A Predator Among Us

by Demod20

Aaroniero Arruruerie, the Novena Espada is perhaps the most unique and intriguing member of the 10 best Arrancars in service to Sosuke Aizen. In a surprising turn, Aaroniero finds itself thrust into a very much different war than what was perceived in the events of Canon. How far will the Novena go to get what he wants and who will be left standing in the ashes of battle?

5. Old Hatred Never Ages

A Predator Among Us

---

Far off near the outer perimeter of Las Noches desert enclosure, little conflict was seen. In the distance, the faint echoes of monumental battle was to be heard and felt. Flashes of light, haphazard trails of Reishi carving and demolishing the landscape for kilometers around. Should such a number of forces do battle within a populated area, there surely be no life at this moment within its borders.

But one thing happened that be outside of most watchful eyes. Something that warped and rippled the space high up in the interior space of Las Noches. Just below the clouds opened a black eye, opening to reveal nothing but silhouettes from within. Such an eye appeared to emanate out of nothing, penetrating the fabric of the dimension directly in the heart of enemy territory.

Among such silhouettes stood three noteworthy individuals. The first to step forward was the Haori cloaked Head of the Kuchiki Clan, Byakuya Kuchiki. His eyes drifted down to the solar lit sands below their skyline vantage point, already observing the environment with keen eyes and even sharper senses. Looking to his left, he could feel what most undoubtedly was a host of hostile Reiatsu, overlapping a few familiar ones.

"It appears that we're a good distance from the actual targets," The second figure of the three spoke, being the burgundy complexioned white haired Lieutenant of the First Division, Chōjirō Sasakibe. His specially tailored white cloak flourished around his Shikhakushō, his left hand kept dutifully by his sword while the other remained idle at his side. His eyes were drawn in the same direction as Byakuya's as he spoke. "and it appears there's a number of considerably powerful ones where we need to go."

"Bah! You worry too much, Lieutenant," A dour pitched voice commented, revealing the third and most foreboding silhouette now revealed as the Captain of the 12th Division and President of the R&D, Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Now outfitted in a getup that modified his crest into a more cobra styled headdress, having even adopted a golden chin brace similar to what Pharaohs wore. He smiled a chilling golden toothed grin, as he cast his gaze forward, away from the objective, "there are a number of other fine specimens away from the large collaborative. One of which I've had the most fortunate pleasure of studying on the way through the Garganta and prior. You can have your glorious battle of barbarism and mayhem while I can conduct my research!"

"Do what you will, Captain Kurotsuchi," Byakuya said in a cold, detached tone, "I am going to complete our directive in what we set out to do in the first place. Keep in mind about your duties when performing your experiments."

It was only when Byakuya kicked off the Garganta's edge did his body free fall to the earth, leaving behind a infuriated Captain behind. When a number of shadowy silhouettes, including the Lieutenant, went with him, the face-painted Shinigami rolled his eyes. Looking over his shoulder, he saw his faithful "daughter" and subordinate waiting attentively.

"C'mon, Nemu!" Captain Kurotsuchi said raspily, before smiling deviously as he too free fell off the Garganta's opening to the desert below, "it's time we collect some specimens!"

---

Chapter

OLD HATRED NEVER AGES

Five

---

Earlier

"Something isn't right," Aaroniero thought from within her undetected enclosure. Her eyes were closed as she remained in a meditative stance, passively using her Busqueda la Mente to detect all Reiatsus within a large radius. From what she could sense a number of Reiatus emerged on the horizon. "they're all Arrancars, yet they seem familiar. Wait, is that...oh no!"

The Vanguard. Those of which Aaroniero was told of when many Arrancars who weren't executed found themselves buried in the bowels of the White Citadel's dungeon. A last resort of directive defense measures taken when the primary military couldn't combat the intruding threat or was unable to respond due to any number of reasons.

Despite their arrival, she managed to form a hidden smile.

"It seems Aizen isn't going to send in the elite three. This bodes well for me, for I still have need to collect the targets that I need to further my evolution. Even if it comes down to it, I'm certain any one of my Calaveras can handle them," Aaroniero concluded with a calming sigh, refocusing her efforts on acquiring her prey. From what she could tell, Szayel was continuing his sadistic games, keeping his enemies alive for as long as possible. She didn't dare cross him without a precise method of bringing him down, especially in the state her Pesquisa is analyzing him retaining. "I'll make sure to have the Calavera heading in his direction hold back and suppress Reiatsu. Don't want to give away my intent just yet. As for the others, I'll just quietly pick off the corpse and the dying one. The one stuck in the sky isn't as strong as the rest, but I can't be a picky eater at a time like this, can I?"

---

Everything ached. Every twitch, every muscular contraction, and every breath inhaled caused daggers to drag across every possible nerve ending. With every palm gripping the deceivingly cool sand, a groan emitted from his mouth as he pulled himself forward. Blood oozed from deep gashes over his chest, a perforation over his midsection having long since halted the majority of its leakage looked dark in its coloration.

The whole situation was the most humiliating that Grimmjow had been in.

"Gah...Gah...Gah," Grimmjow heaved heavily as he crawled on all fours. Leaving a considerable blood trail from which he had been left to die by the bastard Nnoitra, he forced himself to move as the conflict against Ichigo and surprisingly the childlike brat. Who knew she was really Nelliel, the former Tres Espada?

It didn't matter to him. He just needed to reach his gleaming blade, the source of his power, half buried in the sand ahead of him. Only six meters ahead. All he had to do was pull himself forward another five meters and then reach out. Anything that came after was irrelevant. He needed his sword!

"Just got to reach for it...just a little further...a little more!" Grimmjow growled gutturally, finding himself dragging belly down to get to his destination. One hand reached after the other as grimaced, feeling the grains of sand burrow into his wounds. He swore one of his injuries deepened as he continued to levy himself over the sandy plains.

Gasping out, Grimmjow clawed his body upwards before falling flat onto his face. Grunting, Grimmjow grinded his face up, spitting out mouthfuls of sand. Gritting his teeth he pushed his arm through the sand, having it emerge up to be but inches from the azure threads that made up his hilt.

When the sand was kicked up by a sandal-bound foot, flipping up into the air to be caught in an inverted grip, Grimmjow blinked agape. Craning his head with strained gasps, his blurry vision gave him the outline of a very familiar Shinigami. One of which he saw in a past meeting with Aizen and the other Espadas upon their intrusion into Hueco Mundo. One that he impaled with his very hand and felt the broadcast of her slaying Aaroniero. The very one that stared coldly down on his frame as if he didn't mattered, and was pitiable.

It sickened him to be looked down upon by this lowly Shinigami.

"B-B...itch!" Grimmjow snarled up between wheezing breaths, his brow caked in sweat and dried blood as he glared upwards at her, "g-give...me...that!"

What followed wasn't a witty retort or a spiteful phrase. Instead he'd feel white hot pain as his own sword thrust down into the back of his hand, sliding through his palm into the sand below. If he wasn't already in pain, he knew he'd exclaim fury among a slew of curses under his breath. The best he could do was stare incredulously at the sword piercing his hand, driven deep through his flesh and into the sandy soil below.

"I seem to recall you pinning Ichigo down this way when he wasn't a match for you," Calavera Rukia said with venom, a cold stare of indifference to the Arrancar's plight projected from her violet eyes, "was your quest in becoming ruler of Hueco Mundo worth it? What a pitiful sight for a King, worthless scum!"

"Why...you-!" Grimmjow began to growl, finding himself cut off by what he saw. The left hand of the Shinigami seemed to warp and twist out of shape. It became a dark purple, tubular tentacle with sick mucous layered over it and saliva ebbing out of a sharp toothed maw. The edges of the maw expanded, easily blocking his view of the Sun glaring down on him. The silhouette of the predatorial tendril rushing towards him gave him the stark, humiliating realization.

The King had become Prey.

---

"Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez has been devoured," Aaroniero thought with a humored smile, "guess you aren't as Kingly as you thought yourself to be, hm?"

With him out of the way, Aaroniero focused on her remaining goals. Already she had one taking flight overhead, reaching the altitude of which the canopy's top resided within. From her Calavera's eyes she could see a large pillar of smoke ebbing from the farthest walled off area of Las Noches. The Cero Oscuras carved a deep trench across the Palace's sands out into Hueco Mundo's wastes.

"I'd best not approach Nelliel with hostile intent. There's no way any of my Calaveras can stand up to her, meals or no," The Shinigami bodied Arrancar decided with rightful caution. Already the one in the "sky" of Las Noches found Tesra Lindocruz. As the Calavera there began to feast upon the Quinto's Fraccion, she felt the other approach the Quinto's corpse.

---

"Finally," Aaroniero whispered lowly to herself, finding some merit of accomplishment in her actions. She could already feel the Calavera closest to Szayel halt just half a kilometer away from his battlefield. From there she'll monitor his movements. The Calaveras having finished with Grimmjow and Tesra are to return to her once the last has completed her meal, "soon, I'll have enough power to challenge even the Upper Three. Then I can worry no longer about opposition!"

It took a little longer to reach the corpse of Nnoitra than she thought. The Calavera had to hide her Reiatsu to such an extent that using Shunpo was out of the question. She dared not risk a confrontation with the former Tres or the Shinigami she's apparently with. Dashing and leaping from dune to dune, the Rukia bodied offspring continued to move with haste.

With a skidding halt, Aaroniero finally found her duplicate's form directly in front of Nnoitra's corpse. Already the crispy residual parts of barely intact flesh began to flake away, turning into dust shortly after flowing up into the atmosphere. The sign of spiritual body corrosion was already under effect.

"Better make this quick!" She decided, kneeling before the body. With a thrust into the body's backside, her hand contorted and shifted into its tendril makeup. Easily breaking up the decaying body into edible matter, only a handful of seconds passed by before the entire broken form of the Arrancar was absorbed into her being.

"Finally!" Aaroniero thought, causing her Calavera's face to light up with a beaming smile. Forcing its hand back into its original shape, it clenched its digits experimentally as it felt the power store itself within her innermost being. A slight giggle escaped her lips as her smile turned cheshire with how delighted she was to have accomplished her goals, for the most part. "all that's left is to wait for Szayel to finish off his prey and I can scavenge off his leftovers. With all four returning to me at once, it would be a simple matter of being discreet-"

Her thoughts were interrupted when white hot pain flashed in her mind, having been felt directly upon the recently fed Calavera's backside. The force of the attack sent her sprawling through an entire pile of sand, causing it to explode violently upon her exit out the other side. Tumbling head over toe, her body barely regained a crouched posture to face her attacker.

