He stood in the center of the room surrounded by disinterested eyes.
"Begin," Aizen commanded, seated above.
Ulquiorra nodded, plucking his left eye from its socket, curious to the effect it would have on Rukia. Doubtless her slim white-clad shadow stood on one of the plinths above. Would she think it terrible, a sign of a monster to regrow the organ?
Crushing the eye, the images he had seen played out for all to see.
"Orihime?"
Rukia rested her hand on her sword, unnerved to see the calmness Ulquiorra crushed his eye with.
"This girl was an ordinary human before." She stated, aware her voice carried. "What do you think gave her those abilities?"
"I have no thoughts, unless our suspicions are correct in assuming Kurosaki Ichigo possesses the Hogyoku."
Ah, yes. The orb of distortion. The one Aizen needed to create perfect Arrancar.
"Different humans of his acquaintance have shown reiatsu. The only logical reason is if he was the catalyst."
But, Orihime...she remembered the human girl. No reiatsu. What changed?
"You've done well, but I fail to see what Inoue -san contributes." Beforehand, Aizen had given her permission to moderate the floor. He had been impressed with their mission progress after finding Wonderweiss Margera, an Arrancar reverted to a child's mentality when his mask was broken. Even so, his mental state disguised great power.
"Her power seems to be a rejection of fate."
"That's a supposition."
Unprovable.
"You're released from your duties for now. On further completion of your task, you will bring further evidence to support your assumptions."
Ulquiorra bowed slightly indicating he understood. For one passing moment after he had turned to leave, he glanced back over his shoulder, directing his gaze to her. Rukia had stepped out of the shadow on Aizen's left side, their eyes sought the other out.
I'll join you soon, her look promised. She had few outstanding duties since Aizen's return. They had much to catch up to, she thought, edging back. Aizen formally dismissed the Espada leaving them to evaporate back to their own palaces. Rukia managed to push a cordial goodbye through synchronized consciousness to Tosen who had spoken little during the exchange and instead seemed deep in thought.
"Kuchiki-san, you and the Primera will resume your mission in the Hueco Mundo interior."
"What?" Her voice carried. She sensed Stark pause, his presence filling the room with energy. "The army isn't complete. Recent events in Soul Society and the living world have driven the Shinigami closer to their zanpakuto. We require change as well."
"I see," Rukia bowed to the chair, sarcasm twisting her mouth into a snarl. "As you wish, my Lord." Clicking her heels, she left by a side door down a flight of steps, inwardly seething. Ulquiorra had been gone for months, observing the events of the Bounto invasion, the rebellion of the zanpakuto spirits...yet he had returned to speak of the Inoue girl and her usefulness. What had transpired in those months? Why did something seem off when he spoke of her?
Stark was waiting for her below.
"Displeased?"
Her response was a guttural growl not quite out of place from the pits.
"What was that?"
"I said can it."
Silencing, he observed her sharp eyes, the downturned sulk of her lips. Rukia's hair had grown longer and she had taken to fastening purple ribbons in it, tying the gathered strands on either side of her face. She had grown more ruthless as well. He had seen her decapitate a rebellious numero with ease; but also show kindness in accepting the amnesiac former Tercera back into Las Noches. Neliel Tu Oderschvank had regained some of her memories, retaining a thin line of hatred for Nnoitora. Rukia had gone a step further and tasked Nel Tu as she preferred being called, the duty of training foot soldiers.
"I'll meet you outside the Cuatro's palace."
"Of course." Stark muttered blithely, trying not to imagine the things a reunion occasioned.
"Stark."
His name wasn't spoken aloud.
Rukia had left him outside the audience chamber. Stark had considered going to say goodbye to Lilinette then discarded the thought. She knew - or would by sensing him leave. She was part of him after all.
"Aizen-sama?"
"Proceed with caution when approaching the target."
"It's already preselected for us?"
"Yes. There's been an uprising in Menos Forest. The Hollows are banding together...the one you seek has a distinctive blaze on his chest. I want you to bring him back with you."
His palace was silent.
The servant had already been in, laying out a fresh uniform and towel. Rukia hadn't returned he noticed, glancing to the door. She had challenged him as was her right. Aizen had obviously indulged her some in allowing her to sponsor replies to the Arrancar who were granted an audience.
Running his fingers along the hidden track of his zipper, the fabric parted at the black seam from throat to navel. He had begun shrugging the jacket from his shoulders when a whisper of cold brushed feather light against his skin.
The reiatsu he knew pressed against his back. Rukia had elevated it to let him know she had come back.
