Disclaimer: Bambietta Basterbine and all related characters belong to Shueisha.
Time moved on, individuals grew older, life having worn away at their fragile hearts and souls. One such individual was simply tainted by the surrounding darkness, her very being forfeit to the evils of the world. She fought for the thrill, for the pleasure of the hunt. Yet most importantly she fought to live. Now, however, she had given up that fight. However, though she had, life and death would not let her rest. Or to be more to the point, the one who controlled it for her would not let her rest.
"Momma, Poppa, I'll never see you again, will I?"
Living or dying, Bambietta Basterbine had no idea where she truly existed on the scales of existence. Hers was a status beyond the comprehension of her addled state. Her thoughts were clouded, her heart drained of any true meaning. To a sternritter whose power was fueled by her emotions, that in itself was a fate worse than death. All she knew was that she was crawling towards death's door, wishing now that the door would simply crack open.
She had started this day in good spirits. Stepping forth as a part of the first wave of quincy to assault the shinigami for the second time in under a week. To fight those who had stolen from her both her innocence and her parents was a joy she could never truly explain.
Then there had been defeat. Utter and inexorable. Battered by an incomprehensibly strong giant, her power turned against her until her body was nothing more than a charred husk. Death was beckoning to her then, but her rage had left her gasping for life, something she had regretted not long after. For that was when they had arrived.
Giselle Gewelle, Liltotto Lamperd, Candice Catnipp and Meninas McAllon. Fellow sternritter but more importantly friends. Then traitors and devils in Bambietta's eyes. Giselle's hand cover her mouth and nose then, leaving Bambietta to thrash about until her lungs burst. Until her heart stoppped.
A fitting result of an action by someone who had betrayed her trust.
Anything after that was underneath a foggy haze. Bambietta had been reborn for the second time in her life then, her heart returned to a beating state so that she would be nothing more than a creature that was forced to exist underneath Giselle's will. Her schrift, the Zombie, had made Bambietta nothing more than a slave in both body and mind. She had become an empty husk of a human being, forced into subservience to one whom she had trusted with her camaraderie.
Used and abused, scarred and damaged in battle, Bambietta was left to rot among the broken battlements that now littered the Soul Society. She was down among the dead men, both shinigami and quincy alike, her fate no longer a concern to those she had fought against and beside. The only true solace Bambietta could take was in the one memory that brought forth a slight hint of a smile to her bloodied lips. That Yhwach had betrayed the quincy just as they had her. The light of the auswahlen had rained down from the sky, killing or stealing the strength from those who still engaged the shinigami in battle, no doubt to empower Yhwach in an even more important battle high atop the heavens.
Bambietta could see it clearly, that Giselle had survived the extermination, but she was no longer at her full strength. Though she had assaulted Bambietta once more, bashing her skull into the ground and draining her of a good deal of their now shared blood, she had lost too much power to Yhwach's betrayal. And if she were to die against His Majesty, Bambietta would be free to truly die.
"Yes, then I'll see Momma and Poppa again."
Bambietta Basterbine had truly given up the fight they had tasked her with so long ago.
She stared then up into the light blue sky, content with what she was seeing. She had been close to giving in to death once before, the dark night her only view, but had found the strength to continue pressing on. Then she had been strong in spirit, strong enough to withstand the haunting call of eternal rest.
Now was different. Life had broken her spirit far too much. Back then she had found a little ray of hope in the stars that dotted the sky but now she knew better. The darkness was eternal, while even the stars would burn out and become lost to time.
That fateful day she had been promised a new family, a new home, but it too was all gone now. It had not been taken from her like the last; no, it had betrayed her on every possible level. To Yhwach she had been expendable. To Giselle and the others the same. Bambietta knew it then, that she should have accepted her death so many years earlier. It would have been true kindness from the world to end it quick than prolong her suffering with lies and promises of a better life. The world had spent the years following her renewal devising a creative end to her plight, that much she could ascertain now.
Bambietta's thoughts were unfocused, her state unnatural, but still she had to wonder one simple thing: would she see her parents on the other side?
