Coyote Starrk was sleeping when he felt it. He blinked and sat up from the mound of pillows he'd gathered. It was something he never thought he would feel, but as he got to his feet, he became even more sure of it.

It was a beta.

Not only that, but it was a beta that rivaled him in power.

Starrk had taken up residence in Las Noches in his old castle. He really had nowhere else to go, especially after losing Lilynette in the fight with the Shinigami. Her power had returned to him when she was killed. He'd nearly died, managing to slip away through a garganta during the chaos of the battle between those in Karakura Town. He survived on virtue of his sheer power alone. He was too powerful for most lesser hollows to even get near without being killed, especially with Lilynette's power returned to him.

The last seven years had been long for him. He would roam the sands sometimes, looking for anyone who could survive him. He found Harribel and her fraccion had survived, as had Grimmjow. Nnoitra, Barragan, Ulquiorra, Aaroniero, Szayelaporro, Yammy, and Zommari had all perished. He even eventually came to know of Aizen's fate, mostly through other souls.

He saw Nelliel now and then, too. She came to live in Las Noches, her adult form finally restored to her. She still had Pesche and Dondochakka as well as Bawabawa. All three stayed loyal to her even though it was not required. She saw them as her friends, and she often brought things she found to show Starrk. In fact, he had a little collection of items that had been found on the sands of Hueco Mundo, random items that floated through the Dangai and got stuck in their world.

There was a banging at the door before it flung open.

"Do you feel that?" Nel asked, eyes wide, red markings under her eyes practically glowing.

"I do," Starrk said, turning toward her, scratching softly at the mask fragment around his neck.

"It's more than a beta, though. I know that reiatsu," she said, blinking as she looked around the room. "But I cannot place it."

Starrk frowned. "Who would have a reiatsu familiar to you? It does not feel like a Shinigami, and they cannot be betas anyway. It feels like an Arrancar, one I do not know."

"It couldn't be…" Nel frowned, looking thoughtful. "There's no way," she muttered, turning and looking back out the door. "But what if it is?"

"What are you talking about?" Starrk asked, sighing. The conversation was making him tired.

"It's just…I think I know who it might be, but I knew him to be a Shinigami, not an Arrancar," Nel said after a few moments of thought. "But the reiatsu is his. I know it."

"If he is your claim, see to him, and I'll return to bed," Starrk waved at her, moving to turn away.

"What, no, you aren't serious? You felt that. I don't think I can claim him. Besides, it would be his choice, anyway," she dismissed the thought and looked at Starrk.

"You do not wish to try?" he asked. "A powerful beta doesn't come along very often. I would think you would take a chance that your resurrección would be enough to overcome his reiatsu."

Nel frowned. "I don't want to challenge him."

Starrk did look at her now. "You don't want to challenge him? This is our way. You must prove you can defeat your beta before you take them. How else would we determine if we are worthy?"

"It's an archaic way of doing things! I don't want to see him hurt, alright? If it is him, and I think it is, I don't want to fight him. And I don't want you to fight him either." She crossed her arms over her ample chest and glared at him.

"Then how do you think I should mate him?" Starrk asked, arching a brow.

"I don't know, somehow less violent!" she growled. "Give him a choice in the matter instead of forcing him like usually happens. Let him choose you for a change."

Starrk blinked at her in confusion. This wasn't the way of things. The alpha defeated the beta in a battle where the beta went all out, and the alpha moved to subdue only. Then, provided the alpha won the battle, they were able to mate with the beta, implanting a soul into their spiritual form, and thus procreating in a mimicry of mortal impregnation. Hollows were basic drives, after all, and filling the emptiness at their core was their function.

"You don't want to challenge the beta, but instead want me to ask him if he wants to mate?" Starrk summarized.

Nel nodded sharply. "Yes. If you're going to take him, you have to ask first. Or I'll defend him," she stood a little straighter, and somehow the ex-Primera Espada didn't doubt that the ex-Tercera Espada would indeed fight him over this beta. And not even because she wanted him to herself.

