Chapter 15

Aizen is out the door and gone before I can fully process what has happened. The doors slam behind him, loud and angry. I stare after him even as the doors block him from view, watching and waiting for someone to explain to me what the hell just happened.

But, of course, no one does because no one can.

Aizen has always been and will always be an enigma. One only Tite Kubo can and probably has explained in his writing, but, as I quit reading the story shortly after Aizen's imprisonment, Aizen is an enigma I can only guess at. Watching him storm out the way he had, I'm not sure if my guess was spot on or completely wrong.

But I'm alive, somehow, so I can only presume that means my guess of Aizen being unwilling to kill me must have been right in some way. Or least right enough that even when I've angered him he'd much rather storm off than kill me.

Whatever the answer may be, I'm still alive. Living and breathing and hurting. The muscles in my legs twitch, straining from being used so soon after so much abused. All my muscles twinge, even my jaw hurts, my teeth throbbing, but I'm almost positive the latter is from knocking my jaw into the floor when I collapsed.

But, if all goes well, it will be worth every single ache and pain.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, I waste no more time. My steps are still wobbly when I finally make my way out of the room, but I keep them as straight as I can. Unwilling and determined to hide any more weakness, I make my way out of the room with my shoulders held high because the next decisions will be the hardest to make and will have nothing to do with helping good triumph over evil. It's quite the opposite actually.

Eternal damnation here we come.

First thing first though, is coming face to face with none other than Grimmjow, my reluctant escort.

I find him waiting for me across the hall, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. His head is tilted back so that his ridiculously long and bouncy bangs frame his face, giving it a soft look I would have never thought possible when he's destruction personified.

"Grimmjow," I call as I step towards him, and he makes no move to push off the wall. Instead, he stays leaning against it, at peace in a way that really shouldn't seem possible when he's been nothing but a burning ball of vengeance since day one. "Hey."

My hand is reaching for him before I give it any conscious thought. Almost as if it's itching to touch him, my palm wraps around the curve of his forearm before I can think of all the reasons why touching him might not be a good idea.

The second my skin meets his, his eyes snap open. Our eyes lock instantly. As close as we are, there's no avoiding it. Though, surprisingly there's no anger in his eyes. There's only something I would dare to call calmness in them, and it stays there even when he glances down at my hand on his arm.

There's something incredibly wrong, I know there is. Especially when he makes no move to shake my hand off or react in any other way than letting his eyes drift back up to mine. But even as something in me chills at the wrongness of it all, I can't make out what it is about this picture that is just so utterly and terribly wrong.

"Take me to Ulquiorra," I say instead, letting my arm drop limply back to my side when he doesn't so much as shrug me off. The wrongness of this whole situation makes me almost desperate to see Ulquiorra again, if only to make sure he's still living and breathing and just safe from the idiocy of the man before me. The very man that will indirectly get him killed.

"He's not done with that woman yet," he says even as he pushes off the wall, brushing past me on his way to where I assume Ulquiorra is. Or at least I hope he's heading that way as I follow after him anyways, unafraid because Aizen himself has tasked Grimmjow with bringing me back to Ulquiorra.

And I'm hoping that, if nothing else, Grimmjow has learned to listen to his superiors after today's misadventure. While it's a shot farther than most, my only other option is to wander the halls on my own, and that hadn't gone well the first time. So I follow after him, cautious of where he's leading me even though I have no intentions of staying behind.

I stay two steps behind him the whole way, the distance between us never growing or lessening as he ends up keeping a steadier pace than I would have thought. It's even a pace that I, surprisingly, have no issue keeping up with. Where Ulquiorra had to drag me along to keep pace, Grimmjow's gait is leisurely, uncaring so much so that it only increases the sense of absolute wrongness.

Because this is Grimmjow, angry destructive Grimmjow who suddenly just isn't.

And I don't know why? I don't know where this sudden calmness in him came from, not when he'd been so full of anger and rage that he'd taken on not just Ichigo while being one-handed but Rukia and Shinji too. That he been full of so much spite that disobeying Aizen meant nothing to him in the face of finally getting revenge.

And like a bucket of cold water washing over me, I realize that something has been irrevocably changed. But before I get to think much more on it, I'm pulled out of my thoughts by Grimmjow's voice.

"Tesra," he calls, stopping and I pull up next to him, catching sight of the Fracción as I do. Tesra stands a few steps down the hall from us, something wary in his posture as he glances briefly between us before he bows. The angle of the bow is shallow, almost as if he's unsure if he should even be bowing to Grimmjow at all but yet too cautious to test his luck by not doing so.

"Sexta."

"What are you doing here?" Grimmjow asks, suspicion in his words even though it lacks the customary growl. The lack of it does nothing to turn the words friendly though. If anything it makes them fiercer, firm in a way that sends a chill of dread down my spine.

"I am in search of Master Nnoitra," Tesra says, the weariness increasing as he pulls back slightly, leaning away as if he wants nothing more than to leave but being unsure if doing so without an obvious dismissal will have consequences.

