Chapter 2: The Past; Make Me Stronger

Waking up, Ciara rolled around for several minutes before deciding to get out of bed. She wasn't tired, since she got a full ten hours of sleep, but instead she was dreading for her second day at Hueco Mundo. Her first day, unfortunately, didn't turn out too well. She almost got raped by the fifth espada and was called weak by the other espada named Grimmjow. She could only hope her second day was going to be a little better.

After breakfast Ciara met up with her espada in the training room. Before Aizen left he had given specific orders that Ciara wasn't allowed to use her Zanpakuto at all during training or around Hueco Mundo for that matter, unless it was for emergency purposes. Aizen had noticed Ciara wasn't very good at hand to hand combat because she relied too much on her zanpakuto. Therefore, now was the time to build her raw power.

"Ciara," her espada simply acknowledged.

"Yes, Ulquiorra-sama. " she responded with a small nod of the head. Ulquiorra raised a brow hearing her add the honorific to the end of his name. She didn't even use honorifics when speaking to Aizen, so why was she using them now?

"Don't add honorifics to my name, address me as Ulquiorra." He understood she was technically his Fraccion, but Aizen had specifically ordered everyone to treat her as a fellow espada. Aside from that Aizen was there leader, so if he didn't receive any respect from this woman then he wasn't allowed to either.

"Okay then, Ulquiorra, what are we doing today?"

"Do you know how to charge a cero?"

Ciara shook her head. "No... I've never tried."

"Then watch closely and learn." He pointed his finger in the direction he was aiming at and concentrated his power at the tip of his index finger, creating a powerful ball of energy.

His technique wasn't like most arrancar, but at the same time his cero seemed more precise and elegant than the others. "Why is it that most arrancar form their cero in the palm of their hands? " she asked out of curiosity.

"It doesn't matter where you concentrate your energy, but pointing then concentrating your energy at your finger tip gives a clear direction in where you want it to go, while forming it in your palm makes it easier to charge."

Ciara nodded, pleased with the technical reasoning. It made sense to her, so she decided to give it a try.

Taking a firm stance, she pointed and concentrated her energy at her index finger and shot a cero. The cero was puny and weak compared to Ulquiorra's; a total embarrassment. Thankfully Ulquiorra understood that learning takes time as he stated "That cero was weak, but you'll improve with more practice."

Unfortunately, Ulquiorra wasn't the only one who saw it. Coming from the entrance was a howl of laughter.

"You fuckin' call that a cero?!"

Ciara flushed red in embarrassment as she whipped her head to face Grimmjow. "Why are you fucking here?"

"Calm down princess, I was just passing by and wanted to see how your training was going. And from what I saw your power is probably about the same as one of the numero's. Hah, so much for your bullshit about not being weak."

"Don't call me princess! and-" she started but was cut off by Ulquiorra.

First he spoke to her, "Let me handle this trash," then to Grimmjow. "Grimmjow, I suggest you stop harassing my fraccion. She was put under my care, so her performance is none of your business. Unless you are here to train, you are to leave."

"Tch, I was about to leave anyways, watching you train this woman is boring as hell. Nnoritra was right, what does Aizen see in you?" He gave Ciara a good look in the eye as he spoke.

After Grimmjow left the room, Ciara and Ulquiorra continued their training. He taught her a couple of basic moves and practiced her cero some more. She was improving, slowly, but surely. Over the course of the next few weeks they continued their training routine every morning. After Ulquiorra left she would always stay behind and continue practicing, determined to improve her skills to prove to Grimmjow and Nnoritra she wasn't weak.

One afternoon she was training by herself, but she couldn't quite master the technique. She was getting frustrated with herself, and that's when Grimmjow showed up.

The last time Grimmjow bothered Ciara was on her first day of training, and he hadn't come by since. However, he was curious to see how much progress the woman had throughout the weeks, and from the looks of it she was just past all the basic moves. He could tell what Ciara was trying to do, but her attempts were an absolute failure. "You're pathetic" he laughed.