"You have an already established relationship with this beta?" Starrk asked after thinking for a moment.

"He's my friend. He helped me when I was little before I gained my adult form again. He's my Itsygo."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo stumbled, already tired as he trudged through the sand toward Las Noches. He didn't even know if anyone was there. He tried to Shunpo but it just tired him out more. Of course, the tiredness might have just been the whole situation. At his heart, though, he couldn't imagine Renji and Rukia and the others turning against him. It had to have been the decision of the new Central 46 and the Sou Taichou was just handing down the verdict.

Who cares who was on your side and who wasn't?

"It matters to me," he said as he finally just stopped and dropped to the sand.

Well, we can't go back now. What I did to get us here changed you.

"What do you mean, it changed me?" Ichigo asked, staring at the strange sky of Hueco Mundo.

You know how you and Orihime always wanted a baby, and no matter what, it didn't happen?

Ichigo cringed at the mention of her. They had tried for a baby nonstop for the last four years or so, and it just didn't happen. Then she got together with Uryū once, and she was pregnant. Did that mean there was something wrong with him all along?

"What are you saying?"

See, hollows don't have genders.

"I know that, not until they're Arrancar anyway," Ichigo nearly waved the concept off.

No, you don't get it. Even then, they look like they have a gender, but they really don't. Hollows are split into alphas and betas. Alphas are the dominant ones, and betas are the submissive ones.

"I still don't see what this matters to me," Ichigo mumbled, drawing designs in the sand as he sat there listening to what the hollow part of him had to say.

You're not paying attention. The betas, they can have babies. The alphas impregnate them. They implant a soul from the multitude that makes them up. You, King, are a beta, always have been. That's why ya could never knock Orihime up.

Ichigo didn't want to believe what the hollow was saying. He tried to dismiss it, but it made sense. If that was true, though, that meant that the baby Orihime was carrying couldn't be his and had to belong to Uryū. Somehow, that thought relieved him.

"Wait, you're saying I can have babies?" Ichigo had finally gotten the entire concept to sink in.

Took you long enough.

"But I'm not hollow!" he said, hands going to his chest where a hollow hole had once opened up.

Ya can't see yerself right now, but yer more hollow than you know. When I released the power to open that garganta to get us out of Soul Society, it changed you. Yer not just a Shinigami anymore. Yer more like an Arrancar.

Ichigo looked down at his chest, and noticed now that where his hollow hole had once been, there was a black circle with black lines coming out of it over his body. He felt up his neck and realized there was a mask fragment around his neck, coming down to a point between his collarbones. How had he not felt that? He supposed he was more concerned with escaping Soul Society than anything else when the changes happened.

"Why did you do it?" he asked, rubbing his face.

I wasn't going to lose you again, and they were going to lock you up and cut off your powers. I wasn't going to let it happen no matter what.

The ground began to shake a bit and Ichigo looked up to see something coming towards him from the direction of Las Noches. He stood up, shaking the sand off his shihakuso and looking as it grew in size. He suddenly realized what it was.

"Bawabawa!" he gasped, as he could now see the form of the giant hollow worm-like creature with someone sitting on it.

After a few minutes, it was close enough for Ichigo to recognize the form of Nelliel on the back of it. He hadn't seen her in so long, he was glad to have found someone he knew here. Still, he felt a strange sensation as she neared, as though something had changed between them.

She's an alpha.

"Wait, what? But you said I could have babies, how does that work, if she's a girl?"

Stupid King, the hollow sighed. Remember, she only looks like a female Arrancar. Arrancar have no gender. You're one of them now.

Ichigo sighed, still trying to wrap his head around this revelation. "Wait, I can't do that with her! She's like my little sister!"

The hollow giggled. Oh, I don't think she's our alpha at all. I sense another, more appropriate alpha for us. Don't you feel it? Not Nelliel, that other feeling. Like a pull towards Las Noches that we've felt since we've got here.

"Who?" Ichigo said as he heard laughter in his mind.

"Itsygo!" he heard and looked up in time to open his arms as Nelliel came leaping from the back of Bawabawa.