What her Calavera's eyes caused Aaroniero's and her duplicate's to widen to alarm. Casually appearing within a whip of buzzing air was a beautiful Arrancar, over twice the height of her when standing. An outstretched hand pointed lazily, still sparkling with crimson energy, as her half-lidded gaze stared down her offspring's hunched and pain-ridden form.

"Why hello there, pretty thing," Rana said with an amused smile stretching across her face, hand lowering down to her side, "fancy meeting you here. Sorry about the greeting. I'd brought sake cups so we can chit-chat about the weather and braid each other's hair, but I thought a Bala to your spine would have done justice to the Hollow way of greeting a Shinigami!"

"There's no mistaking it. It's her. The Last Primera, Rana Zolinder!" Aaroniero thought as her limited clone winced and beaded sweat down her messy banged brows. From simple deduction, she could feel a large purple bruise formed over her back. Steam ebbed from the heat of the concussive Reishi cannon ball that hit her barely covered, unprotected back. Her collar of her kosode barely kept her desert cloak intact, having been torn apart by the bludgeoning the projectile put upon her person. "this isn't good. I can't afford to lose Nnoitra's Aspect in a fight against her. Even if she's yesterday's news, her power back then could easily trump my Calavera's. What should I do? Retreat?"

"Not the chatty type? That's alright," Rana jeered aloud, taking a few casual strides as she leveled her gaze in a lethal light at her enemy, "I got time to kill."

"I'm not interested in fighting you," Aaroniero's Calavera sneered, drawing her Zanpakutou shortly before backpedaling away, "but I'm not going to let you get the better of me!"

"That so?"

Aaroniero froze as she felt her back painfully run into Rana's knee. With the breath rushing out of her lungs, she saw the afterimage of Rana's person that was standing a good distance away moments ago, disappear as if it was a mirage. Coughing, she turned around her swung in counterattack, cleaving the air in a horizontal fashion. Meeting Rana's neck, the blade rebounded with a spray of orange sparks, causing a shot of pain to rush up Aaroniero's arm for even attempting to cut her.

"Now that's just sad," Rana mused, cocking her head in the direction the blade had stroked moments ago, "was that sword really filled with your Reiatsu, or are you just fucking with me right now?"

"Shit, she wasn't even phased!" Aaroniero thought with visible alarm. The Calavera stepped back warily, unable to hide the fear it felt towards Rana's imposing form. Her enemy sighed with irritation, scratching her scalp with clear annoyance at this revelation.

"Just great! Here I outran the others so I could get a piece of some action by attacking an intruder worth my time. But here you are. Can't dodge, can't run, and can't fight. What a pathetic Shinigami you are," Rana said dryly, raising her gaze back towards the Calavera's shaking and gasping frame.

"I have to get the others to help. I need this body extracted, or else-!"

Aaroniero stopped herself when she felt the searing pain of a knife positioned hand pierced her chest with little consequence. Rana's towering frame made it easy for her to lift the Calavera's body off the ground, squirming and gurgling. Blood oozed out of her mouth as she uselessly batted her blade and feet against the amazonian built woman.

"Sayonara," Rana whispered aloud, just shortly before a brilliant scarlet Cero exited the Calavera's backside. Only a few twitched of movement were left before the limp body fell to the ground with a lifeless look in her eyes. Sword clattered just out of reach, as a large hole with ember lit flesh burned within the center of her uniform's chest and midriff.

---

Feeling her connection cut off from her Calavera, she knew that any hope of extracting her back to her person was a lost cause. Even within her safe spot, Aaroniero couldn't help but slam her fists onto the ground out of frustration, screaming behind her teeth. Her eyes closed and her brows knitted together with incredulous anger.

After palming her hands into the sand for a full minute, she began to regain her composure, with only a few remnants of anger wheezing out of her nostrils. Returning to her meditative state, she initiated her Pesquisa, following the current that was Rana's impressionable Reiatsu. There she felt a host of Reiatsus follow her, now in direct tow of her. To her surprise and relief, she saw that they left the body unattended.

"I'll send the skybound Calavera to devour that corpse. It still has Nnoitra's essence within it, so combining his with his Fraccion's should be fine. I just have to make sure to give it time to access that power this time around, otherwise I'll have a repeating action occurring," Aaroniero plotted, already directing the Calavera in question to rapidly employ Shunpo. Feeling no change in direction of the Vanguard's movements, she felt confident to move her other Calaveras appropriately.

It was at that point, also, that Aaroniero became very aware of just how close the Vanguard were to Ichigo and Nel's position. With their attention now solely fixated upon them, she can plan a means of not only acquiring more sustenance but initiate her own next moves. If she was to survive, she can't wait for her pawns to return back to her.

"A little payback never hurts either, now does it?" Aaroniero whispered to herself with a dark smile as she glared at the horizon.

---

"You feeling better, Ichigo?" Orihime asked from her standing spot, hands splayed out in a comforting manner.

"A lot, thanks to you," Ichigo said with a relieved smile. Slowly yet surely, aches and injuries began to fade away as if they hadn't been there in the first place. From scrapes to cuts, bruises to fractures, the phenomena that caused his injuries was being undone one bit at a time by Orihime's incredible powers. If he only knew just how incredible of an ability it was, Ichigo would feel more in awe from her healing touch, as it were.

He could only wonder how Nel was doing. Thoughts lingered to the beautiful warrioress that came from the body of a child that he had been protecting. In turn when he was at his most weakest, he was defended by her, someone who cared for him deeply. Her fight seemed colossal in scale, even outstripping his own battle with Grimmjow that he had only minutes ago. Even when it seemed, from what he saw lingering in the distance, that she was on the losing end she never gave up. For some reason or another she was almost a mirror of the best attributes in himself without reflecting any of his own vices.

As he let out a sigh, staring off in a daze after where Nelliel was galloping in the distance, Orihime could see something behind his gaze. An unknown desire that he himself hadn't been aware of but only she could piece together. Ever since Nelliel's awakening, rescuing Ichigo in a timely fashion, and then taking the fight to the horrible Arrancar Orihime had a pit in her stomach. She had been completely useless, unable to even protect herself let alone the person who came to her rescue.

Yet when Nel showed up in Ichigo's time of need, she could only stand by and pitifully hope everything turn out alright.

"She's stronger than I'll ever be. Someone like that is made for Ichigo," Orihime thought as she turned her head to her right. With her bangs hiding her eyes, only a sparkle of light refracted off the lone tear that trailed down her face.

It was during their bouts of reveries that the sudden rush of wind kicking up across Ichigo and Orihime's bodies caused them both to blink with surprise. While Orihime refocused her gaze over her left side sheepishly, Ichigo simply leaned forward. There in her glorious released Centauress form, something the two had only seen from afar, stood Nelliel herself. Sitting upon her backside, hugging her waist tightly, was another young Arrancar neither had seen before.

But from the way Nel smiled and regarded the girl, it was clear she was a friend of hers.

"Wow! What a rush," Lilynette giggled with joy, her hair sticking up in a fray from the high velocity winds that disheveled her lime hued tresses. Looking up at Nel's shoulder glancing visage, she smiled widely as she held her waist, "it's been forever since I've had so much fun! I forgot how fast you are!"

"I'm glad you've enjoyed the ride," Nel said affectionately, rubbing the young girl on her head, matting her hair back onto her crown in a neater manner. Nodding to the ground with her lance wielding arm, she spoke softly, "you need to get off now, though. I need to recover from my battle with Nnoitra and to do that, I'll need to seal my power back into my Zanpakutō."

"Gotcha," Lilynette said with an affirmative nod. Deftly, she propped herself into a two-hand springing handstand on her Centauress back. With a bend of her knees and arms, she leaped up and twirled around in an acrobatic twirl to land onto her feet gracefully next to Nel. With a wave of her arms, she proclaimed loudly, "TA-DAAAAA!~"

Hearing the lack of applause, barring an encouraging clap by Nel, Lilynette lowered her arms to her sides and retracted her grin immediately. Pouting her lips, she placed her hands on her hips as she stared at Ichigo and Orihime's bewildered expressions. Furrowing her visible brow, she asked aloud in a snide tone, "Who the Hell are you guys? Shinigami? Human?"

"Great, another brat," Ichigo thought with a visibly dry twitch of a now irritative expression crossing his face, "here I thought I didn't have to deal with a kid and now I get one that's easily my sister's age if not older. Tween's already glaring at me and I don't like it!"

Orihime could only smile sweetly while trying to maintain composure, failing to conceal the nervous sweat beading down her brow. She could tell that this girl's abrasive nature was a default defense mechanism. Her doting attitude towards Nel vanished the moment she acknowledged their presence, making her an avowed preferential person.

"It's like she's Nel's little sister," Orihime noted with a softer smile, earning a childish scowl from Lilynette at her.
"Hey! What's so funny?!" Lilynette stepped forward, raising up a balled fist to shake at her with indignation, matching the look of iration across her visage, "you makin' fun of me?!"

"No, it's just," Orihime began to say, smiling in a beaming manner as she kept focus on healing Ichigo's injuries, "you look as if you really like Miss Nel, that's all."

Lilynette's entire demeanor shrank, as if her button was pushed precisely. Her cheeks lit up like beets as she stood up and turned away. Averting her gaze from the analytical brown eyes of the human girl, Lilynette retorted in a bashful stammer, "S-Stupid! You shouldn't go around saying things like that!"

"No need to be harsh to them, Lily," Nelliel said aloud, drawing all gazes back to her as she spoke. Her stature shrank as most her body became wrapped up in pink light. The flared horns of her mask fragment retracted into smaller curled angles, retaining the healed state the mask had undergone minus the missing teeth. As her human torso was exposed and the last remaining fragments of Gamuza was resealed into the crescent guarded sword, she sheathed it into the scabbard being held within her left hand. When the last wafting remnants of pink Reishi left her form, eyes around her expanded exponentially by all viewers, unnoticed by Nelliel as she finished speaking, "Ichigo is someone I care for deeply, and anyone that's his friend is also my fr-"

"Uh...Nel," Lilynette began to say, her face turning beet red at what she saw below Nelliel's waistline.