Ciara gritted her teeth hearing the sound of his voice. "Shut up! I'd like to see you try."

He gave a slight shrug and effortlessly preformed the move. It was a piece of cake; did she really think it would be a challenge for an espada?

She stated at him in amazement and slight jealousy. "But how, you make it look so easy..." Challenging him was definitely a stupid idea, she should have known he was able to perform such a move.

Grimmjow grinned, "Looks like a cat's caught your tongue huh? Like I said before, Ulquiorra's got no experience training anyone except himself. You've gotten a little better, but you're still weak."

Ciara crossed her arms. "Was that suppose to be a compliment?"

"You tell me, princess." he teased, flashing his canines.

"Don't call me that!" she hissed, while trying to smack him in the head, but he quickly dodged.

"You're going to have to be faster than that!"

She raised a brow. "Is that a challenge? What happens if I can catch you?"

Grimmjow laughed, as if that was gonna happen. "Then I'll consider helping you learn that move."

"And if I lose?"

"You'll have to admit you're Aizen's little princess."

"Deal."

'This is going to be easy' thought Grimmjow. Unfortunately, he was in for an unexpected surprise.

Ciara was never on of the stronger players, but she had speed. Within seconds, she caught up to Grimmjow, she sonido in front of him so he would have to stop in his tracks and admit defeat, but he wasn't able to slow down in time which caused him to crash straight into Ciara, sending them tumbling onto the floor. She landed onto of him then quickly pinned his shoulders down and sat up on top of his stomach so he couldn't get up.

"I won!" She declared, slightly out of breath, but proud with victory. "Now you have to keep your side of the deal."

Grimmjow on the other hand didn't really care about losing the bet. His mind was too focused on the position they were in. Ciara's ass was just above his now hardened member and her chest was dangling inches above his face. She didn't have large tits, but her deep breathing caused them to move up and down. "You know, I like the feeling of your ass on my stomach, but I think I would love it even more if you shifted your body just a little lower."

She pushed herself off of him immediately.

"Eww, you fuckin' pervert! That's NEVER gonna happen."

Grimmjow laughed. "Oh well, it's not like you're my type anyways."

Before she could respond, Grimmjow flashed away leaving Ciara alone in the training room. "That bastard. " Ciara grumbled, running out into the hallway to chase after him. She had only taken a couple steps before she intersected with Ulquiorra.

"Ciara," he called.

Immediately, she stopped in her tracks and nodded her head in respect.

"Ulquiorra, Is there something you need? "

"Aizen-sama is back and wants to speak with you."

"I understand, I'll head to the throne room now."

She would have to track down Grimmjow later.

Arriving at the throne room, she was quickly greeted by Aizen.

"Ciara, how has your first couple of weeks at Hueco Mundo been?"

She gave a sigh. "It's been alright. I had a rough start on my first day, but everything is going well now."

Aizen raised a brow, "Rough start? How so?" He had specifically given orders that Ciara was not to be mistreated, who would have dared to defy his orders?

Ciara hesitated for a moment, should she tell him the truth? She didn't want to feel like a tattletale, but she wouldn't mind seeing Nnoritra get punished either. That way he wouldn't try messing with her ever again. "The fifth espada wasn't too fond of me joining the ranks and attacked me, but luckily the other espada, Grimmjow showed up and stopped him."

Aizen's face stayed composed as she reported the news. He should've known it was Nnoritra who attacked Ciara, but he didn't expect Grimmjow, out of all the espada, to defend her. "Interesting, I'll be sure to keep that in mind. If anything else happens while I'm gone, report it to Ulquiorra."

"Are you going back to Soul Society so soon?"

"Yes, I can't let them get suspicious of me."

