Here's then next chapter. Hope you like it.

Chapter Eight

Unexpected

Karakura, Japan

Holly had been expecting something like a door, but the Garganta looked more like a jagged-edged hole in the air. She could see nothing but darkness behind it. Urahara was explaining the danger within it.

"There is nothing but reishi between this opening and where it comes through in Hueco Mundo. You have to control that reishi and focus it into a path to walk on. It works the same way you use it to make a bow, but if you aren't sure you can apply that to this stay behind Ishida, he's done this before and should be able to make a path you can both use." Ishida nodded, confirming he was confident he could do just that. Holly decided to make her own path anyway, just for the practice of controlling reishi.

Urahara pulled a black cylindrical object with a red button on one end out of his pocket. "When you're ready to come back press the button and this will open a Garganta for you." Holly and Ishida both reached for it at the same time, then pulled back. Holly suspected they were thinking the same thing. Neither of them wanted to take the chance the other would take off and leave them stranded if they found one of their friends before the other.

"Neither of us comes back until we find both of them," Holly said firmly, looking the Quincy in the eye.

"Of course not. On my honor as a Quincy!" It had not taken Holly long to realize how seriously Ishida took his Quincy honor so this time she had no hesitation in letting him take the device.

Butler took her aside for a private good bye. He placed a large hand on her shoulder, "I know you can do this. Don't go after Koboi. From what Urahara tells me Arrancars are a far cry from the ordinary Hollows you took out today. Let the Shinigami worry about her. You find Artemis and bring him home."

Holly knew Butler hated that he couldn't come with her, not only for Artemis' sake, but also for hers. She wished he could come too. While she and Artemis had occasionally been separated from him on previous adventures she had always been with one or the other when the situation involved them. Since Artemis wasn't here leaving Butler behind felt wrong. She forced a smile and a laid a hand on his arm. "Don't worry, we'll be back before you know it."

When she returned Ishida was waiting next to the Garganta, "Are you ready?"

Holly walked up to the Garganta and stood facing it next to him. "Let's go." They ran into the darkness together. The opening closed behind them and the only light came from the glowing blue paths beneath their feet. It was unbearably quiet so Holly finally asked the question that had been in the back of her mind for some time now. "Where are the others? The ones you went with to save her last time."

Ishida was quiet before answering, "Aizen arranged things so that most of the Shinigami were convinced that she joined him willingly. He sent one of his strongest Arrancars after her with the message that if she didn't come to Hueco Mundo all her friends would be killed. We were fighting several Arrancars at the time and he let her see so she would know it was no idle threat. At that point most of us couldn't handle them, so she went. He even gave her time to heal one of us so that it would look like she chose to go."

"Wow, that is really twisted. Although it seems like if she was really joining the bad guys she wouldn't be healing any of you." Holly wondered how a human would have the power to do that at all before continuing. "That explains why there were only five of you then, but where are the others now?"

"The Shinigami might have let her off the hook if that was all, but after the fighting she healed some of the Arrancars. She was only being kind, she can't stand to see anyone, even an enemy, in pain, but the Shinigami took it as proof that she was a traitor. They knew we would stop an execution so instead they took her Shun Shun Rikka—the source of her powers—and ordered that she was not to have any more contact with the Shinigami or Hollows. Yoruichi kept an eye on her just in case Aizen or someone like him targeted her again. She and Urahara told me when the Arrancars took her because I haven't had anything to do with Shinigami since then. If the others who helped me got involved the Shinigami would know and this time they would probably kill her."

Holly was silent. It was starting to sound like the Shinigami were worse than the Hollows. She knew Hollows were heartless, the fact that each literally had a hole in its chest proved that, but at least they didn't choose to be that way.

The tunnel ended and they dropped onto the white sand of Hueco Mundo. It was not so dark that they could not see, but there was not much light. Holly quickly took in her surroundings. They seemed to be in a forest of massive white trees, much larger than even the North American Redwoods. It looked like those trees were the reason for the lack of light despite the wide, empty spaces between them.

"Damn it! We came out in the Menos Forest!" Ishida exclaimed.

"What does that mean?"

"It means we have to find a way up before we can find our friends."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"It also means that we'll have to fight a lot of Hollows to get there. This is where the weakest ones live."

"Well if it's only the weakest ones we shouldn't have too much to worry about."

"There are more of them down here than anywhere else. Saying they're not as bad is like saying a group of piranhas isn't as bad as a great white shark because they're smaller."

Holly got the point. This was bad.

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Edge of the Valley, Hueco Mundo

Nel was keeping watch on her own as Orihime and Fowl explored the caves. They were lucky that no Adjuchas seemed to be using them at the moment. Of course they didn't usually go back to places like this anyway, not right into the caves at least. There were a few wandering nearby, but they didn't seem to notice the two and they were hardly going to attack Arrancars.

Suddenly she became aware of the presence of a familiar spirit energy. She turned slowly, scanning the area. There was Kasai, close enough that Nel could pick up on her spirit energy and was sure Kasai had to be aware of hers, but far enough that they couldn't have spoken to each other. Not that they would do anything but exchange threats.

Suddenly Grimmjow was beside her, "What's that bitch doing back here?" he growled, reaching for his Zanpakuto.

Nel grabbed his hand before he could draw it, "You know neither of us is a match for her!"

"The three of us together could take her," he insisted.