"No," she whispered hoarsely. No, she knew she would not see them on the other side.
She had given up that chance, that hope, once she had subjected herself to Yhwach's rule. Her entrance into paradise had been forfeit the moment she had tasted the blood of Yhwach. She had once been an innocent, her parents hoping to someday make her a quincy who would defend the people, but in the end she had become nothing more than a murderer. Shinigami, hollows and even her fellow quincy if the mood struck her; she had killed time and time again.
Thoughts wavering and shattered, she began to realize she was already on the other side, laying in the rubble she had helped reduce it to. Worse still, her parents were no doubt no longer here. They had been killed by the shinigami so as to grant them to the chance to operate on and experiment with their spirits.
Whether dead or alive, Bambietta knew she would never see them again.
It was all clear to her then. There had never been a fight worth it for, not really.
Having been forced to grow up so young, Bambietta had not spoken to the memory of her parents in so very long. Now, however, she could not help herself. She rose up her right arm, the darkened skin corrupted by the little that remained of Giselle's blood, and she wondered if it was even her own. She had lost an arm in the previous battle, one that Giselle had repaired with her twisted power. Bambietta's thoughts and memories slowed when it came to the short term, she was not even quite sure which arm it had been that had been cut off and replaced.
Nonetheless she reached out towards the blazing sun that hung in the sky above the Soul Society, tears streaming down from her undead eyes and slipping into the devastated pavement beneath her. For yes, even a true devil that fancied itself an angel could cry if given the proper motivation.
"Momma, Poppa, I'm sorry that you died for nothing. That I lived and died for nothing."
Bambietta's arm began to quiver slightly then, her will fading. The stars would fade, yes, but so too would the sun, any sun, in time. Darkness was the true state of being, light just an aberration. Bambietta understood that truly now as she found herself lost and alone on the edge between life and death. Her limb started its fateful descent, Bambietta truly having given up altogether.
Then, quite suddenly, Bambietta's arm was held in place. A pale and gaunt hand, one with a long black nail extending from one of its fingers, had taken hold of her by the wrist quite roughly.
Bambietta glanced weakly to the hand, following the path of its arm until she was staring at a man she felt possessed the most garish taste in fashion. He was clad in a stark white robe that had been fashioned as if to appear like the rays of the sun were beaming from the opening in the hood. The man's face was smothered in black and white paint, leaving Bambietta to wonder what madness had come to greet her for one final farewell.
"Wait," she whispered, realization finally taking hold of her broken mind. "Giselle made me fight you."
"If you want to call that a fight," the man said, "but let's be honest with both ourselves, zombie girl, it was hardly a contest either of you quincy could ever hope to win. After all, the world is is on my side whether you like it or not."
"Who the hell are you?" Bambietta gasped, some of the scant blood remaining in her spitting out from her mouth in the process.
"You will show Master Mayuri the proper respect," a woman in a short black kimono said with little trace of emotion as she approached both Bambietta and the man in question. "This is Captain Kuro-"
The man's free hand suddenly swung out, catching the dark haired woman across the face, completely interrupting her statement. Despite her receding energy, Bambietta cringed at the sight of the abuse, a most recent memory of Giselle entering her thoughts.
"Nemu!" the shinigami captain screamed in a rage. "How many times must I tell you to speak only when spoken to? You should know full well that I am perfectly capable of introducing myself to any poor soul that does not know of my greatness!"
"I'm sorry, Master Mayuri." Nemu said without a trace of anger at her pain. She simply stepped away without another word, leaving the shinigami captain and the quincy alone.
Bambietta's voice cracked then, her words short and concise whether she wanted them to be or not. "Shinigami..."
"Yes, I am such," the man said, his attention turning back to the dead yet 'living' quincy. "Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi of the Twelth Division."
"Just do it, please," Bambietta said softly, unable to do much more than that. "Free me. Kill me"
"I fail to see how you're in a position to make demands of me," the captain said sharply. "Foolish little quincy. Now hush as I make demands of you."