"Hm?" Nel looked down, blinking curiously at what was causing a cool draft upon her slender legs. Naked legs that had nothing covering her thighs up to her curvy shaped hips and pelvis. The sight of her nude frame took her a few moments to process as she looked up at Orihime's eye-shut and Ichigo's agape expressions. Both of them looked equally bashful. Cocking her head to the side, she propped her hand upon her right hip, using the pommel of her sheathed sword to scratch the side of her head, "what's the big deal?"

"Y-Y-You dumbass!" Lilynette shouted, leaping out in front of Nel's front, desperately trying to cover the sight of her unclothed lower region with her own slim body, "you transformed while wearing those rags, didn't you?! Now you're walking around showing your-!"

"I don't see what the problem is," Nel pouted her lips childishly, tapping Lilynette atop her head, "you've seen me naked before, haven't you?"

"B-But N-Nel! That strawberry haired Shinigami's a GUY!" Lilynette enunciated aloud, leaning her head in Ichigo's direction with strained craning gestures of her neck.

With a flutter of her eyes, Nelliel raised her head to look at Ichigo across the sandy distance. She noted how his eyes were wide and his pupils were shrunken to the size of pins. A thin dribble of blood leaked out of his nose, flowing down towards his chin. Most of all, his face was a very vivid complexion of crimson.

With a gasp, Nelliel raised her free hand up to cup her mouth with shock.

"Finally, she gets it," Lilynette sighed in thought, emphasizing her relief with a wry, if not embarrassed smile.

The next moment later, Lilynette found herself bowled over by the rapidly leaping Nelliel, with her legs upturned, arms splayed out, and her head slamming into the desert earth below. With a grunt, she saw from her upside down angle that she sailed through the air, shattering through the Sōten Kisshun shield. She saw her glomp the dazed, now audibly startled man and hug him in a constrictive embrace around his shoulders and back, pushing his face into her bosom forcefully.

"Don't die, Ichigo!" Nel cried out, smothering his orange locks with her face as her arms squeezed tightly over his neck and the back of his head.

"C-C-Can't...breathe...!" Ichigo croaked in between the emerald clothed bosom, arms flailing at being assaulted so nonsensically.

"M-Miss Nel!" Orihime cried out, now looking embarrassed and horrified all at once.

"She didn't get it at all!" Lilynette thought with a visible vein beating over her inverted browline.

Feeling the repeated slaps to her back and head, Nelliel halted her insistent squeezing and released Ichigo from her buxom embrace. Seeing him inhale lungfuls of air, his face thoroughly flushed from just being close to a nearly nude woman. Still squatting over him she gently leaned back in and hugged him in a much more tender fashion, earning a look of surprise on the Substitute's face once again.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Nelliel said with a smile. From Orihime's perspective, one outside of Ichigo's knowledge, she could see hints of tears escaping Nel's closed eyes as she hugged him tightly against herself.

Awkwardly, Ichigo returned the hug, ignoring the uncomfortable status of her decency. He had almost forgotten that she fought for his sake and was worried for his wellbeing. Being the type to not shrug off someone's feelings, Ichigo returned the embrace even if it was outside his own comfort zone. Not that holding her was unpleasant, as her womanly frame felt comforting against his own.

Orihime had to steel herself not to snap or to look away. She knew it would be childish if she involved her personal feelings over someone Ichigo just met. Her more rational side dissuaded Ichigo's words of fascination over Nel, finding it simply as simple awe for what defining characteristics she possessed.

One of which she was helping keep modest.

Erecting a smaller Sōten Kisshun shield around Nelliel's waistline down to her knees, she began the hasty rejection process of restoring what had been lost. Swiftly emerald threads began to manifest out of thin air, wrapping themselves snugly around the luscious legs all the way up to her hips, forming short emerald green skirt. Knowing that was all she could get away with in their proximate state, she dispelled the barrier, feeling that she did her best to restore Ichigo's vitality as well.

"Whew!" Orihime said with a purposeful sigh, wiping her forehead to attract the pair's attention. Said attention also lessened their embrace, causing them to separate, causing her to smile as normal while letting out an unintentional sigh of relief. Pumping her arm up, she grinned ear to ear with pride, "I got you all fixed up, Ichigo! I even replaced Miss Nel's garments!"

Hearing this, both of them stood up and examined themselves.

Ichigo felt like a million bucks. Any signs of damage he took from both Grimmjow and Nnoitra had been completely erased. Even the marring scuffs upon his cloak were gone, a testament to how truly restored he was. What intrigued him most was the fact he didn't feel all that tired, as if the space of time he took not fighting while watching Nel battle on his behest gave him time to reclaim his lost Reiryoku.

As Ichigo gripped his hands experimentally, Nel whined in a put-out manner at seeing her skirt restored.

"I liked the feeling of nothing covering my leg-GAH!" Nelliel began to say to herself, finding herself yelping as her bum was poked hard by Lilynette's single horned head. Landing back onto her feet, she rubbed her clothed bum while furrowing her brows indignantly at her, "what was that for?!"

"You being a idiot, that's what!" Lilynette yelled back, heaving heavily, still brushing sand off her lithe frame. Groaning she massaged her temples, closing her eyes as she voiced her thoughts, "between you and Starrk, I swear I act like the adult most often."

"No need to be so violent, Lilynette," Nelliel said with a huff.

Before Lilynette could work up a retort the sound of a scoffing laugh could be heard. Following the visual blur of a swift arrival via Sonido, Lilynette's eye bugged out at what she saw. Draped in a barbarian warrioress uniform, complete with spiked pauldrons and a cape to complement her scarlet hued tresses flowing down her back, flourishing within the current of wind. Crimson eyes glared at Lilynette and Nelliel in particular, a sardonic tone emitting from her lips as she spoke, "Please! As if Nelliel doesn't have a violent bone in her body!"

"Y-You're-!"

"-Rana!" Nelliel finished after Lilynette, finding her own face imitating shock that was mimicked across the group.

"Been a long time, hasn't it, Nelliel?" Rana asked with a vindictive smile, cocking her head to the side as she crossed her arms over her expansive chest.

"Not long enough," Nel retorted as she bent her knees, gripping the scabbard of her weapon tightly as her eyes narrowed, "what are you doing here?"

"Heh, that's all you have to say? I'm disappointed," Rana began to say with an amused smile, before it lengthened to become predatorial, "did you forget what happened fifty years ago? I haven't. I've counted every day I've spent in that Hellhole of a cell. I remember vividly that scene of your stone cold face as you assisted in the deposing of my rank. My Espada!"

"The rank and power of the Espada isn't yours to use upon your own whim. We swore on oath to our benefactor, Lord Aizen, that we would continue to be his blades to achieve his goal. That is what means to be an Espada," Nelliel responded back stoically, her gaze and stance never wavering, "you lost your way when you believed the Espada belonged to you, Zolinder."

Rana didn't bother responding, only visibly twitching. Unfurling her arms from her bosom, she clenched her digits into tightened fists. Red eyes burned brightly, her hair flourishing upwards in a dance of gravity defying motion, glistening with a blood hued aura emanated by her own steadily rising Reiatsu. The sand began to gently part around the soles of her boots, sending a bristling wave of hot wind cascading across the land around her.

Ichigo could only stand by and grip his fists with anxiousness. Another enemy showed itself, this one having a past with Nel to boot. Glancing briefly over his shoulder he noted that his sword was close by. "At least I can get to it easily. If Nel and I team up, we should be able to take her down before we-"

The cacophony of Sonidos sounding off caused Ichigo's thoughts to stop dead in his tracks. Distortive blurs dissipated, revealing many cloaked figures, all bearing similar white hued uniforms of various designs and style preference.

"Where the Hell did they come from?!" Ichigo thought with a grimace, grinding his teeth as he gnashed visibly at them with a turn of his head in every direction, "there's a lot of 'em! Can we take them all on?!"

"Zolinder," The most proximate and largest of the Arrancars, Sin, rumbled out. This earned a dispelling of her aura, a visible sign she was paying attention. When she turned to look up at him over her shoulder, "it isn't wise to accelerate yourself ahead of us. There is safety in numbers, after all."

"I can handle myself. Besides, you were moving too slow," Rana quipped with a gnash of her teeth.

"We need to be smart about how we approach the-!"

During the split second he was talking, Nelliel's crouched form seemed to blur forward, moving faster than Sin could follow. Reaching Rana's space, she thrust her sheathed weapon, the katana's pommel racing towards the scarred cleavage. Upon impact, a devastating shockwave of pink Reiatsu billowed outwards, causing a number of proximate Arrancars to be flung back helplessly.

"Ngh!" Sin buckled and felt himself pushed back a few steps, caught off guard by the turquoise haired woman's attack. Blinking away the sand stinging his eyes, his crocodilian mask parted slightly, looking surprised at whom was striking Rana. Someone he hadn't seen in over fifty years, "Lady...Tres?"

While Sin was in awestruck, many of the Arrancars looked on with surprise, not having noticed who Rana was facing till now. Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, the Tres of the Espada that replaced the first generation. Despite her change in attire no one could forget her unmistakable appearance and attractive form. The power they felt cemented her identity as her Reiatsu thrummed to life around them.

"Did that bitch go down?!" Lilynette asked, coughing as she rose up from her own toppled position, while Ichigo had stood his ground to gape openly. When Lilynette saw the look of disbelief and sweat bead down his face, she could tell something was up. Looking over to see what happened, her own eye widened with shock at what she saw, "n-no way!"

There stood Nel, the pommel of her sword grinding into a resisting surface. Said impact wasn't the intended target, but a swiveled defensive palm, grasping the sword hilt and deflecting the force of the attack. Rana only now decided to turn her head to look Nelliel's own shock-ridden grey eyes with her own crimson orbs. A bemusing grin slid across her face, presenting a menacing visage complemented by the stream of heated Reishi dispersing from her hand and the bludgeoning weapon.

"This brings back memories, doesn't it? I think you used the same method to incapacitate me the last time we crossed paths. My flesh was torn inward and my bones shattered. I thought I was going to die then and there," Rana began to wrap her digits around the sheathe, pushing it back slowly back at Nel, paying no mind to her shaking arm straining to push back. Her smile diminished upon pushing the sheathe a solid foot back, her eyes glaring heatedly as she uttered with absolute loathing, "but you're too cruel to give me a quick death, aren't you?"