Grimmjow, as the sixth Espada, is his superior, after all. Even with Nnoitra's rank being higher than Grimmjow's, as a mere Fracción, Tesra doesn't hold the same right to ignore Grimmjow's existence as Nnoitra does. At least not when Nnoitra's isn't present.

"It looks like we'll be heading in the same direction then," Grimmjow says, letting his gaze wander down the hall as he does. Whether he sees what the end of the hall holds or not I don't know, but I know he can sense it. He can feel the Reiatsu that lurkers down the hall, watching and waiting.

Tesra nods then but makes no move to move ahead of us. Instead, he waits, gaze still firmly on Grimmjow as if he's waiting for an attack to come. And, from what I've witnessed so far, it seems as if an attack would be expected even for a Fracción found wandering alone by an Espada not their own. So much so that Tesra doesn't move until Grimmjow makes his way past him.

I fall back into step with Grimmjow with no prompting. Unwilling to fall behind now that there's actually someone with us, I make sure to match my stride with Grimmjow so that we are side by side. That it's too easy to match his stride, what with his legs being longer than mine, is not something that I give more than a passing thought to.

Not when my whole attention instantly goes to Tesra, waiting for an attack I'm not even sure will happen. I listen for his every step, straining my hearing to figure out if he's closed the distance between us without actually having to turn back to look.

While I beat down the beginnings of a panic attack, Grimmjow continues on without a care. Every inch of his body is relaxed, from the set of his shoulder, drooping down so that he can comfortably keep his hands in his pockets, to the missing scowl on his face that leaves his eyes half-lidded.

And in that second, I envy him, because he has no reason to worry. Tesra isn't a threat to him. Other than the five Espadas ranked above him, Aizen, Gin, and Tōsen, no one is. So he can do this. He can walk leisurely down a seemingly empty hall with a Fracción at his back and not care.

Because no one in their right mind would ever dare to attack an Espada.

So we continue down the hall like that, Grimmjow's pace slow and calm, Tesra a few steps behind us, and me anxiously waiting for someone to pop out and end me. Of course, all my anxiety does is make the walk seemingly endless. Though, I'm still caught completely unprepared when our walk does end by none other than Nnoitra. Well, his voice to be exact.

"Yo."

His voice floats down the hall. It freezes us in our steps before we can turn the corner and come face to face with him. Not that I would need to see him to know who that voice belongs to. Nnoitra's voice is all but ingrained into my nightmares. Still, even without being able to see him, caution freezes me all the same at the sound of him.

I do not need another run-in with him. And yet, I know I'll have to face him because Ulquiorra is there, stopped in his tracks by a lurking Nnoitra.

"So how's she looking?" Nnoitra asks, his voice making it to us easily. I turn my gaze Grimmjow's way then, deciding to follow his lead in this because my wariness of Nnoitra is more than well earned. "Our little pet Princess."

"Nnoitra."

Ulquiorra's voice would be more of a welcome relief if he were standing next to me. As it is, all it does is fill me with an anxiety to be within his reach if only so he can protect me from the danger Nnoitra not only poses for me but for Grimmjow too. Whether Grimmjow plans to protect me if it comes to it means nothing here because Nnoitra outranks him.

"I know all about it," Nnoitra continues and Grimmjow stays where he is, head cocked to the side as he stands there and listens. As he takes in information that I'm sure is news to him because he had no reason to know any of this before my intervention, intentional or not. "Lord Aizen entrusted that girl's care to you, hm? Delicious."

A shive of disgust crawls up my spine then. One that has me shifting enough that Grimmjow's hand shoots out to pull me back lest I step around the corner and in full view of them. Almost as if he doesn't want to be caught eavesdropping, he pulls me into his side and away from the corner.

"So how far have you gotten in 'taming' her?" Nnoitra asks and it's then that I catch sight of Tesra holding stock still. His posture is stiff, wary as he makes no move to walk past us and towards his Espada and I can't help but wonder if Grimmjow has anything to do with that, whether intentionally or not.

"Trash."

"Don't get so testy," Nnoitra says, completely ignoring Ulquiorra's dismissal. I shimmy out of Grimmjow's grip then. Almost a little too easily, I shake his hand off my arm and step out of his reach all while clearly broadcasting I have no intention of making our presence known. "I'm just asking if things are going well, that's all. So?"

"Does it bother you?" Ulquiorra asks, finally caving into questioning. I know the conversation to come will be a long one, and with Grimmjow showing every intention to glean as much information as he can from eavesdropping, I know we'll be standing here for just as long. "It's a rather trivial matter."

"Huh?"

"Don't worry," Ulquiorra continues as I move to lean against the wall. I could listen to him talk all day if I'm being honest so settling in against the wall brings with it some measure of relief. "That woman has been under Lord Aizen's spell since before she came to Hueco Mundo."

"The usual Kyōka Suigetsu, huh?"

"Please, this wasn't problematic enough to require it," Ulquiorra says, the scoff that would follow those words all but there even as he doesn't actually make the noise. "The moment she was invited here multiple psychological cages were put in place. Using her friends as a pretext, we put her in a situation she couldn't refuse and ordered her to surrender. Then we gave her a twelve-hour grace period and, on the condition that no one noticed her, we permitted her to say goodbye to one of her friends."