She crashed into him, knocking him flat, and he found his face buried in her ample chest. He couldn't breathe for her crushing him beneath her. He flailed around a bit and finally got some air as she released him.

"Nel!" he managed as he got to his feet again.

"Itsygo! I've missed you so much!" she said with a grin. "What happened to you? You weren't like this before," she said, looking him over. "You were a Shinigami, not an Arrancar. Now, that is not the case."

Ichigo ran a hand through his hair. "A lot has happened, but let's just say, I've definitely changed. From what I understand, I can't go back."

"Here, let's go to Las Noches. We've turned it into a home for the Arrancar that are left in Hueco Mundo these days, both the ones Aizen created and those that evolve on their own," she smiled gently.

"Are you in command here?" Ichigo asked as they got on top of Bawabawa.

"Oh, no, Starrk is in command, if you want to put it that way. He's the most powerful Arrancar in Heuco Mundo, especially now that he controls all of his own soul." She put an arm around Ichigo. "He's already sensed you and sent me to get you."

"Really?" Ichigo was surprised. Starrk. He thought the name was familiar. "Who is he?"

"He was the Primera Espada. While you were in Heuco Mundo, he was one of the ones that went to try and take Karakura Town. He nearly died, his fraccion, Lilynette did perish, but her power was broken off from his own. He regained it and can still perform his resurrección without a problem. Though there is little need for such release of power now. There are none that can challenge him."

Ichigo nodded, but realized he was tired. The trip back to Las Noches would take a while, he knew, as distances in Hueco Mundo were vast no matter how close they looked. He leaned against Nel and fell asleep, lulled by the motion of the great hollow they were riding on the back of. While he slept, though, his mind was visited with images he didn't want, of the men that had attacked him and that he murdered. It was a familiar dream, but that didn't make it any less painful to remember. He woke with a start when they stopped moving.

"We're here," Nel said, patting his back.

"Um, yeah," he said, sliding down off Bawabawa.

As soon as he got his bearings, he felt completely overwhelmed by something. It was like he wanted to give his entire being up and he at the same time loved and hated this idea. He glanced at the doorway into Las Noches and saw an Arrancar he knew of in passing. The power he radiated was palatable, and Ichigo wanted to kneel at his feet. He dismissed such feelings and instead focused on him. He was tall, had longish wavy brown hair. His bone fragment was like a set of teeth around his neck, and he wore a pair of beige colored hakama with a white jacket of some sort. His hollow hole was visible in his chest, as was a scar that ran across his chest. If Ichigo remembered right, that was where Kyōraku-taichou had thought he cut him down.

"You wonder how I live," Starrk said as Ichigo and Nelliel approached him.

"I do," Ichigo said, resisting an enormous urge to fall at his feet again.

"I was able to open a garganta to Hueco Mundo as I fell. To save myself, I recalled Lilynette's power, and she ceased to be, returning to my own being. It was only her sacrifice, which she willingly made, that allowed me to stop myself from dying for good. It was still difficult, and I spent a very long time alone and healing, my reiatsu the only thing keeping other hollows at bay." Starrk turned his head and then yawned. "I have since recovered fully. And now, you, the one that defeated Aizen himself, has come before me. A beta."

"Yeah, not my idea," Ichigo grumbled, looking away, mostly to hide the rampant blush that had come to his face and neck.

Ichigo didn't know what to do with the feelings he had. He was confused, he knew that. Then, he was startled out of his thoughts by Nel putting an arm around him.

"Let's find you a room. You're one of us, now, so you need a room," she said, pulling him past Starrk into Las Noches.

Ichigo caught his breath, and it was almost like an electric feeling as he passed Starrk. Starrk only watched, unmoving, as he went into Las Noches. Ichigo sensed the presence of other Arrancar, and he was amazed at how his senses had changed. He used to be really bad at sensing reiatsu, but now he could identify different beings and sense their power. Nothing came close to Starrk and Nel. Even then, he could feel the difference between them, and the gap was wide. As powerful as he knew Nel to be, he could easily tell who held the most power in Las Noches.