Without retorting, Nelliel swung her free hand up, encasing it within a halo of pink-white Reishi. To her chagrin the palm-heeling Bala missed its mark, Rana leaning her head swiftly to the right, causing her hair to flourish wildly as it soared upwards in an arc of bright light. Before the hand could be withdrawn her wrist was captured by Rana's own free hand, locking it into a tight vice grip.

"What's the matter?" Rana asked coyly, her smile thin and her eyes flashing with sadism. Launching her knee forward, a satisfying clap of cartilage meeting her abdomen was heard. Seeing Nelliel gasp aloud, eyes shrinking with apparent pain, caused the Privaron to chuckle, "you're not fucking with me, are ya? Huh?!"

Punctuating her last query, Rana rammed her forehead against Nel's. An audible explosion of air and the sound of Hierro clashing with Hierro, buckling the sandy earth underneath their soles respectively. The following connection of skull ramming skull sent Nelliel's person rocking back, tumbling head over heels. Her frame soared past both Lilynette and Ichigo, crashing onto her backside with a five meter drag across the grained ground.

"Is this for real?! Nel is being overpowered?!" Ichigo thought with horror etched onto his features.

With scabbard still in hand, Nelliel tried to rise, finding herself flipping up into a crouch. Eyes widened upon finding herself knee bent before Rana's shadow, looking at her from her left flank. Even as her silver eyes looked up at the burning left iris, she'd fail to properly block a spinning kick to her left cheek. The kickback was enough to send a deafening pop in the air, distending the earth and sending Nelliel flying back in a pinwheeling fashion.

Tried as she might, she couldn't halt her momentum, leading her to be be kicked in the face by a instantaneously arriving Rana. A pained gasp escaped her face as blood spewed from her split lips, her body rising in a pendulum fashion, halting only when her left ankle was grasped by a gloved right hand of the Privaron's. Maddening glee crossed Rana's visage when she hurtled Nelliel into the desert bed with unforgiving strength, creating a plume of upheaving sand in the wake of the bludgeoning feminine frame.

"That...bitch!" Ichigo turned his head, seeing Lilynette's person practically bathed in anger. Rivulets of blue Reishi danced along her lithe body, her pink eye tearing up as it turned towards Rana's person. Her fingers dug tightly into her palms, fists cracking under the stress she was placing them under. "I'll kill her!"

Something clicked in the strawberry tressed man's mind. Why was he, the stronger one, paralyzed with fear while the little girl was barely holding herself back? The woman who risked her life to save him, when he had done so many times over, was now in jeopardy by a new foe. One that he knew shouldn't be allowed to have her way, no matter the history she has with her.

"Nel just regained her true form. I bet that fight with Nnoitra took a lot more out of her than she'd admit," Ichigo thought as his eyes glared at Rana's form, now throwing punches into a staggering Nelliel, "this Arrancar is strong. She might be as strong as Nel. She can't handle someone of that caliber right now!"

Eyeing at the other spectating Arrancars, he noted that they didn't seem eager to join...yet. He knew it had something to do with the fact that it was Nel facing Rana. But what kept them from swarming? Seeing his partially buried sword only a handful of meters away, Ichigo balled his fists with readiness. Turning his head back, he saw Nelliel skirt back from the most recent roundhouse kick landed by Rana's booted heel. Seeing Nelliel's heaving frame, covered in many visible bruises and cuts, gripping her hand over her unsheathed weapon he knew that she wouldn't last much longer.

"Why aren't ya drawin' your sword?" Rana asked with a frown, lowering her leg back to the ground, standing perpendicularly aligned to battered Nel.

"I've already taken a life today. I rather not take another," Nelliel said stoically in between gasps of air. As an addendum, she also remarked with a cold glare at Rana's own irate face, "besides, I have no intention of staining my sword on a traitor!"

A pair of veins protruded from Rana's forehead at hearing that jab. Her face quickly twisted into a look of livid fury, teeth spread wide to emblazon her anger. Armored digits wrapped around her cutlass' hilt, grinding the blade out of the bone engraved scabbard matching the alabaster hued surface of her angular sword guard. When finally unsheathed, her eyes shined a menacing crimson light that reflected off her vertically aligned blade.

"From the way I see it, you're the traitor here," Rana said icily, crouching down, just short of springing forth with incredible momentum. Raising the blade over her head, she swung it down as she synchronized her attack with her words, "and I have no problem cutting the likes of you down!"

"Like Hell you wi-!" Lilynette began to say, before her frame was sent soaring back in what she felt like was a over-the-head toss. Her body comedically collided with Orihime, whom had remained petrifyingly silent upon Rana's arrival, sending them into a heap on the sand. While her eyes spun momentarily at the impact her head had with the orange-haired girl's, she'd note from her awkward position a black silhouette of motion. It seemed like a wraith as it rushed in between Rana and a defending Nel, his frame shimmering into view from the incredible speed he displayed. "-huh?!"

Rana found herself stopped dead in her tracks as her sword was halted by a midnight colored blade. Held up by a single arm effortlessly to meet her downward stroke, the blistering wave of pressure caused his dark cloak to flourish in sync with his colorful tresses upon his scalp. Hazel eyes glared at her as he kept a defensive posture against her aggressive one, but looked anything but pacifistic.

"Sorry, but I have no intention in you having your way," Ichigo said in a level tone, his free hand gesturing in a splayed fashion towards Rana. Before she could comprehend the significance of the movement, a sudden concussive blast followed by a bright azure light of Reiatsu flowed outwards from his palm. It was enough to send her staggering back a good six meters, putting a healthy amount of distance between herself and the sand parted Shinigami.

"He stopped my blade and sent me back with nothing but a discharge of Reiatsu?!" Rana thought with a few blinks of confusion. After processing the revelation along with the brief debriefing she had of the Shinigami she was to look out for, her composure returned along with her confidence. "If this is the Shinigami, I can see why everyone is so worked up over him. He's definitely a dangerous one."

Seeing his enemy become quieter, Ichigo turned his head towards to his school friend, "Orihime."

"Y-Yes?" She asked, still rubbing her head as Lilynette stood shakily to her feet.

"Please use Shun Shun Rikka to shield the girl and yourself. Our fight is about to get serious," Ichigo declared stoically, his eyes already returning towards Rana's.

"O-Okay," Orihime nodded, very aware of how useless she'd be if she were caught up in this battle. Even the spitfire standing next to her, wearing an irritated face, seemed to understand that she was not a asset to their fight. Wordlessly, she cupped her hands in front of herself as her hairpins glowed and flew outwards, quickly forming a golden dome of repelling light. Raising her eyes towards Nel and Ichigo, she whispered with hope, "please be safe..."

---

"So, our enemy is Lady Tres and the Shinigami intruder?" Sin asked dubiously, taking long strides to be beside Rana.

"Seems that way," Rana said with a sigh, standing upright, sheathing her blade swiftly, "if what Gin has told me is true, she has been replaced by another after disappearing some time ago. Presumed dead, but now I'm going to ensure she's dead along with her Shinigami cohort."

"And yet, you seem calm about this," Sin analyzed, blinking at her from above, "are you not planning on involving yourself in their demise?"

"I don't fight an enemy I have no clue about how they fight. The only time I've done so I paid the price. Let the Vanguard deal with them," Rana nodded to Sin, a wry grin spreading across her face, "unless you have a problem how I use my subordinates?"

"I have no attachment to any of my prisoners. The only thing that concerns me is if the mission goes uncompleted and I'm left to clean up after you. Reporting back to Commander Ichimaru about your failure would be shameful, seeing this is a priority from Lord Aizen himself," Sin rationalized.

"Then we're in agreement," Rana said with a nod, turning her head to look at the many gathered ranks of the Vanguard. Seeing that they all knew better than to attack without command or go against her wishes, she smiled with contentment. Raising her left hand up in the air, she swept it at her enemy's direction, declaring aloud, "listen up! Those two are your targets. Keep the other two alive. Aizen has need of the human."

A chorus of eager shouts followed by rambunctious laughter sounded over the mass of Vanguard soldiers. Their forms slowly approached, rising up and skidding down the formations of sand in their way. Each of them ranging from size and shape all held menacing statures and weapons. Even those that did not permeated a unnerving state of being that made them more fearsome.

"How are you holding up?" Ichigo asked over his shoulder, raising his blade at an upwards angle in preparation for the battle to come.

"I may have taken a beating, but it's nothing I can't recover from," Nelliel said with assurance.

"You sure?" Ichigo began to ask, turning his eyes to fully look her over. What he saw made him rethink of what he should say. Nelliel's whole body shined in a layer of translucent liquid, oozing from her very pores. As it did so the signs of her injuries, from bruises to cuts, began to shrink until they vanished entirely. "you're...healing?"

"In my normal form, I can sweat out the liquid over my body and have my cells absorb it to heal the damage. While it isn't Instantaneous Regeneration, I can heal damaged organs that'd normally out of reach of such a power," Nelliel explained with a matter-of-fact tone. Standing more upright, her Reiatsu began to light across her being, flowing upwards like vapor. Looking at her left hand, she gripped it experimentally before looking to Ichigo, "you're right about me, Ichigo. I've lost a quarter of my Reiryoku fighting Nnoitra. I'm not at full power, and yet Rana was never able to resist me even in less of my current state. Something's not right about these Arrancars. Be careful."

"Not sure if that's possible, but I'll keep an eye out," The Substitute affirmed with a smile.

"Take 'em down!" Crowed an Arrancar, sporting a dazzling head of hair stylized into a purple mohawk. Ditching the cloak upon rushing forth in a burst of Sonido, wielding in his right hand a Macuahuitl. The intricately tattooed and torso hole adorned body rushed forth with a manic look in his eyes as he swung his club-blade at the head-turned Shinigami.

Raising his blade, Ichigo easily parried the sideways stroke of the uniquely designed weapon, sending it awry in an opposing direction. A devastating snap kick was launched by the black wreathed Substitute, planting straight into the Shinigamified Hollow's chin to snap his head back with a painful pop. Following up, Ichigo propelled his bare-chested body with a roundhouse kick to his abdomen, sending him corkscrewing backwards in a explosive expulsion of air pressure.