"It's been a while." She commented, pushing her way in. Pushy, loud, stubborn and sad. Her hair had grown longer in his absence. Curling at the ends. Was it as soft to the touch as he remembered? Lying somewhere in the sand, one arm casually pillowing her head. One of the Vasto Lordes with a Shinigami for a companion. Thinking he could kill her at any moment - and not wanting to because she was the first real, tangible thing he had seen that he could name.
Shinigami.
Then, because he needed to remind himself of her realness, he had touched her hair.
Now.
Rukia brushed past him; his hand captured her wrist. Slender, angular. Sharp bone. She was thin, but fuller somehow in form. Details he hadn't thought to notice begged attention from his eyes. The curve of a hip, the pink of her lips parted in surprise. The swell of her breast, gently curved beneath the form-fitting halter top.
Surprise lit the blue in her eyes.
"Ulqui-,"
No.
Humans spoke mawkish words to one another.
He wouldn't let her speak, not now.
There were other far more tangible means of ascertaining one's belonging.
His speed was silent.
Stark had turned several corridors before realizing he had to backtrack. An uprising in Menos Forest? Why did it have to come up now? He figured Rukia was eager to reacquaint herself with the Cuatro and he preferred a nap to endless hours traversing the desert that was much too similar to the days he and Lilinette had spent alone.
Nearly passing the corridor again, he stopped and shook his head. Now wasn't the time to be getting caught up in reminisces.
"Rukia-," a moment, he thought. That was all they needed. Hellos and goodbyes, a few words needed to reassure each other. She wasn't waiting with a taciturn look on her face and a smart remark. Instead, the door at the end of the hallway stood open.
Rukia.
Five feet from the portal and he could see inside.
See them.
Lips touching, hand clasping her chin, the other holding her captive. But, Rukia was far from an unwilling prisoner.
Hollows only know how to eat others. How can they know more? Ulquiorra does, maybe he learned from the living world. We shouldn't know more, but somehow we still do.
He felt something he hadn't felt in a long time.
Pain.
No one will ever look at him the way she does Ulquiorra. The apathetic bastard whose eye sees everything but doesn't see what's right in front of him. "Geez," Stark retreated before he could see more. Down the hallway, farther away startling a servant clad in a long green striped dress.
Ignoring the scurrying feet of the servant, he leaned against the wall, trying to forget what he had seen.
"Did you forget?"
Stark's voice was raspy, almost choked. Rukia self-consciously smoothed the front of her tunic. Of course he can't see evidences about her person. He doesn't know the improper to think- thoughts - in her head. She blushed all the same.
"What?" Snappish.
"The mission." Simply. As if Aizen's whim is everything. Rukia glared at him, averting her face. The mad urge to kick something preferably him asserted itself. "What exactly is the mission?"
Stark indicated she should follow him.
"There's a Hollow stirring up trouble in Menos Forest. Some upstart wants to challenge the Guardian of the Forest. Aizen thinks he might be a powerful ally."
"Great," she blew air through her lips rudely. "What class is he?"
"We don't know. Could be Adjuchas class or Vasto Lordes."
"Given how the lower ranked Espada were originally Gillian in origin," she could count on her fingers the number of true Vasto Lordes origin Espadas, one of whom walked beside her. "I'm not surprised he wanted to gain another ally."
"We might be excused from this mission if we successfully bring him over to our side."
"Maybe," Rukia muttered, sounding doubtful.
"We've been walking in circles." Rukia stopped beside one of the weird crystalline trees dotting the Hueco Mundo interior. Tugging her sandal off by the straps, she knocked sand from the inside.
Stark wasn't paying attention to her. He looked at the low depression in the valley floor below them to the dunes in the distance. A look of wistfulness came over him. "I...I know this place."
He disappeared before her eyes.
"Hey! Hey!" Stuffing her shoe on, she shunpo'd after him. Stark had entered a low plain overlooking towering piles of...Hollows?! So many? Their decaying bodies were piled up on top of one another, teeth filled jaws parted in soundless dismay.
Stark had stopped on the bluff, his eyes narrowing on the three forms below.
Rukia paused beside him, looking as well. "Is that...?"
I think so.
We've found him.
The Hollow stood on four legs, slim, tapered into hooves. A white star like blaze stretched across his chest. Below the slender rib cage a piercing hole of darkness lay, his empty chain of fate. What made Rukia start was his human torso, pale, muscular and arms at his sides. Black hair hung straight around a skull mask. A centaur...she had seen them in books, but never seen one replicated in Hollow form. His power lay above his skin, a steady gold aura that glistened with the radiance of the sun.
