two simultaneous voiced filled the room accompanied by two opposite frames blocking the doorway, effectively getting stuck in place.
"I'll be back soon." She soothed while cupping each of their faces and then nudging them free. "I promise."
Haruka watched the interaction with patience, a heavy longing settling in her bones. "We will miss you, Nel-sama!" They cried; the tears causing puddles to form on the floor.
"Now now, don't cry! Pesche, Dondochakka! I'll bring back Grimm-Grimm and then we can all play eternal tag together! Okay?" She urged with a smile.
The two nodded while hugging one another, their exaggerated grief a bit over the top but still palpable. "Good. Come on, Ruki."
Haruka grimaced before swallowing her response and following the green-haired Arrancar out of the palace. The sands had hardly changed from the day prior. It was an endless field of death and war under a moon filled sky. Not even Halibel's influence changed that.
Neliel paused upon a mound of sand, her hair fluttering in the wind and her eyes trained into the distance. She held out her hand, motioning for Haruka. "Hand me the transponder."
"What? No!" Haruka refuted as her grip on the device tightened.
"I know how to use it better than you." She said bluntly while turning her gaze to Haruka.
Haruka glared before reluctantly handing over the transponder. Nel squeezed the device in her hand momentarily before looking out beyond the sands once more. "This way." She announced before disappearing in a flash of sonido.
Haruka shifted in a panic to shunpo, struggling to keep up with Nel. She pushed with everything she had to keep up with the slender figure ahead of her, who was running straight into a group of warring Hollows. "Nel! Watch out!" Haruka shouted. With a twitch of her wrist, Nel grabbed her sword and sliced through them like they were nothing but paper toys. Haruka didn't have time to process Nel's unprovoked attack, but she supposed it had always been like this in Hueco Mundo from the very first day she came. It was nothing but survival of the strongest here. She was going to have to prove she was just as strong.
Sand exploded into the air as the two travelled, the force of their movements acting like a wind storm. They continued like this for hours, until Las Noches was barely a speck in the distance and several large rock structures jutted out of the ground around them. Haruka's lungs were burning, the sand stinging her eyes and throat. Her legs, too, felt near the end of their usefulness. Just when she felt she couldn't go on any further, Nel stopped. Haruka barely caught herself in time, tripping over her own feet and catching herself on her knees.
Nel scanned the area, ignoring the violent gasps from her companion. "Why did you stop?" Haruka stuttered out.
"We are close." She stated plainly. Her posture straightened and her reiatsu flared. "But there is something else here."
Haruka stilled, awareness coming to life within her. "Something?"
"Wait here."
"Nel!" Haruka outstretched her arm in an attempt to stop her, but was unable to match her speed. She simply watched as Nel took off in a blast of sonido towards a large structure of stone quartz. "Great." She sputtered while pushing herself to a stand. It was then she noticed the complete and utter silence. Not even the sounds of fighting Hollows reached her here. A tinge of anxiety ran along her spine as her eyes scanned the area. Her breath caught as her purple gaze caught a subtle movement beneath the sands.
The next moments happened instantly. As soon as Dairokkan was slicing through the air, something horrid had emerged from below and tackled Haruka.
"Shit!" She cursed as the incoming enemy sliced into her arm. She tried to block with Dairokkan, but this thing's maneuvers were unorthodox. She sent her foot up and into the monster's body, but it grabbed her ankle and twisted. A terrible cry tore from her throat as pain exploded from the broken bones. "Raito o keshimasu!" The dark cloud exploded from her zanpakuto and enveloped the creature, little bolts of purple electricity exploded from the ground around them.
When the dust finally settled, her enemy was revealed once more; ivory white with only a few black scuff marks. Otherwise, he was completely unharmed. "What the fuck are you?" She shouted, her voice unstable from the exhaustion.
Her enemy didn't respond. Instead it quirked it's head, it's featureless face pointed blankly at her. Then it charged again. Dread deformed her face as she scurried away from the incoming enemy on her back, her broken ankle screaming in pain as she went. A cloud formed in the air as her hands dug into sand, spraying it towards the white blur that was quickly approaching.
She swiped Dairokkan across her chest as one last futile effort to block the incoming strike. The deformity pinned her zanpakuto down on one side of her with a simple twitch of his limb while the opposite pointed limb was thrust toward her heart. Her eyes squeezed shut as she prepared for the inevitable stabbing pain to begin in her chest and bloom outward to every limb.
Is this really it?
It wasn't the sound of a solid grip halting the incoming blow that had her eyes opening. It wasn't even the shadow blocking out the moon above her nor was it the sensation of cold sweat dripping onto her exposed skin. It was that reiatsu, powerful and absolutely enraged, that drew her violet gaze to an unruly mess of pale blue locks.
"Grimmjow?" Her voice was a whisper, filled with pure relief and absolute shock.