"If she was alone." Ulquiorra was standing on Grimmjow's other side as if anticipating he would have to help Nel restrain him. "There are three Visoreds behind her, herding an Adjuchas toward the valley." They didn't need to ask how he knew that, he could see better than either of them, besides they had been so fixated on Kasai that they wouldn't have noticed if Aizen had been standing next to her.

"We can take them easily!" Grimmjow snarled.

"And while we were busy fighting them she would take us down!" Nel snapped at him. "Use your brain for once!" Grimmjow actually looked slightly hurt at her last comment. He expected that from Schiffer, but never Nel.

"What about the two down there?" he asked.

"She would not have come back here just to kill them," Ulquiorra said calmly. Even so they all watched, ready to be down there in an instant should Kasai give them a reason to think otherwise.

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Society of the Evening Star Base

"So you're going to conduct your tests here instead of Hueco Mundo," Rowan confirmed.

Granz nodded, "You will be able to collect the necessary test subjects?"

"Yes of course, as many as you need," Rowan said absently, thinking. He knew the only thing Granz was interested in was science and he was confident that Kasai and her men would be able to retrieve the prisoners before Koboi's Arrancars did. That girl interested the Arrancar scientist more than anything. Perhaps he could cut Koboi out of this equation. "What exactly is Koboi doing while you're so busy?"

"Waiting for those three incompetents to bring back the prisoners. Nothing useful as usual."

"You don't seem confident that they will succeed."

"I doubt they are serious about catching them at all. Not the girl anyway. I have cameras all over Las Noches and I was watching the fighting when the Shinigami came to stop Aizen. She healed all three of them after their fights."

Rowan frowned, this was a more serious problem than he had thought. "Do they know the plan?"

"Don't we all?"

Rowan took a moment to calm himself, this didn't change anything. Kasai would deal with them. "I've sent my own expedition to retrieve the prisoners. Koboi is irrelevant. They have orders to bring both the prisoners back here. If you stick around you'll get your opportunity to study the girl as much as you want. In return for the use of your other project of course."

"I don't have any loyalty to Koboi or anyone else. Get me that girl and you can have anything you want from me."

Rowan smiled in satisfaction. It was so easy to manipulate someone who's only loyalty was to himself.

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Abandoned Caves, Hueco Mundo

Orihime didn't know whether or not to believe what Artemis had told her. The problem was not the stories of his fairy friends, that was the easy part. It was the thought that her memories had not been lost but taken that she couldn't bring herself to accept. She had kept herself from thinking about it too much by asking Artemis about his fairy adventures. She now knew more about his life than her own. She also knew the mind wipe could be beaten. The People had erased themselves from Artemis' memories once, but he had recovered those memories completely. Of course he was a genius and had a chance to prepare for the mind wipe. Orihime was no genius, and if she had managed to leave a message for herself it was lost.

Artemis was nice enough not to ask how she was, or maybe his headache was just getting worse. "Why would they want me to forget? I mean, taking just the encounters with them out, like they did with you makes sense, but why would they make me forget everything?"

Artemis had his eyes closed and was massaging his temples. "I don't know. It may not have been the People. From what we've seen here I wouldn't be surprised if there was something else out there." He looked up at the cave entrance, "There is something out there," he whispered.

Orihime did not have to ask what he meant. She could feel something at the cave's entrance. A large creature stalked into the cave. It was unlike anything else she could remember seeing, yet it seemed familiar. It was as big as a house, moving on four legs, instead of a face was a white bone mask behind which red eyes glowed, but the most disturbing thing about it was the hole through its chest.

It advanced slowly, looking from one to the other as if it couldn't make up its mind which of them to eat. Suddenly Artemis clutched at his head, "No, I won't let you out!" he grunted. What was wrong with him? The creature began to move toward him. Orihime desperately picked up a rock and threw it at the thing. It turned and advanced toward her. She flattened herself against the wall, not knowing what to do. Suddenly the creature dissolved in a flash of red light. A red-haired woman and three men stood in the cave's entrance.

Orihime launched herself off the wall, running towards Artemis, who was still clutching his head. "Stay away from him!" the woman was impossibly holding her back. One of the men was kneeling by Artemis, the other two were standing over them with drawn swords.

"Concentrate!" the one on the ground was saying, "You have to let it know you're in charge!"

"What are they doing?" Orihime cried.

"Helping him," the woman answered turning her around, "Don't watch, you won't want to see if this goes wrong." Orihime heard Artemis scream and squeezed her eyes shut even though she was already facing away. What was happening back there? Her own problems didn't seem so bad anymore.

Finally it was quiet and the woman released her. Orihime ran to Artemis and nearly fell to the floor next to him. "Are you all right?"

He nodded, then looked up at the strangers around them. "Who are you people?" the men introduced themselves as Hebiki, Daichi, and Akio. The woman spoke last.

"I'm sorry to have met like this. My name is Kasai Hono."

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I seriously need to work more on the next story in this series so if y'all would be nice enough to review it would help motivate me. Although it is encouraging that this story has three followers now. Hopefully by the time I'm finsihed posting this one enough of the next one will be ready that y'all won't have to wait long for it. I would like to have the whole thing written before I start posting it, but as long as I'm far enough ahead not to have to write the next chapter I might not wait that long.

Thanks and prayer,

RAHbooks.