"HAAAA!" Another enemy roared from above, wielding an intricate lance. Long flowing golden hair trailed back from his voodoo skull masked head. Colorful robes flowed over his arms and shoulders, matching the feathered skirt flourishing his invert directioned legs. With both arms drawn back, he intended to impale the Shinigami at the last second as his leg began to retract from the kick.

What he didn't count on was Nel's form gracefully grasping her right hand onto Ichigo's right shoulder. Pivoting her lower body upwards while holding her sheathed weapon to the side, Nelliel bent her knees just underneath the rapidly descending Arrancar. Just before reaching their proximity, she launched her legs up, double kicking him straight into the face. The resulting shockwave deafened the painful snaps and cracks his skull received, shattering his mask easily as his person rocketed upwards in a elliptical rush of kinetic power.

An additional pair of burly Arrancars launched their own attacks, appearing from behind and in front. The one in front resembled a Rhino, with a single horn jutting in the middle of his head while a slit covered his eyes, the rest of his body robed in long white flowing robes. Swinging his spiked mallet forward, he intended on taking both the hand standing Nel's upper body and Ichigo's own upright upper person. The one from behind, a Bull-masked Arrancar, converged with his own attack. Using a pair of black-hued scimitars to behead and disarm them from their rear flank.

Only a single exchange of glances were had between the two comrade-in-arms before they realized what needed to be done. Closing her eyes, Nelliel exhaled, relaxing her grip on Ichigo immediately. At the same time, Ichigo juggled his sword to his left hand, allowing his free hand to reach up and grasp Nel's forearm.

"DIE!" The two Arrancars shouted, their weapons clanging violently with each other as they reached their targeted destination. Powerful reverberations filled the air, faint tuffs of turquoise and orange hairs flourished upwards, but all around missed the two. With Ichigo squatting low to the point of almost kneeling, he swung Nel towards his right, with her legs pointed behind him and her eyes looking back, as her emerald clothed bosom faced upwards. It was a narrow miss, but their timing coupled with Ichigo's speed helped evade perfectly.

Turning around on his heels, Ichigo began to turn to his left, brandishing his weapon as he propelled Nel in a blurring arc of emerald and cyan. Turning about in midair, Nelliel swung her legs around to strike Rhino Arrancar across his face, causing his neck to snap out of socket with a painfully audible pop. As he began to turn in with the force of the kick, his large feet lifting up and off the ground, Ichigo's black sword struck across the unguarded torso of the Bull-Arrancar. The sword easily cut through his Hierro, ripping apart flesh and grinding through organs before exiting with a horizontal arc. Blood geysered from his chest, arching over Ichigo's head, as he fell to his back with a blank look in his eyes looking still and inert.

The moment she dropped to the sandy floor, she took in the sight of three more Arrancars of various shapes speeding towards their direction. Still in a forearm lock with her Strawberry friend, Nelliel shouted as she pulled on him with sufficient force to lift him into the air, "Ichigo! Ahead of me!"

"I got it!" Ichigo retorted in a shout of his own, his body already alight with a burgundy outlined black aura. The moment she turned him fully around, his body speared forward, accelerated by Nel's arm strength combined with his own extraordinary speed. Encased in an infernal blaze of dark Reiatsu, Ichigo thrust his sword in the vicinity of his enemies, barreling through. If anyone saw him, it'd appear as if he had become a bodily clad Getsuga Tenshō, expanding out in a horizontal fashion that cut a swathe through the desert for a good twenty meters.

The sounds of surprised cries were heard as the motley group of Arrancars were caught within the wake of the expansive wave of Reishi. Their bodies were cut or burned away, easily shredding parts from the main segmentation, sending their remains awry across the battlefield. In an instant a number would lie dead and twitching as the wave of force passed by them entirely, crashing through a rising hillside of grained earth.

Landing with a grinding halt, the black-red Reishi petered away, revealing his dark garbed Shikhakushō'd being standing tall. Turning around, he saw Nelliel fending off a number of Arrancar attackers of her own. Pistoning her legs around like a windmill, she knocked back two of them before cartwheeling away from a bludgeoning strike from another bulbous shaped enemy. Swinging her scabbard around, she rammed the sheath's blunt edge into the face of another oncoming attacker before swinging around the emerald container to rapidly beat into the bulbous ape shaped Arrancar.

"She's not drawing her sword?" Ichigo thought with utter surprise. The realization that Nelliel was leaving her enemies incapacitated rather than killed, especially in this circumstance, was something he hadn't expected. Was she hesitant about facing her own kin, or was it guilt of slaying Nnoitra?

Ichigo's gaze drew upward as Nel continued to brawl, another enemy prepared to attack from above. Stationary the Hawk-masked Arrancar pointed his hands down at her, resembling the shape of guns. Between the space of the fingers began to gleam a sapphire light, humming and charging with a large amount of condensed Reishi particles within its epicenter.

Just a moment before it reached priming the hands were detached in a black arcing motion, falling to the sandy earth currently the battlefield of his designated target. As the Cero sizzled out of existence, the Shinigamified Hollow's face contorted in pain and alarm seeing his stumps spew out viscous liquid from where there use to be hands. The sight of the dark wreathed Shinigami brought fear and imminent demise, causing his human features to pale with horror.

Any sound that would tear out of his throat was halted by a impaling motion into his chest. Wordlessly the orange-haired man scowled at his enemy as he gasped for breath, only to find blood coughing up his throat. With a wet pulling motion, Ichigo released the sword's hold on his enemy's body, causing the gurgling entity to limply fall to the ground below.

When the body parts fell wetly one after another to the ground, Nelliel halted her actions to stare at the remains. A brief mournful light crossed her eyes, shut out by clenched eyelids. Looking up, she stared up at the more passive Ichigo, who simply kept his guard up and kept his gaze upon her at the earth below.

That was, until Ichigo's body fell to the earth in a violent split second.

"Ichigo!" Nelliel shouted with alarm, as titanic wave of sand erupted from where his dark garbed being struck. The wall of dark earthen grains moved forth with enough momentum to cause all proximate Arrancars to rush away to safety. That was, except Nel, whom simply raised her sword over her head. With a stoic glare, she released a pink-hued fissure of Reishi escape the path of her blade, cutting away the sand and sending either half flying past her harmlessly.

On the other side, she saw Ichigo. Rising up from his knees, the strawberry scratched his head with annoyance, groaning as stood back up to his feet. When he saw Nel halt in front of him, a sigh escaped her lips as she smiled softly.

"You alright?" Nel asked in a low tone.

"Yeah, just felt like I was hit by a train. Good thing I'm a Shinigami, right?" Ichigo quipped with a chuckle, hissing in pain, as a trickle of blood flowed down his brow to his cheek.

"What was he struck with? Even I couldn't see what attacked him and he described it as a physical force. What did this to him?" Nelliel asked herself as she sweated the viscous healing liquid from her palm, rubbing it over his scalp much to his chagrin.

"You'd think they'd still be attacking," Ichigo grumbled out, wincing at the pain that receded in combination of the soft moist touch by the beautiful Arrancar.

"I think we proved to them they can't simply use numbers or rush tactics. The thing that attacked you has given them pause," Nelliel explained, feeling the wound over Ichigo's head begin to recede.

"Who you calling a thing?!" A high-pitched, childish tone cried out from beside them. With both pairs of eyes wide and heads turned, they were finally able to see their attacker. The first figure, one of which the talker was sitting upon, was a large Arrancar. A large armored segmentation wrapped around his upper back and shoulders, forcing him to hunch his seven foot stature down, glaring forward like a beast. Large sharp teeth spread from his box-shaped jaw, with beady dark eyes sinisterly staring at those in front of him. Arms behemoth in size clawed at the ground, with digits easily twice as thick as Ichigo's arm clenching with an unnerving intensity. A brutish dark hued sheathe for a double-edged bastard sword lied over his right shoulder over his back, revealing to be his weapon of choice.

The second figure appeared to be the source of the attacks, and one they didn't expect. With a pair of comically small skull shaped ribbons tying her blonde hair up into pigtails, a cute fair complexioned face with pouted lips, her blue eyes glaring with disapproval at her enemies. A dark grey tube top covering her lithe person retained a circular fur laced collar and skirt trim that ended at her upper thighs. Arm warmers of a similar color to her top wrapped up from her elbow to her palm, leaving her palm and fingers exposed but covered the back of her hand. Childish angel wings sprouted from her back and a pair of crossbones emblazoned where her hips were located. Thigh high socks leading up from a pair of dance shoes kicked idly from the larger being's shoulder, heels tapping his left white robed pectoral. A bandoleer wrapped over her left shoulder down the right side of her shirt revealed a ruby scabbard, holding what can be assumed her Zanpakutō.

"As much as I don't want to believe it, I think that's our perpetrator," Nelliel whispered quietly to Ichigo, taking a prepared defensive stance.

"Great, another annoying one," Ichigo murmured as he stood tall, lowering his sword to his side, keeping his grip tightened, "I don't like how she's got that big guy by her. She might be planning something with him."

"Let's assume her attack was to get our attention rather than cause damage," Nel responded matter-of-factly.

"HEY!" The Arrancar girl shouted at them, causing both of their beings to tense. Thumbing towards her flat chest, she snarled as she pointed at them insistantly, "stop acting like I'm not talking to you!"

"Why bother with them, Angelle?" Rumbled forth the brutish shaped Arrancar whose shoulder she sat upon. Earning a downward glance, he looked up with a demented grin of his own, complementing the dark gleam in his eyes, "you already said your hello. Let's crush them!"

"Hee!~" Angelle spread her pearly whites across with a dark smile of her own. Looking up at the two, she rested her hand upon her lap, her body rising weightlessly into the air off her comrade. Crossing her legs, she assumed a form of squatting posture ten meters above the hulkish Arrancar's head. A shining glint in her eyes shimmered just before she shouted to him, "let 'em have it, Duro!"

Duro chuckled darkly as his massive left hand reached up and grasped the sword hilt jutting up from his back. Unhinging it from its lock, he'd briefly utter out, "Spin," and swing it forward with a roar, "Madriguera!"