Bambietta whimpered slightly then, realizing that fate would was not in her corner, not even now after all she had been through. Life was simply far too cruel to make for such allowances it seemed.
"That ally of yours," Captain Kurotsuchi began to say, "she has made quite a mess of things on both sides-"
"My ally? Giselle? No, not any-"
"Hush, I say!" The captain's fingers suddenly wrapped around Bambietta's jaw, covering her mouth forcibly. "I will hear no dissenting opinions from a living dead girl!"
Bambietta's eyes began to tear up then, the quincy's shattered soul and mind both flashing back to the past, seeing not the shinigami grabbing at her face, but Giselle. Then it was gone in a flash, the present back in focus.
"Now then," the shinigami captain said once again, his expression impossible for the sternritter to read, "your 'ally' has infected her fair share of shinigami with that peculiar blood of hers and that just won't do. I was able to free them from her control by making them puppets of my own, but I doubt very much the neophyte captain-commander would appreciate my gaining control of the Third, Ninth and Tenth Divisions through proxy. Therefore I need to cure all of them of their zombie infliction altogether. However, again I suspect that the captain-commander would be cross with me if I were to experiment on them and cause unforeseen complications. Now you, your condition is much more severe than any of your 'ally's' other victims. If I heard the sadistic little minx right, she could afflict shinigami with ease. A fellow quincy, however, she had to kill first. So if I can restore you back to a normal and full life, I can easily cure the others. And I know that the captain-commander will not object to my experimenting on you, because let us be honest..."
A cruel smile slipped across the captain's painted face, his eyes lighting up.
"You are my prisoner of war, zombie girl. And so shall you become my undead guinea pig."
Once Bambietta would have grown angry at such a statement but now she was simply too tired, too beaten down by both life and death, to even contemplate cursing under her breath. Her tears simply welled up in her eyes even further, streaming down the sides of her bloodshot face.
"Crying?" Captain Kurotsuchi asked curiously. "Well, I do suppose it is more tolerable than constant shouting about 'the honor of the Quincy,' but I fail to see why you feel the need to object with tears."
The shinigami leaned in close to Bambietta's face, leaving her to smell the rancid breath that escaped his mouth when next he spoke.
"I'm offering you a chance to live, stripling, so show a little gratitude."
"Live?" Bambietta muttered underneath the captain's hand. "I can still live?"
Captain Kurotsuchi released Bambietta from his grasp, seemingly content with her question. From his robe did the man withdraw a vial containing a strange red liquid. "I said you had a chance, nothing more. This is highly experimental, but better I fail with you than my fellow shinigami and suffer the consequences from the small minds of either the captain-commander or the Central Forty-Six."
Bambietta tried to think it over, her mind still addled by both the remnants of Giselle's control and the damage she had done to her skull before walking away with Liltotto. She mulled over it as best she could then, wondering if there was any point in another chance at life. She had already been given a second chance before by a seemingly benevolent man and that had only led to her damnation. Would another offer of salvation from a clearly reprehensible shinigami be any better?
Bambietta closed her eyes faintly for a moment, drawing a sigh from the shinigami captain. The quincy was left in the darkness for a moment until at last she saw a flash of imagery before her mind's eye, a vivid memory she had tried not to dwell on for so long. Her parents were dying before her eyes once again, assaulted and murdered by men who she knew now were shinigami in the guise of mortals.
"You must fight to live. If you die, it was all for nothing."
"Please, live for us as well as for yourself!"
Her parent's words screamed within Bambietta's thoughts, forcing her mind to push past the damage and pain, her eyes opening wide. She stared then and there at the shinigami, a fierce determination beaming from her rotting remains. She reached out towards both him and the vial, her body coming almost pushing away from death itself with each passing second all through sheer will.
"I want it... Please..."
Captain Kurotsuchi sighed as he began to slip the vial into a syringe. "Such a disrespectful test subject. What did I say about demands?"
For the first time since being killed by Giselle and made her servant, Bambietta felt a fire within in her. It forced her to push past her body's limits. Her eyes blazed with fury, her voice exploding with energy.
"Give me my life back!"