Leaving the throne room, she venture down the hall to the espada wing to search for Grimmjow. While wandering through the hall, she was spotted by five arrancar who quickly blocked her path. She knew they weren't any of the espada, so they must be Grimmjow's fraccion.

"Who are you and what business do you have? Only other espada's can wonder to another espada's wing freely besides the espada's fraccion."

"I'm looking for Grimmjow, he lost a bet."

"You mean Grimmjow -sama? How dare you disrespect our espada." One of the arrancar put his hand around her throat and slammed her against the wall.

"I am arrancar number infinity and Ulquiorra's fraccion," she managed to choke out. "If you were at the meeting several weeks ago then you should know who I am and that It would be a smart idea to remove your hands from my neck right now."

"Are you trying to threaten me, arrancar?" he mused.

"No, I'm commanding you, otherwise you're gonna have a nice talk with my espada and Aizen."

"Shawlong," One of the arrancar interjected, "I don't think she's bluffing. I heard Nnoritra complain about a new female arrancar that's got espada privileges."

Shawlong wasn't sure whether to strangle the woman to death or let go and apologize. Thankfully he didn't have to amen a decision because Grimmjow walked out of his room and quickly spotted the scene.

"Shawlong, let go of the woman."

"Yes, Grimmjow-sama." He quickly obeyed his master and released his grip on Ciara's neck, watching her use the wall to support herself as she caught her breath.

"What are you doing here, woman?" he asked in a bored tone.

She sent a glare in Grimmjow's direction before straightening her posture. "What am I doing here? You lost a bet and ran away, you coward!"

Shawlong unsheathed his blade to attack Ciara. How dare she! To act all high and mighty was one thing, but to call his master a coward was going too far.

Grimmjow noticed and quickly grabbed his blade with bare hands, stopping it from slicing Ciara across the neck.

"Shawlong, you aren't allowed to attack her. You understand?"

Reluctantly, Shawlong drew back his blade. "But Grimmjow sama, she has disrespected you!"

Normally Grimmjow would be more furious if any of his fraccion acted without orders or talked back, but this time was an exception because this woman was really getting on his nerves. The woman had just called him a coward, and it was taking every ounce of his strength to hold back from strangling her. If it were another arrancar, they'd be dead.

"Tch, she's Aizen's little princess, what else do you expect?" he said with clenched fists.

"Excuse me?"

"Look woman, I didn't back out of the deal, I'll teach you the move tomorrow afternoon."

Ciara's face lit up immediately. "For real? Sorry for calling you a coward.

"Tch, you better be, cause next time you say something like that you won't get away so easily."

The next afternoon while waiting for Grimmjow to show up, she warmed up with some stretching. She was in the middle of her toe touches when she heard a whistle from behind, she peered through her legs to see a grinning Grimmjow. "Ya know you got a really nice ass. If your tits were the same size as all the other arrancar women, I'd consider you for a play mate."

Ciara rolled her eyes at Grimmjow's typical male judgment. Many women would be offended by his comment because hearing that makes them feel insecure about their body. However, Ciara didn't care. In fact she was glad she had a small chest because at least she knew the men she interacted with weren't all eager to get into her pants. They wanted to be around her for who she was, not because of her physical features. She would never get plastic surgery to please a man or become their ideal object. She was proud of natural body, and the work she had done to keep fit. Besides, from what she heard having large boobs are a pain in the ass.

Standing up straight now, Ciara crossed her arms over her chest and looked Grimmjow in the eye. "Well then I guess I'm glad I don't have humungous tits, otherwise I would have to worry about you trying to harass me."

"Like you'd be able to resist. All woman come back begging for more."

"Look, I'd love to watch you continue flirting with me, but I'd rather you start showing me your combat skills."

"Flirting with you? Tch, I was just stating the facts."

She rolled her eyes "Whatever you say. "

"If you wanna learn so badly then you'd better watch closely, woman."

He performed the move several times for her to observe, and it looked just the way Ulquiorra showed her.