"You call that a cage?" Nnoitra does scoff and Tesra winces at the sound of it, bringing my attention back to him. He's been standing so still that the movement seems almost exaggerated in comparison.

"By giving her a grace period in a tense situation and permitting her to say goodbye to a friend her heart mistakenly becomes sympathetic to us and eases up just a bit," Ulquiorra explains, voice monotone even though I can't help but feel like he's bored with the conversation already. Still, Ulquiorra's never been one to turn down a long-winded explanation before, so he continues, "In reality, however, those twelve hours of reprieve free her thoughts of the threat to her friends' lives. Furthermore, by permitting her to say goodbye to someone of her choosing, we create the illusion where it seems as if she chooses this of her own free will, even though it's a coerced surrender.

"And after that," Ulquiorra says, the pitch and tone of his voice never changing and something in me is soothed just by the sound of it. "By letting her come to the specified location on her own and then transporting her to Hueco Mundo, the illusion is reinforced in her mind and even the will to escape will slowly melt away. Furthermore, the whole 'you are allowed to say goodbye to one person without being noticed' thing actually means that she will 'be able to leave evidence of her farewell with only one person'."

"And?" Nnoitra asks after a pause filled with something like trepidation from him. The unease that comes from realizing that every inch of this has been planned out to the fullest. That absolutely none of this was done on whim. "If she does that, this is a failure, isn't it?"

"On the contrary," Ulquiorra corrects him. "That 'evidence of saying farewell' becomes irrefutable proof that, up until the moment of surrender, she possessed freedom of will and movement. In other words, the stronger the remaining evidence, the more her actions will seem like a 'betrayal of her own will' in the eyes of her friends. As for the last part, it seems as though it was not a complete success. However, as far as Soul Society is concerned, it's safe to say they've just about pulled out."

"This was well thought out, eh?" Nnoitra admits, the unease still in his voice even as he does. "Exactly what we'd expect of Lord Aizen."

"Well thought out?" Ulquiorra says, that non-scoff in his voice again. "For Lord Aizen, this kind of thing is a game. If she's trapped, good. If she isn't, that's fine too. Either way, that girl does not have the power to escape from here. Nor does she have the power, or the will to turn against us."

A tense silence falls over them with Ulquiorra's last words. One that I'm not sure either would have broken on their own, or if they would have just parted ways like that. Ulquiorra with nothing more to say and Nnoitra too stunned to ask more. But whatever way it would have ended, isn't how it ends now.

"Have you heard all you wanted to hear, Grimmjow?"

Because of course Ulquiorra's known we've been here all along. Because, if I've learned one thing this whole time I've been here, even as a human, I'm detectable to every single one of them. It's how Nnoitra found me wandering down the halls on my own and how Starrk found me in time to rescue me from him. It's also how Ulquiorra found me upon my arrival here, curled up in his sheets.

I feel like I have some kind of location beckon on me that everyone has the signal for. And the only reason no one has come forward to finally kill me is because Aizen had technically forbidden it by making me a part of his crew of bloodthirsty monsters.

"Trixy," he calls when none of us make any move to reveal ourselves. Grimmjow and I share a look then, one full of questions I can't even make out because of how strange this whole situation is quietly turning out to be. "Come."

Almost like a dog eager to go back to its master, I find myself pushing off the wall with those words alone. Though, rather than feeling shame for it, the safety Ulquiorra provides is more than enough to have me finally making my way around the corner and towards him.

"Well if it isn't the second pet princess of Las Noches," Nnoitra taunts when he catches sight of me. Thankfully, Ulquiorra stands between us, so I reach him is both fast and easy as I don't have to get closer to Nnoitra than is necessary.

"Technically, I would be the first pet princess since I got here before Orihime," I say, the words making their way out of my mouth before I can think better of them. Nnoitra chortles at them, beyond thrilled even if a little shocked that I don't seem offended by the deeming title.

"Grimmjow," Ulquiorra calls again, completely ignoring our stupidity as he turns to watch Grimmjow step around the corner in all his leisurely glory. Tesra comes after him, but at a much faster pace as he too searches out the protection that comes from an Espada's presence. "Did you hear enough, or would you like to know more?"

"I'm good," Grimmjow answers, his voice coming out just as uncaring and relaxed as the rest of him as he continues down the hall and makes his way past us. I can't help the fondness that forces its way through me at the sight of his so blatantly brushing off Ulquiorra's authority over him. "I'm just here to drop that off anyway."

And that's more than enough to kill any fondness I was feeling towards him. Still, I bite back the curse I want to throw at him because, well, he did bring me back in one piece and without a single scratch.

"Bye, Grimmjow," I say instead, watching him walk away. He flicks a hand out when I do and for a second I think he's waving goodbye. Though I catch sight of his middle finger and thumb sticking out soon enough to dispel the thought almost immediately after.

Well, what an asshole.