"Now that is a demand I can almost respect," Captain Kurotsuchi said curiously. "Crass as you might be, at least you carry yourself with motivation now, quincy. I do appreciate a lively test subject, so let us begin making your body match that spirit of yours!"
With that, the shinigami captain plunged the syringe into Bambietta's chest, directly into her corrupted heart. The quincy felt nothing, her body rejecting the notion of pain. She simply stared at the vial as its contents were forced through the syringe into her stopped heart.
"There we are," Captain Kurotsuchi said as he withdrew the needle, the vial empty of its contents, Bambietta's forced zombie state healing the wound almost instantly as it drew on the remaining blood of Giselle's for sustenance. "Now let us see what happens."
Suddenly did Bambietta feel pain, something unbecoming of the zombie she had been transformed into. She howled in agony as she threw her head back. Her body thrashed about, her hands clawing at her chest as her screaming intensified. Then, at last, did it stop and Bambietta lay still.
"Oh my," Captain Kurotsuchi said in mild disappointment as he stood up and turned his back on Bambietta. "It was wise indeed to perform the test on the quincy first. Come, Nemu, we must find a new alterna- Oh?"
The shinigami's altered and keen ears could hear something then, a heartbeat. One at first, then a second and at last a steady rhythm.
"It's alive," Captain Kurotsuchi said with a twisted sense of personal satisfaction tugging at the core of his being. He spun around then to face Bambietta. "It's alive!"
Bambietta gasped wildly as she experienced the sensation of her heart beating within her chest again. She had felt it for a moment, complete nonexistence, the world around her having faded into nothing, but then the light had pulled her back. She was shaking in response to the trauma, yet still she could not help but genuinely smile as she sat up.
"This was rather traumatic, I'll admit," the shinigami captain said, staring at Bambietta. "Perhaps the other method I had in mind would be better for my fellow shinigami. They might lose some of their lifespan, but at least it will be painless. Yes, yes, they'll thank me for that kindness I'm sure!"
"I'm alive?" Bambietta was paying the shinigami no mind, checking her pulse instead. She then brought her hands up before her very eyes and could see it clearly. Her skin was no longer red with the color of Giselle's blood but instead its own natural pigmentation. Her breathing steadied then, a slight laugh escaping from Bambietta. "I'm alive!"
"Unfortunately, that will not last for long." Captain Kurotsuchi withdraw from his sheathe a blade and then issued forth a command. "Rip, Ashisogi Jizo!"
The zanpakuto changed its appearance then, becoming a golden, three pronged weapon. The shinigami placed the middle blade underneath Bambietta's chin, forcing her to look up at him.
"You are still a prisoner of war," Captain Kurotsuchi said with a grin, "and while I am not allowed to deal with your 'allies' due to the cease fire that was just issued in light of leader's betrayal, I am quite relieved that you yourself have yet to ask for a truce."
"You bastard."
Bambietta had been betrayed again, first by the shinigami who issued the order that killed her parents, then by her own quincy brethren twice over, and now by yet another shinigami. However, it was oddly comforting, to die at the hands of an enemy she expected and not those she had once trusted.
Bambietta realized it then, that it was true what they said: despair had its own calms. However that did not apply to her in the least. She had been battered and broken this day but now she was alive once more. There was a possibility that her powers were at their apex again and that would give her a fighting chance against the immoral captain who felt he held her life in his gnarled hands. Bambietta refused to allow anyone to think that way of her again. Power began to come alive in her body, her and her power alone, the quincy ready to unleash The Explode of her own volition once again.
"You bastard!"
Then, quite suddenly, did two blades descend down upon Captain Kurotsuchi's own. Bambietta's vision widened and she could see two other shinigami on each side of the man who had gone from her savior to her would-be murderer. One was a tall man with blond, uneven hair, a white cloak over his dark robes and signifying him as another captain of the Gotei Thirteen.
The other was a petite young woman, her black kimono uniform no different than any other shinigami, the badge of a lieutenant adorning her left arm the one thing Bambietta's eyes were drawn to.