During the brandishing of his weapon, the metal would expand and turn into a fiery maelstrom of energy, enveloping him into a twister of force. Rotation circulated underneath Angelle's form, bristling her clothes and hair fiercely, while producing a powerful gust of wind that forced the duo of defenders to raise their arms instinctively. Such a bright light and concentration of Reiatsu was enough to recognize the Vanguard Arrancar as competent at the very least.

When revealed, they'd see any remnants of a humanoid form had diminished. Now standing at a eight and a half foot height, Duro's previous white plating had turned into multiple segments that covered nearly all of his body. Expansive in mass, the plates had an organic appearance to them, stretching all the way to claw shaped arms and feet, additionally covering a rodent-shaped tail wiggling at the bottom of his upright person. His jaunt changed from a brute to a rodent's, with an elongated snout and mask fragments covering his head and jaw, only giving slits for his eyes to look out of and his white teeth sticking out in a sharp manner.

"Let's have some fun, shall we?" Angelle cooed out from above, extending her hands out as if they were about to conduct a symphony.

"Here they come!" Nelliel announced, raising her hand and sheathed weapon.

Grinning, Duro took one slow step forward after another. Gripping his talons in upon his scaly palms, his body lumbered forward at a sluggish rate. This seemed intentional when his body knelt and rolled up into a scaled, segmented armored sphere. A blaze of crimson light jettisoned around his being, causing the armored body to rotate forward and then violently spin, forcing it to move at a unprecedented velocity towards the two of them.

"Molienda Colina!" He cried out as his being soared through the air, carving the desert floor beneath him as his rampage made its way to their midst.

In an instant, both fighters leaped to either side, narrowly avoiding the spinning mass of armored plating and Reiatsu. To their surprise Duro's spinning form didn't race off into the horizon but leaped up into the air and reversed directions. Ramming down in between them, a massive expulsion of Reiatsu, sending them both skidding backwards a considerable distance.

"Dammit, he's a lot more agile than I gave him credit for!" Ichigo swore aloud, eyeing the dust filled crater Duro created. Watching the spinning behemoth rise upwards in his direction, he heard the high pitch whistle of his form grinding upon the earth just before rushing him. Spinning to his left, Ichigo's perspective of the world slowed to mere moments as the revolving being continued to trek mere centimeters above the distending sands. Placing a well-timed spin kick to the being's side, a loud pop was heard as momentum shifted and the creature's direction tumbled a good dozen meters in the direction he struck it.

When he landed, his foot throbbed from the impact, causing him to wince at placing pressure on it, "What the Hell is he made of?! I barely sent him flying and I don't see a mark on him!"

"You're a fool, Shinigami!" Duro roared out with laughter as he righted himself up, briefly unfurling his being from his spherical posture, "my body's hide is some of the thickest Hierro you can imagine. Simply hitting me with a physical attack will have little effect on me. If anything that only caused me a slight bout of dizziness."

A sudden whoosh caused Duro's eyes to blink, seeing Nel's form crouched low and leaning down on three of all fours. With her thumb pressed against the guard of her sword, a brief click was heard, signaling the sound of her sword being unlocked from its scabbard. The faint glow from her silver eyes caused Duro to widen his gaze down at her with apprehension. With a sudden shift of swift motion, her sword came flying out in her right hand's grip, swinging forth to strike the lumbering opponent in front of her.

But instead of finding its mark, Duro somehow managed to skirt back in a numbingly fast rush. Not Sonido, but simply a swift lurch back away from the path of her sword. This caused Nelliel's eyes to widen with shock, as this left her wide open for the now spherically bodied Arrancar's attack. Hit by the being with enough rotation to cause her mouth to gasp out in pain, her body drilled backwards along the path of the enemy's aim, sending her skidding bouncing back across the desert ground.

It was when she found that upon gripping the sand that she felt an unseen hand grip her by the legs that she felt herself flail uncontrollably.

"What's going on?! Why can't I get free?!" Nel thought with alarm as she rose upward, her body gripped and spread out in a spread eagled posture in the middle of the air. With a wide look of horror on her eyes she saw Duro launch himself off the ground and spin insanely fast at her. With no way to evade, Duro drew closer until she was feeling the rotation's vibrations upon her skin.

That was, until Ichigo appeared above Duro's spinning form.

"HA!" Ichigo shouted with exertion, swinging his blade down with all of his might to hit the spinning balled up Arrancar. A shower of sparks followed by a thunderous discharge of ruptured wind sent the spinning Arrancar downwards to impact the sandy earth heavily. Waves of sand flowed across the battlefield below, and the lack of a rebounding enemy allowed a moment of relief to wash over the Substitute.

Looking over at Nelliel, he saw that the mysterious force holding over Nelliel had yet to be released. Narrowing his eyes, he slowly turned his head over his shoulder, seeing the cross-legged form of Angelle still keeping her hands up. Subtly they moved to and fro, mimicking the sign of a puppeteer. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nel move at odd angles and grimace with discomfort.

"Looks like the only way to free her is to get of that one," He resolved with a flex over his sword hand.

In a split second, the Substitute Shinigami kicked off the air, rushing towards Angelle. Like a wraith his being reached her within the span of eye blinks, his sword arm drawn back and his weaponless hand reaching out to grasp her. When he reached nothing but air as she bent her body back, his sword swung downwards, aiming to cut her down to deny her retreat.

The last thing he expected was Nelliel's person blur in front of his eyes, raising a blade up to absorb the force of his attack with a loud metallic clang. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped, realizing that the force Angelle put upon her was doing more than restraining her body. It was controlling it!

"I-Ichigo!" Nelliel choked out, her eyes dilated and her mouth trembling. She found herself completely unable to resist the force that entwined her arm, forcing it to push back against Ichigo's own blade.

"You bitch!" Ichigo snarled at Angelle, whom smiled with a sadistic grin from behind Nel's backside, "let her go!"

"Should you really be worrying about her?" Came a nasally low voice from behind.

Ichigo's own pupils shrank with horror, followed by a pain-filled choking noise that was drowned out by a bright yellow detonation of Reiatsu. A defined cut, steaming with searing heat, slashed over his back, one that caused him to stumble forward. In that time he saw Nel drag his sword away from its lock and unintentionally glomp into him, dragging him down into the desert floor below. With the force of a bullet train, they both dragged across the grained earth, disheveling and carving through its uneven recesses.

Seeing them both in a sandy ditch in the distance, Angelle clucked her tongue with satisfaction. Her eyes slid to the side at the one responsible for weakening Ichigo enough for her to get the drop on them. With faint recognition, Angelle sighed with annoyance, "What are you doing, meddling in someone else's fight?"

"I saw an opening and took it," Patros responded matter-of-factly, a thin smile gracing his moustached lips, "do you disapprove?"

"I could have taken him if Duro didn't take his sweet ass time," Angelle growled, looking downwards at the pit her partner was embedded. When she saw his form finally lumber out, she sighed and yelled down, "what's the deal?! I thought from the way you stayed down there you died!"

In a burst of Sonido, Duro appeared by her left flank, an embarrassed look crossing his rodent shaped face, "Sorry, Angelle. That Shinigami bastard's hit knocked me out for a second. My head still feels like a ton of bricks rattled my brain..."

"He is becoming a bit of a problem," Angelle huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, briefly knitting her eyes shut. As her pensive look dragged on for a few seconds, her eyes opened with an epiphanic expression. Fist palming, Angelle said aloud with a giggle, "that's it!"

"Uh-oh," Duro murmured, his face covered with nervous sweat.

Clasping her hands together in a semblance of a prayer, Angelle's visage became ecstatic.

"Don't worry," She whispered as a bright pink light grew around the clasped palms, expanding and swirling between the cracks of her fingers. A high pitched whistle was heard during the slow separation of palms, revealing a thumb-sized sphere of Reishi. The light created a dark silhouette across the child-like Arrancar, her grinning visage looking more like a demon's than that of a little girl's, "I'll blow them away in a single shot!"

"Shit!" Duro swore aloud, quickly backing up to get behind Angelle rather than beside her. With Patros seeing the reaction, he too quickly moved beside where the larger Arrancar moved. As the other members of the Vanguard looked up, they could only guess what kind of attack was about to be unleashed.

"EVERYONE!" Rana's voice shouted aloud, distantly standing atop one of the dunes of sand away from the fighting. When all eyes drew upon her, she insistently pointed towards Angelle's direction, "move if you don't want to die!"

In a clamber of movement, Sonidos and mad dashes were made across the desert grounds. Such a large amount of chaos was made that dust swirled around, making visibility poor in the immediate area of Angelle's aim. Though it didn't matter, as the trench of her prior attack carved a long enough targeting reticle for her to use her technique.

"Bala Mente!" Angelle cried out as her arms pushed forward, clasping them and her wrists together, with open palms facing the direction of her attack. When she gestured, the compact projectile of condensed Reishi screamed across the air, moving down at an angle. It left distortive waves of heated air in its wake, forcefully uprooting dozens of meters of sand as it moved slowly after the attack's path. When it finally found its mark, an explosion of immense proportions was had, followed by a roaring wave of blistering wind carrying the flames all around where the Arrancars had once stood. Howling winds cascaded up in the air, flowing around instead of touching Angelle's person, creating only a gentle breeze on her body. As the flames began to die down and the fog of war dimmed, she saw a crater easily the size of a football field in front of her, distended to a dark chasmic depth, broiling with heat and crackling with Reishi tendrils.

"T-That was a Bala?!" Padros asked incredulously, his scalp beading sweat as he recoiled at seeing the scale of the attack.

"Angelle's Reishi and Reiatsu is manipulated by her mind," Duro explained with a nervous grin of his own, breathing out with relief he hadn't been dragged into it, "you could say that Aizen saw potential in her ability to be one of the only Arrancars with Psionic powers upon birth. However, upon tampering with her mind, they kind of unhinged her if you know what I mean."

"I...see," Padros said slowly, looking at Angelle's manically grinning face with a look of disgust, "it's no wonder she was incarcerated. Her power is vast but her mind is fragile like glass. Anything can shatter it and it seems she holds no real qualms with killing her comrades. I best be careful when around her..."

The sound of a disbelieving gasp brought the two to reality. Angelle's brow sprouted an angry vein, her eyes scowling with frustration. Her grin immediately turned into a feral snarl, complemented by her words, "No way! They're still alive?!"

---

Ichigo thought it was over.