He didn't respond as he twisted the creature's arm with so much force, it ripped clean from its body. The mysterious being shrieked, the noise emanating from its reiatsu as it had no mouth to scream from. It twisted grotesquely on the ground, the desert lapping at its blood freverently. Haruka flinched, looking away as Grimmjow delivered the final blow to the creature's chest; his arm penetrating it effortlessly. Then, the being stilled.
He stood there, the wind toying with his hair and hakama. His eyes were pinned to the corpse now drenching the parched desert with lifeforce. "What are you doing here?" His voice sounded foreign to her, a dangerous undertone causing a tinge of fear to run up her spine. He was covered in dried blood and scabbing. There were numerous new scars as well, which told Haruka whatever enemy he had made was extremely dangerous.
"What happened to you?" Shock and concern marred her face as she attempted to push herself to a stand. She instantly remembered her broken ankle when she went to move towards him. A cry of agony echoed through the desert as her weight collapsed.
He did it without thinking, using sonido to catch her before she collided with the ground. Her hands twisted in his jacket violently as an attempt to ease the strain on her injuries. A shaky, painful sigh released from her lips. "Thank you." She whispered.
Grimmjow clenched his jaw as his hold tightened on her slightly. "You're a fucking idiot, you know that?" He ground out angrily as he began sprinting towards his temporary hide out.
A scowl broke out on her face. "Well you're a fucking asshole! Is that anyway to greet your girlfriend? How about, 'hi babe, it's been a while, how are you doing? Sorry I missed the garganta to the World of the Living and worried the ever living fuck out of you!'" She returned loudly.
"Will you shut the fuck up?" He snarled.
"Are you kidding me!?" She hurled a fist into his chest, her anger getting the better of her. "Put me down, asshole! I have to go find Nel."
He grasped her flailing fist, redirecting it effortlessly. "I already found her." He interjected. Before Haruka could voice a response, they were arriving at the mouth of a cave buried in a the large rock formation Nel had originally ran off to.
"I leave you alone for a second and this is what happens." Nel declared upon their entrance.
"It wasn't my fault." Haruka pouted as Grimmjow gently placed her against the wall. His face only deteriorated further into a scowl at this new annoyance.
"Heal your injuries. Nel is taking you back to the World of the Living." He announced as he stepped back, distancing himself from her.
"What, why?" She demanded.
"As if this doesn't explain it enough." He threw his hand through the air in her direction, pissed off and fed up.
"You look no better!" She argued. "You're covered in scabs, old blood, and scars. What the hell are you doing out here by yourself?"
"I think I'll just leave you two lovebirds alone while you work out your issues." Nel replied casually while making her way for the exit.
She was abruptly halted by Grimmjow's strong grip around her wrist with bruising ferocity. "You are not leaving without her."
"I won't go far, Grimm-Grimm. You need someone to keep watch, anyway." She smiled teasingly. Grimmjow released her, his lips lifting into a snarl and showing teeth.
"Answer me!" Haruka yelled, pulling his attention back to her. "Why are you so injured?"
He looked back at her as Nel finally left the cave. On the surface she was a raging ball of fury, but he could see beyond that. Her eyes held her absolute terror; the lines on her face were etched with worry; and none of it was concern for herself. It was all for him.
He looked away, finding a loose formation of rock, and sent his fist flying through it. All of this pissed him off and she was only making this more difficult. But worse than that, underneath all of his anger, there was a very real sensation of panic. The one person he was trying to protect from his past was now in the crosshairs of the worst possible type of person. A person with a desire for vengeance.
He barely picked up on the chant that she quickly expelled from her lips, the blue light running along her injured ankle just out of his line of sight. It wasn't until her soft fingers were tugging on his wrist did he finally pay attention.
"Please talk to me." She urged, her voice nearing desperation. His sapphire gaze slid to her softened stare. It ran up and down her bruised, bloody form and he felt that panic grow tenfold. "So this is what Kurosaki felt when I was toying with his broad. Fucking karma."
He leaned forward, his hand sliding around her midsection to pull her to him as his lips crashed desperately against hers. His tongue slid along her bottom lip, begging for entrance. She complied, a quiet moan escaping between their lips. This kiss grew more needy, all tongue and teeth, as fists entangled in hair and clothing.
Eventually she had found enough sense to break free of the haze. The flats of her palms pressed against either side of his face, pushing enough to create a small amount of distance. "Grimmjow." His eyes slid shut as he pressed his forehead to hers, breathless. "Please just come back with me."
His eyes slid open again, painful blue orbs boring into her. "I can't."
"Why can't you? Whatever is here, whatever it is you feel you need to hunt can stay here. They won't find you in the World of the Living. Leave this place behind. It only continues to hurt you." She urged as she slid kido-covered hands over some of his fresh wounds.
He grasped her wrist, halting her healing. "Stop."
"No, I won't."
"He's going to sense your reishi on me and then he will really make you his target if he hasn't already. You need to go back." He backed away, regretting his temporary loss of control and strong desire to just hold her.
"I can't go back."
"Ruka…" His temper flared despite his best attempt at swallowing it.
"I can't go back because Urahara can't make another garganta for six months. I'm supposed to wait until then before I can return." She explained, causing him to freeze in place.