"That division number." There was a flash then, of battle and carnage, and Bambietta's mind, slowly coming back to its senses, began to recognize the duo that had intervened just now. "You're the ones I fought at the start."
"My, my, Captain Hirako and Lieutenant Hinamori of the Fifth Division," Captain Kurotsuchi hissed through grit teeth, irritation clear as day in his voice. "What do you two think you are doing? I have this situation well in hand."
"I guess you've got a point," Captain Hirako said, the man scratching his head as he began to turn. He did not complete the motion however, his lieutenant gently elbowing him in the ribs. "Fine... Captain Kurotsuchi, I do believe the battle for the Soul Society has concluded. Hell, we've got some of the surviving quincy helping us take the fight to their big boss."
"Not this one, she-"
"Hasn't enough blood been shed already?" Lieutenant Hinamori asked, cutting the captain of Twelth Division off.
"I believe you are overstepping your bounds, Lieutenant," Mayuri said rather coldly. "But I suppose having your precious captain close makes you feel like you can do whatever you please, yes? The both of you throwing your weight around like this, I suppose that's just a nasty habit you both picked up from the traitor you both know so well."
Bambietta saw it then, the lieutenant growing flustered, the captain's eyes narrowing. However, Captain Hirako's anger quickly dissipated, the man simply shaking his head. "Now if only you picked up some habits from Kisuke Urahara, we might be getting along right now."
There was an uncomfortable silence then, Captain Kurotsuchi simply staring at the apparently unintimidated Captain Hirako while Lieutenant Hinamori simply began to sweat a bit, leaving Bambietta to wonder just how nervous she was.
"Have it your way," Captain Kurotsuchi suddenly said, his blade returning to its original shape. He sheathed it then and began to walk away, Nemu joining his side. "But remember, the former captain-commander allowed a quincy to live during the last war and it cost him his very life!"
Captain Kurotsuchi stopped then, casting his eye back on Bambietta.
"In that regards, perhaps I was too hasty. You quincy are quite different from any I've come across in the past. Perhaps if you are still here upon my return, I could offer you and any other stragglers some leniency in my experiments."
Bambietta felt it then, vomit beginning to rise in her throat as she watched the captain of the Twelth Division begin to walk away once more, his dutiful lieutenant following close behind.
"Man, that guy is such a pain in the ass," Captain Hirako complained, simply sheathing his sword. "For a moment there I thought he was going to take a swing at me. Though if not for the fight ahead of us, I kind of wish he did. Might have done Lieutenant Nemu some good if we could get her away from him. Anyway, I did what you asked, so let's get going."
"I'll join up with you in a minute," the lieutenant said as she sheathed her own sword.
"Man, you are such a bleeding heart goody-two-shoes." Captain Hirako ran a hand through his hair again, looking at Bambietta. "I'm only going to be a flash step away, so if you so much as lay a hand on Lieutenant Hinamori, I promise I'll turn your world upside down, you got me?"
Then the captain was gone, disappearing in a flash and leaving behind only a shinigami and a quincy.
Bambietta pulled her knees up against her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs as she simply sat there, her mind beginning to at last truly focus now that Giselle's hold on her was completely broken. She was quiet for a moment, but she knew the lieutenant was still close by and she had a question for her. "You're the shinigami I nearly killed. So why would you be so damn stupid as to help me?"
"My name's Momo Hinamori," the shinigami replied. "And I don't think I caught yours during that whole mess."
"Momo, huh?"
Bambietta raised an eye at what the shinigami had said, looking at the her with some amount of curiosity. It would be so easy to take her out with The Explode, to end her life like Bambietta had come so close to not a day earlier. However, the quincy knew that would bring the captain back and she was unsure of her chances with how weak her body was, especially if such an action brought the whole of the Gotei Thirteen's forces down on her.
Then there was the simple fact that this shinigami, this enemy, had protected her. It was a far cry from what Bambietta's fellow sternritter had done after all.
"Not that it's any of your business," the quincy began to say at last, "but my name's Bambietta. Bambietta Basterbine."