One moment he had been kicking ass with Nel, truly holding his own against the Vanguard. They didn't seem like trouble to him, but he was proven wrong when the kid and the beast showed up. The pair outmatched them, being perfectly able to outmaneuver and hit them when they were most vulnerable. When Nelliel was propped up like a puppet, he had froze up, unknowing what to do to save her when she was used as a tool by the enemy. When he received a surprise attack via Reishi discharge, he felt a white hot pain crawl up his backside. It was enough to allow the enemy to send him and Nel crashing into the sand, dragging painfully across its wasteland.

When the sound and appearance of the Reishi bullet made its way, the only comforting thing he took in was that Nelliel was with him to the end. Flipping her around in one last ditch effort to protect her, he put his injured back towards the direction of the attack, hoping that he'd at least dampen the force with his own body. It'd be the least he could do at the end.

But when the explosion happened, it sounded muted. As if it hadn't reached him all the way. Blinking a few times, Ichigo shakily looked over his shoulders, surprised to find a smoke curdling silhouette standing next to a tall wall of transparent energy. It was webbed all over, shattered at a indented point, as if something was repelled despite cracking its structure. When the figure came into complete focus, he saw another drop next to him, causing him to blink rapidly.

"It appears we reached you in time," Byakuya said stoically, not bothering to look at Ichigo as he faced the wall of dissipating Bakudo energy, "Ichigo Kurosaki."

"B-Byakuya!" Ichigo cried out with surprise.

"To think," Another voice said from beside Ichigo's left flank, looking down at him with a disapproving scowl, "the man who caught me off guard and two other Lieutenants, not to mention fought evenly with Captain Kuchiki is in such a state. What a sorrowful appearance you have donned, Mr. Kurosaki."

"H-Hey," Ichigo began to quip, raising a hand to point at him with a confused blink, "do I...know you?"

"Chōjirō Tadaoki Sasakibe, Lieutenant of the First Division," Chōjirō introduced himself, bowing halfway to the sprawled Substitute, "it is good to make your acquaintance, though I'm sure we both wished to have been under better circumstances."

Upon saying this, the Lieutenant gestured to Ichigo's seemingly provocative posture over Nelliel. Blinking a few times, Ichigo looked back and forth from Nel's blank curious visage to Chōjirō's irritated scowl. With a bright blush flaring over his cheeks, Ichigo flipped himself off of Nel's person and scrambled to his feet, "T-T-This isn't what it looks like-!"

"I'm not blind, Kurosaki, I can see you're infatuated with her," Lieutenant Sasakibe retorted, his gaze drawing away from the two of them.

"Wait, you like me?" Nelliel blinked innocently up at Ichigo, tapping her chin with her own finger.

"No! I mean yes! Gah!" Ichigo began pulling at his hair, eyes scrunching up at being prodded by the squatting female. When he felt her touch on his back, he yelped and turned around to see her moist hand running across his back's cut. Before he could say anything, he saw Nelliel's expression soften, smiling contentedly.

"Good," Nel whispered softly, finishing sealing his wound as she had done to herself seconds earlier, "that makes me happy."

"Uhhh-"

"Enough idle chatter," Byakuya said sternly, his eyes locking onto a group of figures approaching them, "the enemy has decided to take initiative."

As the Head of the Kuchiki Clan said this, a tandem of the Vanguard's forces manifested through Sonido. Standing afar was the livid Angelle Cooney, now hovering in the air in front of the wary Padros and Duro. But when she saw the pair of Shinigami standing beside her prey, her smile returned and her mood turned back to a playful if not menacing spirit. In her mind there was more than enough playthings to last her awhile instead of being done away in an instant.

But to her chagrin, Rana appeared at the forefront, flanked by Sin and her Privaron comrades tailing behind.

"My-My, if the Soul Society hasn't just sent a pair of Captains to save the outcast and the intruder. How touching," Rana drawled out in a sarcastic tone, hands propped against her hips in a haughty gesture, her smile sneering at Byakuya in particular.

"Do not mistake this intervention of ours as a rescue operation," Captain Kuchiki retorted smoothly, his eyes deadly cold as they locked onto Rana's, "we're here to eliminate the enemy. All opposition shall be crushed. Your forces will meet their end here, Arrancar."

Hearing this caused Rana to break out into an incredulous fit of laughter. Holding her gut her eyes almost welled up with tears, finally calming down after a solid minute of mock chuckles escaped her throat. Wiping them away, Rana asked in a bemusing tone, "Exactly what led you to believe the two of you can make a difference? Sure, the Shinigami in black and his newfound ally are formidable. They are no match for the Vanguard, let alone we Privaron Espada."

"All I hear is talk," Byakuya retorted back evenly, goading her with a smooth unsheathing motion of his sword. Raising it up to divide his face, he further enticed her with a low toned jab, "is that all your known for, woman?"

Clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, Rana let out a nasty hiss escape her clenched teeth. Raising a hand, she gestured towards the Captain, calling out to her subordinates, "Take this guy down! His worth as amusement has run out."

In such an instant, four Arrancars of various sizes and shapes rushed forth with a kicking motion across the sand. One was the fighter who attacked Ichigo in the first place, wielding his weapon around with a dark burgundy current to it. Next to him was a jackal-masked Arrancar with a serrated blade in hand, while another pair wielded bludgeoning weapons in hand.

"Scatter," Byakuya murmured, in sync with the dissipating petals that became his Shikai, flourishing out in a blanketing movement as if they became the wind, "Senbonzakura!"

Sweeping out, the blossom blades rushed out at unprecedented speeds, easily taking the charging four off guard. Lacerations appeared in a matter of seconds, covering their bodies in cuts and causing them to howl or grimace with pain. But even still, it appeared that the scenic method of attack did little more than slow them down, causing them to shake off their wounds before flexing their Reiatsu and mustering up for another charge.

"HA! You think you can take us down with such a weak attack?!" The Aztec stylized Arrancar asked mockingly, as he leaped up into the air with the rest, intending on cutting him down with his comrades on all sides.

"Pierce," A monotone voice graveled out, resulting in quick drawing his katana as it transformed into a elegant English-styled rapier. Gesturing towards their midst, a string of violet tendrils of electricity stretched out, connecting to the thousand blades that had remained unseen by the rampaging Arrancars; including those embedded into the shallow wounds of their flesh, "Gonryōmaru!"

What followed was a visceral display of violet-hued electrocution, as a web of high voltage Reishi currents flourished around the mass of clearly visible petal razors. Suspended in the air, convulsing by the energy ripping apart their nervous systems and tearing through their flesh, the Arrancars died a grisly death in front of the ranks of the Vanguard. When their charred remains dropped inert around Byakuya and Chōjirō's stalwart frames, their silhouettes overcast by the still ebbing currents of purple Reishi dancing from the pink-hued blossoms.

"Was that amusing enough for you, Arrancar?" Byakuya asked in a curt tone.

Sooner than anyone would think, Rana's tolerance of her enemies had drawn to a close. Her being began to glow a vibrant scarlet hue, emanating a damning Reiatsu, shaking the ground and crackling the air with its power. Buckling winds whipped at Byakuya and Chōjirō's bodies, causing their hair and uniform to bristle visibly. Tendrils crawled across the sandy floor as the power rose considerably, buckling the ground and distending around Rana's feet.

"Talking is clearly a waste of time," Rana announced, grasping the hilt of her cutlass with her right hand. With a purposefully slow stroke, her sword became unhinged from its scabbard, rising over her head as her red tresses danced in the air behind her. Her body completely alight with her own power, her red eyes glowed brightly with vehemence at her foes as she finished, "it's time I give you the old fashioned Hueco Mundo welcome!"

It was here that a cacophony of ungodly howls shook the sandy bed of Las Noches. To many of the observers dunes rose and sunk rapidly, spewing up spirals of Reiatsu of a foul form. Something moved deep beneath them, rising and moving in great numbers. It was something that caused even Nel's eyes to shrink with horror and her mouth to drop with realization.

"She's...calling upon them?!" Nelliel thought aloud as her stance wobbled with effort.

"W-What do you mean them?!" Ichigo asked in alarmed confusion.

"The-!"

Whatever she was about to say was cut off as she saw long skeletal digits pierce upwards from the ground. While many of the Vanguard scattered and avoided the various bone digits, as large as trees, clenching at the sandy floor, a handful of them including the Privaron stood their ground.

Emerging first would be a haunting visage, colossal in scope, matching the large black body that rose up with it. Its pointed nose stretched out from its masked face, crimson eyes gleaming with no pupils, armed with rows of teeth that could consume the largest of Hollows. Pulling itself up till its large hole was exposed, the gargantuan Hollow loomed over them all, joined with it by what appeared to be thirteen more, forming a cage-like formation around the Ichigo and his allies.

"Menos Grande!" Ichigo called out, remembering their appearances vividly from his first haunting encounter. It had been awhile but he could never forget the beast that made all Hollows he faced bugs to it. The haunting face, the sneering eyes, and the rows of monstrous teeth. Truly it was an abomination among its own kindred, and now it came in mass.

"That's right, Shinigami!" Rana sneered aloud, earning Ichigo's gaze from behind Byakuya towards the confident Rana, "even if you, Nelliel and those two Captains are a formidable force, there is no way in Hell you can fight off fourteen Menos Grande all at once. Combined with my Vanguard, I will wipe your scum from the face of Las Noches!"

Ichigo felt understandably unnerved. With the Vanguard waiting in the shadows along with Rana, it would be impossible to simply avoid the towering giants. Plus, he knew that their Cero were substantial, even back then. If they all fired at once, there was no guarantee they could deflect such a wide barrage of attacks. Even if they'd survive, they'd be easy kills for the waiting Arrancars.

Grinding his teeth, he clenched his hands over his Zanpakutō's hilt, his body tense. Looking over at Nelliel he noticed she herself assumed a stoic if not clearly nervous appearance. With an exchange of glances they knew that fighting them all was an arduous task. Maybe if they all coordinated to attack at once, they could, but there was simply too many of them. How could they face such a force?

It was here that Byakuya didn't even ready himself to face the horde of enemies surrounding them. He stood there, as if confident they had nothing to fear. What was he thinking, Ichigo could only wonder?

