The rebels moved quickly despite carrying enough equipment to sustain themselves for two months. Aizen lead the way at a gentle run, forming a surprisingly ornate mosaic road of spirit particles before him in the formless dark.
Hinamori, directly behind, never took her eyes off him. She was still taking in this new Aizen, still adjusting to him. He intrigued her in a way he never had before. Her earlier observation still resonated, he wasn't a Captain anymore. She had never met anyone who struck her as being, there was no other word for it, "royal." Even though she had never seen it before, she still recognized his new nature immediately. Previously, Aizen had been warm and gentle, and she wondered if there was still some of that in him. She wasn't concerned at all with his new role, she would follow him no matter what she called him, or he called himself. The question occupying her mind was simple, How much has he changed?
Though he had expected his subordinates to do their duty, he had never been what one would call demanding. He had tolerated almost any amount of screwing-up from his subordinates. Even Sasha's infamous Shikai disaster, which had nearly destroyed the left wing of the Barracks, had met with only a mild rebuke and an order to clean up the mess. She could already tell how different his expectations and attitude had become, even his pace demanded that they keep up. He would be asking a lot of them now, more than he ever had. It made sense, overthrowing Soul Society was hardly going to be a task for the weak or uncommitted. It flattered her, that he had chosen her and the soldiers she commanded for this mission. She was determined that every one of her soldiers would not only meet, but exceed his higher standards, even if she had to carry them herself to get them there. They would be the force he could rely on, even if all others failed and the world itself came crashing down around him. Hinamori was not going to let her Lord's invitation be anything less than the best decision he ever made.
For his part, Aizen was simply glad that they'd had the presence of mind to bring a good deal of their own supplies. Las Noches was not even complete yet, and if they hadn't brought their own food he would have had a serious logistical problem. As it was, he reflected as he effortlessly extended his mosaic bridge under his feet, he would easily be able to compensate for the added drain on resources by the time their own food ran out.
He could feel that he was approaching his destination, and slowed his pace slightly. The rebels began talking excitedly among themselves, probably wondering what their new home would be like. Aizen smirked as he imagined their shock when they saw his massive fortress. He flicked his hand created a huge, grandiose gate-like structure at the end of his spirit road on a whim. He stopped.
"Gin." Aizen commanded.
"Hai." The smiling fox flash-stepped up from the back, where he had been talking to Kondo, opened a Garganta in the gate. Aizen walked through and stood in midair off to the left, stretching his left arm out in a gesture of welcome over the sight that greeted them.
"Welcome to your new home, Las Noches." He said, again with a slight smirk at their astonished faces.
Nothing in Hinamori's wildest imagination could have prepared her for what she saw outlined in front of the moon. A beautiful, half-completed dome, a mile high at least, grew majestically out of the desert sands. Four towers, over twice as tall as the massive dome, caressed the sky like four silver-white fingers, pointing to the cardinal directions. She had never seen anything so magnificent and royal-looking in her life. It made the Seiretei, the Court of Pure Souls itself, look like a puny collection of mud huts!
"There will be plenty of time to admire your home later," Aizen said with a knowing smile that reminded Hinamori of his Captain self, "For the time being, I suggest that you familiarize yourselves with its interior. Come." He floated down serenely to the desert ground, with the rebels following him to the enormous gates.
An arched gate, sixty feet high and made of solid black iron, was set into the white walls of the fortress. In the center of the gate was a massive carved seal, half on each door. It was a twenty-foot two-headed falcon with wings outstretched, superimposed on what appeared to be a unified sun and crescent moon. A band ran around the circle with two inscriptions. Hinamori couldn't make out the writing, the moon was on the other side of the dome, but she could see that they weren't Kanji.
The two sides of the gate slid slowly back into the walls with a low, mechanical growl, revealing a corridor long and wide enough to hold more than six Division barracks. Two white-clad, nondescript looking Arrancar stood guard just behind the now pulled-back doors, their entire bodies reflected on the impossibly polished diamond tiles of the blue marble floor. The guards stood aside as Aizen approached.
"Aizen-sama." They bowed deeply as he passed, although he didn't look at them, and straightened up as Hinamori passed. Aizen-sama, huh? It certainly has a ring to it... she reflected as she passed the guards, who were glaring at her suspiciously. She ignored them completely. Aizen had brought her here, after all, and they would just have to get used to her.
"Aizen-sama!" A very tall male Arrancar with long black hair and a thin band of a mask fragment above his eyes called as he descended a short flight of stairs on the left, leading five clearly subordinate Arrancar behind him. He stopped suddenly when he saw the huge crowd of Shinigami who had followed Aizen into the hall. "I see you brought more of them than expected, but I suppose that's good news."
"Good morning, Erufun," Aizen replied, directly acknowledging his more important subordinate, "Show our new comrades to the North Tower, they will be staying on the upper floors."
"The Officers will be on the uppermost floors, I assume?" the Arrancar, Erufun, asked as he strode over to Hinamori, examining her closely as he approached. The Arrancar who had accompanied him down the stairs walked across the hall and passed them without acknowledging anyone, they seemed to have a different assignment.