"Oh," Momo said simply. "That's a nice na-"
"Again," Bambietta interrupted, "why did you help me just now? I'm your enemy. Hell, I nearly killed you and-"
"I already said why." It was Momo's turn to interrupt a statement, the shinigami catching Bambietta by surprise with her sudden spark of attitude. It was something she had never possessed during her time as Sosuke Aizen's subordinate, no, but her current captain had slowly coaxed it out of her. "Too much blood has been shed in the Soul Society this day."
"That's a war for you," Bambietta replied coldly. "They're tough."
"It doesn't mean I have to like it," Momo countered. "I've seen friends hurt in one already and..."
Bambietta glared at Momo. "And?"
"It makes me sick," Momo said, the shinigami's right hand clutching at her left arm. "To work beside people, to want to make a better future beside them, only to watch them all die one by one when you least expect it. That's why I knew I had to keep going. To be a shinigami."
"Oh?" Bambietta asked. "Is that right? And here I thought you were the one who fell head over heels for a bastard who played you like a fiddle."
Momo paused for a moment, looking at Bambietta with some level of anger and hurt. "Yes," the shinigami said in a surprisingly cold tone, "there was that too. How did you even know that?"
"Do you have any idea how long the Wandenreich was planning this war from the shadows?" Bambietta replied, shrugging a little bit as she did so. "We were watching you all for so long and you never knew it. Not even your precious Captain Aizen caught on."
"Don't call him that," Momo interjected.
"Why?" Bambietta asked. "You going to cause more bloodshed after all?"
Momo's teeth grit together for a moment, the lieutenant growing frustrated at old wounds being brought to the surface. However, much to her annoyance, Bambietta continued to press that issue.
"He had you wrapped around his little finger," Bambietta said. "A puppet on strings, even for a little while after he..." Bambietta's voice wavered, memories of Giselle coming to the forefront of her mind. "After he betrayed your trust right before your eyes."
"I guess you found that fun to watch," Momo said, the shinigami more than ready and willing to walk away now, the subject matter beginning to grate on her.
Bambietta was blunt then, it being the only thing she knew how to be. "Yes. Yes, I did. What he did was no different than anything I've done. To take advantage of others who admired me, who thought they understood what I really wanted. And all I did was kill them for the thrill of it."
Momo turned on Bambietta then, her voice raising. "Both you and Aizen are monsters!"
Bambietta sighed, her eyelids half-closed as she looked down at the ground. "Don't be like that. You knew what I was when you saved me. We quincy are monsters by default to you shinigami, aren't we?"
Momo was quiet then, the shinigami keeping a grip on her sword's handle as she began to take a step away.
"I know how you felt."
Momo paused then, looking back at Bambietta. The quincy's face was trembling a bit, the woman's hand gripping tightly against the tattered uniform across her chest.
"I get it now," Bambietta continued. "I trusted people once. Friends. And in the end they left me to fight alone. They left me to die. And when I didn't, when you shinigami couldn't quite get the job done, they did it themselves."
Momo was simply confused, the quincy standing before her alive and well speaking as if she had died. "But-"
"Gigi- No, Giselle killed me," Bambietta said, the Quincy squirming in horror as she recalled well the agony she had felt herself struggle to breathe, all the while watching her vision blur with the sight of Giselle the last thing she had scene in that life. "And she took my peace from me. Made me her puppet. Until that freak of a captain..."
Momo was about to say something, anything, but the sternritter before her did something she had not expected.
Bambietta chuckled.
The Sternritter remembered it well, how she had lured many quincy to her quarters under false pretexts, killing them quickly to vent her frustrations. None of them had been her friend, not like she had been with Giselle and the others, but still the betrayal was present. As one of His Majesty's sternritter, she had been looked up to by those soldat beneath her station. It was no different than how Yhwach had considered them all pawns. No different than how Sosuke Aizen had looked down upon Momo Hinamori. That truth began to weigh upon Bambietta's mind, her breath nearly catching itself.