The move didn't seem that hard, especially when either of the two espada preformed it. It was just a couple of kicks here and there, so why couldn't she do it? It was Ciara's turn now, so she did the best to imitate Grimmjow's actions.

"You're fuckin' doing it wrong," he groaned.

"How? I did what you did!", she exclaimed, frustration beginning to take over.

"Tch, obviously not, otherwise it would be right." He marched up behind her and touched her arms and legs. At first she backed away from him, thinking he was being a pervert.

"What the fuck are you trying to do?" she questioned, wiggling out of his reach.

Grimmjow rolled his eyes. "Calm down woman, do you want to learn this move or not?"

Slowly he moved her arms and legs to the right position, step by step. Ulquiorra had never made skin contact with her, so the feeling of Grimmjow's body so close made her feel uneasy.

"So like this?" she asked, slowly repeating the moves.

"Yeah, now try it again, except as fast as you can."

She did it. "I did it! Did you just see that?" she jumped up and down excitedly like a small child who had just mastered tying their shoes for the first time.

"Thanks Grimmjow, I wouldn't been able to do it if it weren't for you."

She bowed her head in gratitude.

"Tch, whatever, my work here is done." he stated, heading for the exit.

"Grimmjow wait. "

"What?"

"Well umm... there was this new move Ulquiorra was teaching me this morning and I'm having trouble with it too. Could you show me how?" She knew there wasn't much of a chance that he would teach her, but it didn't hurt to ask, maybe he's in a good mood and feeling generous?

"Yer kidding right? I only agreed to teach you that one move if I lost the bet. If you want me to teach you more there's got to be something in it for me, or we could make a different bet."

"There's no way I'm making a another bet."

"Well, maybe we could work something out," he smirked, looking her over with elevator eyes.

Ciara made a disgusted face. "Forget it, I'll figure it out myself."

"Oh, so you don't want my help? I thought you were desperate."

"I'm determined, not desperate. I'm not a slut who sells my body. I'll do it the hard way if I have to."

Grimmjow shrugged his shoulders, not buying her tough girl act. It didn't really matter though; she'd come running back to him if she needed something. "Suit yourself."

The next morning during training, Ulquiorra seemed slightly bothered by something. He kept circling around her all while staying silent.

"Is something wrong?" Ciara asked. The fact that Ulquiorra never said much didn't really bother her, but sometimes she wish she knew what he was thinking.

"There's a faint scent on you, have you been hanging around trash?"

"You mean Grimmjow?" Ulquiorra nodded. "He just showed me how to do a move that's all."

"You should stop hanging around trash like him, otherwise you'll quickly become one yourself."

"Don't worry, he doesn't plan on helping me again." she grumbled more to herself than Ulquiorra.

The week went by quickly, but not in a good way. Her espada continued to train her every morning, but there were some moves she couldn't master. Ulquiorra's examples and demonstrations were flawless, but she had to admit, Grimmjow's teaching methods were easier to grasp. She wanted to ask him to teach her again, but would her pride let her? And would that be an insult to Ulquiorra? She sighed, things were about to get ugly.

Ciara wandered through the espada wing to find Grimmjow. His fraccion's were in the hallway again, but this time they didn't bother messing with her, instead they gave her a deathly glare, especially when she approached Grimmjow's door and gave it a loud knock. There was a irritated grunt from the other side, then footsteps followed by yelling.

"What the fuck do you want Shawlong?" To his surprise it wasn't any of his fraccion at the door, he had to shift his eyes down a couple inches to spot Ciara. "You? What do you want?"

"Well it's nice to see you too, Grimmjow. You seem like you're in a good mood." she replied, her voice full of sarcasm.

"Tch, don't waste my time woman, why are you here?"

Here goes nothing. Taking a deep breath she looked him in the eye and stated, "I want you to train me."

Grimmjow stared at her for a few moments, surprised by her request.

"What? Your espada sucks at teaching?"