"Yes. They will be ranked in order of Reatsu, not previous Division seats. There shouldn't be much rearranging necessary, only a few will be out of order." Aizen turned back to the rebels. "Erufun will lead you to the North Tower. Your quarters are there. Put your supplies in your rooms and come up to the Throne Room in one hour."
"Hai!" The rebels cried happily as the moved over towards their imposingly tall, but friendly-looking, guide.
"Very good. I will see you then." Aizen walked to a set of stairs directly ahead far up the hall.
"Alright, then. Everyone, follow me." Erufun called as he turned and walked back to the stairway on the left. The rebels followed him over to the entrance, the gate guards' suspicious stares still on their backs. The stairway was steep and narrow, there was only room for two people of normal size to walk abreast. The colors, however, were the reverse of those in the Entrance Hall, the walls were now dark blue and the stairs white marble.
"So, you're Hinamori Momo?" Erufun asked, slowing down to walk beside Hinamori.
"Yep. Is Erufun your first name or surname?" She appreciated the Arrancar's friendliness, especially because it was so unexpected.
"Just my name, I only have the one. Almost everybody has two names like you, but me and my sister only have one." Erufun replied.
"You have a sister? What's her name?" Hinamori was startled, she didn't know that Hollows could have family.
"Kodomoi. She's not as 'mild' as I am, though." he said with a small laugh. "Come to think of it, you probably didn't know that Hollows had families, did you?"
"No, I can't say that I did. Are there any children here?" she wondered what a Hollow child might look like. She knew that children actually born to spirit parents were Original Souls, just beginning their journey through the cycle of reincarnation. They were incredibly rare, so much so that she only knew one personally.
"No, not yet. You should see the Granz brothers after tea, though, they come pretty close. Even the slightest amount of caffeine will set them right off." Hinamori laughed. First Hollows have families, now they get caffeine rushes? Wow, do I have a lot to learn!
They climbed for over ten minutes, the stairway winding occasionally and passing exits into more halls. Every time she saw an entrance, she wondered if they were finally at the North Tower, but they passed entrance way after entrance way on their long climb. Finally, they reached the top of the stairwell and turned left through a white doorway.
They were at the base of a fantastically tall tower more than one hundred yards across, a spiral staircase corkscrewing slowly up the wall. The inner walls of the tower were as white as Erufun's clothes, but the staircase and the doors along it were blue. This wasn't the same blue as the stairwell had been, it was brighter and it seemed to glisten like gems in the sunlight. Wait, sunlight?! Hinamori craned her neck to look at the ceiling and gasped. Somehow, the roof of the tower had been made to look like the daytime sky. The light from the ceiling even corresponded, roughly, to the time of day in Soul Society, which she guessed was around 9:30 A.M.
Erufun laughed. "Impressive, isn't it?" he asked. "Aizen-sama made that himself, it's over all of what one might call the 'open spaces' in Las Noches. Anyway, Aizen-sama said he wanted you back in one hour, and it took us fifteen minutes just to get here. I suggest you go find your rooms, toss your packs on the beds, and come right back down here. Oh, yes, and have the highest-ranking person on the highest room, second-rank, second-highest, etc. Aizen-sama likes to keep things organized."
"Got it." Hinamori responded, then tore off up the spiral stairs. Erufun shouted something after her, but she couldn't quite catch it. This is amazing, she thought to herself. She had been imagining some kind of bare-bones, desert nomad existence in Hueco Mundo, which wasn't known for its living accommodations. She took the stairs two at a time in her excitement, until Sasha flew up next to her laughing his ass off.
"Ei, Hinamori-san. There's a good reason we officers are on the higher floors!" He turned a graceful spin in midair as he accelerated and passed her.
Hinamori laughed at her own silliness. In her excitement, she'd forgotten that she could fly. She jumped off the stairs, formed a small pad of spirit particles under her feet, and flew up to the top floor. Her door was on the north side of the tower, making her room the northernmost spot in Las Noches. She touched down on the landing in front of her door, opened it, and walked into her new quarters.
She stopped abruptly, awestruck. The walls and ceiling were the same soft, dark blue as the floor in the Entrance Hall, but the floor was pitch black. Her bed was next to the wall, directly under a steel-barred window which let in a smooth, cool breeze. Two large sofas, facing each other, stood in the center of the room, with a coffee table between them. A large closet stood on the left in the far corner, while the door to the bathroom was on the right. Overall, the room was more than twice as big as her old quarters, which had featured a cot and a small nightstand with a single drawer.
I'll have plenty of time to enjoy this place tonight. Quickly walking over to the coffee table, she shook her pack from her back and dropped it off on the table. She turned happily on one heel and walked back out the door, closing it behind her. She put her hand on the railing of the massive spiral stairway and vaulted over it. Erufun and Armin, who was already on the ground, watched her fall until she rightened herself and landed with cat-like grace.
"Not bad at all," Erufun commented, "If you really do combine as well as you fly, then no one will ever say Aizen-sama was wrong to bring you here."