"I suppose it was my fate," Bambietta, her lips curling up in a bemused fashion before dropping again. "I betrayed my comrades again and again and that was the end that was waiting for me. Guess me and karma got something in common."
Momo took a deep breath then, unsure of what to make of this quincy before her. She was an enemy, yes, but others had already pledged themselves to fight against their former leader, the man who had betrayed them. It was a desire that Momo understood quite well and she could see it Bambietta, hear it in her voice, that she could as well.
"So what will you do now?" Momo asked at last. "Your friends are already going to help us-"
Momo realized almost immediately what implication she had made, the lieutenant stopping herself before she spoke any further. It was too late however, Bambietta's anger suddenly spiking.
"They are not my friends!" the quincy shouted, her temper at last flaring to its full crescendo. She stared over Momo's shoulder and could see both Giselle and Liltotto conversing with the other shinigami. She saw no sight of either Meninas or Candice, Bazz-B there instead. However it was Giselle who Bambietta could not pry her eyes away from, the ragged sternritter's body quivering slightly. She had to wonder if any other quincy might feel the same way about her if they knew what had happened to those who had taken her pretexts seriously. "And they probably never were."
Momo followed Bambietta's fearful and enraged stare, taking notice of Giselle as well. "That's the one?" Momo whispered, trying to keep her voice low so that Bambietta heard nothing.
However, much to her surprise, Bambietta managed nonetheless. "Yes," the quincy said softly, "that's the bitch."
"Stay here then," Momo said with the composure and the courtesy befitting a lieutenant of the Gotei Thirteen. She moved down on one knee before the trembling quincy and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You've seen enough battle for one day."
Bambietta hated herself for what she was feeling now. She had spent so much of her life fighting but she knew what Yhwach was capable of. Perhaps the shinigami stood a chance but Bambietta knew no sternritter could battle their own god emperor and survive. That, however, was not the truth behind her hesitation.
"I can't fight by her side, not again," Bambietta said meekly, a mannerism she also hated expressing. "She'll betray me again" The quincy's face warped slightly, anger taking hold of her. That was a feeling she did not mind showing. "Or I'll kill her!"
"And we can't have any in-fighting on a mission this important," Momo said, not backing down despite the sternritter's rage. "You can't go after her and I can't go near him."
"Him?" Bambietta looked up at Momo.
"I get what you're feeling," Momo answered in a rather roundabout way. "I never wanted to see him again, but we need his help to stop Yhwach."
Bambietta understood then, the quincy realizing that Momo had to have been speaking of Aizen. She had to guess that Yhwach had made the Soul Society very desperate if they had released him from his eternal prison.
"I can't do it," Bambietta whimpered, her anger dissipating just as quickly as it had formed. "But you, you're strong enough."
Bambietta chuckled again, if only barely.
"How humiliating," the quincy whispered. "To be saved by a shinigami. And then shown up by the same one."
"What happened to you? What made you hate us so much?"
Bambietta's ears perked up then, the quincy having never expected such a question, especially not from a shinigami. It was to be expected of course. No one had bothered to ask her such things. Not those she fought against or beside. Not even her so-called friends had cared enough to find out what made her tick.
Bambietta scoffed at the idea of baring her soul, especially to one such as this shinigami, but at the same time she was beginning to wonder if she cared one way or another. "My parents, they fought to protect. And then your kind killed them right before my eyes. For no other reason than because they were a part of the quincy race. So you'll excuse me, but my hate is very justified."
Momo did not like what she was hearing, the shinigami horrified to hear that any others in the Soul Society could be a part of such an atrocity. Yet she knew it could very well be true. It would not have been beyond the reproach of Sosuke Aizen to do such a thing, let alone Captain Kurotsuchi. "But to condemn all shinigami for the actions of the few, to want to kill us all because of the past..."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Bambietta said quietly. "I became the very thing I hate. Don't you go thinking I don't already know that. Hell, my parents sacrificed themselves so that I could live and I've done is spit on their memory while keeping myself alive. I can talk about fighting to live all I want, just like they did, but I reveled in he vengeance."