"This was my territory." Stark said quietly. Rukia's eyes widened "here? Then, those Hollows-" you slew them all-
"No, they're the Hollows who died from approaching me."
This place. He could see them, moving from place to place. Restless. Walking. Walking. Walking. Forever.
"Where shall we go?"
"Anywhere. But, let's go together."
He could sense Rukia hovering at the edge of his sight. Nervous, but steady. She refused to run, confronting by the enormity of his power.
"Let's go."
"Okay."
She let him lead, stepping together down to the valley. The center Hollow acknowledged them with a direct stare that was neither hostile nor indifferent.
Greetings.
"You are?"
"Chryse. The others with me are Gudo and Finn."
He glanced over the pair of lizards, greenish hierro, long pointed masks . They stood on two legs but were far below Chryse's level.
"We come from the Lord of Hueco Mundo with compliments to your strength. He wishes to make you an ally of his cause. What say you?"
"This Aizen," the voice of the Hollow though muffled reminded him of glass. "Why does he not come himself?"
"Who can say his ways? We are his messengers. I am the first in his army, Primera by rank."
Chryse had scarcely looked at Rukia.
"And the woman?"
"She is the guardian of Las Noches."
Rukia looked at him sharply, but didn't interrupt.
"Before I consider the offer? How about sparring with me? I too," he touched his chest in meaning. "Am searching for stronger comrades. Unlike the others I have no need of pretentious Shinigami."
Stark let the insult slide off.
"Okay, now?"
"Yes."
The two lizards from some unseen gesture disappeared. Rukia tensed beside him, "are you sure about this?"
"Of course. Since he asked so politely."
"Over there," Chryse indicated with a jerk of his head. The north... Stark sonido'd above the shadow of dunes. Chryse followed, his form warping with a speed similar to a shunpo technique.
"Can you fight with her close?" Chryse nodded to Rukia.
"I can." Stark said evenly, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
"You're not concerned for her? Isn't she part of your pack?"
"I don't have one. Are you going to keep talking or get down to business?"
Chryse studied his impassive face. "Is it you don't care if she's a Shinigami? Allying with Aizen Sosuke must mean nothing to you."
His eyes narrowed; Aizen had known how to get to the rotten heart of a situation. Discerning their need for companionship he had challenged them to follow him, to come and see whether or not there were stronger Hollows. In a strange way, Chryse reminded him of Aizen.
"Enough."
"Really? Let me test my theory." Chryse's voice dripped contentment. One of his human arms lifted, palm leveling to the west. Golden cero thundered forth in a column of carefully controlled power. Rukia shunpo'd from sight, reappearing in the sky. For a moment, the light of the cero had illuminated her astonishment.
Whatever he saw, Chryse seemed satisfied. "Cold-blooded to the end. Good. I just had to make sure your instincts weren't soft."
Forcibly keeping his gaze on the Vasto Lordes, Stark refused to glance to the sky. She was there, some distance away, enough so that he could elevate his spirit pressure without inadvertently crushing her.
Chryse responded with a tremor in the ground, a subtle shift of currents as a javelin formed in his hand. "Begin."
She knew better than to jump in. The Hollow- what did he call himself- Chryse, was strong. She wouldn't have thought so from his form, his calmness of mind. He challenged her assumptions by forming a weapon of reiryoku, channeling it to fire off blasts uncomfortably similar to Kido. The stray thought came to her; what if Chryse was...a former Shinigami, Hollowified but returned with some semblance of memory, knowledge of Kido? No. Couldn't be. Anxiously, she watched Stark counter with a swing of his sword. The naked blade clove easily through the ballistic string of blasts.
The one he had called Gudo stayed with
She started, her eyes wide.
Now she was certain.
That was no Balas. It was Kido.
Chryse tossed her a look. "That woman..."
"What about her?" Stark had come to a stand still, his blade guarding, but withheld from attacking.
"What is her name?"
"What concern is it of yours?" He could see the flicker of a violet- blue human eye. Almost reminiscent. "If I choose to accompany you, I must know the name of my allies."
"Fine. Kuchiki."
Stark glimpsed his opening as the Hollow glanced toward her. "She is...familiar to me."
Deep in the faceted layers of consciousness that constituted the evolving Hollow, the name struck something akin to memory. A woman, fragile, hidden behind the shadow of someone else.
Kuchiki...