"What do you mean, combine?" Hinamori was very curious now.
"I'm told that, officially speaking, there are two spells classified as "Hadou 63," "Raikoho" and "Soren Sokatsui." I'm also told that this is because "Soren Sokatsui" was invented nine years ago, a combination of two "Sokatsui." I think it's obvious why Aizen-sama would want someone like you around, especially considering that we Arrancar are combinations."
"I see," this explained a lot as far as Hinamori was concerned. Maybe he wanted us along as some kind of auxiliary force? She had invented "Soren Sokatsui" nine years ago as a more powerful version of her favorite attack spell, and it had become a favorite with the Lieutenants. Personally, she thought it should have been "Hadou 66," doubling Sokatsui's number, but she wasn't in control of what the damn Kidou Corps called "their" spells. Pretentious bastards, and they wondered why I picked the Fifth over them!
The rest of the rebels had already gathered at the base of their tower, and were waiting to go. Erufun nodded to Hinamori and walked over to another stairwell.
"Alright, everyone, let's go!" Hinamori called over he shoulder as she walked behind Erufun. Another walk through stairways brought them to a huge room, even larger than the Entrance Hall. Rows of stone benches lined the walls, and an elevated stone throne was positioned on the back wall. The floor and ceiling were the same dark blue she'd already come to associate with Las Noches, everything else was gray marble.
"I take my leave." Erufun bowed politely and walked out of the room as Aizen walked in from behind the throne.
"Exactly on time, as expected. Are your quarters to your liking?" He asked as he walked over to them. They gave various noises of excited assent. Aizen smiled. "Now, would you like to know why I brought you all here?" Excitement was replaced by trepidation, this question had been on their minds since that morning and not everyone was sure that they would like the answer.
Aizen snapped his fingers, and a huge indigo banner unrolled and covered the flat stone surface directly below the throne. Hinamori instantly recognized the charge as a colored version of the same seal on the gate. The two-headed falcon was now indigo, the sun and moon were colored gold and silver, and she could read the two sets of gold Roman characters circling the symbol.
"EX VIRES, VICTORIA" ran over the Falcon, while "EX IUNCTUM, LICENTIA" was under it.
"European heraldic symbolism with a Latin motto? That's a bit of a surprise, Aizen-sama." Sasha piped up.
"Exactly. Perhaps you would like to explain it to your comrades?" Aizen sat down on his throne, waiting to see what Sasha would say.
"Well," Sasha looked a bit uncomfortable, Armin snickered, "I know that the Latin means 'From strength, victory' and 'from unity, freedom,' but my step-brother here is the one you want to ask about heraldic symbols." Sasha grinned evilly as he shoved Armin into the metaphorical spotlight. They'd been harassing each other like this since long before they met Aizen, and it was clear that they weren't going to stop any time soon.
"Indigo," Armin began without hesitation, "could be considered a form of violet, and thus represents royalty. I assume it's also wordplay on the Kanji spelling of your surname, Aizen-sama?" Aizen nodded, his name was spelled "Indigo Dye."
Armin continued, "The golden color of the letters signifies elevation of mind. The moon means 'serene power over the mundane' and the sun, 'glory and splendor.' I've never heard of them combined like that, though, so I will have to guess that it means 'totality.'"
"Again, Hidaka-kun, you're correct. What do you make of the Falcon?"
"The bird itself symbolizes 'one who does not rest until the objective is achieved.' The two heads, while more commonly seen on eagles, means a 'conjoining of two forces.'" Armin looked up for confirmation, though he didn't think he needed it.
"Perfect. Thank you, Hidaka-kun." Armin bowed. Aizen stood up and floated off the throne's platform down to them. "Though I'm sure you know that the 'two forces joining together' are Hollow and Shinigami, I'm not sure you fully realize it's implications," he said as he touched down.
"Hollowfication." he said.
Hinamori took a double-take. Hollowfication?!
"Through no fault of his own, Hinamori-kun, Erufun gave you an utterly incorrect opinion on why I brought you here. He's deeply loyal and very powerful, but he isn't as perceptive as he thinks he is. You aren't to assist the Arrancar's combination of the 'two forces' of Hollow and Shinigami, you are to become such a combination yourself." He reached into his jacket and pulled a small glass-looking box out of it. Inside the box, she could see a tiny purplish-black cloudy orb.
"This is the Hogyoku, the thing that makes Hollowfication, or Shinigamification, practical. Without it, there would be only a handful of weak Arrancar, and no hollowfied Shinigami whatsoever. All of you, my loyal friends, will be the first truly Hollowfied Shinigami in history." This last part, of course, was only true if Aizen's guess was correct, but they didn't need to know that.
Looking around, Aizen could see how nervous they all were. Most of them were fidgeting, and those who weren't were standing so still and straight that they looked like they had turned into mannequins to escape their discomfort. They'll get over it quickly enough, Aizen thought, amused by their reactions.
"Well? Who is going to take the first step?"
I apologize for the long wait, finals are killing me! Well, I hope you all liked it, and keep the reviews coming. Thanks, everyone!