Bambietta paused for a moment, recalling well all the lives she had taken; shinigami, hollow, and quincy alike. Her lips began to drop, her eyes closing for a moment.
"I'm sure they'd be disgusted by the actions of the person they threw their lives away for."
"I'm sure they'd just be happy to see that you're alive," Momo said, the shinigami still keeping a tight grip on her zanpakuto, unsure of the volatile conversation she had gotten herself into. "But I can only guess they'd want you to be happy too."
"Why?" Bambietta asked, her eyes looking deep into Momo's own. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because shinigami are meant to help other souls find peace," Momo answered, her blood quickly running cold as she took notice of Bambietta looking at her. Nonetheless did she stand her ground and keep at bay any concerns. "Whether that means cleansing hollows, guiding the dearly departed to the Soul Society, or even helping an enemy come to terms with their lives."
Momo stopped for a moment, thinking over some of her fellow captains in particular.
"Well, alright, so that's why I became a shinigami," she said a little sheepishly. Then did Momo's tone grow serious again. "I joined the Gotei Thirteen so that I could protect as many souls as I could. And in particular to protect-"
"Come on, Lieutenant Hinamori," Captain Hirako's voice said as he appeared by Momo's side. "I know talking the enemy to death is a valid strategy and all, but we've got places to go and other bad guys you can probably chat it up with."
Momo sighed as she heard the teasing words of her captain. She knew he meant well of course. Captain Hirako had helped bring her out of her shell, to help her stand on her own two feet. He was the polar opposite of Sosuke Aizen after all. So she began to walk away, following her captain. Yet then did she stop, Momo looking over her shoulder towards Bambietta.
"I'll finish this fight for you," Momo said. "Just find yourself some peace, Bambietta."
"Bambi," the quincy corrected. "Just call me Bambi." Bambietta paused then, looking at Momo with an exasperated expression, the quincy folding her arms across her chest as she turned her head to the side and shut her eyes. "Not that we're all buddy-buddy or anything!"
Bambietta could feel it, her face growing warm. She had to hope that no one could see the apparent blush on her cheeks. It was all so sudden and impulsive, not to mention the most alive Bambietta had felt since her forced resurrection. Not that she would tell Momo that.
"Bambi," Momo repeated with a half-smile. "This war is going to end today, one way or another. So go. Live your life. Make your parents proud."
Then Momo was beside her captain again, the two of them walking away from Bambietta. As they did so, the quincy could hear them both speaking.
"Man, what a pain," Captain Hirako said as he gently patted Momo on the back. "So ungrateful. You see what you get for helping a brat that gave us so much trouble?"
"Maybe she wouldn't have if you didn't explain what your shikai did in full detail," Momo shot back, playfully digging at her captain. It was something she would never have imagined doing to Sosuke Aizen, but this relationship was far different.
"Hey, she couldn't even understand what I was saying at the time!" Captain Hirako replied defensively.
"Then that makes you explaining to it to her all the more silly!" Momo replied, not willing to give ground on the matter.
"Just be glad I did that and didn't take her out," Captain Hirako retorted. "If I had, you might not have had the chance to crush on her."
"I am not crushing on her!" Momo snapped, becoming as red in the face as Bambietta had moments earlier. "I mean yes, she's cute, but-"
"Sure, sure," Captain Hirako said with a shrug. "Now let's be on our way."
Then both Momo and her captain were gone, a step of their high speed movement taking them out of sight and leaving their voices to fade away into the distance. The reborn quincy was left on her own then.
Bambietta stayed still for a moment, her thoughts and feelings a whirl of emotion that she could not fully comprehend. All she knew was one simple thing: there was only one existing person who had not betrayed her in this life and that person had been one of her blood-sworn enemies up until just now. Worse still, that person was about to enter a battle with no guaranteed outcome.
"The whole point of fighting is that you don't want to die, that you'll be killed if you lose. If you throw your life away in battle, what's the point in winning?"
The quincy curled up a little tighter then, her chin resting against her propped up knees. Her voice grew softer and more withdrawn.
"Don't throw your life away, Momo Hinamori."