"Hisana." Then, more certain. "Hisana. That was her name."
"I don't know who you're talking about. Does it concern this?" Stark twirled his sword in meaning.
"No." Chryse put aside the phantom image from memory. The echo had been a remnant from a soul he had consumed whether the one whose form he had assumed - no. Not now. He'd have plenty of time to analyze it later on. Chryse's skull mask didn't relinquish its grin, but behind the mask, he smiled softly. The spell he had inlaid into the ground neared completion.
Stark lunged for him, meaning to swipe to disarm him. Chryse took the blow, absorbing the pain as a necessary thing then when the Arrancar had hovered the blast radius; completed the ketsu-in.
"Bakudo 99, Kin."
Bandages materialized from the air, wrapping tightly around the Arrancar's body.
"Stark!?" Kuchiki shouted.
Shock had gone through her like a knife.
The words seemed a dream or a nightmare.
Bakudo...
The way of binding.
I should've warned him.
Rukia grasped her zanpakuto, drawing the blade with a metallic ring, meeting Chryse's blade.
"Ah, I was wondering when you decided to join in."
"Rukia!? Dammit!"
"Shut up! I'm not trying to help you!" I just...dont think it's fair.
"Just stay back!" Stark roared at her, pushing her bodily out of the way. Stumbling, she glowered at him. "I don't need you!"
"Shut up!"
"No, you shut up! Back off, Rukia!"
"But-!"
"Now!"
Biting her lip so hard she tore it, she turned away, flashstepping aside. The big idiot wouldn't let her help no matter how it pained her for him to face the Hollow alone. Even if he was the supposedly strongest.. Chryse shouldn't have been taken lightly.
"You're so stupid!" She flared up, stamping her foot midair. "I just want to help you! He's using Kido! He isn't an ordinary Hollow!"
That got his attention. Chryse flicked a glance to her.
"I know!" Stark snapped; blue light slashed the darkness.
Heedlessly, she dashed in, revolving the blade clockwise. "Daigo no Mai, Fuyuno Kage!" White light dissolved the shadow of his Kido. She watched the two clash, her stronger reiryoku absorbing the purple fire. However, Chryse remained where he was, casually lifting the edge of a crimson-hilted sword - a zanpakuto! What's he doing- no he formed it too - who is he-!?
"*Gyaku."
(*Reverse."
What - her attack. The white shadow of winter reversed aim.
"Get away!" Rukia barreled into Stark, feet first, kicking him aside. The light painted the look on her face, her cheek, her wide eyes. Stark was close enough still to feel the brush of nothingness, the bliss of white oblivion rush past him. The cold touched his face, still a tangible thing although Rukia was gone. Stark blinked rapidly, sand, energy remnants flew blocking his sight. He thought she may have screamed once, pushed into the rocks that became nothing.
Unthinking of the danger, he phased down, searching, terrified. Fear made his chest tight, suffocating. "Rukia." He could barely speak her name. Below, the sand had disappeared exposing a rocky strata and the fern-like canopy of the Menos Forest. He glimpsed the rooted underbelly, the thick dense copse below - a place of clay colored earth, strange leaves and then a shifting in the ground. He pulled back, stunned to see the ground reform sealing its secrets within.
"Rukia!"
Chryse hovered above, zanpakuto drawn.
"She's beyond your reach. Though I must say, I didn't expect a Shinigami- any Shinigami to risk their lives for a Hollow."
I'll kill you for this.
"Your hands are still bound." The Hollow remarked.
"I don't need them." Stark phased in front of him, beyond the touch of fury. Rage had gripped his chest in a hot vise. "To kill you." Blue cero erupted in a geyser.
"Gestureless, huh?" Chryse evaded, deflecting with the blade edge. Stark vanished again, moving along the wavelength of light, crossing through the Hollow's four legged shadow. Too late, he turned and received the full brunt of it. A rare smile graced Stark's mouth.
If she dreamed, she dreamt a limitless white sea surrounding her, she saw a pit of blackness, many eyes, mouths lined with teeth. It was a hole of creation, living horrors born within its cradle.
One among them glowed white. A white being that was somehow familiar to her. He held out a human like hand to her. Rukia blinked and felt herself scream. Somewhere a wolf howled at the lonely moon.
She started awake.
A heatless fire burned. Kido had she squinted hard enough. Dried leaves crunched beneath bare feet. She glanced up startled, scrambling back. A humanoid figure clad in ragged furs advanced. His face was a mask, auburn hair wild and unkempt flowed around the skeletal visage.