"He doesn't suck, I just don't understand some of the things he teaches. You just have a more fitting teaching style."

Yet again Grimmjow was taken aback, the woman just said he was better than Ulquiorra, her own fucking espada!

"If you're just trying to suck up to me, it ain't gonna work woman. I'm not gonna train you unless there's something in it for me."

"There is something in it for you, you get to have the glory of feeling better than Ulquiorra."

"Yer kiddin' right?" If this woman was done joking around, he had no problem slamming the door in her face.

"There's more, "

"Oh? Then go on."

"If you train me, I'll tell Aizen how helpful you've been so he will consider you for a promotion."

"You would be able to persuade Aizen to give me a higher ranking?" Now this was a deal he was somewhat interested in. Ever since Nel disappeared, a few of the espada's received a promotion. Nnoritra went from being the eighth espada to number five, Grimmjow, on the other hand hadn't budged from his spot as number nine. There was an opening for the sixth espada, but he wasn't exactly Aizen's favorite so he had a slim chance securing that position.

"Of course I could, I am Aizen's little 'princess' after all."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Why shouldn't you?" He was silent for a moment, deciding whether or not it was much of a deal. There was no guarantee he would get promoted. "Fine, I can throw in one more thing, if you train me, you can keep calling me princess whenever you want. Take it or leave it." Ciara fucking hated being called princess, but if was the only thing left she could offer besides her body.

Grimmjow's face grew into a wide smirk. "Don't I already do that, huh princess?"

Ciara's face turned into a frown. "I said you can only call me that if you agree to train me!"

"Well then I guess I'll be seeing you every afternoon from now on, princes." he said already taking full advantage of the deal.

Training for the next couple weeks flew by quickly. Every morning she would train with Ulquiorra, and every afternoon she'd train with Grimmjow. With two different teachers, her learning process increased drastically. Training with Grimmjow actually went pretty well. He always showed up and actually put an effort into his teaching. Ciara wasn't sure if he actually cared, or if he was doing this so she'd say good things about him and get him a promotion. Either way it didn't really matter, as long as they both kept their side of the deal.

One day Ciara was about to leave her room to go train with Grimmjow, but when she opened the door she found Ulquiorra standing there blocking her way.

"Ulquiorra," she stuttered. "What are you doing here?"

"Where are you going?" he questioned.

"To the training room to train."

"By yourself?"

"No." she muttered, feeling guilty. He already knew the truth, but he was wanted her to admit it to see if she was a loyal enough fraccion to tell him the truth. "To train with Grimmjow." She admitted, slightly ashamed she never told her espada.

"I told you not to be around that trash, why have you disobeyed me?" Ulquiorra's face and voice remained expressionless, but something was off about his tone. Ciara could tell there was much more to it than training with another espada. If it were Stark or Harribel, he definitely wouldn't have a problem with it.

"I don't know what kind of conflict you guys have to hate each other so much, but he's not that bad. In fact, if it weren't for him, I'd be very behind in my training right now. You are a very knowledgeable teacher Uqluiorra, but for some moves I can only understand Grimmjow's teaching methods. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I knew you'd be upset, I didn't mean to disrespect you."

She bowed her head, staying down, waiting for her espada to accept her apology.

Ulquiorra took one look at her then turned around and began to walk away.

A feeling of hurt washed over Ciara's face, "Ulquiorra-sama-"

"I cannot control who you interact with, however, if they harm you in any way I will protect you because you are my fraccion."

"Does that mean I have permission to train with Grimmjow?"

"Since it is benefitting you, you may continue training with the piece of trash for the time being."

"Thank you Ulquiorra!"

With the help of the two espada's she'd became a worthy warrior in no time.

End of Chapter 2.

In the story right now Grimmjow isn't the sixth espada, so let's pretend he's the ninth espada or something.

I'm trying my best to keep the characters in character, so if anybody has any suggestions feel free to pm me, or leave a review!