"He controls it now," Nel said as they walked.

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked, momentarily confused by what she was talking about.

"His reiatsu. He used to be unable to control the release of his spiritual pressure. Before Aizen. That's why he was with Lilynette. She was actually part of his soul that broke off and became another being. That's why he was able to recall her power. She was part of him to begin with. She previously was the sealed form of his resurrección. Now, his power is sealed in his sword after she gave her power back to him."

Nel walked up to a door and opened it, revealing a room. Ichigo walked in and looked around. There was a bed with a plain set of covers on it, and a pillow. Along one wall, there was a desk and a dresser of sorts. Everything was light colored, but Ichigo could tell that someone had decorated this after Aizen left since it didn't feel sterile. It felt rather warm.

"Things fall through the Dangai," Nel explained as she walked in. "We collect them and put them in Las Noches. You'd be surprised how much stuff appears here."

"Well, it has been like seven years since I was here," Ichigo said, sitting down on the bed, suddenly overcome with sadness.

"Itsygo?" Nel said, sitting down beside him.

Ichigo felt the tears before he knew it, and he let them come. He looked at her and tried to laugh, but it came out in sob.

"What is it?" she asked, putting a gentle arm around him.

Before he knew it, he was telling her everything. From the beginning, after Aizen and losing his powers, and his time with the Fullbringers. Then about Orihime, and what the hollow had said about the reason the baby she carried wasn't his. He even told her about being attacked at the bar, revealing even what they did to him, and how the hollow reacted to murder the men who raped him. Then, he told her all about Soul Society and how they had turned against him in the end and he escaped. By the time he was done, his tears were dry, but he was exhausted by the telling of everything.

"Oh, Itsygo," Nel whispered, hugging him tightly. "It's okay now. You're somewhere safe."

"But what if Soul Society comes for me?" he said. "Surely, they won't just let me go like that."

"Let them come," Nel said, looking up sharply.

Ichigo looked up, following her look, to see Starrk standing in the doorway. Immediately, he flushed, and his heart sped up. He had no idea how long he'd been standing there, lost in his own telling of his story as he had been.

"You are one of us now," Starrk said. "They can come, but Las Noches is your home now. We will defend you with all we are," he stepped into the room slowly. "This is awkward and new to you, so I will take things slower than is normal for such a situation."

Ichigo watched him, eyes wide as he approached and reached out for Ichigo's hand. Ichigo let him take it, confused and unsure of everything at the moment. At his touch, it felt like something clicked, something right.

"I believe in the World of the Living, they call it courting. I would have you as my beta, something I have long desired but been unable to achieve because of my power. You are the first beta to come to Hueco Mundo that is comparable and able to match me. As the one that defeated the man I was previously loyal to, I find myself at your mercy." He paused, tilting his head to the side and smiling in a subtle way. "You would carry my offspring and give me what it is that I never imagined possible."

Ichigo swallowed hard, looking at Nel. She was nodding and giving him an encouraging smile. "I…I mean…if that's what you want, we can see what happens," he managed, squeezing Starrk's hand where he still held it. "I am still getting used to this, especially this whole no gender thing. I'm used to being a guy, not this hollow thing I am now. But I know I feel drawn to you, and I can't deny that desire that you've ignited in me. It's something that I've never felt before, no matter what I've done." Ichigo sighed, pulling Starrk closer to him.

"Nel wishes me to do things differently than is normally done. I have agreed to this, especially now knowing what has transpired." Starrk pulled Ichigo to stand slowly, then lifted his hand to his lips, where he kissed the back of it gently. "We are hollows, but we are evolved hollows, so our base instincts tell us to do something, it is true. But we are capable of control where lower hollows are not."

Ichigo's breath caught and he swallowed hard again. His hand where his lips had touched was lit on fire, it felt like, and he couldn't get over how strong the instinct to submit completely to him was. He wouldn't, though, because he was more than his instinct, he knew.

"Alright. We can see where this goes," Ichigo breathed.