No...this reiatsu...
"Don't be afraid."
She wasn't.
"You're...a Shinigami."
He lifted the mask off revealing an angular jawline, a lean cheek, straight nose and piercing eyes. "Name's Ashido. You got one?"
"R-Rukia."
First names, right. She glanced around at the underbelly of branches forming a rough roof of some kind
"One of my shelters." Ashido offered to her curious look.
"How long have you been here?"
"A long time." He busied himself on the other side of the fire was more for light then heat, she realized. He had fashioned bowls from bone, hung fur pelts across the threshold of his domain. Try as she might, she could sense nothing beyond the natural walls. The roots of the tree they were beneath, hummed with a spiritual power unlike anything she had felt.
"You put up wards."
Ashido snorted over something she found little humor in. "Had to otherwise I'd perpetually be with one eye open while sleeping."
She nodded slightly in approval. Made sense. Another glance and she noticed his well-used katana within his reach. "How did you...?" A hundred questions threatened to burst forth.
Ashido when he spoke again, had difficulty clearing his throat. "I'm sorry, I'm not good at talking. I found you not far from here. You had broken through the canopy of the forest when I came to see. I had felt Chryse's spirit pressure above and figured he had something to do with it."
She sat up straight taking note of the grudging respect Ashido seemed to have for the Hollow. "You know Chryse?"
It was his turn to nod. Ashido took a seat across from her, cross-legged. Proffering a bowl of three stemmed fauna, Rukia accepted with a murmur of surprise. "These leaves-"
"It's not the best salad in the world," he muttered, clearly embarrassed. "It grows here too beneath the forest."
"I used to..." Yes, now she remembered the odorless greens. The faint blue tinged leaves in the moonlight, Ulquiorra had brought them to her frequently along with other things that though peculiar, were edible. He came far...this far for me? Back then, I never realized...Rather than trust herself to speak more, Rukia plucked up a piece of shredded leaf and put it into her mouth. "Needs croutons," she commented.
Ashido stared at her blankly, then began to laugh, a hoarse sound from a dry throat. She laughed too at the ridiculousness of it.
When their mirth had subsided, Ashido turned serious again. "You asked if I knew Chryse...how could I not? It's odd that his name means golden in another language. I read the classics a century ago, I know what I'm talking about. His reiatsu...his cero...is gold colored."
I know. I was the recipient of it.
"Where did he come from?"
"I don't know. I suppose where all Hollows come from. He's drained most of the paths in the forest of Hollows."
Surprise lit her eyes. Ah, so that explained why she and Stark had hardly found recruits. It was Chryse's doing. She filed that bit of information away to report to Aizen - whenever she got out of here.
"He's smarter too. His intelligence is humanlike. Compassionate toward an unarmed foe. He's let me go a few times."
"Ah," Rukia nibbled on the salad, her mind teeming with questions. "But, how did you get here?"
"I...my team and I were tracking a Hollow." The bowl was lax in his hands. "We should've let the *Sugeki take over, but I was stubborn. Once we were in Hueco Mundo, we were attacked." Pain shone in his eyes. "My teammates were picked off one at a time until only I was left."
(*Hollow Hunters)
"How terrible."
"What about you?"
Consciously, she was aware of her tattered white top, the frayed edges of her white hakama. He knows I'm not allied with the Shinigami per se. "I did something I wanted to atone for," she said slowly. "That was my original reason for coming here. At some point I...," found someone. "I found a reason to live."
It was strange hearing the sound of another's voice. Ashido's memories of his comrades were well-worn, faded from too much handling. Soul Society itself was a blur of white buildings, a tower, faces and names belonging to the ancient past. He had considered challenging her when she woke, testing her strength.
Then, he had wondered why. He had felt her dueling Chryse along with another, higher spirit pressure that raised his hackles. Chryse...to have dueled Chryse and escaped proved her prowess.
"I see. You're safe here for now."
"Thanks," Rukia muttered offhand, "my zanpakuto?"
"Here," he returned it to her. They finished eating in silence. Rukia set aside the bowl and wound her hair back into a bun. "How far is it to the surface?"
"A distance from here to the opening into the forest. From there another few days until you reach an opening into Hueco Mundo proper."
Her expression fell. "So we're beneath the forest?"
"If you can believe it."
- TBC
AN: Thanks for reading! Dedicated to my "guest" reviewer ^-^ I'm glad you like the story. There's probably some editing errors from the website. I'll fix them when I get to my computer.
No flames, please.
Reviews loved *-*