The answer came with a sudden twister forming to their right. Shimmering figures seemed to emerge around the feet of a number of Menos Grande, with hands outstretched and pointing upwards. The violent vortex rose up and engulfed six immediate Menos, causing them to unintentionally crash into one another, unable to move within their sand cropped postures. At the base of the cyclone came into appearance four distinctly memorable Officers, having now appeared through a ribbon of sense distorting light fabric falling off of them.

Kiyone Kotetsu stood a dozen meters to her fellow 3rd Seat, Sentaro Kotsubaki. Both of them projected the Kidō -Tenran- into the air, flowing forth to be caught by those around the Menos' large forms on their other flanks. Their bodies covered in desert cloaks, similar to the ones Rukia and Renji came adorned in, flapping violently in the backdraft of wind created by their own power.

Standing on the unseen flank was another pair of capable Lieutenants. Momo Hinamori, standing up with her own hands pulsing with aeroforce pressure, a good distance to the left of Nanao Ise. Both adorned their own cloaks, with looks of concentration etched upon their features, fueling the monolithic storm of spinning wind to grasp hold of the Menos. By the time the seventh Menos was ensnared by the large wind, all observers had to shield their eyes from the dust storm that ensued in their proximity, agape at seeing such a large twister form.

"Alright!" Nanao called out, her voice somehow audible through the fierce tower of wind, "it's time!"

The last of the appearing Gotei Officers stood Isane Kotetsu. Her sword, already in its Shikai state, held in front of her in a readied stance. With both hands on the hilt, she thrust the fork-edged weapon into the wall of wind, generating a indigo light from her being.

"Let'em have it, sis!" Kiyone shouted with a grimacing, yet encouraging smile of her own.

Itegumo in hand, Isane called out valorously above the howling wind swirling sand and debris around her head, "Rinbōsō Kaze!"

Seconds past as her indigo colored Reiatsu discharged her Reishi into the powerful swirling wind. The wind changed from a searing cloud of dust and sand to rapidly dropping temporal air currents. The Menos within began to roar with pain, finding their cloaked bodies freezing over and becoming brittle within the shredding gusts. The air pressure folding in on them broke apart their gigantic frames, freezing and shredding them all the same within the large twister. All at once the twister folded in on the targets, creating a icy implosion that obliterated the dark wreathed statuesque bodies.

Upon completing their attack, Sentaro hollered with victory, "YEAH! We showed them, didn't we?!"

"Whew," Kiyone wiped her brow, partially frosted over by being so close to the freezing twister that had formed by Isane's Zanpakutō, "it took all four of us to make a Kidō big enough to get just half of them. I don't think we can pull it off again-"

"Well, aren't you such a downer!" Sentaro pointed accusingly at Kiyone.

"Me?! I'm just being realistic, you ass!" Kiyone bit back, quickly pointing back at Sentaro from her posture.

"More like dampening my thunder of triumph!" Sentaro retorted.

"Why you-!"

"Quiet you two!" Nanao commanded, quickly appearing between the two through a bout of Shunpo. Her glass doting face looked back at each of them with a scowl, "do I need to inform your Captain of your improper behavior when we return?"

"No, ma'am," Both answered in bummed tones.

"Good," Nanao said with a sigh of relief. Donning an appreciative smile, she looked over at Momo and nodded her head to her, "thanks for keeping us hidden. If it hadn't been your Kyokkō spell, it would have been impossible to launch a surprise attack of this scale."

"I-It was nothing," Momo answered meekly, shying away from direct eye contact from her peer.

Looking over at Isane, she saw the Lieutenant sighed with her own exertion of using her Zanpakutō. She took time to admire the frost and vapors that ebbed from the weapon's tri-shaped edges. The marvelous Wind-Temporal Zanpakutō, carrying power to freeze and shred an enemy in a single attack, making it a very lethal weapon with a beautiful execution with every gesture.

"If it hadn't been for her Zanpakutō ,we wouldn't have been able to kill so many Menos in a single blow. As I thought, it was wise for us to maintain a Hadō while she was the one to imbue her power into the Kidō itself," Nanao noted with a nod.

"The Fuck did you all come from?!" A sudden shout brought Nanao's thoughts to a close, her eyes drawing forth towards the Arrancar leader in question. Surrounded by a host of her own colleagues, not to mention the remaining seven Menos, she looked quite the formidable fighter. She knew better than to bite her bait, so she chose to remain silent.

"Nothing to say?! Fine!" Rana swung her blade in their direction, a smile stretching across her face, "I'll kill you first!"

As the seven Menos turned their heads, sickening snaps were heard as their mouths opened, revealing bottomless maws behind their sharp rows of teeth. Astronomically sized Ceros began to prime between all of their mouths, charging them up to full power. The overcast of crimson shined across the valley, creating a damning gleam to overcome all those present.

Said color hues changed drastically when seven pillars of white light rocketed downwards, enclosing over the heads of the titan sized Hollows. With their Ceros dissipated and their heads now frozen solid in a pyre of ice, Rana looked up with disbelief. Two figures rushed down from the sky, and one of them attacked the immobile humongous entities. This one she could almost say resembled a Hollow by Reiatsu alone!

"El Directo!" Calavera Sado shouted in a warrior's cry, his shield-shaped fist thrusting a pyre of enormous destructive energy through the Menos Grande. Easily shattering the brittle, frozen skull, it followed through and continued to smash through the Menos like a stack of dominoes. With all of their heads decapitated, the large Hollows fell over limply, just as Calavera Aaroniero landed deftly among Ichigo's midst.

"Chad! Rukia!" Ichigo said aloud with surprise and utter relief. Without his knowing, a smile of welcoming embraced his features, clearly having missed the company of faces so familiar.

While Sado simply gave him a thumb's up, Aaroniero's Calavera sighed and gave a rueful smile, "Honestly, you look hopeless without us. Can you go anywhere without getting into trouble?"

"Guess it's part of my charm," Ichigo responded cheekily.

"Cute," Aaroniero rolled her eyes around, resting her Sode no Shirayuki on her right shoulder. Looking over at Byakuya, having spared a glance at her in his traditional stoic stare, she gave a heartfelt smile in his direction, "so good to see you again, brother."

"Hmph," Byakuya huffed with forced indifference, turning his face to look away from her, "it is by mere coincidence that I am here to fulfill a mission. I didn't come to rescue anyone."

"I never said any of that," Aaroniero said with a playful prod, causing Byakuya to bead a single bullet of sweat. When she heard him sigh, she crossed her arms over her chest as she grinned at him, "don't worry, I won't tell Captain Commander about your...personal reasons for being here."

"As much as this exchange of words is charming," Chōjirō said, inclining his head towards their host of humanoid bodied enemies, "we still have a threat on our hands."

Saying this, the full conglomerate of Shinigami gathered around Ichigo and Nelliel, standing before what remained of the Arrancars' ranks. With Rana glaring at them with a potent wrath that only remained in her eyes, it was clear to them that the fight of their lives was about to begin. The battle of the Vanguard against the Gotei Force was about to begin!

---

A/N: Whew! This chapter is a lot longer and took way too long to update. I do apologize to all those who have been waiting on an update (and yay, 1000 Views, I feel accomplished!) but this month has been quite hectic. Please forgive me and I hope you enjoy this story as I continue to produce more material for it :)

Now to discuss about the Chapter, some key points worth noticing. I'll go in order of events in this Chapter, that way it's easier for you reading the notes can follow better ;)

1 - Grimmjow's Death: It wasn't something I enjoyed, in the sense that I enjoy inflicting cruelty upon the helpless (kind of a contradicting thought given the nature of some of my stories, I know) but it was going to happen. With Aaroniero on the prowl, and obviously no fan of the Sexta, he was going to meet his end by her hand at some point. Might as well do it as eerily and mercilessly as possible right? I hope you liked how I handled it, regardless of him being a fan favorite of many, including myself.

2 - NelxIchigo?!: Now, when I started writing this series, I had in no way had this planned out. Most of the emphasis was going to be placed on Aaroniero with very little interaction of characters on the side. But hey, I thought if I wanted to make characters likable, I had to give them more time and dedication, even if it was a little more than the story's "main" character. In doing so I thought how a aspect of Ichigo that was never touched upon by the author (for obvious reasons to keep himself from being lynched by fans) was his desire or attraction for the opposite sex. To me, Nelliel was the perfect partner for Ichigo and in turn someone that Ichigo could become in awe of (seeing how in this version she won the battle instead of turning back into a child). While it may be a bit of admiration mixed with physical attraction, I believe that a genuine romance can be built between the two. Don't worry, they won't steal the limelight from Aaroniero TOO much, considering we have more important PLOT going on XD

EDIT!: To the above, I omitted the part of where Ichigo admits his admiration of Nelliel TO Orihime. While Orihime will pick up Ichigo's unknown feelings for Nelliel, Ichigo himself won't know or openly acknowledge it. I tried to keep him more in character while keeping this pairing partially intact. Plus, the latter part of the chapter pretty much confirms Ichigo's attraction to her.

3 - The Vanguard: Among them I created some non-mentionables, those who were KIA'd or KO'd respectively. I hope you liked their designs and the way I used them to give Nel and Ichigo's team battle a cool feeling. The two that obviously stood out the most, in this Chapter, was Duros Montaña and Angelle Cooney. While the prior was a original character I made to partner up with Angelle, Angelle herself is ACTUALLY a Crossover from Tite Kubo's Zombie Powder. I made some adjustments, here and there, to make her a suitable Arrancar, but her overall physique and power base is a reference to Angelle Cooney, the Psykicker from Kubo's first published Manga. Just thought that'd be a good tease for some people who know and a big thanks to Lastation for helping me think of a unique Arrancar capable of being a threat :D

4 - The Gotei Force: Why is only Byakuya and Mayuri here instead of the Captains (and one Lieutenant and lower Seated Officer that came with)? This is a bit of a tease, but this means that the original canonical events involving the Fake Karakura Town's myriad of skirmish/battles is being redone. Yup. That means those who got little to no screentime in this arc get some in this battle while those who SHOULD have been in the Fake Karakura Town fight will be there. But that isn't all. I got a great plan for all those participating and how things can screw up quickly with the most carefully laid out plans on either side

I think that covers most of it. Please leave your thoughts in the Review section below and please be nice about it. I shall eagerly answer any more questions you have in the Reviews or the PM's you send me to my profile's wall. I hope you all enjoyed the read, despite its length

Until then, I'll see you all in the next update of A Predator Among Us!