"Why the fuck did he let you through in the first place!?" He roared.
"I didn't give him a choice." She replied, feeling the need to protect Nel's involvement. She didn't know exactly what he was capable of when he was this angry. It appeared he was barely clinging to his sanity as it was.
"You shouldn't have come." He ground out.
"You should have kept your promise." She returned, silencing him. "Who is this guy that you're fighting?"
"You don't need to know." He dismissed while storming towards the cave entrance, no doubt looking for Nel.
"Grimmjow!" She felt her temper flaring, but worse than that, she felt a horrible darkness fall over her at his obvious distrust. She rushed to him in a flicker of shunpo and grabbed his wrist with wretched determination. "I need to know what's going on here. It isn't just about you anymore. Obviously you came here to kill this guy to protect me, right? Well then I have a right to know who my enemy is."
"The only thing you need is a place to hide until I'm done here. Since you made the stupid decision to fling yourself into a garganta, you're going to have to hold up in my old quarters in Las Noches until I get back. Halibel and Nel should keep any stragglers away from you." He rationalized.
"I don't need you to protect me." She spat, her tone laced with angry venom. "I'll find my own way back."
Grimmjow snarled, the very last of his patience melting away. He rushed her, pinning her tiny frame against the wall. "You don't know what the fuck you've gotten yourself into! What the hell were you expecting from me? To come running up to you with open arms?"
"I was expecting you to come back through the portal. I was trusting you to come back." Her voice was cold and expressionless; her body limp against his imposing form.
"I told you I had shit to take care of here! You said you understood!" He continued to argue, his fingers digging into the stone beside her head. "I am not scraping your goddamn corpse off a Hueco Mundo desert to drop on Clogs' lap! I ain't fucking watching you die!"
Tears suddenly broke from her eyes, streaming uncontrollably down her cheeks. "I did understand and I waited. I waited for you to come back and you didn't. I trusted you to come back and I knew that you didn't because something was wrong. You don't have to do everything by yourself! I don't want to see you hurt like this. I don't want to watch you die either! I can't. I can't watch another person I love be taken away from me." She declared. Anger and sadness gnarled her features for a moment before realization overwhelmed her.
He looked equally shocked, backing himself away from her while trying to comprehend exactly what she just said. "What did you say?" He whispered.
"Nothing." She breathed as her body stilled, her emotions being pushed inside. "At least tell me his name."
Silence followed as he contemplated exactly where he wanted to go from here. Her words completely baffled him. "Love? What the fuck, Ruka…" He slid his gaze along her nervous form. She knew she fucked up. That little word slipped from her lips and she knew exactly what kind of impact it could have. Love, after all, destroyed more than it created.
"Zev." He answered simply.
"And the thing that attacked me?" She continued, desperate to keep the conversation away from the inevitable topic. She couldn't deny, however, that a stinging sensation at his lack of acknowledgement had formed.
"One of his morphed Vasto Lordes. It was an extension of himself. You need to stay away from them at all costs." He replied as he took several steps away from her, his voice now calm.
"What is he?"
He glanced at her skeptically, contemplating how much he wanted to reveal to her. "An Espada. One of the first."
A look of surprise flitted across her face. Of course she wouldn't know which one. Aizen was good at hiding his experiments and his Espada from her by keeping her and the other Shinigami separated. Still, she felt frustrated at how little she knew of what went on right in front of her. Aizen kept her in the dark constantly and the fact that Grimmjow was attempting the same made her hackles rise.
"What's your history with him?" She attempted as he looked a little more controlled. His hands were pressed to his hips and his back was slouched, showing his exhaustion of this whole endeavor.
"No." He replied immediately.
"Why don't you trust me?" She countered.
"Don't fucking start this shit, Ruka."
"I told you about my past. I never hid anything from you. Why can't you trust me with your's?"
"That was your choice. You didn't have to tell me shit. And I'm not getting into this with you. Once he's dead, it won't matter. 'Our pasts don't define us,' remember?" He replied bitterly.
"You claim you're doing this for me, yet you can't even tell me anything about why?"
"Just go back to Las Noches and wait for me." He ground out, desperately trying to contain his temper.
Her gaze slid into a glare before storming out of the cave. He followed, if only to confirm she was leaving with Nel and in the direction of Las Noches. "Nel!"
Green haired fluttered into his view, "Don't worry about it, Grimm-Grimm. I'll make sure she doesn't get her head lopped off." She smiled playfully as he grimaced.
"She does and you're dead."
"Uh huh." Nel replied on a bored tone.
"I can take care of myself." Haruka shouted back, insulted at being looked down upon once again.
Nel shot Grimmjow a sympathetic look before moving towards a fuming Haruka. Grimmjow watched as the two became small specs in the distance. Then she was gone. Her reishi was but a small echo that would soon fade into the rocks and sand. He waited several long minutes, until he could no longer feel the pulse of her energy, before crashing his bruised and battered fist into the solid rock beside him, an angry broken cry filling the remaining silence.